Vehicles and Your Inventory

Vehicles is your inventory: every car you have bought, whether or not it has sold. A vehicle record is where the VIN, the title details, what you paid and what you are asking all live, and every deal, form and filing pulls from it. Adding a vehicle is not the same as running a history report on it — see What decoding does, and what it does not.

Before you start

You need the VIN, and that is all. Everything else can be filled in later — including on the deal itself. Take the VIN off the car or the title rather than off a listing.

What it costs

Adding a vehicle and filling it in from the VIN is free, however many times you do it.

The only paid thing on this screen is Check Vehicle History, on the VIN card, which opens the report flow and states its price before it runs. See Running a Vehicle History Report.

If your account has a monthly limit on how many vehicles you can add, the New Vehicle button tells you what it is when you reach it.

Step by step

Add it by VIN

From Vehicles, click New Vehicle. There is one field — VIN, with a counter showing how many of the 17 characters you have typed. Add it, and the full vehicle record opens.

Let the VIN fill in the details

Enter the VIN on the record and the year, make, model and much of the specification fill in on their own. You do not have to accept what it produces — every field stays editable, and once you have corrected something by hand, retyping the same VIN will not overwrite it.

Two things happen often enough to be worth recognizing:

• The VIN does not match the usual pattern. Trailers, older vehicles and replacement VINs frequently do not. You get a note saying so and a Fill in details from this VIN button that works anyway.
• The vehicle records read one character differently from what you typed. You get a Double-check this VIN window showing both versions side by side, with the differing character marked and a You entered this chip on yours. Nothing is written until you pick one. If you would rather decide later, an amber Review row stays on the VIN card until you do — it does not cost anything to answer it.

If the VIN is already on another vehicle in your account, a Duplicate VIN window lists the other records so you can check before you carry on. It warns; it does not stop you.

Fill in what the paperwork needs

The Vehicle Info tab is split into six smaller screens — Basics, Odometer, Appearance and size, Mechanical, Title and tracking, and Vessel for boats. A boat has no Odometer screen and a car has no Vessel screen. Each is a short set of cards, each card a question rather than a wall of fields.

If a screen has something missing or wrong, its tab carries a count, so you can see where to go without opening all six.

Two of them are worth care because they print on state forms and on the buyer’s paperwork:

• Title Brands — salvage, rebuilt, flood and the rest. If the title shows none, use Mark as clear so it prints that way. Leaving it unanswered is not the same as clear.
• Odometer — the reading on the day of the sale, and whether it can be trusted.

Say what you have in it and what you want for it

The Vehicle Value tab holds Vehicle Prices and Vehicle Costs, one list above the other, and a summary underneath. The difference between the two lists is your profit on that car, and it shows on the record and follows the vehicle onto a deal. Any price or cost line you have set to appear on every vehicle is added automatically when the vehicle is created.

Vehicle Prices

• Asking price
• Dealer fee

+ Add price

Vehicle Costs

• Purchase price
• Reconditioning
• Transport

+ Add cost

Projected Profit

Vehicle Price

Cost−

Projected ProfitProfit Percentage

IllustrationVehicle Prices and Vehicle Costs stacked on the left, each a list of lines you add with an Add link under it, and the summary card beside them on a wide screen or under them on a phone. The card reads down: the vehicle price, the cost subtracted from it, and the projected profit under a rule with its margin beside it — derived, never typed, so there is no field to fill in.

These are the same lists, and the same way of editing them, that a deal jacket’s Cost & Profit section shows — see Creating a Deal Jacket. Costs belong to the car, so a change in either place is a change in both.

If the tab shows prices but no costs, your account does not have permission to see what the dealership paid. Someone at your dealership can change that — see Adding or Removing Users.

Say where it is and who you bought it from

The Location and Provider tabs attach one place and one seller to the vehicle. Both are optional. See Locations and Providers.

What decoding does, and what it does not

Typing a VIN looks up the manufacturer’s build data — year, make, model, trim, body, engine, cylinders, fuel type, transmission, doors, and on a trailer its length. It describes what the vehicle is. It is free and it does not touch your credits.

A vehicle history report is a different question: what this vehicle has been through — reported accidents, title brands from other states, odometer history, previous owners. That is a purchase, it comes out of your credit balance, and it never happens by itself. The Check Vehicle History link on the VIN card is the only way it starts from here.

Vehicle status

A new vehicle starts as In Stock. Status is a set, not a single choice — a car can be Sold and With Bodyshop at the same time — and the options are grouped by what they are about: sales and ownership, active use, inactive, maintenance and repair, and transport. One to know before you go hunting: In Stock is listed under Inactive — “active use” means the car is out with somebody (leased, rented, on a test drive), not that it is available.

Nothing changes the status behind your back. But when you change the deal’s status, the app offers to change the vehicle’s to match — mark the deal complete and it asks whether to set the car to Sold (or Leased on a lease), with that already selected. One click and it is done; close the box and nothing changes. Only you know whether the car has actually left the lot, so the last word is yours.

Status is what the Vehicles list filters and searches on, so it is the difference between a list you can work from and a list you have to read.

How a vehicle relates to a deal

One vehicle can appear on more than one deal jacket, and does — a car that comes back, or one taken in trade somewhere else. So the two are linked rather than merged:

• From the vehicle, the Start Transfer button creates a deal jacket for it. You are asked What type of sale is this? (Cash, Finance, BHPH, Lease, Wholesale) so the right fees and payment lines load, then Create deal jacket. Save any pending edits first — the button says so if you have not.
• Once it is on a deal, that button becomes Transfers with a count, and opens Associated Transfers — every deal this vehicle is on, each one a link.
• From a deal jacket, the Vehicle section asks whether the vehicle is already in your system: Yes, find it searches your inventory, No, add it now creates a new record. Either way it ends up in Vehicles.

The deal reads the vehicle record live. Correcting the mileage or a price on the vehicle updates the deals still open — including their sales tax, since prices are part of what is taxed. Deals you have already closed out are left alone; they are flagged instead on the Sales Tax Report, so the decision stays yours. That report is part of the Accelerator plan and up — if you are on a smaller plan, reopen the deal and recalculate its tax by hand, or call us.

Removing a vehicle from a deal does not delete it. It stays in your inventory and can be added back.

If it will not let you continue

• “Your account does not have permission to add vehicles.” Someone at your dealership can change this — see Adding or Removing Users.
• A message about how many vehicles your account can add per month. You have reached your monthly limit. Contact us and we will look at it.
• The Start Transfer button is grayed out. You have unsaved changes on the vehicle. Save, and it comes back.
• The stock number warns that it is already in use. Another vehicle has it. Suggest picks the next number in your sequence for you.

After you finish

• Sell it. Creating a Deal Jacket picks up from the vehicle. If you have not worked in one before, What a Deal Jacket Is is the shorter read.
• Check its history before you retail it, if you have not already — Running a Vehicle History Report.
• Attach the paperwork. The vehicle’s Files tab holds scans and photos; its Documents tab generates forms from the record. See Documents, Uploads and E-Signing.
• Deleted the wrong one? Use Show Deleted Vehicles on the list and restore it.