Automotive

Vehicle inventory · records, VIN and availability

The Inventory tab is where the physical vehicle enters the CRM and where the team sees what is available to sell. It covers how to add a vehicle, why the VIN is validated, what each vehicle status means and why you only see the inventory of the stores you have access to.

What the Inventory tab is for

The Inventory tab answers the showroom's most frequent question: what do I have to sell right now. It lists the physical units of the stores you have access to, with price and status, and carries the buttons that move a car through the sales cycle.

A vehicle in inventory is a physical unit, not a model. It lives in exactly one store and has a VIN, a plate, a color, mileage, a listed price and a status. It is the only one of the vehicle's four roles that can be reserved and sold.

Adding a vehicle

Open Automotive and go to the Inventory tab.
In the Add vehicle block, pick the Store. The list only shows the stores you have access to.
Fill in Make and Model. The system creates the catalog specification automatically and ties the unit to it.
Enter the VIN when you have it. The field takes letters and digits and converts everything to uppercase.
Enter the Price.
Click Add. The vehicle joins the list already marked Available.

Make and Model are required, and so is picking the store. VIN and price are optional at entry and can be filled in later. Color, mileage, received date and currency exist on the vehicle and can be populated by whoever integrates the CRM with another system.

Why the VIN is validated

A VIN has 17 characters, never uses the letters I, O and Q, so they are not confused with the digits one and zero, and carries a check digit in the ninth position. The system recalculates that digit as it saves. If it does not match, the entry is refused, because a wrong VIN contaminates everything downstream: the inspection report, the paperwork and finding the car on the lot.

The VIN is also unique within your workspace. If someone tries to enter a car that is already in inventory, the system refuses. Vehicles with no VIN on file coexist normally with the rest, because the uniqueness rule only applies where a VIN exists.

Vehicle statuses

Available: can be reserved and sold. It is the starting status of every new entry.
Reserved: someone is holding the car for a customer. It can no longer be reserved by anyone else.
In negotiation: a deal is under way.
Sold: the final status. The car does not go back into the reservation cycle.
Unavailable: out of the commercial cycle, for example in reconditioning or in transit.

The moves between those statuses are controlled. An Available car can only go to Reserved. A Reserved car goes back to Available when you release it, or on to In negotiation, or on to Sold. A Sold car does not go back. That prevents the classic mess of two salespeople each believing the same car is theirs.

Cost never shows up on the floor

The vehicle's acquisition cost and reconditioning cost are kept in a restricted area. They do not appear on the Inventory tab or in any list on the screen, not even for whoever entered the car. The screen shows the listed price, which is the number you discuss with the customer. If you are looking for the vehicle's margin, it is deliberately not here.

Why I cannot see the other store's car

Inventory is filtered by the stores you belong to. That is the default, not an extra restriction: each person sees their own lot. If your group works with shared inventory, an administrator declares on the Stores and access tab which stores can see which, and the cars start showing up. Until that exception is declared, the list shows only yours.

Example: Veloz Motors takes in a 2023 HB20 Comfort, VIN ending in 4471, 38,000 km, listed at R$ 78,900.00. The salesperson picks the Downtown store, types Hyundai for Make and HB20 for Model, pastes the VIN and the price, and clicks Add. The car shows in the list as Available. The next day a customer asks to hold it, the salesperson clicks Reserve, and the status turns Reserved for everyone at the Downtown store, right away.

Frequently asked questions

I added a car with no VIN, is that a problem? No. The VIN is optional. You can fill it in later, and it goes through the same validation at that point.
The system refused my VIN, and it matches the paperwork. Check whether you typed the letter O for a zero or the letter I for a one. The VIN standard does not use those letters.
Can I delete a vehicle? Yes, a vehicle can be deleted. Prefer switching the status to Unavailable when the car has only left circulation temporarily, so you do not lose the history.
I added the same make and model twice, did I create a duplicate in the catalog? Quick entry creates one specification per submission. If you want a lean catalog, set the specifications up in advance and reuse them.
Why does the price show with no currency symbol on some screens? The list shows the amount and the currency code stored on the vehicle. Quick entry uses your operation's default currency.

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