Vehicles

Adding a vehicle manually

Every car that goes through recon needs to be in the system. The fastest way is to add it by VIN.

Tap the + button on the board or the vehicle list.
Type the VIN into the search field.
EasyRecon decodes the VIN automatically. Review the year, make, model, and trim.
Add the stock number, arrival date, and any other details your shop tracks.
Tap Save. The car appears on the board in the first step.

The VIN decoder fills in the basics. You still need to confirm the details — wrong year or trim happens. Check it before you save.

Or set up an automated feed — see the next section.

Getting an automated inventory feed set up

If your dealership uses a DMS or inventory system, you don’t have to add cars one by one. EasyRecon can pull from your existing system on a regular schedule.

To set up an automated feed, email hello@easyreconauto.com with the name of your DMS or inventory provider (vAuto, Dealertrack, HomeNet, etc.). We’ll wire it up. New cars import on a regular schedule once it’s live.

Once the feed is connected, new vehicles show up on the board without anyone typing a VIN. The feed checks for new cars every few hours by default. That schedule can be tuned per feed if you need it faster or slower.

If a feed ever sends back far fewer cars than normal, the import pauses and the system flags your admin. That guards against a bad feed clearing your board.

For help getting started, see Admin & Help.

Moving between steps

Moving a car from one step to the next is the main thing you do in EasyRecon. Keep this one simple.

Tap the car’s card on the board.
Tap Move.
Pick the next step from the list.
Tap Confirm. The card moves on the board right away.

If the step you’re moving out of has a required checklist, the checklist drawer opens before the move completes. You have to finish the checklist first. This is by design — it’s the same as signing off on an RO before you push the car to the next bay.

If you don’t see the Move button, your role may not have permission to move cars. Ask a manager to check your access.

For checklist setup, see Work, Inspections & Checklists.

The Overview tab — your at-a-glance

Open any vehicle and tap the Overview tab. You get a strip of key numbers across the top. Here’s what each one means.

KPI	What it means
Retail Price	The price you plan to sell the car for.
Estimated Recon	What you expect recon to cost before you start.
Variance	Estimated Recon minus what you’ve actually spent. Positive means on budget. Negative means over.
Days in Recon	How long the car has been in your shop, from when it arrived to when it went frontline. For in-progress cars, it counts from arrival to today.
Holding Cost	The daily cost of keeping an unsold car on your lot — depreciation, floor plan interest, insurance. Your admin sets the daily rate for your rooftop.

Variance is your early warning. A car that’s going over budget shows a negative number fast. Catch it in Repair, not when you’re writing the deal.

Holding Cost turns idle time into dollars. A car that sits in Photos for four days because no one scheduled the photographer isn’t just slow — it has a cost. The KPI makes that visible.

Your admin configures the holding cost rate in rooftop settings. If the number looks wrong, have them check that setting.

Shot Clock — setting a hard deadline

Use the Shot Clock when a car has a deadline that cannot slip. Common cases: the arbitration window closes on a specific date, you’re waiting on a backordered part and want to track the ETA, or a customer is picking the car up by Friday.

The Shot Clock puts a countdown badge on the card. Everyone on the board sees it. When it hits zero, the badge turns red.

Open the vehicle.
Tap Shot Clock.
Pick the deadline date from the calendar.
Tap Set. The countdown appears on the card.

You can change the date or clear the Shot Clock at any time. Tap Shot Clock again and pick a new date or tap Clear.

Shot Clock dates also appear in the Calendar view, so you can see all your time-sensitive cars in one place. See Views & Reports for how the Calendar view works.

Readiness Light — green/yellow/red for sales

The Readiness Light is a colored dot on the vehicle card. It tells your sales team where the car stands without them having to call the shop.

Color	Meaning
Green	Car is ready to show. Recon is done.
Yellow	Close. Almost ready.
Red	Still in the shop. Don’t promise it yet.

The light is set by a manager. Sales staff can see it but can’t change it. This keeps the board honest — the shop controls the signal, not the floor.

If your sales team is working off the board, point them to the vehicle card. The dot is faster than a phone call.

Archiving a vehicle

When a car is sold, traded away, or returned, archive it. Archiving removes it from the active board so it stops cluttering your daily view.

Open the vehicle.
Tap the Actions menu (three dots).
Tap Archive.
Confirm the reason — sold, traded, or returned.
Tap Confirm. The car leaves the board.

If you archived a car by mistake, contact your manager. The history is intact and can be reviewed.

Every car in EasyRecon has a public link you can send to the customer. The link shows what was done in recon — work completed, photos, notes marked as customer-visible.

The URL looks like: https://app.easyreconauto.com/r/[VIN]

Send it in a delivery email, print it on paperwork, or paste it into a text. The customer opens a clean summary of what your shop did to get the car ready.

This is useful at delivery. It answers “what did you do to this car?” before the customer asks.

To share the link:

Open the vehicle.
Find the Share Report button near the top of the Overview tab.
Tap it to copy the link.
Paste it wherever you want to send it.

If you don’t see a share link on a car, ask your admin to turn the report on for your rooftop. It’s a setting they enable in the admin panel.

Photos that appear in the report are controlled by photo category. For details on which photos show up and how to manage them, see Labels, Vendors & Media.