How to Add a Vehicle Manually in Inventory Link

A dealer trade, a fresh trade in, a unit that sold before it ever hit the website. Here is how to put one vehicle into Inventory Link by hand, in about a minute, and have it behave like every other unit on the lot.

1. Open the inventory list

   Sign in to the Inventory Link portal and open your inventory. Check first that the vehicle is not already there from a feed or a website import, because a duplicate is more annoying to clean up than it is to avoid. Search the stock number or the last six of the VIN.

2. Start a new vehicle

   Click Add vehicle. You get a blank Vehicle record with the VIN field at the top, which is where the work actually happens. Everything else on the form is either filled for you in a second or is a number you already know.

3. Enter the VIN and let the decode do the typing

   Type or paste the seventeen characters into Vehicle identification number. The decode returns year, make, model, trim, body style, engine and drivetrain, plus the safety and efficiency data that comes with the vehicle database. On a phone, scanning the VIN off the door jamb beats typing it.

4. Fill in what no VIN knows

   Mileage, asking price, stock number, exterior and interior color, and anything a shopper would ask about on the phone. Use the stock number from the window label so the number your team says out loud is the number on the screen. Two minutes here saves a salesperson a phone call later.

5. Add photos, or let stock imagery hold the spot

   Shoot the unit if you can, even on a phone, and upload the pictures. If it just landed and nobody has photographed it, stock imagery for that year, make and model keeps the listing presentable until your photographer gets to it, instead of a grey box that no shopper clicks.

6. Save it and confirm it landed everywhere

   Save the record, then check the two places your team will look. In a CRM text or email composer, the vehicle insert search field, Name, email, phone or vehicle, should find it by model or stock number. On your own site, the widget from Add it to your website shows it alongside the rest of the inventory.

You need an Inventory Link login, the VIN, and the numbers a shopper asks about: mileage and price. Photos can follow later; the VIN cannot, because it is what fills in the build. If you are standing at the car, this whole job is a phone job.

It is also worth knowing where the vehicle is coming from. If the store runs a feed or a website import, most units arrive on their own, and adding by hand is for the exceptions. Inventory feeds covers the automatic route, and the two mix fine: hand entered vehicles sit in the same list and behave the same way.

Four cases come up every week. A dealer trade that is physically on your lot but lives in another store's system. A fresh trade in you want to sell before it goes through reconditioning. A unit on the way from an auction that a customer is already asking about. And any vehicle a broker or a solo salesperson is working, where there is no lot and no feed behind it at all.

The common thread is speed. A customer asks about a car today, and the answer should not wait for the next import. Add it, text the customer the vehicle with its photo and price, and sort out the feed side later. That is also why VIN decode and the vehicle database matters this much: it turns seventeen characters into a listing while the customer is still on the phone.

Leave your number and a lead specialist calls you back to answer your questions about pricing, coverage, and setup. Mon - Sat, 9:00 AM - 6:00 PM Pacific.

Prefer to talk right now? Call or text 844-376-2274.

The vehicle in your inventory list with its photos, price and mileage, and a build filled out from the VIN rather than typed by hand. Open it once and read it as a shopper would; a wrong trim or a missing price is easier to catch now than after it has gone out in twenty messages.

Then it turns up everywhere the rest of your inventory does. It is in the CRM inventory menu and on the phone app. Salespeople drop it into a message from the composer the way send vehicles by text describes, with the photo, the year, make, model and price in the body. It answers a lead form set to show matching vehicles, it publishes on your inventory site and widget, and the vehicle finder locates it when a shopper describes what they want in their own words.

The VIN comes back empty or wrong. Check the characters. There is no letter I, O or Q in a VIN, so those are almost always a one, a zero and a nine. Read it off the door jamb or the registration rather than a handwritten sheet, or scan it with the phone.

The unit does not appear in the text composer. Give the save a moment, then search by stock number rather than by model. If it still does not show, the record saved without a price or without the fields the composer uses to build the card; open it and finish it.

You added a duplicate. It happens when a feed brings in the same car the next morning. Keep the record with the photos and the correct stock number and remove the other, so a salesperson never sends the wrong price.

Photos will not upload. Shoot them landscape and upload from the phone rather than emailing them to yourself first. Until they land, stock imagery covers the unit, as stock photos for listings explains.

If your store does this more than a few times a week, connect a feed or import from the website and keep hand entry for the exceptions. Both are short guides in the LeadLocate Help Center, and both leave the hand entered units exactly where they are.

Once a vehicle is in, the merchandising side is the payoff: an inventory site, a widget on the store's own website, brand offer pages, and a vehicle insert button in every text and email your team sends. A field your store wants on a vehicle record that you do not see today is available on request, and our team puts it in production for your dealership.

How long does it take to add one vehicle?

About a minute with the VIN in hand. The decode fills the build, so you type mileage, price and stock number, then add photos when you have them.

Can I add a vehicle from my phone?

Yes. The portal works on a phone, scanning the VIN off the door jamb beats typing it, and you can shoot and upload the photos in the same pass while standing at the car.

What if I do not have photos yet?

Save the vehicle anyway. Stock imagery for that year, make and model holds the listing until your photographer gets to it, which is far better than an empty photo slot.

Do hand added vehicles work in texts and on lead forms?

Yes. A hand entered unit behaves like any other: it inserts into texts and emails, answers lead forms, publishes to your inventory site and widget, and appears in the CRM.

One VIN, one minute, and the vehicle is in the CRM, in your texts, on your lead forms and on your inventory site. See Inventory Link in the pre-recorded demo.

Prefer to talk right now? Call or text 844-376-2274.