Trade In Capture With VIN Scan and Photos

Two trade slots on every customer, a camera that reads the VIN and asks for the miles, and a QR scanner that collects the title, registration and payoff.

Trade in capture gets the customer's car into the CRM the way a manager needs it to value it, VIN plus current mileage plus photos plus the paperwork, from a phone on the lot or from the customer at home, and puts the result on the worksheet where the trade credit is applied. That is the whole feature, and each of those pieces is a place stores usually lose time: the VIN typed wrong from a windshield photo, the mileage nobody wrote down, the payoff letter that is in a text thread somewhere, and the trade allowance retyped into a worksheet that does not know the customer.

Every customer record carries up to two trade in vehicles, visible at a glance on the desktop lead card and in the mobile app, and a record can hold trades with no vehicle for sale at all, which is how a store buys a car outright. The dealership desking software page covers the desk; this page follows the trade from the parking lot to the worksheet.

A customer pulls in with a sedan she wants to trade. On the lead card the salesperson clicks the plus next to the vehicle line and picks Trade-In from the small menu, which reveals a trade row with a label field, an odometer field and a camera button. He taps the camera. The scanner opens locked to that trade slot; he points the phone at the VIN plate in the door jamb, the VIN reads, and the scanner immediately asks for the current odometer reading, because a VIN without miles is not enough to value a car. He types 68,412 and the trade row now reads the year, make, model and trim with the miles beside it.

Back at the desk the manager opens the deal, and the trade is already on the Trade & Fees section with the VIN. He clicks Load trade vehicle details from this VIN to confirm the decode, opens the store's trade values link, enters the allowance and the payoff, and the worksheet applies the trade credit under the state's method. The customer says the title is at home. The salesperson opens the Acquisition/Trade Info scanner, shows her the QR code, and she photographs the registration on the spot and sends the title and payoff letter that evening from her couch. The next morning the manager clicks apply and the payoff amount, lienholder and good through date fill the trade from the documents.

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.

On the desktop CRM the trade rows sit on the expanded lead, contact and appointment cards under the vehicle options, below a dotted divider, tagged TRADE-IN 1 and TRADE-IN 2, each with a camera button that opens the VIN scanner for that slot and a remove action. On the digital deal view under Desking, the Trade-In (optional) section carries description, year, make, model, mileage, the trade VIN with a decode action, Trade Allowance, Loan Payoff, Lienholder, actual cash value, book value fields, the Trade-In Tax Credit Method and a per deal Trade Credit Cap, with Add Second Trade-In for the second car and Mark trade-in complete when the desk is done with it.

On the customer's deal page the trade step reads trade vehicle, offer, payoff, notes and photos, and a Require trade-in photos from the customer switch on the deal asks the customer to upload walk around photos from their phone. The LeadLocate mobile app shows the same two trade rows on the lead with a VIN lookup, so a salesperson on the lot captures the trade without walking back to a desk.

The VIN scanner reads the VIN from the phone camera, on the desktop through a scanner modal that hands the camera to a phone and on the mobile app directly. Every VIN scan flow ends with a mandatory odometer step, and the miles are stored as digits only, so a manager valuing the car from the VIN and mileage pair always has both. A VIN can also be typed and decoded on the deal with Load trade vehicle details from this VIN or on the worksheet with Decode VIN, which fills year, make, model and trim from the vehicle database, and a decoded VIN can be re-validated later if it was edited. The VIN decode and vehicle database page covers the decode itself.

Photos matter as much as the VIN for a car the manager has not walked. The trade info scanner accepts as many vehicle photos as the customer or the salesperson wants to add, labeled by file name or by a label field on the phone page, and the deal can carry a walk around photos link. A trade with no VIN, an older unit or a specialty vehicle, can carry a manually uploaded photo so the customer page still shows the car.

The Acquisition/Trade Info scanner is a QR flow on the lead card next to the deal jacket. The desktop shows a QR code, the phone opens a private single use page, and the page asks for the specific documents a trade needs: registration front and back, title front and back, payoff letter front and back, plus repeatable vehicle photos. Document slots replace within the same session, so a blurry title photo is simply retaken. The originals are stored privately under the store's tenant and preview through the CRM after an ownership check, never from a raw storage address.

Once uploaded, the documents are read. The scanner returns the visible text, the vehicle facts, the payoff facts, the condition facts and any warnings, and the salesperson applies the vehicle information to the trade with one action rather than retyping the lienholder, payoff amount and good through date. Everything stays reviewable: the summary rows on the deal show vehicle, VIN, plate, owner, lienholder, payoff amount, payoff good through and odometer, and the original images are one click away. The scanner also prints a trade packet for the file. The deal jacket and QR intake page explains the shared QR mechanics.

Most stores capture trades with a windshield photo, a used car manager's clipboard and a text message to whoever has the payoff. The VIN gets mistyped one time in a dozen, the mileage is missing when the appraisal is written, the payoff letter is on a phone that is off today, and the allowance is typed into a worksheet by hand. Standalone appraisal products fix some of that for a monthly fee and then hold the trade in a system the CRM cannot see, so the deal is desked from a number somebody read off another screen.

Trade in capture is part of the LeadLocate CRM subscription. The trade lives on the customer record, flows onto the deal and the worksheet, appears on the customer's page and prints on the customer sheet with the allowance, payoff and net equity. The store's own trade values source stays its own; the CRM opens it from the deal. Plans are month to month and listed on the pricing page.

A trade generates the three numbers a store gets asked about later: the odometer, the payoff and the allowance. The mandatory odometer step means the miles are on the record at capture time, and every odometer figure printed on a customer sheet carries a footnote marker so a printed mileage is never read as a certified disclosure; the odometer statement itself stays in the finance office paperwork. The payoff, lienholder and good through date come from the payoff letter the customer sent, with the original image stored, rather than from memory. The trade documents are stored privately, previewed through the CRM only, and the phone page carries the terms and privacy links and a plain disclosure that documents are read automatically.

On the worksheet, the trade credit is applied by the method the state uses, credit on the full allowance, credit on net equity only or no credit, with a per deal cap for states that limit it, and negative equity is taxed where required. That keeps the customer sheet's tax line right without the manager remembering the rule, and the sheet still says what every customer sheet says: not a contract, all figures estimates until final lender approval.

Trade capture is on for every lead and deal in every LeadLocate CRM account. The one setup item is the store's trade values link in company settings, so Open Trade Values on the deal goes to the source the desk uses, and the Trade-In Tax Credit Method default in the Dealership Profile. The pre-recorded live demo shows a VIN scan landing on a lead.

Pair it with the EZ Desking worksheets where the trade credit is applied, the Road to Sale checklist whose trade step tracks it, the driver license scanner that captures the seller's identity in the same QR style, and the customer deal pages where the customer adds trade photos from home. For stores buying cars from the public, the acquisition deal type on the worksheet and the opt in seller leads described on what to expect from car sales leads fit together. The all features page lists the rest.

How many trade ins can a customer have?

Two per customer record, each with a label, an odometer and a camera button for the VIN scanner, and a record can hold trades with no vehicle for sale when the store is buying the car outright.

Does the VIN scan capture the mileage?

Yes. Every VIN scan flow ends with a required odometer step, stored as digits, so the manager always has the VIN and mileage pair the valuation depends on.

How do I get the title and payoff letter from the customer?

Show the Acquisition/Trade Info QR code. The customer photographs registration, title and payoff on a private single use phone page, adds vehicle photos, and the scanner reads the payoff amount, lienholder and good through date so you can apply them to the trade.

Where does the trade appear on the deal?

In the Trade-In section of the deal view with allowance, payoff, lienholder, cash value, tax credit method and cap, on the EZ Desking worksheet where the credit is applied, on the customer deal page, and on the printed customer sheet.

Can the customer send trade photos from home?

Yes. Turn on Require trade-in photos from the customer on the deal and the trade step of their deal page asks for walk around photos from the phone.

Does LeadLocate value the trade?

The store does, from its own trade values source, which the deal opens with Open Trade Values. The CRM captures the VIN, miles, photos and documents the valuation needs and applies the number the desk enters.

Trade in capture with VIN scan, photos and document intake is part of every LeadLocate CRM plan, month to month. Capture the next trade from the lot with the phone in your pocket.

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