Set price and track costs
Set a vehicle's selling price and log acquisition + recon/vendor costs to see your true cost and projected margin. Costs stay private.
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Price the car for shoppers, then log everything you spent on it. The asking price shows publicly; every cost stays internal. AutoDealer.io adds it all up so you see your true cost and projected margin at a glance.
Salespeople see cost and profit only if the owner turns it on (Settings, Team, What salespeople see). While it is off, a salesperson sees the asking price and the floor price, can still record a cost, and does not see the acquisition cost, the Costs list and total, Total invested, Projected margin or a cost basis. See what each role can do.
Set the selling price
The quickest place is the Price card on the car's own page; the Edit form's Price section changes the same two prices.
- Open the car from Inventory. The Price card is open under the photos.
- Fill in Asking price (public). This is the number shoppers see on your storefront and in marketplace feeds. Use beside the last market check or the AI suggestion fills it in for you.
- Optionally fill in Internal / floor (private), your walk-away / floor number. This is never shown publicly.
- Click Save price.
See Price, book value and AI price recommendation for the market check and the suggestion.
Money uses the format 9500 or 9500.00: whole dollars or up to two decimals. You can leave the asking price blank while you're still working the car. It just won't show a price until you add one.
Add the original MSRP (optional)
The Original MSRP (when new) box sits in the same Price section, under the two prices. Type the maker's suggested price when the car was new, from its window sticker or build sheet, after any package discounts. It must be more than zero; leave it empty if you don't know it, and clear it to take it off.
On your website it shows as one quiet line at the top of the car's Features & options box, with a note that it is not your price and not a discount. It never appears next to your asking price, never as a saving, and not on a sold car. It is not sent to marketplace feeds or printed on the window sticker.
Some states limit how a used car ad may mention an MSRP (Ohio, for example, does not allow it at all). Whether to show it is your call: if your state's rules say no, leave the box empty.
An auction or spreadsheet import fills it from a column named MSRP, Original MSRP, Total MSRP or MSRP when new. A Sticker price or List price column still goes to the asking price, so map it by hand if your file means the MSRP.
Record the acquisition cost
The acquisition cost is what you paid for the car. You set it when you add the vehicle, and you can change it later from the Edit form. For a salesperson who does not see cost, the Edit form has no cost field, and saving it keeps the cost that is stored.
- On the vehicle's Edit form, go to the Acquisition section.
- Pick the Source (Auction, Trade-in, Private purchase, Dealer trade, Consignment, Repossession, Buyback, or Other). In your books a Repossession comes off what the buyer owed on your in-house note instead of your cash, and a Buyback is paid in cash like any purchase.
- Enter the Acquisition cost, or tick Later if you don't have it yet.
- If the source is Auction, choose the Auction vendor from the list. Not on the list yet? Pick Add an auction at the bottom: type its name (and phone, if you like) and it is added to your Vendors as an auction and picked for this car.
- Click Save changes.
When the source is Auction, the vendor you pick must be one whose type is Auction, otherwise the save is rejected. If none are listed yet, the field says so: pick Add an auction at the bottom of the list to add one without leaving the form (it is saved to your Vendors with the type Auction).
When you don't have the cost yet
Tick Later instead of typing a number. The car shows Cost missing on its page and in your inventory list (the Cost filter finds them all), and it is never counted as $0:
- Reports leave the car out of cost, gross and margin, and say how many are missing a cost.
- The pricing card shows Cost missing instead of a cost basis, and the suggested price comes from the book value alone (no book value, no suggestion).
- A car with no cost can't go on a floor plan.
- Selling it asks you to confirm first (see Mark a deal sold).
- Owners, managers and accounting users get a reminder in their notifications until the cost is in.
- Your books record the purchase once you enter the cost, on the purchase date. If the car sold first, the sale's cost of goods is updated too, on the sale date.
Add recon and other costs
Acquisition cost is just the start. Log recon, parts, transport, and other spend in the Costs card so your true cost-of-goods is accurate. This is separate from the acquisition cost above. To plan and track the recon jobs themselves (who does each, estimates, days in recon), use work orders: a booked job lands here as a cost.
- Open the car (not the Edit form - the main vehicle page) and find the Costs card.
- Click Add cost.
- Pick a Category: Recon, Parts, Labor, Detail, Transport, Fees, Inspection, or Other (defaults to Recon).
- Enter the Amount.
- Optionally pick a Vendor. Choose No vendor (one-off) for a quick spend, or click + New vendor to create one inline (name + type) without leaving the form.
- Add an optional Description, Incurred date (defaults to today), Paid date, and Invoice #.
- Click Add cost.
To change or remove an entry, use Edit or Delete on its row. Every role can record a cost. Edit and Delete are for owners, admin managers and accounting, so a salesperson does not see them. The card header shows a running Total of all logged costs. A salesperson who does not see cost gets the Add cost button only, with no list and no total.
Leave Paid blank for a cost you still owe. The row shows Unpaid until you set a date, which is handy for tracking outstanding recon bills per car.
See your true cost and margin
Open the vehicle and look at the Details card:
- Acquisition cost - what you paid for the car.
- Total invested - acquisition cost plus every logged cost.
- Projected margin - asking price minus total invested. It appears once you've set an asking price, and shows green when positive, red when negative.
Pricing help (Book value)
The Price card on the vehicle page gives you an AI price suggestion (a target plus a range) based on your cost basis and days on lot.
- To save a book value by hand, type a Wholesale and/or Retail number, then click Save book value.
- If Black Book is connected, click Refresh from Black Book (top right of the card) to pull values automatically.
Don't see the Black Book refresh button? Connect Black Book under Settings → Integrations first. The button only appears once it's connected. Without it you can still enter book values manually.
Costs and the internal/floor price are internal only. Acquisition cost, recon and vendor costs, book values, and the internal price never appear on your public storefront or in any marketplace feed. Only the asking price is public. Every price or cost change is written to the audit log (who changed what, and when).
Ask the assistant
In the AI chat, "log the $450 detail from Shine Auto on A100" prepares a cost card (vehicle, category, amount with the vehicle's costs before and after, vendor, description, invoice number, date, paid or not) for you to approve; it posts to the books, so it always asks. "Who did we spend the most with lately?" reads the vendors with the jobs and spend booked against each in the last 90 days.
For a salesperson who does not see cost, the cost card takes the amount they give and leaves out the car's costs before and after, and the vendor answer counts the jobs and leaves out the spend.
FAQ
What's the difference between asking price and internal price?
Asking price (public) is the number shoppers see. Internal / floor (private) is your walk-away number for your team only - it never leaves the dashboard.
Are my costs ever visible to customers?
No. Acquisition cost, recon/vendor costs, book values, and the internal price are all private. Shoppers only ever see the asking price.
Acquisition cost vs. the Costs card - which do I use?
Use Acquisition cost (on the Edit form) for what you paid for the car. Use the Costs card for everything you spend after that - recon, parts, transport, fees. Together they make up Total invested.
Can I attribute a cost to a vendor I haven't added yet?
Yes. In the Costs form, click + New vendor, enter a name and type, and Create + select. It's added and selected without leaving the page. You can fill in the vendor's contact details later on the Vendors page.
Why is my projected margin negative?
Projected margin is asking price minus total invested (acquisition cost + all logged costs). A negative number means your asking price is below your total cost in the car - raise the price or review the costs.
My acquisition cost is wrong. Can I fix it?
Yes, until the car is sold. Open the car, click Edit, update the Acquisition cost in the Acquisition section, and Save changes. The audit log records the change.
Once the car is sold, the acquisition cost is locked, because the sale is already in your books. Add the difference on the car's Costs card instead (a negative amount if the car cost less than recorded). A cost added, changed or removed after the sale updates the sale's cost of goods in your books, on the sale's date.