Vehicle status and publishing to your website
Move a vehicle through its statuses and control whether it shows on your storefront, including using a Coming Soon badge to advertise a car that isn't available yet.
A vehicle's status says where it is in your process (in recon, available, sold). Publishing controls whether shoppers see it on your storefront. They're separate switches — this page covers both, plus how to advertise a car that isn't ready to sell yet.
The statuses
Every vehicle has one status. The first four are everyday "operational" statuses you move between freely. The last three mean the car has left your lot.
- Acquired — you own it, recon not started.
- In recon — being reconditioned.
- Available — ready to sell and eligible to show on your website.
- On hold — temporarily off the market.
- Sold — sold retail through a deal.
- Wholesaled — sold to another dealer / wholesale.
- Disposed — scrapped, returned, or otherwise removed.
New vehicles start as Acquired. On the vehicle page, the status shows as a colored badge in the Status card at the top.
Change the everyday status
- Open the vehicle from Inventory.
- In the Status card, find Change status.
- Pick Acquired, In recon, Available, or On hold from the dropdown.
- The change saves immediately. Setting a car to Available also makes it eligible to publish.
If the vehicle has an open deal (draft or pending), the dropdown is replaced by a line that reads "This vehicle has an open deal. Manage its status from the deal →" with a link to that deal. While a deal is open it owns the car's status — change it there, not here.
Mark a car sold or removed
You can't pick Sold from the dropdown. A retail sale always runs through a deal, which keeps the deal and the vehicle in sync.
- In the Status card, find the Mark as sold / removed box.
- Click one of the three buttons:
- Retail sale (deal) — pick an existing pending deal and click Mark sold, or click Create new deal. Marking the deal sold sets the vehicle to Sold.
- Wholesale — add an optional reason, then click Mark wholesaled.
- Dispose — add an optional reason, then click Mark disposed.
Sold is reversible: if a deal falls through, unwind the deal from the deal page and the car returns to the lot. A wholesaled or disposed car can be brought back with Return to inventory — it goes back to Available.
Publish a vehicle to your website
Publishing is a separate toggle from status. A published vehicle appears on your storefront and is included in your marketplace feeds.
- Open the vehicle. Make sure its status is Available (or that it has an advertising badge — see below).
- In the Status card, find Public website (shows Published or Hidden).
- Click Publish to website.
- The label flips to Published. A View on public site button appears at the top of the page — use it to open the live listing in a new tab.
To take it back down, click Unpublish. The label returns to Hidden and the public page stops resolving.
Only Available vehicles can be published — unless you add an advertising badge first (see below). If the car isn't Available and has no badge, the Publish to website button is disabled, with a note explaining that you need to set an advertising badge on the Edit form first.
Advertise a car that isn't available yet (advertising badges)
An advertising badge is a bold label on your public listing (like Coming Soon). It does two things: it labels the car for shoppers, and it lets you publish a car that isn't Available — so you can tease a car still in recon, or leave a just-sold car up with a Sold sticker.
The badges are: Coming Soon, Sale Pending, Sold, Price Reduced, and Special.
- Open the vehicle and click Edit.
- Scroll to the Website listing section.
- Open the Advertising badge dropdown and pick a badge. (Choose — None (normal listing) — to remove it.)
- Save the form.
- Go back to the vehicle page and click Publish to website.
Available cars don't need a badge to be published — a badge is only required to publish a car that's in another status (Acquired, In recon, On hold, Sold, etc.). You can still add a badge to an available car purely as a marketing label (for example, Price Reduced).
On your public storefront the badge appears as a bold corner ribbon on the photo — on the inventory grid and on the vehicle's public page. Inside the app, it shows as a badge next to the status in the Status card on the vehicle page, so your team can see it at a glance.
What happens behind the scenes
- Every status change and publish/unpublish is recorded in your audit log.
- Publishing or changing status refreshes your storefront automatically.
- If you've connected Facebook for marketplace syndication (with auto-sync on), these changes also update or de-list the car in your Facebook catalog.
FAQ
Why can't I pick "Sold" from the status dropdown?
By design. A retail sale must go through a deal so the deal and vehicle stay in sync. Use Retail sale (deal) in the Mark as sold / removed box, or mark the deal sold from the deal itself.
Why is the "Publish to website" button disabled?
The vehicle isn't Available and has no advertising badge. Either set its status to Available, or add an Advertising badge (Coming Soon, Sale Pending, etc.) on the Edit form — then publish.
I went to change the status but the dropdown is gone — what happened?
The car has an open deal (draft or pending). While a deal is open, change the vehicle's status from that deal, not the inventory page.
Does adding a badge automatically publish the car?
No. The badge only makes the car eligible to publish. You still click Publish to website on the vehicle page.
How do I take a sold car back off the website?
Open the vehicle and click Unpublish. If it's still showing a Sold badge and you want it fully gone, also set the Advertising badge back to — None (normal listing) — on the Edit form.
Will a sold or on-hold car still show on my storefront?
Only if it's published and has an advertising badge. Without a badge, only Available + published vehicles appear publicly; a Sold or On hold car with no badge won't resolve on the public site.