True cost, not purchase price
Auction price, transport, safety, recon, keys, tires. Every dollar you put into a unit rides on the unit, so the day it sells you know what you actually made.
The lot, on one board. Updated by the deals.
Most small lots run inventory in a spreadsheet that is accurate for about four hours after somebody remembers to update it. Lot Jacket keeps the board current because the deals write to it — intake, recon, sale and delivery all land on the unit themselves.
INVLot inventory · 4 of 27 unitsLive
| Unit | Cost | Age | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2013 Ford F-150 XLT1FTFW1ET5DFC10482 | $14,200 | 12 days | Sold — delivering |
| 2019 Honda Civic LX2HGFC2F59KH... | $16,850 | 34 days | Front line |
| 2016 Toyota RAV4 XLE2T3WFREV0GW... | $13,400 | 61 days | Needs safety |
| 2018 Ram 1500 Sport1C6RR7MT1JS... | $21,900 | 8 days | Recon |
Cost, age and status stay currentLedger linked
Three things a spreadsheet never gets right.
Age you can't ignore
Days on lot on every row, sorted the way a floor plan payment thinks. The sixty-day unit stops hiding behind the shiny one you bought last week.
Status that comes from the deal
Recon, front line, sold, delivering, delivered. You don't set it — the scanner, the bill of sale and the delivery confirmation set it as the deal moves.
Why it stays accurate
The board is a side effect.
Nobody maintains it. Every change comes from work you were already doing.
Spreadsheet inventory
- Someone has to remember to update it
- Cost is whatever was typed, minus the recon nobody added
- Two people edit it, one version wins
- Sold units linger for weeks
- The register is a separate job at month end
Lot Jacket inventory
- Intake scan creates the unit
- Every recon bill attaches to the unit's cost
- One board, everyone sees the same thing
- The bill of sale marks it sold
- The garage register writes itself alongside
Questions dealers actually ask.
What is the best inventory software for a small used car lot?
The one your team will actually keep current. For a 1-3 person lot that usually means software where the inventory record is created and updated by work you already do (intake, recon bills, the bill of sale) rather than a separate list someone maintains. If you need market-based pricing and merchandising tools, a larger dealer platform fits better; if you need true unit cost, days on lot and records that line up with your deal files and garage register, that is what Lot Jacket's board is built for.
Does inventory software help with OMVIC record-keeping?
It can. Section 52 of O. Reg. 333/08 requires an Ontario dealer to keep a record of every vehicle that comes into its possession for a trade, including the VIN, a copy of any safety standards certificate it was given, inspection results and the work done on the vehicle, and section 56 requires that record to be kept for at least six years. When each unit's intake scan, safety and recon bills attach to the unit, the inventory record and the section 52 record are the same thing.
Is this a separate inventory module I have to configure?
No. There's no acquisition workflow or pricing engine to set up separately — a unit's record is created the moment it's scanned at intake, and its cost, age and status update as the deal moves, not as a second data-entry step.
How is this different from the inventory tool inside a bigger dealer platform?
Larger Canadian platforms bundle inventory pricing and merchandising as one module among many — CRM, advertising, service scheduling and so on — built to help a sales team price against market data. Lot Jacket's inventory board is narrower on purpose: it exists to keep true unit cost, days on lot and status accurate for the deal file and the garage register, not to run a pricing strategy.
What counts toward a unit's true cost?
Auction or acquisition price plus every dollar spent after — transport, safety certification, reconditioning, keys, tires. Each recon bill attaches to the unit as it's incurred, so the cost shown the day a car sells is the real number, not just what was typed in at intake.
Does the inventory board feed the garage register automatically?
Yes. A unit's intake and sale are the same events that write the garage register entry — there's no separate register to fall behind on because the board and the register are two views of the same underlying deal data.
Comparing options? See the best dealer software for small Ontario lots and how long Ontario dealers must keep vehicle records.
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