How to Use vAuto Provision: A Practical Walkthrough for New Users

Short answer

Provision is a daily loop, not a one-time setup. Appraise against live market data, stock to your market's demand, price to market on day one, review aging every morning, and merchandise every unit before it goes live. Most stores do the first four and skip the fifth.

Step 1: Set your market radius correctly

Provision's recommendations are only as good as the market you define. Too tight a radius and you get thin comp data; too wide and you're benchmarking against stores your shoppers will never drive to. Start with the radius your actual sold customers come from — pull addresses from your last 90 days of deliveries — not a round number someone picked at setup.

Step 2: Appraise with the market score, not the gut

On trade-in, Provision scores the vehicle against current supply and recent sold comps. Two numbers matter more than the rest:

• Market days' supply — how saturated your market is with that unit right now.
• Cost to market — where your acquisition cost sits against the retail comps.

A high days' supply number is a warning, not a veto. It means price sharper and turn faster, or pass.

Step 3: Stock what your market buys

Use the stocking reports to see which segments and price bands your market actually absorbs, then compare that against your current lot mix. The common failure is buying to the manager's preference instead of the report.

Step 4: Price to market on day one

Vehicles priced above market on day one lose the majority of their first-week shopper attention, and you rarely earn it back with a later price cut. Set the price you'd be willing to accept in week three, in week one.

Step 5: Work the aging report every morning

Provision's aging view is a to-do list. Anything past your turn policy needs a decision that day: reprice, recondition, promote, or wholesale. Aging units don't age quietly — they eat holding cost, floorplan interest, and lot space.

Step 6: Merchandise before you syndicate — the step everyone skips

Before a unit goes live, its Inventory Comments field should carry a real, vehicle-specific description. This field syndicates to your website and to third-party listing sites, which means it is the text Google indexes and the text AI assistants read when they answer "which dealer near me has a certified Tucson with adaptive cruise."

Blank or templated comments cost you twice: shoppers see nothing that separates the car, and AI systems have nothing unique to cite.

A realistic daily rhythm

• Morning (15 min): aging report, reprice decisions, previous-day sold review.
• On acquisition: appraise, stock decision, day-one price.
• Before go-live: photos, recon status, and a unique description in Inventory Comments.
• Weekly: stocking mix versus market report, wholesale calls on aged units.

What Provision won't do for you

It will not write the descriptions, and it will not tell you whether your VDPs are visible in AI search. For that, see the 11-signal VDP checklist or how we automate the merchandising step inside vAuto.

Get a free audit and we'll show you what your current Inventory Comments look like to search engines and AI assistants.