How to Set Up a Recon Workflow for a Multi-Location Dealership

The Multi-Store Recon Problem

Running recon at one location is straightforward. You can walk the lot, check the board and talk to your team face to face. Add a second rooftop, let alone a third or fourth, and everything changes.

Suddenly you're dealing with:

• Different teams with different processes at each store
• No way to see Store B's pipeline from Store A
• Vehicles transferred between locations that disappear in the handoff
• Different names for the same stage ("Detail" at one store, "Cosmetic" at another)
• Recon costs counted differently at each store
• Managers who only see their own store's problems, never the big picture

The result: your GM or operations director spends a lot of the day on the phone asking "what's going on over there?" instead of making decisions.

Step 1: Standardize Your Stages and Definitions

Before you worry about software, get everyone speaking the same language. Sit down with the managers from each store and agree on one workflow. A common setup:

1. Intake: vehicle acquired and logged
2. Inspection: full assessment and approved estimate
3. Mechanical: engine, transmission, brakes and so on
4. Body/Paint: cosmetic repairs, often sublet
5. Detail: interior and exterior
6. Photos: merchandising
7. Front Line: ready for sale

Agree on three things for every stage: its name, its order, and what "done" means. Then agree on the clock: time to front line starts when the vehicle is acquired and stops when it is ready for sale, at every store. If one store starts counting at inspection, its numbers will look better than they are. The reconditioning process checklist has a full stage list and a "done when" for each.

Some systems, ours included, let each store keep its own status list. That's useful for local quirks, but it means standardizing is a setup decision: give every store the same core list, in the same order.

Step 2: Count Recon Cost the Same Way Everywhere

Cost comparisons between stores are only fair if every store counts the same things. Agree on:

• The internal labor rate service charges the used department for recon work. If one store charges retail and another charges cost, the first will always look more expensive.
• Packs. Whether a pack is added, how much, and whether it's included in reported recon cost. Cox Automotive's used-car KPIs suggest packs of at most 1% of vehicle value, with $0 as the best practice.
• Sublet and parts. Recorded against the vehicle, at actual cost, at every store.
• When cost is final. At completion, with estimate and actual both recorded, so you can compare estimating accuracy too.

Step 3: Centralize Your Tracking

Each store can't run its own tracking, whether that's a whiteboard, a spreadsheet or a different software tool. You need one system that shows every location.

What centralized tracking gives you:

• Cross-store visibility. The operations director sees every vehicle at every store in one place.
• Apples-to-apples comparison. Average days to front line at Store A and Store B, using the same stages and the same clock.
• Transfer tracking. A vehicle that moves from Store A to Store B doesn't vanish.
• Consolidated reporting. One report for the whole group, not three stitched together.

Step 4: Set Consistent Thresholds

Every location should use the same aging alerts. If your target is seven days to front line, it's seven days everywhere, not seven at one store and ten at another because "they do more volume."

Consistent thresholds make comparison meaningful. If Store B regularly has more cars over threshold than Store A, that's a real signal, not a measurement difference.

Step 5: Assign Group-Level Oversight

Someone needs to own the big picture. Whether it's an operations director, a GM or a dedicated group recon manager, one person should see every location and have the authority to ask questions when numbers slip.

This person doesn't run each store's day-to-day; each store's manager does that. The group role is about:

• Reviewing cross-store performance weekly
• Spotting which location needs attention
• Sharing what the best-performing store does differently
• Catching vehicles aging out before they become a problem

Step 6: Decide Where Recon Happens

Groups have three basic options. None is right for everyone; the right answer depends on volume, distance between stores, and what each store has in equipment and staff.

Whichever model you choose, the clock rule doesn't change: time to front line runs from acquisition to ready for sale, including any time a car spends in transit.

Step 7: Handle Transfers Cleanly

Vehicles move between locations. A trade-in at Store A might be reconditioned and sold at Store B. It's also the easiest place to lose track of one.

Rules for clean transfers:

• The vehicle stays in the system when it moves; it isn't deleted at one store and re-added at another
• The transfer is logged with a time and the name of whoever initiated it
• The receiving store picks up recon where it left off, not from scratch
• The vehicle's days to front line include its time at both locations and in transit

In Vehicle Recon Tracker there is no separate transfer function. The car stays on the record it started with, so its history and acquisition date carry through, and a timestamped note records the move and who sent it. Staff at the receiving store can work that record if they have access to both stores.

Step 8: Control Who Sees What

A group needs two views at once: each store's team working its own pipeline, and group leadership seeing everything. Set access by role and by store. A detail lead at Store A doesn't need Store B's costs; the group recon manager needs all of it. In our own product, for example, each store has its own vehicles, users, statuses and settings, users can be assigned to more than one store, and administrators can manage all their locations from one dashboard. More on that on our multi-store recon tracking page.

Step 9: Report Across the Group

Your weekly or monthly review should include one comparison table:

That one table tells you most of what you need to know about recon across the group, without phone calls. The individual measures are explained in 5 Metrics Every Used Car Manager Should Track.

The Bottom Line

Multi-location recon isn't harder than single-location recon. It needs more deliberate structure: shared stage definitions, the same cost rules, one tracking system, consistent thresholds, clean transfers, and someone with the whole picture.

The groups that get this right don't just save days per vehicle. They build an operation that works the same way at two stores or twenty.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do dealer groups manage recon across multiple stores?

With one set of stage definitions, one clock and one cost method at every store; a single tracking system that shows every location; the same aging threshold everywhere; and a group-level owner who reviews a cross-store comparison every week.

Should a dealer group centralize reconditioning?

It depends on volume and distance. A shared recon center can make sense when stores are close together and combined volume keeps a dedicated team busy. In-store recon keeps control and avoids transport time. A mixed model keeps mechanical work in each store and shares cosmetic work.

How do you compare recon performance between stores fairly?

Make sure every store uses the same stage names, starts and stops the time-to-front-line clock at the same events, and counts recon cost the same way, including the internal labor rate and any pack. Then compare average days, cost per vehicle and cars over threshold side by side.

How should vehicle transfers between stores be tracked?

The vehicle should stay in the same system with its history intact, the transfer should be logged with a time and a name, and its days to front line should keep counting through transit and at the receiving store.

Sources

1. Cox Automotive, 12 metrics every dealer needs to track (July 2018): pack benchmark.