An Appraisal can be carried out on any vehicle (whether in stock in your DragonDMS or not) to record the condition. As well as creating new Appraisals via the App, you are also able to view any Appraisals that have been completed within the last 30 days.
Creating an Appraisal
To carry out a new Appraisal on a vehicle, click on the New Appraisal button. There are five parts to the Appraisal: Vehicle, Valuation, Condition, Detail and Questions as shown on the navigation bar along the top.
Vehicle
On the Vehicle screen, enter the registration of the vehicle and click Get Vehicle Details. If the vehicle is already know in your DragonDMS it will pull the Make, Model, Variant and Chassis No. from the vehicle record.
If the vehicle does not already exist, a VRM lookup will be performed and the details will be populated from the lookup. Please note that this will one VRM lookup from your monthly allowance within your DragonDMS subscription.
Enter the current mileage and select the relevant service history (Full, Part or None) if applicable.
Valuation
Once the details have been populated, you can move onto Valuation along the navigation bar. This can be done by clicking on Valuation or by swiping left. Click Get Valuation and you will be shown a Retail, Clean, Average and Poor Valuation for the vehicle.
** Please note, you can only get a valuation on a vehicle if you have CAP enabled in your DragonDMS and you have given the user access to Can Run / View Sensitive Data in Appraisal Records in their employee settings.
If you already subscribe to CAP, we can link it to your DragonDMS free of charge. Please contact our Sales team on 01327 222 333 (option 2) to discuss this.
Condition
Next, move along to Condition and next to each area there is a camera icon. Click on the icon and you will be given the option of Camera or Library.
Camera allows you to take a photo of the named area. If you are happy with the photo you have taken, select Use Photo. If you want to take a new photo, select Retake.
If you select Library, this will open your photo library on the device where you can choose to select a photo that has already been taken.
Work your way around the vehicle taking photos where relevant. If you decide you are not happy with some of the photos, click on the Remove button to delete these.
You also have the option to record a video of the condition of the vehicle. Click Add a Video and again you will be given the option of Camera to record the video straight away or Library to select an existing video already saved on your device.
Once you have finished recording the video, click Use Video.
Multiple videos can be taken and then stitched together to create one video. The order of the videos can be rearranged by dragging a video up or down and then once the Appraisal has been saved, the videos will be stitched together in the order you have arranged.
Detail
When you are happy with the photos and videos that have been have taken, click on Detail on the navigation bar or swipe left. This section can be used to record anything else that you think will affect the value of the vehicle.
Click on New Detail and enter a description. Once you have entered your description click on Add Detail to save this. You can then add photos by clicking on Add a Photo. Once the first photo has been saved, further photos can be added by clicking Add More. Clicking on Edit will allow to change the detail description or delete it.
Questions
Once all the details have been entered, click or swipe to Questions on the navigation bar.
This section allows a list of questions to be presented to the users prompting them to check certain things. Questions can be set as Required Fields meaning they have to be answered before the appraisal can be submitted.
Creating your Own Appraisal Questions
We recognise that each business is different and, as such, you can create your own questions for the salesperson to fill out at the end of the Appraisal.
Your own appraisal questions can be created in the Settings of DragonDMS, go to Settings > APPraise > Appraisal. There is a list of standard questions that you can choose to show on your Appraisals. In addition, you can add your own questions and reorder the list so that they follow your process flow.
Questions can be setup to have a drop down list, date picker or free text answers. For questions that need to be answered on each appraisal, you can mark these as Required.
Submitting your Appraisal
When you have answered any questions you can then complete the appraisal. Select Done in the top right hand corner. You will then get a pop up asking if you want to save and complete the Appraisal. Click Yes to complete it or Cancel or go back to the Appraisal and add further information. Once you have clicked yes to save, the appraisal will then be sent to your DragonDMS and cannot be amended.
Approving an Appraisal
Once an Appraisal has been completed, you can view all of the details through APPraise. You also have the option to Approve the Appraisal. This gives the ability for the customer whose vehicle has been appraised to sign and confirm they agree to the condition, directly from the App!
Select the relevant completed Appraisal record. In the top right hand corner of the record, click on Approve.
Enter the customer’s name and ask them to sign in the box. If the signature needs to be redone, click on Clear and they will be able to sign again. Once both you and the customer are happy with the details, click Save. The signature will then uploaded to the Appraisal record and saved.
Once the Appraisal has been saved, from the main Appraisal menu on the app, a green Approved sign will appear for any Appraisals where a signature has been obtained.
Viewing Appraisals in your DragonDMS
Within your DragonDMS, go to APPraise > Appraisals. It is automatically defaulted to show All Appraisals that have been completed but you can also select to just see Awaiting Approval – Last 30 Days or Approved.
If the vehicle is known to your DragonDMS, i.e. exists as a current vehicle for a Customer or is a Stock Record, then the Customer will automatically be selected (Car Sales Department is selected if the vehicle is a Stock Vehicle). If the vehicle is not known to your DragonDMS, the Customer will be blank and will need to be selected from the Customer tab.
Double click on an Appraisal record to open it. On the left hand side of the Appraisal Record you will see the Vehicle Details, CAP Valuations and the signature details if the Appraisal has been approved.
Within the Appraisal Record, you can do the following:
- View any images and comments that were recorded on the Dragon APPraise App.
- View the recorded video of the condition of the vehicle
- View the answers for the standard appraisal questions on the Questions tab
- View/Add/Edit the Customer details on the Customer tab.
Creating a Record or Report in an Appraisal
By clicking the Create button, you will be asked if you want to create an Estimate Record, A booking Record, A Service Record, A Prospect Record or An Appraisal Report. If the vehicle is not currently in stock, you will also have the option to create a Stock Vehicle Record.
Stock Vehicle Record – This will create a vehicle record using the details on the Appraisal and will bring the vehicle into stock. This option will only be available if the vehicle is not currently in stock.
Estimate Record – This will allow an Estimate to be created for any work that needs to be done on the Vehicle. This option is only available if a customer has been selected.
Booking Record – Creates a booking for when the specified work will be completed. This option is only available if a customer has been selected.
Service Record – Creates a Service record for the work to be completed. This option is only available if a customer has been selected.
Prospect Record – If you have a Customer interested in the vehicle, you can create a Prospect Enquiry for them.
Appraisal Report – A report will be printed which will show the Vehicle and Appraisal details at the top, followed by the images taken and comments recorded on the APPraise App. If the Appraisal has been approved, the customer’s name and signature will be printed at the bottom of the report.
Where else will my Appraisals Show within DragonDMS?
Appraisals that have been carried out will show in the following places:
Vehicle Sales Record – Once the vehicle has been brought into stock, the appraisal will show in the Vehicle Sales Record under APPraise > Appraisals
Contact Record – All appraisals for a Customer will show in the Contact Record under APPraise > Appraisals
Current Vehicle Record – When opening a contact record from either a Prospect or Contact Record, you can also view the completed appraisals under the Current Vehicle tab.
Find out how to enter a new vehicle into stock from Dragon APPraise