Schedule a test drive or sales appointment
Book a test drive or sales appointment from the agenda or from a lead's page, and let the lead status update itself.
Book a real appointment so a test drive or sit-down shows up on your agenda, the assigned salesperson gets a heads-up, and the customer gets a reminder the day before.
There are two ways to book: from the Appointments agenda (pick any customer) or straight from a lead's page (the lead is filled in for you).
Book from the agenda
- Go to Appointments and click New appointment.
- Under Customer, search by name, email, or phone and pick the person.
- Choose a Type: Test drive, Sales, Service, Delivery, or Other.
- Set the Date & time.
- Optionally Assign to a team member (leave it Unassigned to skip).
- Add Notes if you want.
- Click Schedule.
You must pick a customer to book from the agenda. If the person isn't a customer yet, add them under Customers first, or book from their lead's page instead.
Book from a lead's page
- Open the lead and click Schedule appointment (top right, next to the status badge).
- The lead is already attached, so no customer search is needed. Choose the Type and Date & time.
- Optionally Assign to a team member and add Notes.
- Click Schedule.
Booking from a lead is the fastest path. If you pick someone other than yourself under Assign to, that salesperson gets a notification in their bell so the appointment doesn't get lost.
What happens to the lead status
When you book an appointment for a lead, the system tries to move that lead to Appointment set automatically.
The auto-move only happens when the lead is currently in the Engaged stage. That is the only stage the lead can move to Appointment set from. If the lead is in any other stage (New, Contacted, Negotiating, etc.), the appointment is still booked normally; the status just stays where it is. This is by design, so a stray booking can't jump a lead backward or forward. Move the lead to Engaged first if you want the status to follow the booking.
Track and update the appointment
Every appointment lands on the Appointments agenda. The Upcoming view shows the next 100 appointments, soonest first, with When, Who, Type, Assigned, and Status. New bookings start as Scheduled.
Choose Past to review appointments whose scheduled time has passed. Past appointments are shown newest first, 25 at a time. Choose Older appointments to continue through the history without loading every old appointment at once.
Edit or reschedule an appointment
- On the Upcoming or Past view, find an appointment that is still Scheduled or Confirmed and click Edit.
- Update the date and time, type, assignee, or notes.
- Click Save.
Saving without changing the date and time preserves any reminder already sent. Changing the scheduled time resets the reminder so the customer can receive one for the new time.
If another team member completes, cancels, or marks the appointment as a no-show while you have the edit window open, your stale edit is not applied. Close the message, refresh the agenda, and edit again only if the appointment is still Scheduled or Confirmed. Concurrent edits that leave the appointment open are applied in arrival order, so the last saved edit wins.
Use the buttons on each row to update it:
- Confirm: customer confirmed they're coming (status → Confirmed).
- Completed: they showed and the appointment happened.
- No-show: they didn't come.
- Cancel: the appointment is off.
The buttons you see depend on the current status. Confirm only appears while the appointment is still Scheduled. Once it is Completed, No-show, or Cancelled, there are no more actions and the appointment cannot be edited.
Marking a lead's appointment Completed moves that lead to Showed, and No-show moves it back to Engaged, but only when the lead is in the Appointment set stage. As with booking, if the lead isn't in that stage the appointment updates anyway and the lead status is left alone.
Reminders
A daily check makes one reminder attempt the day before an eligible appointment: it emails the customer when an address is available and notifies the assigned team member. You don't have to start it; it runs automatically. A real reschedule resets the reminder so the new time can receive a fresh attempt. If delivery fails after the appointment has been claimed, it is not retried automatically.
Appointments are eligible only while they are Scheduled or Confirmed. Completing, marking No-show, or cancelling before the reminder claim prevents the send. A status change after the claim cannot recall an already in-flight message.
FAQ
Can the customer book their own appointment?
Not yet. Appointments are booked by your team from inside AutoDealer.io. Customer self-booking isn't available.
I booked for a lead but the status didn't change to "Appointment set."
That's expected unless the lead was in the Engaged stage when you booked. Move the lead to Engaged, then book. You can also set the status by hand on the lead's page. The appointment itself was saved either way.
Do I have to assign the appointment to someone?
No. Assign to is optional and defaults to Unassigned. Assign it when you want a specific salesperson to get the heads-up and the reminder.
Can I link a specific vehicle to the appointment?
Not from the booking dialog. You can note the vehicle in the Notes field for now.
How far ahead does the reminder go out?
The system makes at most one claimed reminder attempt for the appointment's current time; a post-claim delivery failure is not retried. A real reschedule re-arms the reminder for the new date.
Who can book appointments?
Anyone signed in to your dealership can book and update appointments. There's no special role required.