Getting Started with Carfax
Shopmonkey's integration with Carfax allows you to quickly search a vehicle by license plate decode to view its service history. This powerful feature can help you truly understand what's been done to the vehicle, what's been recalled, and what services you can sell to your customer.
1. Getting Setup
Setting up Carfax integration is a breeze. Head to the Carfax page by navigating to Settings > Carfax:
Click on Activate Carfax, read the Terms of Use, then type "accept" in the required field. Click the Activate Carfax button to complete activation:
Now that Carfax integration is activated, you will have the option to activate and deactivate Carfax as needed. You will be prompted to confirm deactivation if you turn the toggle off:
2. License Plate Lookup
With Carfax activated, you can select License Plate lookup while adding a new vehicle to an estimate, or alternatively use the VIN decode. This finds and links the specific vehicle to pull in any related service history:
For more information on a separate but similar function of Shopmonkey related to looking up a vehicle, please check out our Parts and Labor Lookup article.
3. Viewing the Vehicle History
To view the vehicle's history from an estimate, click on the vehicle and then the View History button:
This shows the Carfax history and recalls, which can be filtered by date for the most relevant information.
4. Sending information to Carfax
Service information is sent to Carfax on a nightly basis, automatically, to keep things simple for you. Note: this applies only to estimates that are created and converted to invoices after Carfax is enabled.
The following information is what gets sent to Carfax, which is strictly vehicle and shop-related information, with no customer information being shared:
VIN
Order Creation Date
Invoiced Date
Mileage
Invoice Number
Service Description
Labor Description
Part Description
Part Quantity
Vehicle Year/Make/Model
License Plate/State
Management System (Shopmonkey)
Location ID
Shop Name
Shop Address (Street, City, State, Zip Code)
Shop Phone
Shop Website
Still have questions? Feel free to reach out to us through the Chat Icon in the bottom right corner of your screen. Thanks for reading!