Features
Everything to run the forecourt, in one place
Enterprise dealer platforms charge £200–500/mo for tools built for finance-led groups. ForecourtOnline does exactly what a 5–30 car trader needs — a fast website, stock, VAT records, leads and more — and nothing they don't.
Your own website
A smart, modern website that shows your cars beautifully on any phone — and is built to rank on Google so buyers find you.
Learn moreStock management
Add a car, set the price, hit publish. No spreadsheets. See what's selling and what's been sitting too long at a glance.
Learn moreVAT margin scheme records
A correct stock book kept automatically for every car, so HMRC accepts your figures and you only pay VAT on your profit.
Learn moreLead capture & inbox
Every enquiry from your site lands in one inbox. Reply fast, track who you've spoken to, and stop losing buyers to missed emails.
Learn moreTest drive bookings
Let customers book a viewing or test drive straight from a listing, so appointments turn up in your diary instead of your voicemail.
AI chat assistant
A built-in assistant answers common buyer questions on your site around the clock and points them to the right car.
Finance calculator
Buyers can see realistic monthly payments on each car, so they arrive ready to talk numbers rather than ready to haggle.
Part-exchange valuations
Capture part-exchange details up front, with an instant guide price, so you start the deal with the full picture.
Embeds & widgets
Already have a website? Drop your live stock onto it with a simple copy-paste snippet — no developer needed.
Websites
Car dealer websites that sell
Your website is your forecourt online. ForecourtOnline gives independent UK car dealers a fast, modern, search-friendly site that shows your stock beautifully on any device — without a web agency, a WordPress plugin graveyard, or a monthly retainer.
- Server-rendered pages with schema.org Vehicle data
- Automatic sitemaps and SEO-friendly URLs
- Mobile-first, instant-loading design
- Free forecourtonline.co.uk subdomain, then your own domain with SSL
- Listings update live from your stock
Screenshot coming soon
Built to be found on Google
Every page is server-rendered and ships structured data (schema.org Vehicle) on each listing, so search engines understand your stock and can show rich results. Sitemaps and clean, descriptive URLs are generated automatically — no SEO plugin to configure.
Fast on a phone, forecourt-side
Most buyers browse on their phone. ForecourtOnline sites are lightweight and load instantly, so a customer standing on your forecourt — or comparing you to the dealer down the road — sees your stock without waiting. Speed is a ranking factor and a sales factor.
Your brand, your domain
Launch today on a free yourname.forecourtonline.co.uk address, then connect your own domain whenever you're ready. SSL certificates and DNS guidance are handled for you, so the move is a few clicks rather than a support ticket.
Stock that updates itself
Add a vehicle in the admin and it appears on your site immediately. Mark it sold and it comes off — no stale listings, no double-handling, no copy-pasting between a spreadsheet and a website.
Stock management
Stock management without the spreadsheet
Spreadsheets break, get out of date, and never match what's on your website. ForecourtOnline replaces them with proper stock management built for independent traders — one place to add a vehicle, price it, photograph it, and publish it to your site.
- Add, edit and publish vehicles from one screen
- Filter by status, make, price and days in stock
- Multiple optimised photos per vehicle
- Listed → reserved → sold status flow
- Feeds the margin scheme stock book automatically
Screenshot coming soon
One vehicle, one record
Capture everything about a car in a single record: make, model, mileage, price, photos, description and status. Your website reads from the same record, so what your customers see is always what you actually have.
Know what's slow and what's selling
Filter your stock by status, make, price band and days in stock, so you can spot the cars that have been sitting too long and act — drop the price, refresh the photos, or push them to the front.
Photos that do the work
Upload multiple photos per vehicle and reorder them in seconds. Images are optimised and served fast, so your listings look sharp without slowing the page down.
From listed to sold in a click
Move a vehicle through listed, reserved and sold without re-keying anything. Marking a car sold updates your site and feeds straight into your VAT margin scheme stock book.
VAT margin scheme
VAT margin scheme records, done right
Under the VAT margin scheme you pay VAT on your margin, not the full sale price — but only if your records are correct. HMRC can refuse the scheme on a single faulty entry and charge VAT on the full selling price. ForecourtOnline keeps the stock book correctly, automatically, for every car you sell.
- Purchase and sale records with seller and buyer details
- Margin and VAT on the margin calculated automatically
- CSV and PDF exports for your accountant or HMRC
- Sold records locked for a defensible audit trail
- Captured as you trade, not reconstructed later
Screenshot coming soon
A compliant stock book per vehicle
For each car, ForecourtOnline records the purchase date, purchase price and seller details, then the sale date, sale price and buyer details. These are the entries HMRC expects to see, captured at the point you actually do the deal rather than reconstructed months later.
Margin and VAT calculated for you
The margin (sale price minus purchase price) and the VAT due on that margin are worked out automatically. No formulas to maintain, no risk of a transposed figure quietly throwing off your return.
Records you can hand to your accountant
Export your stock book to CSV or PDF whenever you need it — at quarter end, at year end, or when HMRC asks. The format is built to be accepted first time, without your accountant having to correct it.
Locked once sold
A sold vehicle's margin scheme record is a legal document, so ForecourtOnline locks it against changes. That protects the integrity of your stock book and gives you a clean, defensible audit trail.
Leads
Never lose an enquiry again
A buyer who fills in a form and hears nothing back buys elsewhere. ForecourtOnline puts an enquiry form on every listing and collects the responses in a single inbox, so you can reply fast and keep track of who you've spoken to.
- Built-in enquiry form on every vehicle page
- All enquiries in one admin inbox
- Lead status tracking: new, contacted, closed
- Tied to the specific vehicle the buyer asked about
- Reply faster, lose fewer buyers
Screenshot coming soon
Enquiry forms on every listing
Each vehicle page has a built-in enquiry form tied to that specific car, so you know exactly what the customer is asking about before you pick up the phone or hit reply.
One inbox for every lead
Every enquiry lands in a single admin inbox rather than scattered across personal email, voicemail and sticky notes. Nothing slips through the cracks at 8pm on a Saturday.
Track status, not just messages
Mark a lead as new, contacted or closed so you and anyone else on the team can see where each conversation stands and who needs chasing.
Respect your customers' data
Leads are stored against your business with a clear record, supporting the data-handling expectations that come with collecting customer enquiries in the UK.
Questions
Frequently asked questions
- Do I need any technical skills to set up my website?
- No. You sign up, add a few details about your business, and your site is live. Adding stock is as simple as filling in a form — if you can use a spreadsheet, you can run a ForecourtOnline site.
- Can I use my existing domain name?
- Yes. You can start on a free forecourtonline.co.uk subdomain and connect your own domain at any time. We guide you through the DNS step and handle SSL automatically.
- Will my site work on mobile?
- Every ForecourtOnline site is mobile-first and built to load fast on phones, which is where most car buyers browse.
- How many vehicles can I manage?
- The Starter plan covers up to 30 vehicles. If you carry more, the Pro plan gives you unlimited stock.
- Does the stock management connect to my website?
- Yes — they're the same system. Anything you add or change in stock management appears on your public site straight away.
- Can I track how long a car has been in stock?
- Yes. Every vehicle shows its days in stock, and you can filter and sort by it to find cars that need attention.
- What is the VAT margin scheme?
- It lets eligible dealers pay VAT only on the difference between what they paid for a vehicle and what they sold it for, rather than on the full sale price. Read our full guide to the VAT margin scheme for the detail.
- What happens if my records are wrong?
- HMRC can deny the scheme on a faulty entry and charge VAT on the full selling price of the vehicle — a costly mistake. Keeping a complete, accurate stock book is what protects you, which is exactly what ForecourtOnline automates.
- Can I export my records?
- Yes. You can export your full stock book to CSV or PDF at any time for your accountant or for an HMRC inspection.
- Where do enquiries from my website go?
- Into a single inbox in your ForecourtOnline admin, so every lead is in one place rather than spread across email and voicemail.
- Can I see which car someone enquired about?
- Yes. Each enquiry is linked to the specific vehicle the customer was viewing, so you have full context before you reply.
- Can I track whether I've followed up?
- Yes. You can set each lead's status so you always know which enquiries still need a response.
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