PostToMarket Inventory Statuses Explained: Draft Posting Posted Sold Failed

Ask three people at the same dealership whether the black Silverado is "up on Marketplace" and you can get three answers. One rep says it posted this morning. Another says it is in the queue but not yet live. The manager thinks it sold Tuesday. Everyone is working from memory, and nobody is exactly wrong, because nobody has a single shared definition of what state a unit is in.

A clear status system fixes that. In PostToMarket, every vehicle in inventory carries one of five statuses: draft, posting, posted, sold, and failed. Those five words are the shared vocabulary for your whole store. They tell you what is ready, what is in motion, what is live, what is finished, and what needs attention.

This guide explains each status, how units move between them, and how managers and floor reps can use them day to day. It is aimed at GMs, internet directors, used-car managers, and reps who want fewer conversations that start with "wait, did that one go up?" PostToMarket is an independent tool, not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Meta, and statuses describe the state of a unit inside PostToMarket, not any guarantee about how Facebook displays a listing.

The Five Statuses at a Glance

Draft

A draft is a vehicle that exists in your inventory but has not been posted. Units arrive here through bulk CSV or Excel import, capture from auction and wholesale sites, or other entry into inventory. Drafts are the right place to do your preparation: fix data issues flagged in the import history, review and edit the AI-generated title and description, and choose photos with the Facebook photo picker.

Manager tip: a growing pile of drafts is a signal. Either the team is not queueing units, or the data on those units needs work. Look at the age of your oldest drafts every week.

Posting

Posting means the extension is working on the unit right now. Because PostToMarket posts one vehicle at a time with human-like delays, a unit sits in this state briefly while the extension completes the listing. It is a transitional status, and you generally do not need to take action while it is active.

Manager tip: if a unit seems to sit in posting far longer than expected, check that the rep's browser is open, they are signed into the extension, and nothing on the Facebook side is blocking the process.

Posted

Posted means the listing was created. This is your active inventory in motion: the vehicles you expect buyers to be able to find and message about. Posted does not mean Facebook will show the listing to every shopper, because no tool can guarantee distribution. It means the post step completed.

Manager tip: posted units are where your lead response matters. Check them against your leads inbox and your reps' response habits.

Sold

Sold means the vehicle is gone. You can mark a unit as sold and archive it from inventory or the queue. Doing this the same day is one of the highest-value habits a team can build. For the reasoning, see Inventory Hygiene: Why Sold Units Must Leave Marketplace the Same Day.

Manager tip: reconcile sold units against your DMS at the end of each day. If a vehicle shows posted here and sold there, fix it immediately.

Failed

Failed means the post did not complete. Causes can include data problems, a signed-out session, or a Facebook-side issue. A failed status turns an invisible problem into a visible one, which is the point.

Manager tip: do not retry in a loop. Diagnose first: check the unit's data, confirm the rep is signed in, and look for any Facebook notice. Follow Meta's own instructions if a notice appears.

How Units Move Through the Statuses

A typical life cycle looks like this:

1. Draft: the unit enters inventory and is prepared.
2. Posting: the rep or associate runs the unit from their queue.
3. Posted: the listing is live and the rep handles inquiries.
4. Sold: the sale closes and the unit is marked sold and archived.

The exception path is failed, which branches off the posting step and loops back to the queue once the cause is fixed.

Statuses and the queue

Queues add ownership to statuses. Sales reps can self-queue from shared inventory, managers assign vehicles to associate queues, and the team queue view lets managers see and release any claim. Combine the two and you can answer both questions at once: what state is this unit in, and who owns the next step? For a closer look at queue ownership, see How to Assign Inventory to Floor Reps for Marketplace Posting.

Using Statuses as a Management Tool

Statuses are only useful if somebody looks at them. Build them into your rhythm.

Daily check, five minutes

• Failed: any units? Who owns each, and what is the cause?
• Posting: anything stuck longer than it should be?
• Sold: did all of yesterday's deals get marked and archived?
• Draft: what is the oldest, and why has it not moved?

Weekly check, as part of your inventory meeting

• Compare drafts to posted units. A large gap may mean a data problem, a staffing problem, or a prioritization problem.
• Review aged units that are posted but not generating inquiries. Photos, price, and copy are the first suspects.
• Use team analytics, which show posting analytics by rep and source, to see who is moving units through the pipeline.

The agenda in A Weekly Inventory Exposure Meeting Agenda for Used Car Managers pairs well with this routine.

Common mistakes

• Leaving sold units posted. The most frequent and the most damaging, because buyers keep asking about a car you no longer have.
• Ignoring failed units. Failed units are inventory you think is advertised but is not.
• Letting drafts pile up. Unposted inventory is invisible to shoppers.
• Using statuses inconsistently. Decide as a store who is responsible for marking sold, and by when.

How PostToMarket Automates This

Statuses are the visible face of a workflow that PostToMarket runs for you.

Status updates that follow the work

• Draft to posting to posted as the Chrome extension posts one vehicle at a time with human-like delays and server-enforced daily limits.
• Failed when something does not complete, so it is flagged rather than forgotten.
• Sold when your team marks it sold and archives it from inventory or the queue.

Data that is ready before it hits draft

• Bulk CSV and Excel import with import history and a row-level error log, so bad rows are caught at the start.
• Capture from auction and wholesale sites to add vehicles to inventory.
• AI-generated titles and descriptions, editable before posting, and the Facebook photo picker for lead images.

Team visibility

• Personal and per-rep queues, manager assignment, and a team queue view.
• Roles for admin, manager, sales rep, and sales associate.
• Leads inbox and team analytics for managers.
• A mobile dashboard that can be installed on a phone's home screen, so reps can check and reorder their queue between customers.

Unlimited vehicles in inventory on every plan means you never have to trim your records to stay within a cap.

Give Your Whole Store One Source of Truth: Start Your 10-Day Free Trial

If your team still argues about what is posted, what is sold, and what never went up, you are paying for it in missed leads and wasted rep time. PostToMarket gives you five clear statuses, queues with real owners, and a posting workflow that keeps records current.

The Starter plan is $59 per month for a solo seller or independent lot with one login. The Dealership plan is $299 per month for up to 13 team logins and two managers. Start your 10-day free trial with secure Stripe checkout, import your inventory, and watch the statuses tell you exactly where every unit stands. Cancel anytime.