Manage vehicles
Vehicles and plate access
Last verified: October 3, 2026This guide is for the SAGE app (version 3) and management portal you use today. See the guide for the new apps.
How plate access works
A resident’s license plate opens the gate only when it is on their access in SAGE. How it gets there depends on how plate access is set up at your community.
If plate access is turned on by management
Adding a vehicle only puts it on file. Plate access starts when you create an LPR device for that vehicle at that unit.
If plate access is automatic
Adding a vehicle gives it plate access right away, at every unit the resident belongs to.
Ramco sets this up for your community, and it can’t be changed from the portal. If you’re not sure which setup you have, contact support@sagesystems.io.
Add a vehicle
Register a resident’s vehicle from their unit page.
- Go to Administration, open the unit and select the Vehicles tab.
- Click “Add Vehicle”. Choose the Owner, then enter Make, Model, Plate #, Country and State/Province. Year and Color are optional.
- Click “Save”.
Enter the plate as letters and numbers only, up to 8 characters, with no spaces or dashes.
Only residents who have accepted their SAGE invite can be chosen as the owner.
Turn on plate access with an LPR device
Only for communities where management turns on plate access. Each vehicle needs its own LPR device.
Adding, editing or deleting a device needs the Manage Occupant Devices or Manage Organization Devices permission. Without Manage Occupant Devices, a unit’s Devices tab doesn’t show the “Add Device” button.
- Open the unit’s Devices tab and click “Add Device”. You can also go to Devices, click “Add Device” and choose the Property.
- Set Device Type to LPR.
- Choose the Owner.
- Under Vehicle Assignment, pick the vehicle, or choose “+ Add New Vehicle” to add it here.
- Set Activation Date & Time to today. Set Expiration Date & Time, or tick Permanent.
- Click “Add”. The confirmation should read “Added LPR device:” followed by the plate.
An expiration date does not remove plate access by itself. To end a resident’s plate access, delete their LPR device.
Pick LPR before anything else. LPR devices don’t use facility codes, so with another device type selected the form can show a red facility-code message and keep the Add button grayed out.
A future activation date does not switch on by itself. Use today’s date so plate access starts right away.
A plate can have only one LPR device in your community.
If the confirmation says “LPR” instead of a plate, no vehicle was attached. Open the device and pick the vehicle.
Check that a vehicle is active
With management-controlled plate access, a vehicle is active once its LPR device shows Enabled on the Active Devices tab of the Devices page. With automatic plate access, a vehicle is active as soon as it is saved.
| What you see | What it means |
|---|---|
| Enabled | Today is between the activation and expiration dates. The plate opens the gate if the device was saved while it was active. If you saved it with a future start date, open the device and save it again once the start date arrives, or set activation to today. |
| Inactive | The activation date is in the future. Edit the device, set activation to today and save. |
| Disabled | The expiration date has passed, but the plate can still open the gate until the device is deleted. Delete the device to end access, or edit the dates and save. |
| Facility Code and Device No. are blank | Expected. Those fields are for barcodes and fobs. LPR uses the license plate instead. |
The Devices list doesn’t show plates, so open the device to confirm the right vehicle is attached. The surest check is a test drive through a camera entrance, then a look at the access log.
LPR and barcodes
They are separate credentials, and adding one does not change the other. At an entrance with a license plate camera, a registered plate opens the gate on its own. Barcodes keep working at every reader.
- Keep the barcode - Residents still need it at entrances without a camera, in a car that isn’t registered, or when the camera can’t read the plate.
- Access rules still apply - If a resident’s access is suspended, expired, or outside their allowed days and hours, the camera won’t open the gate either.
Messages you might see
What the red messages on the Add Device and Add Vehicle forms mean, and how to fix them.
| Message | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| “No facility codes available…” | Device Type is not LPR, and no facility codes are set up for your community. | Set Device Type to LPR. For any other device type, the message asks you to contact the administrator to set facility codes up first. |
| “No facility codes for this device type. Contact your admin.” | Your community has facility codes, but none for the device type you picked. | Set Device Type to LPR, or contact your admin. |
| “Owners need to be added to the property unit” | The unit has no owners in SAGE. | Add or invite the owner first. |
| “This owner must accept their invite before a vehicle can be added.” | The owner has not accepted their SAGE invite yet. | Ask the owner to accept their SAGE invite, then try again. |
| “Vehicle is required” | No vehicle has been picked for the device. | Pick a vehicle under Vehicle Assignment, or choose “+ Add New Vehicle”. |
| “Vehicle plate … already exists in the organization” | The same plate, with the same country and state, is already on file in your community. | Search for it and use or fix that record. |
| “Error: Plate … already has an LPR credential…” | That plate already has an LPR device. | Find it on the Devices page and delete it first if it belongs to the wrong person. |
| “Activation date & time cannot be in the past” | The activation is set to a time that has already passed. | Set the activation to now or later. |
| “Error: You do not have permission to manage devices for this organization” | Your portal account doesn’t have a device permission for this community. | Ask a manager to give you the Manage Occupant Devices or Manage Organization Devices permission. |
| “Plate is not valid” | The plate is not in a format the form accepts. | Use letters and numbers only, up to 8 characters. |
For anything not listed here, send a screenshot to support@sagesystems.io.
Need help?
Questions? Contact us at support@sagesystems.io.