Part Number
The brand's unique identifier for the part. Required on every ACES application.
ACES Catalog Management
Fitment validation.
Fitment discovery.
There is a difference.
Most catalog tools validate what you already know. Auto Plus does that — and then shows you what you have been missing. ACES catalog management software built around the full depth of the VCdb, with the standards expertise to know what valid fitment actually looks like from every angle.
Fitment Discovery
You can only map what you know to look for.
Spreadsheet-based mapping is a closed loop. You map the vehicles you are already aware of and move on. Even catalog systems that query the VCdb often force a prescribed path — start with the vehicle, work down to the engine. You still only confirm what you already suspected.
Auto Plus has no required starting point. Every filter dynamically constrains to only what is valid in configuration against your existing selections — so the VCdb leads you to valid fitment rather than requiring you to already know where to look. The result is fitment discovery from any direction, not just confirmation of what you already knew.
This is not a small difference in workflow. It is the difference between a catalog that covers what a brand has thought to map and a catalog that covers what a brand's products actually fit.
100s
Valid applications per part number discovered by brands
using Auto Plus — fitment that existed in the VCdb but was never surfaced
because the previous tool required starting from the vehicle.
Multiply that across a full catalog and every trading partner in the chain.
Non-Linear Entry
Start from any VCdb attribute — engine, fuel type, drive, submodel — and every subsequent filter shows only valid configurations.
Configuration-Aware Filtering
Every filter applied reflects valid VCdb configurations — no phantom combinations, no invalid pairings presented as options.
Coverage Gap Identification
Compare your mapped applications against the full universe of valid VCdb fitment to surface what you are not covering.
Any Source Format
Import from any proprietary or legacy format. What maps to a valid ACES application maps correctly. What does not is reported clearly — never fabricated.
Overlap Detection
Identifies part numbers sharing identical fitment mapping with no differentiating qualifier — before they reach a trading partner who cannot onboard them.
ACES Management
From source data to validated export.
Auto Plus manages the full ACES lifecycle — authoring, import, validation, correction, and export — with the standards depth that comes from over two decades of active subscription and application across every Auto Care vehicle and product standard. Rivers Edge is current on ACES 5.0, announced as the new standard at Auto Care Connect, May 2026.
01
Application Authoring & Import
Build ACES applications directly in Auto Plus or import from any source — ACES XML, proprietary flat files, legacy formats. The import process applies VCdb validation in real time, so you see exactly what is valid and what is not before anything is posted.
Import profiles allow consistent, repeatable intake from recurring sources — trading partners, repository flat files, or internal systems — with the same validation applied every time.
02
Validation & Invalid Reporting
Every application is validated against the current VCdb. Invalid applications are not just flagged — they are explained. Auto Plus applies proprietary logic to identify exactly why each application failed and surfaces a plain-language reason the user can act on: the vehicle configuration, the attribute mismatch, the deprecated submodel.
Resolving invalids is only possible when you know why they exist. Auto Plus makes that information available at the application level, not buried in a summary report.
03
Duplicate & Overlap Management
A duplicate application exists when a single part number has two or more application records that are identical in every way — same vehicle configuration including BaseVehicleID and all mapped VCdb attributes, same PCdb part type, same quantity required per application, same position qualifier if present, same manufacturer label if present, same application note if present, and same Qdb text qualifiers if present.
An overlap exists when two or more different part numbers share identical application configurations across all of those same fields — same vehicle configuration, same part type, same qualifiers — with nothing to differentiate them and no way for a trading partner or buyer to determine which part a given vehicle actually requires.
Auto Plus identifies both conditions, explains what is creating them, and surfaces the path to resolution. The ACES standard already contains the tools to fix overlaps. Auto Plus shows you where to apply them.
04
Validated ACES XML Export
Export validated, standards-compliant ACES XML ready for any trading partner — retailers, distributors, repositories, or direct submission. What leaves your system has been validated against the current VCdb and the current ACES schema.
When data travels direct from brand to receiver, what the receiver gets is what you built — authored, validated, and approved. When data passes through a repository, that guarantee ends at the repository door. What a repository does with your data is outside your control and outside ours. The case for direct delivery is exactly that.
The Standard
Four required fields. Everything else is a qualifier.
ACES has only four required fields. If those are correct, an application is structurally valid. This is not a technicality — it is the foundation of how the standard works and why most invalid applications can be resolved once you know which optional attribute caused the failure.
Optional attributes exist for one purpose: to unambiguously qualify vehicle fitment where the base vehicle alone is insufficient. They are not decorative. They are not a way to add detail. They are precision tools for situations where a part fits some — but not all — configurations of a given base vehicle.
Over-mapping optional attributes beyond what the fitment actually requires does not make an application more accurate. It creates unnecessary exposure to future VCdb changes and increases the probability of invalids in the next release cycle. Auto Plus identifies where applications carry more qualification than the fitment requires — and tells you which attributes can be safely removed.
The Over-Mapping Risk
Every optional attribute mapped beyond what the fitment requires is a potential invalid waiting for the next VCdb update. When a submodel is deprecated, a configuration changes, or an attribute relationship shifts, over-mapped applications fail — even if the underlying fitment is still perfectly valid.
1
2
Quantity Required Per Application
The quantity of the part required per vehicle application. Required on every ACES application.
3
Part Type
The PCdb-referenced part type classification. Required on every ACES application.
4
BaseVehicleID
The VCdb-referenced base vehicle identifier — the Make, Model, and Year combination. Required on every ACES application.
"If the four required fields are correct, the application is structurally valid. Everything else is qualification — and qualification should only exist where it is necessary."
Invalid Reporting
Not just flagged. Explained.
When repositories report invalid applications, they typically return a list. Part number, vehicle, status: invalid. No reason. No path to resolution. The brand stares at the list, makes a guess, resubmits, and hopes.
Auto Plus applies proprietary logic to every invalid application and surfaces a plain-language explanation of exactly what failed. Not a code. Not a status flag. A reason. The kind of reason that tells a cataloger specifically what to look at and what to change.
The examples below are representative of invalid conditions Auto Plus identifies and explains. Below those, a separate data quality warning — over-mapping — surfaces applications that are currently valid but carry unnecessary risk into the next VCdb release cycle.
The goal is not just to tell you what is broken. It is to give you everything you need to fix it — and to surface the quality issues that are not broken yet but will be.
Invalid Configuration
The mapped drive type is not valid in configuration with the selected base vehicle and engine combination.
Remove the drive type qualifier or select only base vehicles where this drive configuration is valid.
Deprecated Attribute
The mapped submodel is no longer present in the current VCdb release for this base vehicle.
Update or remove the submodel qualifier. If submodel qualification is still required, select a current equivalent from the active VCdb.
Configuration Mismatch
The mapped engine does not belong to the selected base vehicle in the current VCdb configuration.
Verify the engine-to-base-vehicle relationship in the VCdb and update the application to reflect the current valid configuration.
Data Quality Warning — Over-Mapping
Over-mapped applications are not invalid. They pass validation today. The issue is unnecessary exposure to future VCdb changes — optional attributes mapped beyond what the fitment actually requires to be unambiguously qualified. When a VCdb release changes a configuration relationship, over-mapped applications that were passing can become invalid overnight through no fault of the underlying fitment. Auto Plus identifies where applications carry more qualification than the fitment requires, so you can clean them up proactively — before the next release cycle does it for you.
ACES Standards & Databases
ACES Subscriber
VCdb Subscriber
PCdb Subscriber
Qdb Subscriber
Brand ID Subscriber
ECdb Subscriber
PAdb Subscriber
North America
Latin America
ACES 5.0 Current
See It Live
Find out what your ACES catalog is missing.
Schedule a demo and see Auto Plus work with your actual fitment data. Bring your toughest invalid. Bring your biggest catalog. That is where it gets interesting.
Standards Practitioner Since 2001