Insurer SLAs and Supplementary Quotes, Stage by Stage

What governs it

Repairer agreement allocation terms, and the Code provisions on dealings between insurer and repairer

Where to check

Motor Vehicle Insurance and Repair Industry Code of Conduct

The claim lands, and the first clock starts before the vehicle does. Most agreements measure from allocation rather than from arrival, which means a customer who takes four days to bring the car in has already spent four days of your cycle time. Separating allocation date, customer contact date and vehicle arrival date at intake is the single cheapest thing a shop can do to protect its own numbers, because it turns one bad cycle time into three facts.

• Record allocation date, first customer contact, and vehicle arrival as three separate fields
• Note the owner's right to choose a repairer where the policy provides one, and what the customer chose
• Capture the excess position at intake, so the conversation at delivery is not the first one
• Photograph the vehicle as received, including pre-existing damage outside the claim

What governs it

Code provisions on quoting and assessment, and the assessment terms of the repairer agreement

Where to check

Motor Vehicle Insurance and Repair Industry Code of Conduct

The quote is your position and the assessment is the insurer's. Where they differ, the difference is a conversation, not a correction, and the Code contemplates a process for resolving it rather than a unilateral rewrite. What matters operationally is that the disagreement is captured against the job in writing at the time. A verbal agreement to reduce a line and revisit it later is the most expensive sentence in this trade.

• Keep your quote as issued, and record the assessed position separately rather than overwriting it
• Photograph every damaged item you have quoted, from an angle that shows the damage
• Note times and methods for anything not in the times guide, with the reason
• Where an item is declined, record it and tell the owner in writing, not just the insurer

What governs it

Code provisions on supplementary quotes, and the authority limits in the repairer agreement

Where to check

Motor Vehicle Insurance and Repair Industry Code of Conduct

Hidden damage is normal, and the supplementary is how it gets paid for. Two things destroy margin here. The first is starting the work before authority arrives, because once the panel is off, negotiating leverage has gone. The second is bundling several discoveries into one late supplementary, which reads to an assessor as a single large increase rather than as three ordinary ones. Raise each on discovery, with the photograph attached, on the same thread as the original.

• Raise the supplementary at the moment of discovery, not at the end of the strip
• Attach the photograph that shows the hidden damage to the supplementary itself
• Keep every supplementary on one thread against the claim, so the sequence is visible
• Record the authority number and the time it was received before the work proceeds

What governs it

Parts policy in the repairer agreement, and Code provisions on parts usage and disclosure

Where to check

Motor Vehicle Insurance and Repair Industry Code of Conduct

Parts are where cycle time actually goes. A vehicle sitting in the yard waiting on a back-ordered panel is consuming your floor space, possibly your loan car, and all of your cycle-time average, and none of that is visible unless hold time is recorded as its own state. Parts policy also carries a disclosure dimension: which parts are new genuine, aftermarket, parallel or recycled is something the owner is entitled to understand, and the Code addresses it.

• Record hold time as its own status, distinct from work in progress
• Log the order date, the promised date and the actual date for every part
• Record parts type per line, and disclose it to the owner rather than only to the insurer
• Where a back order pushes the delivery date, tell the owner the day you learn it, not the day before

What governs it

Mobility and loan vehicle terms in the repairer agreement, and the policy the owner holds

Where to check

Insurance Council of Australia, General Insurance Code of Practice

A loan vehicle is a real cost per day and it is frequently the least controlled item in the shop. Whether the insurer, the owner or the shop wears a given day depends on why the vehicle was held that day, which is only knowable if the hold reason was recorded at the time. Shops that track loan days against the claim, with a reason code per day, recover materially more of them than shops that reconcile a fleet spreadsheet at month end.

• Attach the loan vehicle to the claim, not to a separate fleet list
• Record a reason per held day, so recoverable and non-recoverable days separate themselves
• Capture the condition and fuel at issue and at return, with photographs
• Reconcile loan days at delivery while the reasons are still fresh, not at month end

What governs it

Invoicing and payment terms of the repairer agreement, and Australian Consumer Law guarantees to the owner

Where to check

Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, consumer guarantees

The invoice has to reconcile to the authorised position line by line, including every supplementary, or it will be queried and the payment clock restarts. Anything you agreed verbally and never got an authority number for is, at this point, work you did for free. The owner's excess is the other half: it is collected by you in most arrangements, and a delivery conversation is the wrong time for the customer to hear the figure for the first time.

• Reconcile the invoice to the original authority plus every supplementary authority number
• Issue a tax invoice with GST and your ABN, and keep the photo pack attached to the job
• Collect the excess at the agreed point, having flagged the amount at intake
• Track payment age per insurer, because a slow payer is a working capital problem, not an admin one