Dent Shop Manager

Help center · Grow the shop

DSM Negotiator for total losses

Read the adjuster email
Draft the reply
The Total Loss Invoice
Open DSM Negotiator from the CRM

DSM Negotiator is the AI assistant for fighting insurers on total losses and difficult claims. You open a case for each claim, paste or drop in every email from the adjuster, and the assistant reads it, names the tactic the insurer is using, and drafts your reply. It asks you up to three quick questions before it writes, so the letter never guesses. Each case also builds a Total Loss Invoice (admin fee, lot or gate fee, storage and tax) that you can download as a PDF, plus ready-made letters you can copy and send.

Who can do this

  • The DSM Negotiator plan only ($1,999 a year, which also includes everything in Annual). Shops on other plans are sent to the upgrade page. Only the shop Owner can buy the plan, on the billing page of the main app.
  • Every member of a shop on the plan can open cases, add emails and generate drafts.
  • Changing a case’s status: Owner, Manager or Admin.
  • Shop rates (the invoice defaults): saved to the shop profile, so the Owner or a Manager.
  • DSM Negotiator is at ai.dentshopmanager.com and uses the same login as Dent Shop Manager.

Steps

1. Open DSM Negotiator

  1. In Dent Shop Manager on the web, click DSM Negotiator in the top bar (on a phone-sized screen it’s in the menu). It opens already signed in.
  2. Or go to ai.dentshopmanager.com and log in with your Dent Shop Manager email and password.

2. Set your shop rates (once)

  1. On the Negotiation cases page, click Shop rates.
  2. Fill in Admin / blueprinting fee ($), Commercial lot / gate fee ($), Storage per day ($) and Sales tax (%).
  3. Click Save rates. These are the defaults for every case’s Total Loss Invoice. Any case can override them.

3. Create a case

  1. Click New case.
  2. In Customer, start typing to pull the customer from Dent Shop Manager. Picking one fills in the name, vehicle and case title for you.
  3. Fill in or check the Vehicle, Insurer, Insurer claim #, State, In shop since, Repair estimate ($) and Storage per day ($).
  4. Check the Case title (required) and add Notes if you like.
  5. Click Create case.

4. Build the Total Loss Invoice

  1. Open the case. The Case & documents tab shows the Total Loss Invoice.
  2. Click any figure to edit it: Admin / blueprinting fee, Commercial lot / gate fee, the Storage since date and the daily storage rate, Storage ends (leave it empty while the car is still on your lot, so storage keeps accruing through today) and the Sales tax percent.
  3. Each change saves itself, and the Total recovery balance updates. The same total shows at the top of the case.
  4. Click Download invoice PDF.

5. Use the ready-made letters

  1. Under the invoice, the letters are in two columns: Shop sends (from your own mailbox) and Customer forwards (you email them to the customer and they send them on).
  2. Click Read to see a letter, then Copy for the body or With subject to copy the subject too.

6. Add the adjuster’s email

  1. Click the Negotiation tab, then Add insurer email.
  2. Either:
    • Paste email: paste the whole email straight from Gmail or Outlook. The sender, subject, date and claim number fill in by themselves (or click “enter them manually”). Check them and click Add & draft reply.
    • Upload .eml: export the email from your mail program as an .eml file (up to 25 MB), pick it, and click Upload & draft reply. Forwarded emails are unwrapped to the original.
  3. Watch the steps: Saving email, Analyzing tactics, then your reply. If the assistant needs facts, it asks a few quick questions first.
  4. The email lands at the top of the timeline with a tactic badge (such as Stall, Lowball, Denial or Redundant request) and an AI read that explains what the insurer is doing. Your reply draft lands above it.

To log a letter your shop already sent, tick This is a letter my shop sent before adding it. It goes on the record as sent, with no AI read and no reply drafted.

7. Generate a new letter

  1. On the Negotiation tab, use the Generate new correspondence panel (or click the button of the same name at the top).
  2. Choose the voice: Shop letter, or Customer-voice letter for a letter the customer sends their insurer. For a customer-voice letter you must tick The customer authorized a letter in their name.
  3. Optionally pick the email you’re Replying to and add Instructions, for example “Cite the 12 days of storage accruing since June 20.”
  4. Click Generate draft.
  5. If the assistant has questions (at most three), answer what you know and skip the rest, then click Write the letter (or Skip and write the letter). Your answers are saved to the case so you won’t be asked again.
  6. Review the draft, edit it as needed, click Copy and send it from your own email.
  7. Click Mark as sent, then Yes, mark as sent, so the case record stays complete.

8. Keep the case status current

Use the status dropdown at the top of the case: Open, Settled, Closed or Litigation.

Good to know

  • Storage counts every day from Storage since through Storage ends (or through today if no end date is set), at the case’s daily rate. Sales tax is applied to the admin fee, lot or gate fee and storage together.
  • If you clear a fee on a case, it falls back to your shop rate.
  • The invoice PDF needs your shop’s phone, email, address and Tax ID / EIN in Dent Shop Manager’s Settings. If something is missing, DSM Negotiator lists it with a link to Settings.
  • Letters never contain blanks to fill in. When a fact is missing, the letter is written around it and the case tells you what to add to make the letters more specific.
  • Drafts are not legal advice. You review, edit and send all correspondence yourself; DSM Negotiator never emails the insurer for you.
  • Drafts use attorney-reviewed citations for the case’s state when they’re available. Where they aren’t yet, drafts argue from your documented facts without citing statutes.
  • Once a case is in Litigation, the assistant stops drafting; your attorney handles communication from there. If the insurer’s conduct calls for it, the assistant may suggest you consider retaining counsel.
  • The plan includes a fair-use AI allowance per day and per month. Owners, managers and admins see the month’s usage on the cases page. If the allowance runs out, AI drafting pauses until it resets; nothing is added to your bill, and everything else keeps working.
  • The Uploads card on each case stores work orders, estimates, photos and signed contracts.