Create a claim

A claim is one customer’s car going through your shop. You enter the customer, the vehicle, the insurance details and whether they need a rental. As soon as you click Create claim, Dent Shop Manager builds the full 39-task checklist for that car, split into four checkpoints, so the whole team knows what happens next. The damage scope and documents are added later, from the claim.

Who can do this

• Any team member can create a claim.
• On the Free plan you can have up to 10 active cars at a time (cars that are not Delivered or Total Loss). Paid plans have no car limit.
• Choosing the crew on a car needs the Assign crew & tasks permission (on by default for Owner, Manager, Admin and Front desk).

Steps

Enter the claim

1. Click + New claim on the Dashboard or in the Garage.
2. Under Customer, enter the Full name (required), Phone and Email.
3. Under Vehicle, enter the VIN and click Decode to fill in the Year, Make and Model for you. You can also type them yourself, and add the Plate.
4. Under Insurance, start typing the Insurance company and pick it from the list, then add the Claim #, Policy # and Deductible ($).
5. If you’ve set up storms, pick the Storm. The Date of loss fills in from the storm’s date if it’s empty, or you can pick it yourself.
6. Add Intake notes for anything worth writing down, such as rental coverage limits, the customer’s situation or promises made.
7. Tick Has initial estimate? if the customer already has the insurer’s estimate. You’ll get a reminder to collect a copy.
8. Under Rental car, choose No rental, Insurance pays or Shop pays.
9. Click Create claim. The claim opens on its Tasks tab.

Assign the crew

1. On the claim’s Tasks tab, find the Assignments card on the right.
2. Pick the Sales rep, 2nd sales, Technician, 2nd tech and Administrator.
3. Confirm with Assign & notify. The person gets a notification.

Add the rental details

If the car has a rental, the Rental card on the Tasks tab lets you fill in the Check out day, Due back, Reservation and Agreement #. They save as you go.

Fix a detail later

Click Edit details at the top of the claim. You can change the customer (including Address), vehicle, insurance (including Adjuster name, Adjuster phone and Adjuster email), storm and intake notes, then click Save changes.

Good to know

• Every claim gets a repair order number (shown as RO-1042, for example) that you can search for in the Garage.
• A Sales rep who enters a claim is automatically set as that car’s sales rep, so it counts toward their leaderboard and commission. A manager can change the crew later.
• A second sales rep or second technician splits that commission 50/50.
• Shop pays rentals: the rental invoice must be entered as an expense before the car can be cleared for payroll.
• If you leave the New claim page before creating it, you’ll be asked to confirm so you don’t lose what you typed.
• If you’re at the Free plan’s 10-car limit, the page offers to show you the paid plans.
• The phone app has the same form: tap the + button at the bottom of any tab.