Why its important to implement
Protects against legal claims and payment disputes through comprehensive record keeping. Ensures all work evidence is preserved for invoicing and future reference needs.
Legal Protection
During the process of the repair many documents are accumulated for example, photos of damage and during repair, any external work carried out like windscreen fitting, wheel alignment reports, chassis alignment reports, parts invoices and the original estimates to name a few. Its is very important that the business keeps and collated all if these into a good filing system and preferably a BMS (Bodyshop Management System) so that they can be easily referenced for invoicing or longer term and issues or claims that may happen with the vehicle. Failure to do this could expose the business to having no evidence of work carried for payment or at worst case a legal claim against the business if there is a problem with the vehicle following another accident or third party check.
Business Impact
Profit: Protected from legal issues and missed invoicing opportunities. Throughput: No direct impact. Cycle Time: Administrative efficiency gained. Idle Time: Reduced through organized systems. Customer Satisfaction: Indirect through professional operation.
Profit
If the business does not protect itself against any future legal problems with claims against workmanship by having good record keeping and complete filing in a single place it could be exposed to loss of revenue.
Profit
If the business does not have all records in a single file items that were done may be missed in invoicing.
Additional Administration
Not having a good digital filing system will cause unnecessary work in the office when it comes to finalising job card records and invoicing. This will cause a lot of work if an insurance adjustor askes for files and they are not easily found.
action steps
Implement BMS or electronic filing system, establish file management process with assigned responsibilities, implement strong internal enforcement warnings for compliance.
Filing System Enforcement
Strong internal warnings if policy not followed once established.
File Management Process
Implement process and people responsible for adding these files and monitoring that they are all added to the job file.
Filing System Implementation
Implement a BMS or electronic filing system into the business that allows for all files and photos to collated into a single area and easily retrieved.
Related tasks
Milestone:
05: Implement Performance Metrics Tracking System