The same estimate typed three times
An estimate is approved for a front-end repair: bumper, grille, headlamp, bonnet, wing, brackets, clips, sensors, plus panel, paint and MET hours. The parts person reads it and types the parts onto the dealer's order. The workshop controller writes the operations onto a job card for the technician. Someone else enters the hours into the plan. Each person reads the same estimate and keys it again.
Most of the time it works. Sometimes a clip is missed, a left-hand part becomes right-hand, or the plan is loaded with last week's hours because the supplementary was not included.
The estimate is treated as a document, not as data
Estimating systems such as Audatex produce detailed, structured estimates. But between the estimating system, your management system, your parts suppliers and the workshop, the estimate often travels as a PDF or a printout. Structured data becomes a document that people read and retype.
- Your management system may import estimate totals but not the individual lines.
- Parts suppliers each have their own ordering portal or accept orders by email.
- Job cards are printed or written by hand for the workshop.
- Supplementaries add lines that need the same retyping again.
What the retyping costs
A missed clip or bracket means a car stopped at reassembly for want of a small part, which often takes as long to arrive as a big one. A wrong part number means a return and a wait. Hours loaded wrongly make the workshop plan unreliable. And every approved estimate uses up time from people who should be chasing supplementaries and parts.
An example of how it goes wrong: an estimate includes a headlamp washer cover as a separate line near the bottom. The parts person orders the headlamp and the bumper, misses the cover, and the car sits for two days at the end of the job while it is ordered. Nothing about that is anyone's fault in particular. It is just what retyping does.
How we build one route from estimate to workshop
- We take the structured estimate from your estimating system, through an export or integration where it offers one, rather than the PDF.
- Parts lines become a draft parts order, grouped by the supplier you normally use for each make or part type, for the parts person to check and send.
- Operations and labour times become the job card, printed or shown on a workshop tablet, and the hours are loaded into the workshop plan.
- When a supplementary is approved, only its new lines are added to the parts order, job card and plan, marked as supplementary.
- The parts order is checked against the estimate at goods in, so anything not received is visible before the car reaches reassembly.
- Anything that cannot be matched, such as a part with no supplier set, goes to a person rather than being guessed.
| Output | From the estimate | Checked by |
|---|---|---|
| Parts order | Part lines, numbers, quantities | Parts person before sending |
| Job card | Operations and times | Workshop controller |
| Workshop plan | Hours by department | Controller, automatically loaded |
| Goods in check | Expected parts per job | Stores on delivery |
What we can read depends on your estimating system and the access your licence allows. We confirm that before proposing anything.
A morning in the parts office after the change
New approvals appear as draft orders rather than PDFs to read. The parts person checks and sends rather than types. The workshop gets job cards that match the estimate line for line, and the plan updates itself when supplementaries are approved.
The time saved goes into the work that actually needs a person: chasing back orders, dealing with returns and talking to suppliers.
Signs you are retyping estimates
- Estimates arrive in the parts office as PDFs or printouts.
- Small parts are regularly missed from orders.
- Job cards are written by hand from the estimate.
- Supplementaries are keyed separately into several places.
- Parts are found missing only at reassembly.