Handle a damage claim

Introduction

When a vehicle comes back damaged and someone has to pay for it — the customer, an insurer or another driver — you open a claim. The app calls a claim a change of condition, or CoC. A claim belongs to one booking and keeps the photos, the customer's cover, police and other-party details, paperwork and emails together.

The claim screen has CoC and the vehicle's registration number as its heading, with a Status box on the right. Below sit the booking and customer details, then a row of tabs — Images, Categorise, Coverage, Third party and Police, Documents, Email and Email log — and at the bottom the Save and Save and next buttons.

You would be here because:

• a car came back with a dent and you need to work out who pays;
• another driver or the police were involved and the insurer wants their details;
• you are checking which claims still wait for paperwork.

Words this screen uses

Every way a claim is created

The claims list has no button for a new claim.

Every claim has a Type: Damage (the default), or Regular for an ordinary change to the vehicle that is not a damage.

How to use

Configuration

Claims work without any set-up, but three lists make them far more useful. They are all kept on the Damage management screen (main menu Assets, then the Damage mgt tile):

1. Damage categories and Damage subcategories — the choices on the Categorise tab.
2. Document categories — the paperwork each claim asks for, and which of it is required before a claim can move on.
3. Communicator — ready-made emails for the Email tab.

Setting up the first two is described on Set up the lists a damage claim uses; the email templates are on Email an insurer or customer about a damage claim. Until document categories exist, the Documents tab is empty and nothing is required.

Before you start: creating a claim from a booking works for the Company admin, Employee and Employee (minimal) roles. The Damage mgt tile, and with it the claims list and the full claim screen, is only on the Assets menu for Company admin and Employee. Someone with Employee (minimal) can start a claim but cannot work it; a colleague with a fuller role has to take it from there. Record the damage itself first, on the inspection — see Record damage during an inspection — so the claim has a damage to point at.

Using the claims screen

Open a claim from the booking.

1. Open the booking, click the Damages tab and scroll down to the heading Change of conditions. Click New Change of condition.
2. In the small window, Booking is already filled in. Type starts on Damage; change it to Regular only for a change that is not a damage. Write what happened in Description. Registration date starts on today. Pick the recorded damage in Damage (listed by description). Add photos with New Change of condition image if you have them.
3. Click Save. The claim appears under Change of conditions. The view icon on the row reopens this window; the bin icon deletes the claim.

The app names every claim itself (CoC Booking #, booking number, customer name), replacing whatever you typed in Name.

On the Booking details screen, the button is on the Pick-up & return tab, under its Damages tab.

Work the claim from the claims list, where the full claim screen opens:

1. From the main menu, open Assets, then the Damage mgt tile. On the Damage management screen, click New CoCs.

2. Find the claim in the list headed Change of Condition overview and click the pencil icon on its row.

3. Check the details block at the top, filled in from the booking (see Key details).

4. On Images, click Add new image for each photo. Show checkout damages opens the vehicle drawing with the markers placed at this booking's pickup; Show checkin damages those placed at return. Comparing them shows a fault was new.

5. On Categorise, choose a Damage category, then a Damage subcategory.

6. On Coverage, answer the questions about the customer's cover:

   Question	Choose Yes when
   Tyres and glass covered	the customer's cover includes tyres and windows
   Own risk covered	the customer bought off the excess
   Theft covered	the cover includes theft
   Invoiced	you have billed someone for this damage — Amount invoiced then appears

   All four start on No. They are a record only; they do not create an invoice.

7. On Third party and Police, Police involved set to Yes opens a Police representative box; Other party involved opens Other party representative. Both start on No.

8. On Documents, there is one card per document category. Upload the file on the card and add Notes if useful. A card turns green once it holds a file; Required shows which ones the claim needs.

9. Click Save and next to move the claim on a stage, or Save to keep it where it is. Both close the claim screen.

For the Email and Email log tabs, see Email an insurer or customer about a damage claim.

A worked example. Booking 10458: Sanne de Vries returns a Polo with a dented bumper after another car backed into it. She bought excess cover. You record the dent on the return inspection, click New Change of condition on the booking, pick the dent and save: CoC Booking #10458 | Sanne de Vries. From New CoCs you set Own risk covered and Other party involved to Yes, name the other driver's insurer, and upload the accident report, the one Required card. Save and next moves it to Pending. The €820 repair is claimed from the other insurer; Sanne pays €0. When they pay, Save and next from Pending CoCs marks it Completed.

Key details

The claim moves through four stages. Each has its own list, opened from its tile on Damage management, and the lists link to each other at the top (Pending CoCs, Completed CoCs). Every list has a Type column with a filter:

You can also pick a stage in the Status box and click Save.

The paperwork check. Moving a claim into Pending, or saving it while Pending, checks the required documents. If none holds a file you see Please upload all required documents., the claim drops back to New, and the screen stays open. Your other changes are kept. One required document with a file is enough to pass, even when more are marked Required — check every Required card yourself.

In the claims lists, a tick at the start of a row means the paperwork check passes (or nothing is required); an exclamation mark means it does not.

Details are filled in, and refreshed, automatically. Every time a claim is opened, the app copies these from the booking again:

Anything typed into these boxes is overwritten the next time the claim opens; correct the booking or customer instead. Registration date, Type and Description stay as you set them. Sync on the New CoCs list refreshes every claim at once and adds any missing document card.

What to do next: work New CoCs first — those claims still miss information. Check Pending CoCs when an insurer or customer replies. To write to them, see Email an insurer or customer about a damage claim.

Q&A

The bin icon on a claim — can I get the claim back? No. The bin icon on a row in the claims lists, or under Change of conditions on the booking, deletes the claim with its photos, documents and emails. If a claim is finished, move it to Archived with Save and next instead; it stays findable under Archived CoCs.

I get "Please upload all required documents." but I cannot find a card to upload to. The Documents tab only shows document categories of the type Other. A category set up as a pickup or return document is still required, but it never gets a card on this tab. Ask whoever keeps the document categories to change its type to Other, or to switch Required off — see Set up the lists a damage claim uses.

I corrected the customer's email on the claim and it has gone back to the old one. The details block is copied from the booking each time the claim opens. Correct the email on the customer's record — see Create a customer record — and open the claim again.

Why has a claim I moved to Pending gone back to New? It was saved while none of its required documents held a file. Upload them on the Documents tab and click Save and next again.

I created a claim on the booking but it has no Coverage or Documents tab. The window on the booking is the short version. The full claim screen with all the tabs opens from the claims list: Assets, Damage mgt, New CoCs, pencil icon.

I cannot see the Damage mgt tile. The tile is not on the Assets screen for the Employee (minimal) role. Ask your administrator for the Employee role, or ask a colleague to work the claim.

The Damage subcategory list is empty. Pick a Damage category first; the list only shows subcategories of that category. If it stays empty, no subcategories exist for that category yet — see Set up the lists a damage claim uses.

Show checkout damages shows no markers. It shows only damage placed on the vehicle drawing during this booking's pickup inspection. If nothing was recorded then, the drawing is empty — that does not mean the vehicle had no earlier damage. The booking's own Damages tab lists everything ever recorded on the vehicle.

Where do I see who created a claim, and why does it say Unknown? The claims lists have a Created by column that is hidden at first; switch it on with the column-visibility control at the top right of the list. A claim started from a booking gets the name of the employee who saved it. A claim sent in by a connected app keeps the name that app sent. Unknown appears only when neither is known, for example on claims created before this was kept. The Email log tab shows who was written to and when.

Does filling in Amount invoiced bill the customer? No. It only records what was billed. Add the charge to the booking as usual — see Adjust the price on a booking.

• Record damage during an inspection — record the damage before you open a claim for it.
• Email an insurer or customer about a damage claim — send claim emails with documents attached.
• Set up the lists a damage claim uses — the lists behind Categorise and Documents.