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SCRS updates Repair Planning Guide; free resource offers 1,000+ nonincluded procedures that might be overlooked

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The Society of Collision Repair Specialists announced Wednesday that it updated its Complete Guide to Repair Planning with new content including frame setup considerations.

The free guidebook, available on the SCRS homepage, lists hundreds of procedures that might not be found in estimating services’ labor times — and thus potentially overlooked by an appraiser or estimator. Once known as the “800 list,” it’s grown to more than 1,000 items, SCRS Executive Director Aaron Schulenburg said Tuesday. It’s meant to be a general checklist any repairer can use, so it’s possible that some procedures might be included in repair times for one IP but not for another.

“The Society of Collision Repair Specialists (SCRS) recognizes that there are many legitimate operations and services our technicians provide that go unrecognized in the estimate development and final billing processes,” the organization wrote on the cover of the guide. “The purpose of this document is to aid repair facility personnel in formulating the most accurate repair plan in the estimate preparation process, to minimize the need or expense of a supplement. This document is intended to be used as a guide to develop and maintain processes performed in your repair facility, and serves as a reminder of steps that may be performed during the repair process.”

Schulenburg described the guide as a “living document” that drew upon input from association members as well as SCRS trustees. He said companies like AkzoNobel and BASF will use it for shop training and contribute to it as well.

The existence of a line item in the guide isn’t meant to imply shops should charge for it, nor does the guide suggest what a shop should chare.

“There are no values in it,” Schulenburg said. What to charge and what to charge for is an individual shop decision.

“This document is intended to be used as a guide to develop and maintain processes performed in your repair facility, and serves as a reminder of steps that may be performed during the repair process,” the guide states. “This document does not suggest, or promote, that your shop can or should charge for each item listed; and is only intended to be a reminder for repair operations that are performed in your facility.”

Asked what he’d heard from client shops, Jeff Wildman, BASF North American key account manager (OEM and industry relations), said that “it’s something that really can help a shop.”

However, “people don’t know about it,” Wildman said.

Another good way to find out more about non-included operations: Check out the Database Enhancement Gateway, a free resource that allows repairers and insurers to query the IPs about what exactly is counted within a labor time, suggest revisions to the estimating values and ask about other estimating service nuances.

Correction: An earlier version of this story mischaracterized the frame setup information added to the guide. The article has since been corrected.

More information:

SCRS Guide to Complete Repair Planning

Society of Collision Repair Specialists, November 2016

Featured images: The SCRS Guide to Complete Repair Planning November 2016 edition is shown. (Provided by Society of Collision Repair Specialists)

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