Questions during a panel discussion at the Collision Industry Conference (CIC) about manual changes to refinish labor times brought out some important distinctions between CCC Information Services' estimating system and those of its competitors.
If a user of the Mitchell or Audatex estimating system manually reduces a labor time on a repaired panel, for example, no overlap is taken if blending into another panel. But the CCC system does automatically deduct such overlap when a refinish labor time is adjusted.
"So the user has to either take that into consideration before they change the time, or else they have to manually add that back in," Mike Anderson of CIC's Estimating Procedures Committee, said. "If you blend a panel, you should not deduct overlap. If an insurance company changes a paint time (in CCC), then the shop should get credit back for the overlap."
Anderson cited a hypothetical example of the refinish time for a repaired door being changed from 2.2 to 1.5. If the adjacent door is being blended, the CCC system will still automatically deduct .4 from the time for blending; this overlap deduction is not automatic with the Mitchell or Audatex systems.
The change to the refinish time in the CCC system also automatically affects the clearcoat time, Anderson said. If the refinish time on a repaired panel is changed from 2.2 to 1.5. clearcoat in the Audatex and Mitchell systems is still based on the 2.2; in the CCC system, it is based on the 1.5.
