If refinish labor times on repaired panels are going to be adjusted from those in the estimating systems - something 96 percent of shops say they have seen insurers do - the printed copy of the estimate should show what the original labor time is. 

Anderson

That was the recommendation of the Collision Industry Conference (CIC) Estimating Procedures Committee at the conclusion of a panel discussion on the topic in Las Vegas in early November.

"The committee's recommendation is to show the reduction amount as a separate negative line entry, or clearly document the calculation," Mike Anderson, a member of the CIC committee who moderated the panel discussion, said. "So on the bottom of the estimate, for example, line 42 would tell you a refinish time was changed from, say, 2.2 to 1.6. Then as the end-user of that estimate, you would be able to know the time was changed and by what magnitude."

Anderson, owner of Wagonwork Col-lision Centers in Alexandria, Virginia, opened the panel discussion with the responses he received from the estimating system providers to a series of questions the committee asked about manual changes to refinish times. According to a survey conducted by Collision Repair Industry INSIGHT, 72 percent of shops said the justification they are given for such changes is that the changes are being made on refinish labor times for "partial refinish" of repaired panels.

"In some cases, the system-generated blend times are being applied to repaired panels, which appears to be in contradiction of database guidelines," Anderson said.

All three major estimating system providers concurred that a repaired panel may or may not warrant a time reduction from the full labor time; it's a judgment item best left to the estimator.

But representatives of Mitchell International, Audatex and CCC Informa-tion Services also all concurred that the blend option time is not intended for use on a repaired panel.

"Audatex blend refinish is to be considered for use on adjacent undamaged panels for color match purposes," Anderson read from that company's response, which was nearly identical to that of the other companies. "So blend times were intended only for undamaged panels."

Anderson said the next logical question was if a change to a refinish labor time on a repaired panel is going to be made, what magnitude of a change is appropriate.

"We all agree that the thing we're decreasing is the application of the basecoat," Anderson said. "So we need to know what percentage of the basecoat time is for actual application of the basecoat."