Body Shop Software You Build Yourself: Estimates, Repair Tracking and Insurer Billing

Mythex lets a body shop or collision repair centre build a website that takes damage photos for estimates, a job tracker that shows every car's repair stage, a customer portal with progress photos, and invoices split between insurer and customer. You describe your workflow in chat and publish a working app with its own database.

What slows a body shop down

Most collision work comes through insurers, so a job moves through estimate, approval, parts, strip, repair, paint and quality check, and it can stall at any of them. Cars sit in the yard waiting on an approval or a wrong part while the customer rings to ask when they will get it back and whether the rental is covered. Hidden damage found at strip-down means a supplementary estimate and another approval. Estimating software, insurer portals and phone calls each hold part of the picture. What a shop needs is one board showing where every car is, how long it has waited and who to chase.

Every job linked to registration, insurer and claim number
Repair stages including awaiting approval and parts ordered
Photos attached to estimates and supplementary estimates
Courtesy cars booked alongside repairs
Invoices split between deductible and insurer

What you can build for body shops

A job board that shows where each car is stuck

Each job carries the customer, registration, insurer and claim number, and moves through awaiting approval, parts ordered, in repair, painting, quality check and ready. Record the date each estimate went to the insurer and the date it came back. After a few months you know how long each insurer takes, can give customers honest timings, and have a list of jobs waiting too long.

Build a job tracker for my body shop. Each job has customer, registration, insurer, claim number and a stage: estimate, awaiting approval, parts ordered, in repair, painting, quality check, ready. Record estimate sent and approved dates, and list jobs waiting on approval for more than three days.

Photo estimates with parts, labor and paint lines

An estimate lists parts, labor hours, paint and materials, with photos of all the damage attached. Clear pictures tend to speed up insurer approval, and the same photos support a supplementary estimate when hidden damage turns up after strip-down. Give each estimate a shareable page, and turn accepted ones into repair jobs.

Make an estimating tool for a collision repair shop with lines for parts, labor hours, paint and materials, photo uploads, supplementary estimates added to the original, and a shareable estimate page. Accepted estimates become jobs.

A website that takes damage photos

Many drivers want a rough idea of the cost before deciding whether to claim. Let them upload photos of the damage with their registration and get a first estimate back. Give accident repairs, insurance work, paint repairs and dent removal their own pages, explain how claims work with your shop, and say whether courtesy cars are available.

Build a website for my body shop with pages for accident repair, insurance work, paint repair and dent removal, a page explaining how insurance claims work with us, and an estimate request form with registration, description and up to six photos.

Repair progress customers can check themselves

Customers call when they do not know what is happening. Give each one a login showing their job's stage, expected completion date and photos as the repair moves on, with the invoice and warranty documents after collection. Fleet managers and insurers can get their own view of several jobs at once.

Make a customer portal for my collision repair centre where each customer sees their car's repair stage, expected completion date and progress photos, and downloads the invoice and warranty after collection. Fleet managers see all their vehicles.

Invoices split between insurer and deductible

Bill the customer's deductible at collection and the insurer for the balance straight away, each as its own invoice with the claim number and registration. Parts, labor, paint and materials stay on separate lines, and approved supplementaries are added before the invoice goes out. Chasing a deductible after the car has left is slow work.

Build invoicing for my body shop. Each job produces a customer invoice for the deductible and an insurer invoice for the rest, both with claim number and registration, lines for parts, labor, paint and materials, and approved supplementaries included.

A rota that books the paint booth too

The paint booth is often the bottleneck of the whole shop. Schedule it as a resource beside body technicians, painters and preppers, and group jobs by color or process to cut cleaning between coats. Track qualifications for specialist work such as aluminium or ADAS calibration so the right person is on each job.

Make a workshop schedule for a body shop with technicians, painters and preppers, the paint booth as a bookable resource, jobs assigned to booth slots, and each worker's qualifications shown when assigning.

Watch cycle time, not just car count

Cycle time is the number of days a car spends from drop-off to collection. Customers notice it and insurers watch it. With stages and dates on every job, a dashboard can show average cycle time by insurer and job type, and how many days cars spend waiting rather than being worked on. The waiting stages are usually where the improvement is.

Only book drop-off once parts are confirmed
Check parts against the job on arrival, not at strip-down
Chase approvals from a list, not from memory

What to put in on day one

Enter the cars currently in the yard with their registration, insurer, claim number and stage. That alone gives you a board you can update as cars move, and a count of what is waiting on approval. Add courtesy cars as bookable resources next, then estimates with photos, then invoicing.

Questions

Can customers send damage photos through the website?

Yes. Ask for an estimate form with photo uploads, saved with the customer's details and registration, so you can reply with a first figure.

Can we track insurer approvals?

Yes. An approval stage with the date sent and date approved shows how long each insurer takes, and a list flags jobs waiting too long.

Can an invoice split the cost between insurer and customer?

Yes. The deductible goes on a customer invoice and the balance on an insurer invoice, each with the claim number.

Does it replace our estimating software?

It does not include insurer parts and labor databases. Many shops keep their estimating system and use a Mythex app for job tracking, customer updates and courtesy cars, and you can import estimate totals from a file.

Do I need to code?

No. You describe the app in plain language and Mythex builds it with a live preview. You change it by chatting.

Is it free to try?

Yes. The Free plan has daily credits and needs no card, enough to build and publish a first version. Pro is $25/month with a custom domain and code export.

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