Short Pay Explainer

If insurance won’t cover it, let the customer see why.

The Short Pay Explainer names every item that got cut and explains why you put it on the estimate. The customer-pay conversation starts with the facts instead of with you.

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What your customer receives

The short pay, translated.

A short pay is a spreadsheet argument between two estimates. Your customer sees none of it — they just hear that the shop wants more money than insurance approved. The Short Pay Explainer rewrites the conversation as a document they can read in five minutes and actually follow.

The Financial Overview from the Explainer: total repairs $11,603.99, insurance should pay $11,603.99, insurance approved $8,818.38, and the gap of $2,785.61

1Show the gap, in dollars

What the repair costs vs. What insurance should be paying. And the difference between the last two, on its own, in bold. No line codes, no labor rates, no acronyms.

A disputed item in the Explainer: recalibrating the camera behind the windshield, explained in plain English with the manufacturer procedure quoted underneath

2Every disputed item, named

Each line their carrier cut or reduced, written out in everyday language: what it is, what it does for the vehicle, and why you wrote it on the estimate in the first place.

The quoted source under a disputed item in the Explainer: the estimating guidance the operation came from, shown word for word

3Backed by guidance

Each item carries the estimating guidance or repair procedure it came from, quoted. It reads as documentation of the repair, not as a shop asking for more money.

Change the conversation

The customer-pay talk is the hardest one you have.

Somebody has to tell the customer their insurance company did not approve the whole repair. Right now that somebody is you, standing at the counter, with nothing in your hand but an estimate they cannot read.

  • You stop being the one saying no

    The document shows plainly which number came from the shop and which came from the carrier. The customer can see for themselves where the shortfall started, and it was not with you.

  • “Why is it so expensive?” is already answered

    Every item they might question has a paragraph next to it explaining what it is and why the repair needs it. The phone call you would have taken on Thursday happens a lot less often.

  • It works whichever way the gap closes

    Keep pushing the carrier, ask the customer to cover the difference, or split it. The same document supports all three, and the customer already understands the number before you ask them anything.

  • No extra work for your estimator

    It builds itself from the short pay analysis Reclaimr already ran on the case. You read it, change anything you want, and send it.

The full Short Pay Explainer document: shop-branded header, financial overview with the gap, four disputed items each explained in plain English with the procedure behind it, two customer-pay recommendations, what happens next, and the customer's rights as a policyholder

↕ Scroll inside the document to read the whole thing. It goes out under your shop’s name — Reclaimr is not mentioned anywhere on it. Sample document; shop, customer and vehicle details are illustrative.

Want the details? Tell us where to send them.

We’ll show you what a Short Pay Explainer looks like on a real short pay, and what it does to the conversation at the counter. If it looks useful, we’ll run one of your own through it.

  • No software to install
  • Works with the estimate you already write
  • A real person from our team, not a drip sequence

Rather just talk it through?(410) 459-7022

We’ll reach out within one business day. No spam, ever.