An inbound auto physical damage demand arrives as a stack of PDFs: a repair estimate or total-loss valuation, often a rental invoice, sometimes towing and title paperwork. The desk adjuster has to decide what's owed, document every reduction, and be ready to defend those reductions when the adverse carrier pushes back, and then again at arbitration if it gets that far.
This guide follows one inbound demand through Claims Agent Suite, from intake to a defensible negotiation response.
Step 1: Intake and routing
The adjuster uploads the demand documents. The intake agent confirms the claimant, carrier, and claim number, classifies the demand, and routes it to the right specialist: a repairable damage audit, a total-loss valuation audit, or a rental review.
Step 2: Audit the repair estimate line by line
For a repairable vehicle, the damage specialist reviews the estimate PDF and returns a line-item audit report. It looks for the things desk adjusters are trained to catch:
- Red flags in labor time or part cost.
- Repair operations that are out of line with where the vehicle was actually damaged.
- Scans, sublets, and calibrations billed with no invoice or proof of necessity. The labor hours tied to those items come out with them.
- Administrative fees that are a cost of doing business, not a recoverable damage.
Every reduction shows its dollar amount, associated labor hours at the estimate's labor rate, and sales tax as a separate line, with written reasoning based on standard repair practice. The report closes with total reductions, the suggested amount to pay, and whether aftermarket or recycled parts were used.
Step 3: Total-loss demands
When the demand is a total loss, the valuation specialist takes the documents as they come, either one combined PDF or several separate files (valuation, photos, salvage title, towing invoice, tax records). It extracts the financial figures itself, so the adjuster doesn't re-key ACV, repair cost, or salvage values. It then applies the loss state's total-loss threshold rules and returns an audit report with cited evidence. If the adjuster wants more support on a specific point, the agent can pull additional evidence on that topic.
Step 4: Rental, based on the audited repair
Rental days are reviewed against the repair the carrier actually accepted, not the repair as billed. On a repairable claim, the rental review uses the labor hours from the damage audit already completed on that file, so the estimate doesn't need to be uploaded again. If there's no audited estimate on file, the agent asks for the labor hours, number of supplements, and any towing or parts details rather than guessing.
Step 5: The adjuster adjusts
The audit is a recommendation. If the adjuster disagrees with part of it, a revision specialist adds or removes line items, changes labor rates, adjusts rental days or rates, or corrects fees. It then produces a revised report that is logged as a new record, so the original and the revision both stay on file.
Step 6: Defend the reductions when the rebuttal arrives
When the adverse carrier disputes the reductions, the negotiation specialist drafts the response. Given the claim number, it pulls the reductions straight from the audit already completed on that file, and it takes the adverse carrier's rebuttal as pasted text or an uploaded PDF.
The output is written as a formal, third-person defense of each challenged reduction: what was reduced, what the adverse carrier claimed, why the reduction stands, and the supporting evidence. Arguments are grounded in repair-process standards, total-loss settlement methodology, and retrieved industry evidence. If the dispute goes on to arbitration, the same file feeds the respondent arbitration contentions.
One auditable record
Each audit, revision, and negotiation response is logged against the claim, and Cloud DLP replaces Social Security, driver's license, and phone numbers before anything is stored or shown. Reductions are built the same way on every file, so the same estimate gets the same result no matter which adjuster opens it.
What it means for cost
Many carriers pay a third-party vendor to review inbound demands. Claims Agent Suite's modeled results put that at about $45 per review. Across about 57,500 inbound demands a year, auditing in-house would come to roughly $2.59M a year and the equivalent of about 9.5 FTE.
These are the product's own modeled figures, not measured carrier results. Recompute them against your own vendor rate and volume before quoting them.
See how inbound review fits alongside outbound recovery in the AI subrogation demand review workflow, or read about the security controls around claim data. To train new desk adjusters on the same decisions before they touch a live demand, see how to train new subrogation reps.