Skeeter's First Supplement: Approved in Under 10 Minutes, He Says

Learning how to avoid auto body supplements starts with the first file. Skeeter says his first supplement was approved in under 10 minutes with full OEM documentation.

Can You Avoid Auto Body Supplements on the First Estimate?

Skeeter's Body Shop in Garden City, Kansas, sent its first supplement with full OEM documentation attached. By Skeeter's account, it was approved in under 10 minutes. The file made the argument before anyone had to make one.

Supplements are common across the industry, and they don't all come from the same place. Some of the difference comes from the car. Some of it comes from what the first estimate carried when it left the building.

Skeeter's first supplement was the complete file, sent once. Picture a 2022 Hyundai Tucson with a windshield replacement. The estimate has the glass and the trim. If the forward camera calibration and its OEM procedure aren't on that estimate, the supplement is the first time anybody writes the operation down.

The dollars matter, but the reason matters more. A supplement for work the first file should have carried asks the adjuster to reconsider. A supplement for new damage found at teardown is a finding. Only one of those is easy to defend.

Where Does Your Shop Sit on the Supplement Scale?

Take the last five supplements your shop sent. For each one, ask a single question: could this item have been on the first estimate? If yes, the first file was the gap. If no, the damage showed up later, and the supplement was the right move.

Now line them up on a scale. Green means every supplement had a reason you could have documented on day one, such as new damage found at teardown with the OEM procedure attached. Red means most of them were items the first file should have carried.

Red items are the part of your supplement cost your shop can control. Every back-and-forth on a supplement also costs estimator time on the phone and in the file, and that time never shows up on a repair order. Where do you land?

Keep a simple list of each supplement, the reason, and whether it was on the first file. Review it monthly. The pattern shows which operations keep slipping, and that tells you where to tighten the write-up.

What Goes Into a First File That Gets Approved?

The file carries the OEM procedure for each operation the repair requires, not only the line items. The adjuster sees the manufacturer's requirement written down, not your opinion of what the car needs.

On a 2021 Ford Escape with a front bumper replacement and adaptive cruise, the radar calibration belongs on the first file, not on the second. The same logic applies to every camera, radar, and sensor the repair touches.

1. Attach the OEM procedure to each operation, including scans and calibrations, and reference it on the line.
2. Write the reason beside the line: the damage, the part, and the requirement that makes it owed.
3. Check the file against the procedure list before it goes out, so nothing has to be added later.

That check takes time up front. Estimators feel that time at the front of the job, and the savings show up later on the phone. It takes less time than a supplement that goes back and forth, and the file stands on its own when the adjuster reads it.

Photos of each damaged area, the teardown findings, and the procedure for each operation belong in the same file. When the adjuster reads the whole story in one place, the reply is about the documentation, not about whether the work was owed. Build the first file for the adjuster who will read it, because that reader decides what happens next.

The Bottom Line

Skeeter says his first supplement was approved in under 10 minutes. It went out as a complete file, sent once, with full OEM documentation attached. Estimate Optimizer™ checks each estimate against OEM procedures before it goes out, so the file carries what the repair requires on the first submission.