Switching from Access or an in-house system
The Access system that ran a real repair firm — rebuilt for the web.
Claim Job Control is not general-purpose job software with a claims label on it. It is a deliberate rebuild of the workflow my own firm ran for years: the same clocks, the same profit rules, the same desk discipline — without the desktop lock-in.
For years, I ran my own UK insurance repair firm on a system built in Microsoft Access. It worked — because the rules inside it were paid for in real money: missed contacts, underpriced jobs, estimates that drifted after acceptance.
That kind of software does not age well. Staff need modern browsers. Managers need to see margin without waiting for a report someone built in 2009. New hires should not need a week of being shown round before they can do the morning’s work.
So the system was rebuilt screen by screen as Claim Job Control — the same business process on modern software. It is live today at app.claimjobcontrol.com.
What did not change
The original process my firm worked to is still the rulebook for every timescale. Nothing was simplified away to make a prettier demo:
- First contact targeted within 15 minutes of instruction
- No survey appointment until the policyholder has been contacted
- Survey within 48 hours of instruction
- Estimate within 24 hours of the survey
- Each insurer’s minimum margin fixed on the claim the day it is opened
- Changes after acceptance go through variations, never quiet edits
What changed for the better
The rebuild kept the hard rules and replaced the fragile software around them. One screen per role replaces three near-identical Access forms. One claim file with tabs replaces the separate survey, works and finance copies of the same record. Claims open reliably however busy the office is. Estimates are audited by the database, not left to good manners.
“If Access still runs your book, you do not need another job diary. You need the same discipline you already trust — on software your next hire can learn in a morning.”
How switching works
Setup is a fixed-price job, not a project. The fixed onboarding fee (£950 for up to three office seats, £1,500 for four to ten) covers all of it, and the founding-customer pilot waives it for the first three firms.
- Week 1 — setup call. Your insurers and their margin floors, your trades and rates, your letterhead, your staff and their levels.
- Week 1 to 2 — open claims imported. Every live job comes across with its policyholder, insurer, stage and dates. Closed history stays where it is; you do not need it to run the desk.
- Week 2 — two training sessions on your own claims. One for the office, one for surveyors and WIP. Every screen has a Help walkthrough for the day after.
- Live inside ten working days. Your old system stays available read-only for as long as you want it.
Who this is for
Independent and panel contractors who already understand insurance repair — and who are tired of fighting desktop software, paying for an insurer-portal seat for everyone in the office, or spreadsheets pretending to be a control system.
If you are on Cotality Contractor Workspace for the network, Claim Job Control sits alongside it: you keep the portal where the panel requires it, and run margin, contact clocks, works and the audit trail on your own jobs.
Before → after
- Microsoft Access screens, local installs, fragile backupsRuns in the browser on every desk; each person sees what their role allows; one database in the cloud
- Workflow in people’s heads and sticky notesContact before appointment, the clocks and the worklist badges enforced by the software
- Margin checked late — or not at allMargin checked three times: at survey, before acceptance, and against actual costs while the job runs
- Estimate numbers editable without a trailAccepted estimates lock; every money change recorded with who, when, before and after
- Reports as saved Access queries someone remembersTen management reports and a scorecard a manager can open every morning
Live today
- Full claim lifecycle in the browser
- Estimate builder + specification letters
- SLA scorecard for managers
- Staff invites and role levels
- Published prices
See pricing or book a demo — half an hour, one claim, end to end.
Next step
Bring one of your live jobs. We’ll walk it through.
No slides. Open a claim, hit the margin gate, show the contact clock, show the audit trail. Judge it the way an insurer would.