INTEGRATIONS · SYMBILITY
Symbility, and the Estimate Everyone Is Actually Reading
Most arguments about an estimate come down to which copy somebody was looking at, and when it reached them.
VCA Software works with Symbility, where the field estimate is written. The completed estimate returns to the claim it came from, so everyone who prices against it, questions it, or pays on it is reading the same one.
ILLUSTRATION · ONE ESTIMATE, READ FROM THE CLAIM
WRITTEN IN THE FIELD
Symbility
Where the field estimate is written, by the person standing in the loss
Returns to the claim it came from
VCA CLAIMSCORE
The Estimate on the Claim
- The Current EstimateVERSION OF RECORD
- The Reserve It Justifies
- The Correspondence That Followed
- Payments Made Against It
READ FROM THE CLAIM
- Desk Review
- File Review and Quality
- The Client-Facing Lead
- Payment
Clients read it too, through ClientPortal, an add-on
IN THE CLAIM
An estimate is rarely written once
Every version is a document that can be forwarded, saved to a desktop, and quoted back at you in a meeting by somebody holding an older one. With Symbility connected to ClaimsCore, the completed estimate returns to the claim it came from, so the claim is the place to look.
ONE CLAIM, FOUR VERSIONS OF THE ESTIMATE
- The First EstimateWritten in the field, where the loss is, by the person standing in it.
- The SupplementThe contractor opens a wall and finds more. A second document now exists.
- The RevisionDesk review sends it back with questions. A third comes in.
- The PaymentSomebody pays against one of the three. An audit will ask which one it was.
WHAT MOVES
The Estimate, and What Travels with It
The direction is the simple part. What takes a conversation is how your operation wants a revision to behave once it arrives, and that is a question about your file reviews rather than about this connection.
- Out: The Claim Details, to Symbility.
- Back: The Completed Estimate, onto the same claim.
- Without it: the same work goes to a PDF attached to an email, and nothing comes back.
| What | Which Way | Where It Lands |
|---|---|---|
| The Claim Details | Out of the claim | In Symbility, where the field estimate is written, tied to the claim they came from. |
| The Completed Estimate | Back to the claim | On the same claim as the version of record, which is what the reviewer and the client open. |
| How Revisions Behave | Your call | Whether a superseded version stays visible is decided in discovery, against how your file reviews run. |
WHO FEELS IT
The People Who Read Estimates
A field estimator is fine either way. The cost of a loose document lands on the desk behind them. VCA was built from the claim up, by an adjuster, for the people who work the claim, and these three feel it first.
- The Desk ExaminerOpens a claim and finds the current estimate on it, next to the reserve it justifies and the correspondence that followed it.
- File Review and QualityAudits what the claim says, not what an inbox holds. Which version was in force at a given moment has a documented answer.
- The Client-Facing LeadAnswers an estimate question from the claim, in the same terms the client sees. The call runs shorter than one that starts with a search for an attachment.
OFF THE DESK
The Email Archaeology Exercise
The gain is quiet and daily: a claim review that opens on the claim, instead of one that starts by working out which document was current.
- Deciding which of three attachments is the current estimate.
- Re-uploading a document so the claim matches what was sent to a client.
- Chasing the field for the latest version before a review can start.
- Reconstructing after the fact what the claim said on the day a decision was made.
The XactAnalysis connection · Claims software for IA firms · All integrations
THE BOUNDARY
One Document, Four Audiences
The estimate is written in the field, where that work belongs. The claim holds the copy that counts, and that copy is what desk review, the client, and payment all read.
Here is a test worth running in any claims software evaluation: revise an estimate on a live claim, then look at what the reviewer, the client, and the payment screen each show afterward. If the three answers differ, the estimate sits near the claim, and somebody will one day be asked which copy counted.
Start the Connectivity ConversationHow Implementation Runs →
WHAT TO BRING TO THE CONNECTIVITY CONVERSATION
A claim that went through at least one supplement, and the list of who had to be told about the change. The version question is easy on a clean claim and revealing on a messy one.
Questions About Estimates on the Claim
What does "version of record" mean here?
The copy on the claim is the one that counts. Estimates get revised, supplemented, and re-issued, and every one of those events produces a document that can be emailed. When the claim holds the current version, a reviewer is not deciding which attachment to trust.
Does the estimate come back to the same claim it was sent from?
Yes. The claim details go out to Symbility and the completed field estimate returns to the same claim. Exactly what travels in each direction is confirmed in discovery, the first step of every VCA implementation, against the systems you run.
How should a revision or a supplement behave on the claim?
It has more than one defensible answer. Some firms want a superseded version to stay visible for the audit trail; others want the claim to show only what is current. It is settled in discovery, against how your own file reviews run, before anything is configured.
Our carrier clients do not all route estimates the same way. Is that a problem?
It is a common shape, particularly for firms handling work for several carriers. XactAnalysis is the assignment and reporting network and Symbility carries the field estimate; both are named integrations, and the claim looks the same to your team either way.
Can our clients see the estimate themselves?
With ClientPortal, an add-on, your clients get a branded login to the claims that concern them, read from the same claim your team works. Each document on the claim carries a Show On Portal flag, so your team decides whether a given estimate is shown. Without ClientPortal, the client-facing lead answers from the claim.
Why does this matter for a claim audit?
Because an audit asks what was known, when, and by whom. An estimate that arrived as an attachment answers none of that. An estimate on the claim sits next to the reserve movement it justified and the correspondence that followed it.
Bring us a claim where the promise was hard to keep
Bring a claim that went through a supplement, and ask what the reviewer, the client, and payment would each see on it afterward. One document, or three.
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