On most claim-funded repairs, the figure you put together isn't the one that finally gets paid. A national code leaves the choice of repairer to each insurer's own policy, not to a rule shared across the trade, and a driver's own consumer guidance is blunter still: even where a customer picks the shop, the insurer can still decide how the repair is done, or adjust the repairer's own quote. That's not every job. A cash repair paid straight by the customer never goes near any of this. But on the jobs that do run through a claim, the number you wrote is a starting point, not the last word.
A $300 cash scuff and a $15,000 structural repair paid through a claim sit at opposite ends of what this trade quotes, and only one of those figures is entirely yours to keep. We build for panel beaters straightening panels through Geelong's outer estates and running full repairs across Melbourne's busier body shops.
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You write the figure. On most claim-funded jobs, it isn't yours to finalise.
A real quote, priced against the panels, the paint and the hours the job actually needs.
The figure the insurer decides is fair, whether or not it matches the one you wrote.
Reviewed by the insurerThe industry's own national code states plainly who that choice is left to, not shared across the trade:
The national Motor Vehicle Insurance and Repair Industry Code of Conduct defines a 'Choice of Repairer Policy' as each insurer's own policy terms on whether a customer gets any say over who repairs their car, and explicitly lists 'compulsory choice of Repairer' among the matters the Code itself does not require industry-wide - leaving the question to each insurer's own product disclosure statement, not to a shared rule.
Confirmed directly against Motor Vehicle Insurance and Repair Industry Code of Conduct, a voluntary national code developed following the Australian Government's Smash Repair and Insurance Industry Implementation Taskforce, not a government regulator or primary legislation's own published text. Verified 2 September 2026.
A driver's own consumer guidance states the same gap from the other side of the claim:
Financial Rights Legal Centre's own consumer factsheet on car insurance claims states that most policies give the insurer, not the policyholder, the right to decide whether a damaged car is repaired, cashed out, or written off, and that even a policy allowing the customer to nominate a repairer can still leave the insurer able to decide how repairs are carried out or to adjust the repairer's quote.
Confirmed directly against Financial Rights Legal Centre, a community legal centre specialising in financial services and insurance disputes, not a government body's own published guidance. Verified 2 September 2026.
None of this holds on every job. A cash repair paid straight by the customer never touches an insurer at all, and "most policies" isn't "all policies": some genuinely leave the choice, and the figure, with the driver. The code itself is an industry-agreed document, not legislation, drafted by the industry rather than handed down by a government regulator. What doesn't change on the jobs that do run through a claim is who holds the pen last, and on most of them it isn't the repairer who wrote the first number. That's the gap this page is actually built around, not a claim that every job in this trade works this way.
Every one of these accounts for the same gap the section above just argued: the driver in front of you and the party actually authorising the job are often two different people.
A booking form that only asks what the driver wants misses the half of this trade where an insurer decides the scope. The site has to earn the search before the claim even starts, because that's the part still genuinely up to you, whatever happens once the quote itself is submitted.
How we build theseThis trade genuinely has two dominant public names, not one: panel beating and smash repair, both real, both large. Built around both, and around the suburb searches that actually carry volume, not just the trade's own jargon.
SEO and local searchA profile with recent before-and-after photos reads as a shop that's genuinely turning jobs over. That matters most on the jobs where a driver, not an insurer, is doing the choosing, which is exactly the moment a listing full of stale photos loses a job it was never going to win back later.
Google Business Profile managementA booking enquiry that lands while you're mid-strip on another car doesn't wait around. It goes to whoever answers next, insurer-funded or not. Follow-ups go out on their own schedule instead.
How the automation worksA quote that gets adjusted after it's already written, or a supplementary approval that takes days to chase down, changes what a job actually earns after the invoice was drafted, not before. Quoting and invoicing track what a job really settled at, not what the first number on the page assumed it would.
Back office supportCollisions happen on the calendar's own schedule, not a trade's. This project didn't find a government- or peak-body-sourced reason to weight one month over another for this trade, so none of the twelve below is marked busier than the rest.
Panel beating, vehicle body repair and smash repair don't appear anywhere on Victoria's own list of every industry and occupation it licenses or registers, the most direct check a business like this actually gets.
That list does name a nearby automotive role: buying and selling motor vehicles. It still doesn't name repairing them. A trade qualification exists for this work and plenty of shops hold it, but nothing found this session makes holding it a legal condition of trading.
Checked directly against Consumer Affairs Victoria's own published list of every industry and occupation it licenses or registers. Verified 2 September 2026.
Every one of these holds regardless of what an insurer ends up deciding about the job itself.
The domain, the site and the Google listing go up under your own business, never Delta's. Walk away whenever you like and every piece of it goes with you, no handover required.
Everything runs month to month. There's no fixed term counting down underneath it, and leaving is one written note away, whatever an insurer happens to be sitting on at the time.
A site gets you found and the quote request through, and keeps an enquiry from going to whoever answers first. It can't make an insurer choose you over another repairer, and we won't sell it as though it can.
An insurer authorises a quote before the panels come off. Once they're off and the real damage runs past what was approved, getting the gap paid means going back to a third party who was never in the workshop for the first conversation, on a $300 to $15,000 job you've already won and already started. That renegotiation is unpaid time either way it lands. Run a real job through the calculator and see what that gap is actually costing you.
Job profitability calculatorDelta Infotech Pty Ltd has traded under that name since 2021, from a street address that's genuinely ours. Look it up yourself before you commit to a cash job or a claim.
It moves the needle on which repairer gets considered in the first place, even on insurer-authorised work. Being the name a driver already searched, compared and trusted before the claim even starts is still worth something, on jobs where the insurer ends up deciding the scope and the final figure.
You get more room than a genuinely urgent call-out would. Panel beating doesn't run on a phone race the way a burst pipe does: the booking is paced by a quote and, on claim-funded work, by an approval step that runs on the insurer's own timeline, not the caller's. That's exactly why this page points to a profitability calculator rather than a missed-call one.
Your own ABN, from the day either one launches. Nothing sits under an account registered to Delta, so there's genuinely nothing to chase down if you ever decide to move on.
No. It runs month to month and ending it is a written note, not a negotiation.
A $300 cosmetic job and a $15,000 structural repair absorb an unpaid renegotiation completely differently, and neither figure accounts for the hours spent getting a supplementary approval signed off. That's what the calculator below is for: run a real job through it rather than guessing at what the gap actually costs.
A number given before we've seen anything is a guess wearing a price tag. A shop running mostly on insurer referrals needs a different site to one built on cash quotes and word of mouth, so send through what you're already running and we'll be straight about what it actually needs.
A collision rarely touches only the panels. The same claim, and often the same insurer sign-off, ends up covering more than one trade's part of the job.
A cracked or shattered windscreen from the same collision usually rides on the same claim as the panel work around it, adjusted by the same insurer that's already reviewing your own quote.
See the windscreen repairer pageSensors and cameras sitting behind a bumper or a panel often need their own check after a repair, and whoever authorised the panel work is usually the one deciding whether that check gets paid for too.
See the auto electrician pageMechanical faults a collision leaves behind, a misaligned wheel or a jarred component, often sit on the same file as the panel quote, decided by the same insurer rather than booked separately by the driver.
See the mechanic pageWhether you're chasing a cash job or waiting on a claim to clear, send us what you're already running online and we'll be straight about what's pulling its weight.
We build the same way for a panel beater straightening dents through Geelong's outer estates or running full structural repairs across Melbourne's busier body shops: what an insurer decides doesn't change what your site needs to do.