Overview
Panel beater quotes are written for the insurance assessor, not the customer
Panel beating is one of the few automotive trades where the customer rarely pays the bill. The insurance company does. The quote is therefore written for the assessor, who has seen a thousand bodyshop quotes and can spot the one that pads labour or hides genuine OEM parts behind a generic line. The structure has to match what the assessor expects: clear strip-down hours, panel-by-panel labour with the official body time guide, primer and paint hours, jig and frame straightening time when needed, and parts at the manufacturer price level the policy covers. A quote that the assessor can't read in three minutes is a quote that gets sent back.
QuoteGenio gives panel beaters a structure that pairs with the assessor's checklist. Strip and assess as the first line, panel-by-panel labour against the body time guide, paint hours (booth, blend, polish), jig time where the chassis needs it, parts at OEM or approved level depending on policy, sundries, and any rental car obligation. Send via WhatsApp or email to the assessor, with photos attached to the same record. Take any policy excess from the customer up front, raise the final invoice against the insurance reference, and the customer drives away without ever seeing the part of the bill the insurer paid.
Who it is for
Who uses QuoteGenio
Built for body shops dealing with insurance work, private repairs, and restorations.
The problem
The quoting headaches every body shop knows
Insurance work needs itemised, assessor-ready quotes. Private work needs a price the customer trusts. Both need to go out fast.
Quotes take half a day
Pricing every panel, paint litres, and labour hours by hand eats time you should be spending in the booth.
Quotes assessors send back
If the panels and times aren't itemised the assessor's way, your quote bounces and the job stalls.
Private clients walk on price
A vague hand-written estimate makes the customer phone three other shops. Itemised quotes win.
The fix
QuoteGenio makes it simple
A clean workflow for body shop quoting. Itemise per panel, per paint litre, per labour hour, and send a quote that assessors and customers both approve fast.
The payoff
What you get with QuoteGenio
The everyday wins that add up across a year of quoting and invoicing.
Built for body shops
Line items per panel, with labour hours, paint litres, materials, and parts. Every panel quoted exactly the way assessors expect.
Works from your phone
Walk around the car, photograph the damage, and quote each panel from your phone before the customer leaves the yard.
Quote in under 10 minutes
Templates for common panels (front bumper, door skin, quarter panel) get you from photo to sent quote fast.
Track insurance and excess
See which insurance authorisations are still pending and which excesses are still outstanding from the customer.
Built for your trade
Quoting calibrated to how panel beaters actually work
Pick your trade in Settings and the entire quote flow switches to fit. Line item presets, compliance fields, on-the-quote calculators, and per-m² / after-hours pricing all change to match your industry.
Trade-specific line items
Quick add picker pre-fills the common items your trade quotes. Skip the blank rows.
Brand-specific catalogues
Pylontech, Hikvision, Canadian Solar, Sunsynk and others pre-named. Pick the brand, the description writes itself.
Compliance fields built in
IOPSA, ECASA, PIRB, PSIRA, NHBRC, SAQCC. Set once. Every quote prints them under FROM.
Registration expiry alerts
Dashboard notification 60 days before your PSIRA, CoC or any dated registration lapses.
Per-m² / hour / day billing
Unit selector on every line item: m², hr, linear m, days. Stop doing the maths externally.
After-hours and emergency
1.5× and 2× multipliers as a one-tap toggle. Customer sees the breakdown on the quote.
Quote-flow calculators
Solar size, battery backup, cable run cost. Compute on the spot, drop straight onto the quote.
Staged payments
Deposit on acceptance + balance on completion as two separate amounts on the quote PDF.
Scope-of-work checklist
Structured Included / Not included lists. Client acceptance = signing the scope.
Site-survey mode
Log a location per line item: camera positions, fixtures by room, sensors by zone.
Regional rate hints
Pricing ranges per item per currency shown as you quote.
Free on every plan
All of the above included on the free plan. Premium is for capacity, not the trade tooling.
Why QuoteGenio
Why Panel Beaters choose QuoteGenio
The tools that matter most when you are quoting on-site, under pressure, and between jobs.
Quote from your phone
Most Panel Beaters build and send quotes directly from the job site. No laptop, no office, no delays.
Win more jobs, faster
The first professional quote a client receives usually wins. Respond in minutes, not hours.
Quote to invoice in one click
When the job is accepted, convert to an invoice instantly. No retyping, no double entry.
Pricing guide
Typical Panel Beaters job pricing
A rough guide to what panel beaters charge for common work. Pricing varies by colour match difficulty, panel access, and whether the job is insurance or private. Use these as a reference when you build your own per-panel rate card.
| Job | Typical range |
|---|---|
| Bumper repair (plastic, no respray) | R2,975 - R7,933 |
| Door skin replacement (per door) | R14,048 - R29,749 |
| Quarter panel repair | R19,832 - R56,192 |
| Full panel respray (per panel) | R6,280 - R15,701 |
| Hail damage (per panel, PDR) | R3,636 - R11,238 |
| Front-end collision (bumper, bonnet, fender) | R74,372 - R239,642 |
| Full vehicle respray (small car) | R157,007 - R462,756 |
Pricing converted from USD to ZAR at indicative rates. Rates vary significantly by country, region, currency, and market.
Call-out fees
Panel beating is quoted per panel with labour hours, paint litres, and materials broken out separately. Most shops charge R1,074 to R1,818 per workshop hour and R1,570 to R2,975 per spray hour. Quote each panel as its own section so the assessor can sign off line by line.
Hourly vs fixed pricing
Use hourly pricing for repair labour and spray hours, and add fixed pricing for paint materials by litre. On insurance jobs, follow the assessor's preferred format (panel-by-panel breakdown). On private work, you can offer fixed-price per panel for simpler bumper or scratch jobs.
See it in action
Example quote breakdown
Here's what a clean, panel-by-panel quote looks like. Notice how each panel has its own line with labour and paint built in, and OEM parts are called out clearly. Assessors approve quotes like this without a single revision because every line is exactly where it belongs.
Try it yourself
Job size
Region
Sample quote
Front-end collision repair, mid-range hatchback
Front bumper, repair and respray
Bonnet, replace and respray
RH front fender, repair and respray
Headlight assembly (RH, OEM)
Paint and materials (2K base, clear, blender)
Workshop labour (strip, align, refit)
| Description | Qty | Rate | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Front bumper, repair and respray | 1 | R11,238 | R11,238 |
| Bonnet, replace and respray | 1 | R20,659 | R20,659 |
| RH front fender, repair and respray | 1 | R15,205 | R15,205 |
| Headlight assembly (RH, OEM) | 1 | R6,280 | R6,280 |
| Paint and materials (2K base, clear, blender) | 1 | R6,941 | R6,941 |
| Workshop labour (strip, align, refit) | 6 | R1,405 / hr | R8,429 |
| Subtotal | R68,752 | ||
| Tax (10%) | R6,875 | ||
| Total incl. tax | R75,628 | ||
Totals recalculate as you change the controls above. Tax rate inferred from the sample quote.
Items often forgotten
Paint blender into adjacent panels, masking materials, sundries, the wheel alignment after a front-end hit, and the courtesy car day rate. Add these to your insurance template once and stop absorbing them on every job.
Peer snapshot
How Panel Beaters actually use QuoteGenio
Indicative activity for Panel Beaters on the platform. Use it as a benchmark for how often to quote and how fast to respond.
33
Quotes sent per month
65%
Average quote acceptance
5 min
Median time to send quote
R75,628
Typical quote value
Figures are indicative platform averages for this trade segment.
Start quoting Panel Beater jobs like this, free
Build your first quote in under 2 minutes. No credit card, no setup fee, no contract.
Avoid these
Common quoting mistakes
We talk to a lot of body shop owners. The same per-panel and paint mistakes come up again and again. Fix these and your insurance quotes will get approved first time, every time.
Mistake: Quoting whole vehicle, not per panel
Better: Always split by panel. Assessors process panel-by-panel and reject quotes that lump everything into one line. Private clients also accept panel breakdowns faster.
Mistake: No paint blending allowance
Better: Blending into adjacent panels is real labour and real paint. Quote a 'paint blend' line on every adjacent panel so the colour match comes out right and you get paid for it.
Mistake: Forgetting masking and consumables
Better: Masking tape, paper, mixing cups, tack rags, sundries. List a 'spray consumables' line at 8 to 12 percent of paint material so it stops eating your margin.
Mistake: Bundling labour and paint hours
Better: Workshop labour and spray labour are different rates. List them separately so the assessor and the customer can see the work involved.
Mistake: Not specifying OEM versus aftermarket
Better: Write 'OEM headlight' or 'aftermarket headlight'. The customer or the insurer signs off on the spec, and you're protected if they later compare prices.
Mistake: Skipping wheel alignment after a front hit
Better: Front-end collisions need an alignment check. Quote it as a sub-let line so the customer isn't surprised and the car isn't returned with crab-walking steering.
Mistake: No expiry on insurance quotes
Better: Set a 21 or 30 day validity. Paint, plastics, and OEM parts move in price. If the assessor takes six weeks, requote at current pricing.
Mistake: No follow-up after sending the quote
Better: Most quotes that don't close, don't close because nobody followed up. Send a polite check-in 48 hours after the quote lands, and a second nudge at day 7. Two of every three accepted quotes get there because someone followed up.
Step by step
How to quote panel beating jobs
Walk around the car and photograph every panel before you price anything. Note the colour code from the VIN plate because mica, pearl, and three-stage colours need a complexity uplift on spray hours. Check the panel gaps, the bonnet alignment, and the chassis rails for a front-end hit: a collision that pushed the bumper back will usually need a wheel alignment and sometimes a chassis pull. Inspect adjacent panels for paint blend requirements, because blending into the next door or fender is real labour and real paint the assessor will not accept unless you quoted it. These observations at the bay are what separate a quote that passes first time from one the assessor sends back.
Itemise each panel as its own section with labour hours, paint litres, and materials broken out separately. Workshop labour at $ 65 to $ 110 per hour and spray labour at $ 95 to $ 180 per hour are different rates, so list them on different lines. Quote paint by the litre and add a spray consumables line at 8 to 12 percent of paint material for masking, tape, cups, and tack rags. Specify OEM versus aftermarket on every part line, add a paint blend line on every adjacent panel, and include the wheel alignment after a front-end hit as a sub-let line. For private work, show the full quote total, the insurance contribution, and the customer excess as separate lines so there is never an 'I thought insurance covered it' argument at collection.
Set a 21 to 30 day validity on insurance quotes. Paint, plastics, and OEM parts move in price regularly, and assessors can take weeks to authorise. If the assessor takes longer than the validity, requote at current pricing rather than honour an outdated number. Show VAT as its own line because insurers process VAT separately from the repair amount. State your payment terms: most body shops hold the car until the excess is paid on private work and bill the insurer directly on approved claims. Include your warranty on workmanship and paint, usually 12 to 24 months on the respray, so the customer knows what they are buying beyond the immediate repair.
Send the quote to the assessor the same day you strip the bumper cover. Insurance quotes sit in a queue at the insurer, so the body shop that delivers a clean, panel-by-panel PDF first gets authorisation first, which books the courtesy car and the booth slot. Share as a branded PDF on email (assessors usually want a file they can attach to the claim) and copy the customer on WhatsApp so they can chase the assessor. Follow up after three working days if authorisation has not come back. When the assessor comes back with a variation request, issue the revised quote the same afternoon and keep momentum.
FAQ
Common questions from panel beaters
Everything you need to know before getting started.
Yes. Add each panel as its own line item with description, labour hours, and price. Build a template once and reuse it across every insurance quote.
Yes. Every quote can be sent as a branded PDF or a public link by email or WhatsApp, whichever the assessor prefers.
Yes. Add workshop labour at one rate and spray labour at another. Each line shows its own hours and rate.
Yes. Every quote has a unique public link. The customer opens it on their phone and clicks accept. No signup needed.
Yes. One click converts an accepted quote to an invoice. All panels, labour, paint, and parts carry over.
Yes. The free plan gives you 5 quotes and 2 invoices per month with no credit card required. Upgrade to Premium for unlimited quotes, invoices, statements, and reports.
Insurance quotes need to follow the assessor's preferred format with each panel itemised, labour hours shown, and paint materials broken out. Private quotes can be simpler and grouped by area, but customers still respond best to clear itemisation. Build two templates in QuoteGenio so you can switch fast depending on who's paying.
Yes. Show the full quote total, the insurance contribution, and the excess as separate lines so the customer sees exactly what they're paying. This avoids the 'I thought insurance covered it' argument when the car is ready for collection.
Most shops quote paint by the litre with a separate consumables line for masking and sundries at 8 to 12 percent of the paint cost. For colour-match difficulty (mica, pearl, three-stage colours) add a complexity uplift on the spray hours, and note it on the quote so the customer understands why the colour costs more.
If you are VAT registered, yes. Show VAT as its own line. Insurers process VAT separately from the repair amount and your quote needs to make that clear. If you are under the VAT threshold, state clearly on the quote that prices are VAT exempt.
Still have questions? We would rather answer them now than after you have signed up.
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Guides
Guides for Panel Beaters
Practical advice to help you quote better, get paid faster, and grow your business.
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