The short version
- Match the sublet scope, vehicle, and repair order across every document.
- Keep technical completion separate from vendor billing and insurer payment status.
- Compare vendor cash due with actual collections before estimating the funding gap.
Your body shop receives a calibration invoice after the vehicle returns from a sublet provider. The repair file also has a quote, a customer authorization, technical reports, and a supplement awaiting a payer's response. An amount on one document does not settle the others.
This guide covers the financial handoff for advanced driver assistance systems, or ADAS. Your qualified repair team determines the required work from current vehicle-specific OEM information. The worksheet helps the office connect those decisions with costs, records, and collections.
Use with this guide
Job cash-flow planner
Map cash committed and payments collected across a project's milestones.
Auto glass split payments: reconcile customer and insurer balances
A deductible is one line in the payment file. Reconcile the confirmed payer amounts against the final invoice before treating the remaining balance as collected.
Body shop paint material recovery: compare billed and consumed cost
The supplier invoice replenishes the mixing room. Your repair order needs the cost of what the job consumed. Use the right denominator before judging recovery.
Give the sublet request a clear identity
Record the vehicle identification, repair order, requested work, customer authorization reference, and the provider's quote. Have the qualified repair team supply the technical scope. If the provider identifies additional work, route the revised request through the shop's approval process before treating the original quote as the final cost.
I-CAR's diagnostics process addresses customer authorization, documentation, and use of OEM repair information. For the office, the practical task is to retain references to those records. A line reading 'calibration' without a vehicle, operation, or repair-order reference is difficult to match when several sublets arrive together.
Sources for this section: I-CAR: ADAS collision repair diagnostics process, validated 2025
Use separate records for work, billing, and collection
The vendor quote describes proposed work and cost. The final invoice states what the vendor billed. Completion records document the work and reported outcome for technical review. Your customer-facing estimate and payer correspondence address the amounts requested or agreed. A bank receipt records money actually received.
Match these records before closing the job. Where a scope or amount differs, name the difference and its owner. Do not ask bookkeeping staff to infer technical completion from an invoice, or assume an insurer accepted a charge because the vendor completed the work.
| Record | What to match | Separate question |
|---|---|---|
| Sublet authorization and quote | Vehicle, requested scope, approved cost | Was added work authorized? |
| Vendor invoice | Billed operations, amount, due date | Does the bill match the agreement? |
| Completion documentation | Vehicle, operation, date, reported outcome | Has the repair team reviewed the record? |
| Customer / insurer account | Agreed charges and current payer status | What amount is still unresolved? |
| Receipts and vendor payment | Actual amount, date, and reference | What cash has moved? |
Keep the completion review with the repair team
I-CAR's ADAS preparation training specifically addresses calibration and test-drive documentation. Honda's July 2025 position statement distinguishes diagnostic scanning from calibration and directs repairers to applicable service information. Those sources support keeping technical records available for the people qualified to review them.
Ask the provider for the documentation agreed for the specific job and have your repair team resolve missing or unclear results. A completed financial checklist establishes neither vehicle safety nor insurer coverage. Preserve any revised reports with a clear version history instead of replacing a failed or incomplete record without explanation.
Sources for this section: I-CAR: ADAS preparation and calibration documentation · American Honda: post-collision scanning and calibration statement, July 2025
Worked example: vendor cost and collection arrive on different days
In this fictional sublet, the vendor quoted $650. A separately approved $90 addition brings the final vendor invoice to $740. Assume the shop's documented receivable for the related billed work is $900. At the time the $740 vendor payment leaves, only $600 has been collected toward that receivable.
The shop is funding a $140 gap on these cash flows. Another $300 remains receivable. If that amount is later collected, total receipts become $900 and the difference above vendor cost is $160. That is not net profit. The example excludes shop labor, transport, overhead, taxes, and processing costs, and asserts nothing about a real insurer's coverage decision.
Print the calibration sublet reconciliation sheet
Complete the administrative fields, then route technical records to the repair reviewer. Keep unresolved payer amounts visible instead of moving them into the customer balance without an established basis.
| Record | Amount / status | Reference / owner |
|---|---|---|
| Vehicle and repair order | ________________ | ________________ |
| Authorized scope and sublet quote | $_______________ | ________________ |
| Approved change | $_______________ | ________________ |
| Final vendor invoice / due date | $_______________ | ________________ |
| Completion report / technical review | ________________ | ________________ |
| Current billed amount / payer status | $_______________ | ________________ |
| Receipts actually collected | $_______________ | ________________ |
| Vendor payment actually sent | $_______________ | ________________ |
| Unresolved difference / next action | ________________ | ________________ |
Free to download without an email address. Fill in business or customer details only in your own records.
Review open sublets before month-end
Group outstanding items by missing report, vendor billing difference, payer response, and overdue collection. These problems need different owners. Resolve the repair documentation through the repair team and the payment questions through the estimator or billing contact.
Keep vendor cost out of your card-volume calculation. For processing analysis, count only receipts that actually ran through the merchant account. An insurer check, an unpaid supplement, and a customer credit-card payment have different effects on the statement.
Questions business owners ask
Does a calibration invoice prove the work was completed correctly?
The invoice records the charge. Your qualified repair team needs the relevant completion documentation and OEM information to review the repair.
Does approved calibration work mean the insurer will pay the entire amount?
No. Keep repair authorization, technical completion, payer agreement, and money received as separate records. Resolve coverage and payment responsibility through the applicable claim and customer agreement.
Primary sources
BlueFinch reviewed these sources on September 7, 2026. Payment rules and state requirements change.
- I-CAR: ADAS collision repair diagnostics process, validated 2025
- I-CAR: ADAS preparation and calibration documentation
- American Honda: post-collision scanning and calibration statement, July 2025
This page provides general business information, not legal, tax, or accounting advice.