NEW FEATURE

8107

Database Manager

Symbility.NET

The brand-new Symbility.NET "Database Manager" module is a major new feature and the reason why (despite being in development for 6 months—our longest lapse between releases) it is the only major new feature in this release. Basically, the Database Manager permits complete flexibility and control over every aspect of the Symbility pricing database (provided by Craftsman). Note that if your company is usually assigned claims through Symbility by an insurance company you probably won't interact much with the Database Manager interface, but rest assured all Symbility users will benefit from the Database Manager module, which includes many enhancements under the hood as well.

 

Here's a summary of the new functionality offered by the Database Manager:

• The ability to customize virtually any aspect of the Symbility pricing database. This includes overriding prices and adding new items, plus the ability to carry forward any customizations to future updates.

• The ability to view and print any the entire pricing database or any subset.

• The ability to analyze new pricing updates by comparing to older versions and inspecting the differences in detail.

• The ability to compare the pricing between different regions.

• The ability to re-price estimates in existing claims with different pricing versions or regions.

• The ability to download to mobile claims any pricing version or region to use in creating temporary claims.

The enhancements made to the system's framework due to the Database Manager also eliminate several issues that Symbility has had in the past:

• For various reasons incompatibilities were experienced with Item Batches and Favorites—sometimes between successive pricing updates and usually between incompatible databases developed for some carrier customers.

• Several mobile claims features (browse by picture, relevant item filtering, automatic price adjustment, etc.) would not be available for any claims associated with a customized pricing database. Now all features will work regardless of the level of customization done to a pricing database.

• Grades now include a labor value. Before, items which use grades to describe various applications of the material that varied in the amount of time to apply (ex. Drywall) would show inaccurate pricing for some grades.

To access the Database Manager module, use the new "Database Manager" command in the menu bar.

 

Keep in mind that if you are a contractor or an independent adjuster creating an estimate for a claim assigned by an insurance company, you must adhere to the database pricing parameters that are integrated into the claim; any database customization you do will not be able to be used for those claims.

 

 

Pricing databases use a new hierarchical structure that is important to become familiar with. The hierarchy is shown in the Database Explorer which you see on the left side of the Database Manager screen. Use the Database Explorer to select a "database object" to view or modify.

Database (ex. "Symbility Database") - The top or "root" level object. Generally there will be only one top level available to you. A database contains the skeleton, or "framework"—it specifies the arrangement of categories, trades, items, actions, grades, etc. but contains no price data.

Version (ex. "v.2.5.3", "October 2006") - A unique instance of the Craftsman base national pricing data corresponding to a specific point in time. When a new pricing update is released, a new Version object will appear in the Database Explorer. In the past we used three-digit numbers to identify different versions; in the future we will use the month and year it was released.

Region (ex. "California", "OH - Dayton") - Pricing from the parent Version adjusted with regional modification factors to tailor it to a specific geographic location.

Customization - Modifications made to a Version or Region by a user. A Customization contains only the data of the Version or Region that was changed, and can be copied and applied to any other Version or Region. Think of a customization as a "modification layer" that can be "superimposed" on a Version or Region—when viewed you see the combination of the underlying data (supplied by the parent Version or Region) and the modifications to that data contained in the Customization.

Database, Version and Region objects are controlled by Symbility and cannot be modified. In order to make changes to pricing, descriptions, etc. you customize a Version or Region in the Symbility Database (i.e. create a new child Customization object).

 

 

A Version contains the following pages:

• Properties - This page shows three properties, only one of which (Status) can be altered. Set the status to "Inactive" to prevent new claims from being associated with it or any of it's child objects (Regions, Customizations). When inactive, a Version will appear grey in the Database Explorer.

• Regional Modification Factors - This page contains an index of all modification factors for all Regions that are child objects of this Version. This page replaces the table that used to be present in the Claim Defaults. You can edit the factors here or individually on the properties page of the Region. To edit, click the row for the region—each factor will appear in a floating Record Edit Panel (see below). Save your changes with the Save button in the top right of the screen.

• Trades - Shows all the trades/crews used by items on the Items page to calculate the labor unit price, and for each, whether O&P and tax(es) should be applied to line items that use the trade/crew. This page replaces the table that used to be present in the Claim Defaults. All data is read-only for a Version.

• Categories - A list of all categories/subcategories used to group the items on the Items page. All data is read-only.

• Items - Although all data on this page is read-only, you can still view items and their pricing data (the nationally-averaged base pricing without any regional adjustment). Because of the sheer number of records in this table (too many to effectively load into the table at once) you must filter the table using the Filter Bar at the top (select at least one category or trade or enter an item keyword then click Filter). View all fields for a single record (including ones that don't appear in the table) by clicking the record to show the Record Edit Panel. Configure the table layout to show greater or fewer columns and set the order using the View options command. See the Items Page section below for more details.

• Materials Assumptions, Labor Assumptions, Equipment Assumptions - These pages show the assumptions behind the unit prices in the Items table (the same assumptions that are available in mobile claims). Use the Filter Bar to select one or more categories to view the assumptions for. All data is read-only.

A Region contains the following pages:

• Properties - In addition to the Status (set to "Inactive" to prevent new claims from being associated with it or any of it's child objects) you can also edit the Region's modification factors (adjustments to the national average base pricing contained in the parent Version) and the postal/zip code range associated with this region. The postal/zip code range is used to automatically associate a new claim with the Region by specifying the range that matches the postal/zip code of the loss address. Change the default range to map the Region to a different geographic area.

• Trades - Shows all the trades/crews used by items on the Items page to calculate the labor unit price, and for each, whether O&P or tax should be applied to line items that use the trade/crew. This page replaces the table that used to be present in the Claim Defaults. All data is read-only for a Region.

• Categories - A list of all categories/subcategories used to group the items on the Items page. All data is read-only.

• Items - Although all data on this page is read-only, you can still view items and their pricing data (the base pricing of the parent Version adjusted for the geographic location by the regional modification factors). Because of the sheer number of records in this table (too many to effectively load into the table at once) you must filter the table using the Filter Bar at the top (select at least one category or trade or enter an item keyword then click Filter). View all fields for a single record (including ones that don't appear in the table) by clicking the record to show the Record Edit Panel. Configure the table layout to show greater or fewer columns and set the order using the View options command. See the Items Page section below for more details.

• Materials Assumptions, Labor Assumptions, Equipment Assumptions - These pages show the assumptions behind the unit prices in the Items table (the same assumptions that are available in mobile claims). Use the Filter Bar to select one or more categories to view the assumptions for. All data is read-only.

A Customization contains the following pages:

• Properties - In addition to the Status (set to "Inactive" to prevent new claims from being associated with it or any of it's child objects) you can also enter regional modification factors, which will apply the factors to the national average base prices in the Version from which the Customization stems (the Customization may be the child or grand-child of the Version). If the parent object is a Region, any modified factors override the corresponding factors inherited from the region. A postal/zip code range can also be entered to automatically associate the Customization with a claim based on it's postal/zip code. Be careful to avoid conflicts—using the same range as already used for a Region. 

• Permissions - If the Customization was created by your company (and you have the appropriate permissions to do so) you can share the Customization with other companies or branch offices. Select the company from the list of either your company's peers, your company's branch offices or all registered Symbility companies and click Share with selected companies. Once shared, click the company record to choose what this company can do (create claims with the Customization, include it in variance reports, view the data, edit the data, etc.) Note that this page deals only with the permissions of external companies with whom you elect to share your customized data with—it doesn't deal with permissions of users within your company regarding the Database Manager module. For an explanation of these permissions, see the section below.

• Trades - Shows all the trades/crews used by item on the Items page to calculate the labor unit price, and for each, whether O&P or tax should be applied to line items that use the trade/crew. All data is editable except for the Trade Rate, which is a calculation. You can also add any number of new trades.

• Categories - A list of all categories/subcategories used to group the items on the Items page. Each category/subcategory can also have category modification factors specified for it. These factors provide an easy way to adjust the appropriate unit price component of all items in the category/subcategory, which is handy for a temporary and localized increase or decrease in prices of a particular material (ex. if lumber prices go up, you can apply a materials factor for all finish carpentry and rough carpentry categories).

• Items - Because of the sheer number of records in this table (too many to effectively load into the table at once) you must filter the table using the Filter Bar at the top (select at least one category or trade or enter an item keyword then click Filter). Click any record to edit any properties of it in the Record Edit Panel. Configure the table layout to show greater or fewer columns and set the order using the View options command. See the Items Page section below for more details.

 

Variance report - This allows you to easily see the differences between any two database objects. See description below.

Customize... - When you want to modify (customize) an existing Version or Region, select the Version or Region then use this command. After entering a name, a new Customization object will be created as a child of the Version or Region. When initially viewed, the customization will show the same data as the parent Version or Region—as a "modification layer" the Customization will be "empty". Note that you can create a new Customization as a child of an existing Customization (and you can add Customizations any number of levels deep). This would effectively create multiple "modification layers" on top of one another, with each child Customization overriding the corresponding data in the level above. New customizations are by default inactive until you manually set them as active (Properties page).

Copy Customization from... - This tool will create new Customizations based on the data in specified existing Versions, Regions or Customizations. The new Customization(s) will become children of the object selected at the time you use the command (i.e. an existing Version, Region or Customization) and will maintain the same hierarchical order relative to one another. You are prompted to select the object(s) that you wish to use as the basis for the new Customization(s), from a list of all available database objects. The resulting Customization(s) contain only data that is different relative to the parent Version/Region/Customization (remember as a "modification layer" a Customization is generally empty, containing only data that has been changed).

Print... - A straightforward tool that lets you print the Trades table, Categories table or Items table of the currently selected object. For the Items table you have the choice of printing the entire set of records or only those that are currently filtered. In both cases, the current column layout is used. The output format can be either PDF (use this if you actually want a hardcopy—print from the Acrobat Reader) or CSV (Comma-Separated Value—use to import into Excel).

 

 

Here are some examples of typical scenarios that may relate to how you would use the Database Manager.

 

"I want to review new updates of the Symbility Database and approve them before new claims are created with them."

Reviewing new pricing updates that are released is easy now with the Database Manager—you can inspect every detail in every table and use the Variance Report feature (see below) to pinpoint exactly what's different. The default pricing used for new claims is controlled by the Pricing Database Section of your company's Claim Defaults. Until an Administrator updates the Claim defaults by selecting an object from the new database Version, all new claims will continue to be associated with a Region or Customization from the old version. Note that it is still possible for a user manually creating a new claim to select an object from the new Version—if, as an Administrator you don't want this to happen, set the "status" property of the Version (and therefore all Regions within it) to "inactive" until the new pricing has been reviewed and approved.

 

"I want to change the base pricing in order to alter the pricing for all regions at once."

Because all Regions contain pricing that is adjusted based on the pricing in the parent Version, customizing a Version will affect all child Regions. First, create a new Customization for the Version by selecting it in the Database Explorer and clicking Customize... After naming the new Customization you can make any pricing changes necessary to the trades, category modification factors or items. Then, create new Customizations under the Customization you just created (based on the Version) by using the Copy Customizations from... tool, and selecting the Regions in which you process claims. You will end up with a new Customization (based on the Version) and several new Customization children (based on Regions of that Version)—all these can be re-used later by copying them to a future database Version. Finally, set the status of each of the original objects to "inactive" and set the status of the newly created Customizations which will substitute for them to "active".

 

"I want to change some of the pricing in the regions in which we process claims, and carry forward those changes each time there's a new pricing update."

If you find the regional modification factors that Craftsman provides are continually in need of adjustment to improve pricing accuracy, make the necessary changes to the regional modification factors of all Regions that need adjustment. For the next pricing database Version that is released, copy the regions from the old Version as new Customization children of the new Version. Set the status of the Regions that are being replaced by the Customizations with the proper factors to "inactive" and set the Customizations to "active".

 

 

To modify table records on pages which can be modified (ex. Customizations), click the record to show the Record Edit Panel (REP). This is a floating dialog box (you can move it around the screen by dragging the title bar) containing all the fields (columns) in the table, and you use it to edit the data in those fields.

• The REP is dived into two sections. The top half ("Current Properties") shows the current values of each field. Make changes to the data in these fields. Any data that has been changed is colored blue.

• The bottom half ("Original Properties") contains the same fields but shows the original values (before any data was changed). This half is closed by default; click the [+] symbol to expand it.

• You can continue to interact with the table on the page while the REP is open. For example, click another record in the table to populate the REP with its data, or scroll to other pages of the table with the table's page controls at the bottom of it.

• Use the Previous and Next buttons in the title bar to move between different fields.

  The following keyboard shortcuts are available when the Record Edit Panel is open:  Key    Function ENTER è Accept ESC è Close Ctrl+Del è Delete record Up è Previous record Down è Next record Tab/Shift Tab è Next/previous field PgUp è Previous page PgDn è Next Page Ctrl+Home è First record in table Ctrl+End è Last record in table

• Confirm the changes to the current record and close the dialog box with the Accept button (changes are automatically accepted when you select a different record).

• Delete the current record using the Delete button.

• Revert all data in the current record to the original values (those displayed in the bottom half of the REP) using the Reset button.

In addition to modifying records, you can add new records to the Trades, Categories and Items pages with the appropriate command in the Commands Panel and the Tools section of the REP (see below).

Colors are used to indicate changes made to records in tables as follows:

• Black - data has not been modified (this value is not stored in the Customization; you are really seeing the data in the parent Version or Region).

• Blue - data in the field/column has been modified (this value is stored in the Customization).

• Grey+italic - this record has been deleted (it exists in the parent Version/Region, but does not exist in the customization).

• - this record has been added in the Customization (it doesn't exist in the parent Version/Region)

• Dark blue - this financial figure has been modified by category modification factors.

 

The Items page is unique among all tables because it is is very large (close to 10,000 records) and is the table that one who is customizing a pricing database will likely spend most of their time.

 

The Symbility database is a relational database shown in a flat-file format in the Database Manager. What this means is that because the item data is hierarchical (items have child actions, which have child grades) when viewed you see a lot of repetition (ex. a "replace" action is repeated in each record (row) where there is a different grade for the action). Only the first occurrence of a value is shown in black, all further occurrences for the same item/action/grade are shown in grey. This is also a reminder that if a value that is repeated within the same item or action is changed, the repeated value for all related records will also change. For example in the illustration below the last four records detail the four grades available for the "replace" action, which is the third action available for the item "Architrave, window, interior".  Changing the trade for the "Replace" action from "Carpenter" to "Carpenter Crew" would affect all of the last four records.

 

An example item when viewed in the mobile claims Item Pane looks like this:

The same item viewed in the Database Manager looks like this:

 

And when added to the estimate, each of these records creates the following line items:

We refer to the full description including the item description, action and grade that appears on an estimate as a "line item", but use "item" interchangeably with "item description" (just a component of a "line item").

• Filters: because of the sheer size of the Items table, you must use the Filter Bar at the top of the screen to filter the table by one or more categories and/or trades in order to see any records in the table. You can additionally filter by item description and action—for the item description enter any keyword or portion of a word.

• Columns: Sort the table by any column by clicking the column header (click again to reverse the order). Drag the column separator to adjust the column width. Select which columns to show in the table from the 31 available columns using the View Options... u Columns... command.

• High resolution monitors: You can take advantage of higher video resolutions by showing more records per page (and consequently, fewer pages to scroll through) with the View Options... u Records per page... command.

• Viewing truncated information: Adjusting column widths does not adjust the amount of space available for item descriptions and comments (when the table is grouped by item). To see the full text in an item description or comment that is truncated, just hover the mouse pointer over it.

• Grouping by item: when grouped by item (View Options... u Group by item command) the item description is listed just once for every action and grade the item contains, and item descriptions and comments do not appear in their own columns. You can turn this option off if desired.

Here are details of each column of the Items table (grouped by the tab the fields appear on in the Record Edit Panel)

 

Description

• Category icon - this cannot be changed; it is linked to the category the item is in.

• Category - this value cannot be changed unless the item has been added by the user. Items that you add can be placed in any category from the Categories table (select from a drop down list).

• Item Description - you can enter any text you want as long as the same description doesn't already exist elsewhere in the table.

• Action - you can either select from common actions in the drop down list, or enter a custom action.

• Grade - if you are editing a standard item from the Symbility database, the grade field is available only if the action is "Replace". If you are entering a new item, you can enter a grade for any action.

• Comment - enter any text you want into the freeform text field.

Pricing

• Materials - the materials price per unit.

• Labor - the labor price per unit. Changing the value in this field automatically recalculates the Hours field. Labor unit price = Hours x Trade rate.

• Hours - the amount of time to perform the action (Description tab) per unit shown in the "per" field. If per value is LF, SF, SY or SQ, the number of units that can be replaced/removed/etc. (the action) in one hour is shown beside the Hours figure, which is often more meaningful. Changing the value in this field automatically recalculates the Labor field. Hours = Labor unit price  / Trade rate.

• Equipment - the equipment price per unit.

• Market Conditions - a built-in per-unit price component for an allowance for "market conditions" (recall that "market conditions" refers to a temporary price adjustment sometimes required to account for temporary circumstances affecting the line item's unit price). Generally you should not need to store a market conditions component—it is more often used while adding items to an estimate in mobile claims. The Tools section of the Items page REP (see below) contains an option to automatically record changes to the unit price as market conditions (or not).

• Unit Price - although this field shows the calculated unit price (sum of all four unit price components), you can enter a new value here which will either adjust each component proportionally or enter any difference between the old and new unit price into the Market Conditions field.

• Per - the two-character unit of measurement for the item. Choose from the available values in the drop down list. The six most common "per" values are at the top of the list; the rest are alphabetic.

• Trade - the trade used to calculate the unit Labor price for the line item. The dropdown contains the list of all available trades/crews from the Trades table. The trade rate for the selected trade is shown below the trade. Trade rate = Labor unit price  / Hours.

Properties

• Ignore Casing - when an item is attached to an interior wall, mobile claims will automatically account for the square footage consumed by the casing around doors, windows and openings (as a step towards reducing severity leakage). However, certain items—those that are applied to walls under the casing (ex. drywall, insulation) should ignore the casing, and that is what this option is for.

• Include Subtractions - this option controls whether the surface area/linear footage missing because of subtractions (doors/windows/openings/blocks) is factored into the calculated surface area when an item is attached to a surface. It is similar to the "ignore casing" option (above) except the value when checked is the opposite (i.e. it will not ignore the missing area when checked). When attached to a surface, the line item will adopt the value set here as a default, but it can be altered in mobile claims if needed.

• Room Properties Filter - Using the values in this field, mobile claims will help to isolate only the items appropriate for the room, making them much quicker and easier to find. When a room or wall is selected on a floorplan, the Item Pane will suppress the display of any items that have one or more of these filters unless the filter matches the properties of the room. For example, the item "Window, awning, vinyl" has the filter "Window - awning" set for it. When attaching this item to a room that contains only sliding windows, the item is shown at the bottom of the list of items and colored grey. When added to a room that contains at least one vinyl awning window, the item will appear at the top of the list in easier-to-read black. Check one (or multiple) filters that should apply to the item from the drop down list:

  • Window filters: suppresses the item if the selected room/wall doesn't contain at least one window of this type.

  • Door filters: suppresses the item if the selected room/wall doesn't contain at least one door of this type.

  • Opening filters: suppresses the item if the selected room/wall doesn't contain at least one opening of this shape.

  • Ceiling height: employed by some interior wall framing items in the Symbility database. The item is suppressed if the selected room's ceiling height (formatted as F' I", where F is feet and I is inches) is not found within the item description.

  • Roof slope: employed by some roof framing items in the Symbility database. The item is suppressed if the selected roof's slope (formatted as Ri/Ru, where Ri is the rise and Ru is the run) is not found within the item description.

  • Roof shape: employed by some roof framing items in the Symbility database. The item is suppressed if the selected roof's shape (ex. gable) is not found within the item description.

• Window Materials Filter - Similar to the Room Properties filter, using the values in this field mobile claims will help to isolate only the window items appropriate for the room, making them much quicker and easier to find. For example, if a room contains vinyl windows (as defined in the wall editor when setting the properties of the windows), then window items that have this field set to "Aluminum" or "Wood" will be suppressed in the item pane (grey text and at the bottom of non-suppressed items).

• Associated minimum charge - the automatic minimum change adjustment feature (which will optionally add an adjustment to an estimate's Totals page when a minimum charge is not met or exceeded with items in the estimate) uses the minimum charge item in this field to determine how to calculate the adjustment. All items with the same associated minimum charge item are summed, and if the total is less than the unit price of the associated minimum charge, the difference is added on the total page as an adjustment.

• Is Minimum Charge - this option determines whether the item is a "minimum charge" item and if it can be set as the associated minimum charge for other items.

• Purchase Unit of Measure - the Summary page of an estimate lists total quantities of all materials involved in the estimate, both in terms of how they are estimated (ex. "LF", "SY") and how they would be purchased from a supplier (ex. "piece" for molding, "gallon" for paint")—this value controls the latter.

• Purchase unit conversion factor - a number representing the conversion rate between the "per" value and the Purchase Unit of Measure. For example, for trim, which is sold in 8-foot long pieces, the per value is "LF", the purchase unit of measure is "Piece" and the conversion factor is 0.125 (1/8). For painting walls with one coat, the conversion factor is 205 (205SF = 1 gallon).

Defaults

• Default Surfaces - determines the surfaces of the room/roof/exterior that the item will be applied to if the item is dropped into the middle of the room/roof/exterior and not on a specific dropspot.

• Waste applicable - determines if waste can be applied to the item.

• Default waste - specifies that waste that will be applied to the item by default (waste will either increase the unit materials price or the quantity, depending on the option set it mobile claims).

• Apply Tax1/Tax2 - determines whether Tax1/Tax2 will be applied to the item by default. Tax1 and Tax 2 are filled in with the names of the taxes set up in the claim's originator's Claim Defaults.

• Apply O&P - determines whether O&P will be applied to the item by default.

• Default depreciation calculation - the method used to calculate depreciation by default. Unless set to "None", depreciation will be automatically calculated for the item by default.

• Default depreciation % - if the default depreciation method is "Percentage per year", this value sets the yearly percentage used in the calculation. When adding the item to an estimate, the "number of years" value will automatically default to the structure's age (established on the claim's Loss Summary page) but it can be changed.

• Average Life Expectancy (years) - if the default depreciation method is "Percentage" this value becomes the denominator for the percentage calculation (the numerator is the number of years to depreciate the item, which again defaults to the age of the structure).

 

The Record Edit Panel for the Items table has a third section: "Tools". It contains some handy tools for working with records in this table. Copy and paste functions are available to easily duplicate values and avoid repetition:

1. Select a record.

2. With the REP open and the Tools section visible, select one or more fields from the Copy dropdown list. This determines what data will be copied. Click "Copy".

3. To paste the data to another single record, select the destination record and click "Paste".

4. To paste the copied data to several contiguous records that all share the same category/trade/item description keyword/action, filter the table such that all target items are remaining in the table. Click "Mark all rows" (marked rows are outlined in yellow). Click "Paste to marked rows".

5. To paste the copied data to several non-contiguous records, select each record and click "Mark row" (marked rows are outlined in yellow). When all target rows are marked, click "Paste to marked rows".

Two further tools are available to:

• add a new action to the selected item.

• add a new grade to the selected action.

The Options tab in the Tools section allows specifying your preference for how unit price changes are handled.

 

 

This is a very handy tool that automates the analysis of any and all differences between any two database objects. Typical ways you may want to use this tool include:

• Comparing different Versions - to see how pricing has changed over time.

• Comparing different Regions - to see how pricing differs across geographic locations.

• Comparing a Customization with its source (parent) object - to see exactly what changes were made in the Customization.

Clicking the Variance Report... command adds a new page tab after the last page of the current database object. The variance report page is initially empty, awaiting your choice of what to compare. The current database object provides the baseline data. Click the "make a selection" link to select a comparison database object—the data that the baseline data will be compared to. After choosing the comparison object the variance report is built and the page is populated with three sub-pages (pages tabs at the top): Trades, Categories and Items. On each sub-page the same columns that are present on the regular Trades, Categories and Items pages are present here. On the Items sub-page, you will need to filter the table before records will be shown.

Within each column is the baseline data value (black) and the comparison data value (orange) if it is different. Only records that are different in some way are shown in the variance report. Two additional columns showing the total dollar difference and the percentage difference between the two database objects appear at the far right.

To create a new variance report that compares the baseline data against a different database object, just click the link for the current comparison database object at the top of the screen and select a different object to replace it with.

 

 

When new claims are created (whether it is automated using the Symbility API or manually) the database object associated with the new claim in most cases is the Region or Customization that matches the postal/zip code of the loss address. If you want to change the default database object and select an alternate one, just click the link that shows the current associated pricing database, in the pricing section of the Loss Summary page. You will see the same Database Explorer that you see in the Database Manager.

In addition, you may want to override the regional modification factors and/or category modification factors for this claim (only). Click the appropriate link(s).

 

 

When creating a temporary claim in mobile claims, you have the option to specify any pricing database object that you have access to in Symbility.NET. If the database object has not been downloaded already (from being associated with another claim you worked on) then you can download it to your device (as long as you are connected to the Internet).

Remember that regardless of what pricing object you use to create the estimates in the temporary claim, when merged into the actual claim file the pricing will adapt to the parameters embedded in the actual claim file.

 

 

Existing estimates in a claim file can now be easily re-priced using a different pricing than was originally specified when the claim was created. This is particularly useful if a new version of the pricing database is released after a claim was created but before it was closed—the claim can be re-priced using the current, up-to-date prices.

In the Pricing section on the Loss Summary page, click the link showing the currently associated database object. After selecting a different one (you can download a different one if using mobile claims—see above), the pricing in all estimates in the claim file will be automatically adjusted to the selected database object. A journal entry will be created noting the re-pricing.

Only users in the claim's originator company can re-price a claim.

 

 

Permissions for accessing the various tools and views in the Database Manager are governed by the User Group to which each user belongs. Here's what you can do based on what type of user you are:

Administrator - create new claims with any database object, create variance reports, view any database object, edit any database object, create new Customizations.

Power User - create new claims with any database object, create variance reports, view any database object, edit any database object, create new Customizations.

Standard - create new claims with any database object, create variance reports, view any database object, create new Customizations.

Junior - create new claims with any database object, view any database object

Restricted, Technical Admin. - Database Manager not accessible