The short version
- This post is for companies that run claims for contractors.
- The board tracks the file, not the roof. Your client is the contractor company.
- Same four hand-offs as every Bench board. No insurance column, because every file is already insurance.
- How deep a file goes (estimate, supplement, full admin) is set once per file.
Who this is for
Some of the companies we talk to don't install anything. They run claims for the contractors who do. A public adjuster, a supplement company, a third-party administrator. Their customer is the roofing company, not the homeowner, and their job is the paperwork and the fight with the carrier. If you're one of those, most CRM setups are built for the wrong business.
Track the file, not the house
A retail roofer's board is a list of houses. Your board is a list of files. Same street, same storm, different thing. When a claims company puts roofs on the board, it ends up inventing stages that don't match its own work, because a roof gets built and a file gets approved. So in Bench the thing on your board is the file. Your client is the contractor company. The homeowner's address is a detail on the file, not the file itself.
Same four hand-offs, your steps
Every board in Bench sits on four hand-offs: you win the work, you sell it, you do it, you get paid. Bench calls those acquire, sell, fulfill, and close, and they're the same for a claims company as for an installer. What changes is the steps inside them. You don't need an insurance column because every file you touch is already insurance. What you do need is a way to say how deep a file goes: an estimate only, a supplement, or full claim administration. Bench calls those paths. They're set once per file, and the right steps show up.
What stalls a file
A denial, a missing document, a carrier that goes quiet for two weeks. Those aren't stages either. They run alongside the file and hold it up, and Bench shows them on the file so you can see what's blocking it without adding a column for every one. Bench calls those tracks. Your people will mostly just see a file that says why it's waiting.
Questions
Is this another roofing CRM?
No. Bench runs a claims company's board around the file and the contractor client, on the same four hand-offs every other board uses.
Do I get an insurance stage?
No, and you don't need one. Every file you handle is insurance. What you set per file is how deep it goes: estimate, supplement, or full administration.
What about denials and carrier delays?
They show on the file as the thing holding it up. They aren't extra columns your people have to drag a file through.
Keep going
- Insurance jobs run on the same board. They just have more steps.
- Call it a job, a claim, or a deal. The board uses your word.
- A person runs the inspection. Agents run the paperwork.
Every Bench word above is on Glossary / FAQs, in plain English.