One shared basis
Parts and times come from standardised data, so an assessment is argued on scope — what actually needs repair — rather than on where each side's numbers came from.
Guide
Audatex in South Africa explained for panel shops.
If you repair for insurers in South Africa, you will meet Audatex. Here is what it does, why the industry runs assessments through it, and where PanelDesk fits in your shop alongside it.
PanelDesk is an independent product and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to Audatex or Solera. Audatex, AudaNet, Qapter, and Solera are marks of their respective owners. This guide reflects publicly available information, checked August 2026. If anything here is out of date, tell us and we will correct it.
The short version
What is Audatex?
Audatex is a vehicle damage estimating and claims platform from Solera, used widely across the South African short-term insurance industry. Its job is quantum: turning damage into a standardised assessment — parts, times, and rates — that a repairer, an assessor, and an insurer can all read the same way.
You will also hear about Qapter — Solera's current estimating product in the Audatex family — as the industry moves onto it. For your workflow, both names mean the same thing: the platform the assessment side of an insurer job runs on.
Who makes it
Solera, the global claims technology group behind the Audatex and Qapter products.
What it produces
Standardised damage assessments — parts, times, and rates — every side of the claim reads the same way.
How work moves
Assessments and authorisations flow digitally between the shop and the insurer or its claims network.
Approved repairers
Shops doing insurer network work are commonly accredited as Audatex-approved repairers.
Why it is everywhere
Why insurers run on it
A digital paper trail
Assessments, authorisations, and adjustments move between the shop and the insurer or its claims network electronically, with a record of what was approved and when.
The network effect
Because insurers and assessors widely work on it, being able to prepare and submit an Audatex assessment is commonly part of taking insurer-authorised work at all.
In practice
What this means for your shop
- If you take insurer or claims-network work, expect the assessment side of the job to run through Audatex, and expect approval requirements from the networks you join — “Audatex-approved” appears as a listed accreditation for South African panel shops.
- If you do private and cash work, none of this is required. You quote the customer directly and the insurer machinery never enters the job.
- Either way, the assessment is one slice of the job. The vehicle still needs a job card, parts, progress tracking, final costing, an invoice, and a customer kept in the loop — and that part is not what Audatex is for.
The other half of the job
Audatex quantifies the claim. PanelDesk runs the repair.
Once the assessment is authorised, the actual work still has to move through your workshop. That is the job PanelDesk does.
- Capture the authorised scope on a job card, with the customer and vehicle records linked.
- Run the floor: statuses, line items, extras, parts orders, photos, and target dates on every repair.
- Reconcile the money in final costing, with insurer and customer splits and excess handling.
- Close out with the invoice, clearance paperwork, and a full audit trail on the job.
See how the money side comes together on the final costing page, including insurer and customer splits and excess handling.
Audatex integration
AvailableThe direct link between PanelDesk and Audatex is live. Connect your Audatex account, view your assessments inside PanelDesk, and import an assessment straight into a quote — then run the job card, final costing, invoice, and customer side in the same system. It is an optional add-on; talk to us about enabling it for your shop.
Audatex FAQ
Audatex and PanelDesk FAQs
The questions South African panel shops ask most often about Audatex and where PanelDesk fits.
Audatex is a vehicle damage estimating and claims platform from Solera. In South Africa it is used to prepare standardised damage assessments and to move those assessments, authorisations, and adjustments between panel shops, assessors, and insurers or their claims networks.
It depends on the work you take. Insurer and claims-network work commonly runs on Audatex assessments, and networks may require approved-repairer status. Private and cash work needs none of that — you quote the customer directly. PanelDesk runs the workshop side of the job in both cases.
Yes. PanelDesk has a live Audatex integration: connect your Audatex account, view your assessments inside PanelDesk, and import an assessment straight into a PanelDesk quote. From there the job runs as normal — job card, final costing, invoicing, and customer communication in one system. It is an optional add-on, so talk to us about enabling it for your shop.
No, and it does not try to. Audatex quantifies the claim between you and the insurer. PanelDesk manages the repair itself — quotes, job cards, final costing, invoicing, and the customer — which is work that sits outside an estimating platform either way.
Qapter is Solera's current estimating product in the Audatex family, adding AI-assisted damage capture to the same assessment job. South African shops may see either name depending on the insurer and rollout — in day-to-day terms the role in your workflow is the same.
Yes. Final costing carries insurer and customer split amounts and excess handling, jobs keep supporting documents and photos attached, and invoices and clearance paperwork generate from the same record — the administration that surrounds the assessment, whichever platform the assessment itself runs on.
Run the workshop side in one system
Quotes, job cards, final costing with insurer splits, and invoicing — connected on one record per repair. Thirty days free, no credit card, nothing to switch off while you look.