Six warranty measures worth tracking

Days from repair completion to claim submission, looked at as a spread rather than an average. The average hides the tail, and the tail is where the losses are. This is the leading indicator for everything else on this list.

The share of claims approved without query, rework, or resubmission. More useful than a plain approval rate, because a claim that eventually paid after three rounds consumed more administrative time than it returned.

Denials sorted into documentation, coding, timing, and genuine ineligibility. This is the diagnostic measure: a concentration in any one category points directly at a specific process gap, whereas a headline denial rate tells you only that something is wrong.

Eligible repairs that never became claims. This is the hardest number to get and usually the largest, precisely because nothing in a dealer management system reports on work that was never done.

A rough version is enough to be useful: count warranty-eligible repair orders in a month, compare with claims submitted from that month, and look at the difference.

The share of delivered machines registered inside their window. A leading indicator with an eighteen-month lag on its consequences, which is exactly why nobody watches it and why it is worth watching.

How long money takes to arrive, not just whether it was approved. This is partly outside your control and partly a direct function of file quality — clean claims clear faster, and a lengthening time to credit is often the first visible sign that documentation standards have slipped.

A dealership that only files easy claims will show an excellent approval rate while leaving more money unfiled than a dealership with a mediocre rate and a habit of filing everything eligible.

Approval rate is only meaningful next to unfiled volume. On its own it rewards exactly the behaviour that costs the most.