Patent ID: 8473365

Claim:
An estimating platform for preparing an estimate for a claim to repair an automobile, the estimating platform comprising: a computing device having a processor; an estimating software platform executing on the processor, wherein the estimating software platform presents an input screen to receive an initial estimate from a user to repair the automobile, wherein the initial estimate includes a list of parts needed to repair the automobile, wherein the estimation software platform provides the initial estimate to a part location system via a communication network to request quotes for recycled ones of the parts needed to repair the automobile, wherein the estimating platform receives one or more electronic quotations from the part location system in response to a request for quote (RFQ) automatically generated by the part location system based on the initial estimate and sent from the part location system to one or more supplier computers via the communication network, wherein the electronic quotations specify, for at least one of the parts from one or more of the supplier computers, a current quote price for a recycled part and a quote price for a comparative new part, wherein the estimating platform automatically performs a compliance check on the parts specified by the quotations, and wherein, upon determining that the parts specified by the quotations satisfy the compliance check, the estimating platform automatically incorporates the quotations received from the part location system into the initial estimate to form a final estimate.