Warranty claim software for Reynolds and Reynolds dealerships
Quick answer: Forge is warranty claim software for dealerships running Reynolds and Reynolds ERA. It reads ERA repair orders, including the numbered job structure that separates them from a CDK print, and drafts claims against the rules of the OEM portal your store files through. Upload is the whole integration.
Warranty software is usually built against whatever repair order the vendor saw first, and in this market that is almost always CDK. ERA prints the same information in a different shape, which is exactly the kind of difference that produces a tool demoing well and then reading your documents badly.
What warranty work runs into on Reynolds and Reynolds
What we see on repair orders Forge reads out of Reynolds and Reynolds stores.
Numbered jobs where the rest of the market assumes letters
An ERA repair order numbers its jobs, where a CDK print letters its lines and hangs a mileage-anchored correction off each one. Both are perfectly readable to a warranty administrator and completely different to software. A parser built for one and pointed at the other does not fail loudly; it mis-associates labor, parts, and story across jobs, and the claim it drafts looks plausible.
Being the second DMS in every vendor's roadmap
Most warranty tools support CDK first and get to Reynolds later, which shows up as a support answer rather than an error message: the feature exists, it was just never tuned against your documents. A store's own repair orders are the only real test of that, which is why an evaluation should start by putting your actual ERA prints through the tool rather than by reading a compatibility list.
An invoice form that has to be recognised before it is read
ERA identifies its invoice form on the document itself. That is useful and it is also a dependency: anything reading a mixed pile of repair orders has to know which system printed each one before it decides how to read it. A group with rooftops on different systems hits this on the first day of any group-wide rollout.
The OEM portal is still where the money is decided
The DMS holds what was done to the vehicle. Whether the manufacturer pays for it is settled against published labor times, coverage windows, campaign rules, and a narrative the OEM will accept. None of that lives in ERA, which is why moving between systems changes how the repair order is read and changes nothing about the work that comes after it.
How Forge works alongside Reynolds and Reynolds
No wiring project, and nothing written back into the DMS.
- 01
Print the repair order you already print
ERA-IGNITE separates warranty, customer-pay, and internal repair orders at the billing stage, so the document you need already exists. Drop it into Upload. There is no certified interface to request and no Reynolds-side approval to wait on — the things that usually stand between a Reynolds store and a new tool.
- 02
Forge reads it as an ERA document
The numbered job structure is read as ERA lays it out, rather than through the lettered-line assumptions a CDK-shaped parser carries. Labor, parts, technician story, and punch data stay attached to the job they came from.
- 03
Forge drafts the claim against the OEM's rules
Published labor times are looked up, coverage and open campaigns are checked, the narrative is written to what the manufacturer will accept, and the allowances the repair supports are surfaced. This part of the workflow is identical whichever system printed the document.
- 04
After this point, nothing is Reynolds-specific
The claim goes to the same portal, is reviewed the same way, and stays owned by the same people it would be at any other store. Clean claims file or hold for your administrator's approval, whichever your store sets, and nothing is written back into ERA. Your DMS decided how the document had to be read; it decides nothing about what happens after.
Reynolds and Reynolds repair orders at a glance
How an ERA repair order differs from the CDK print most warranty tools were built against.
| On the document | ERA | CDK |
|---|---|---|
| Job identifier | Numbered jobs. | Lettered lines, A, B, C, in print order. |
| Concern and correction | Carried on the numbered job. | Split inside one narrative block by the mileage reading, which doubles as the separator. |
| Page overflow | Structure repeats with the job number. | A wrapped correction continues with no mileage prefix, directly above the next line's header. |
| Form identification | The invoice form is named on the document itself. | Identified by layout rather than by a form token. |
| What it means for a parser | Job association is explicit and reliable once the layout is recognised. | Line association depends on getting the mileage anchor and the page breaks right. |
Reynolds and Reynolds terms
The vocabulary a warranty administrator on Reynolds and Reynolds works in.
- ERA
- Reynolds' long-running platform, current generation branded ERA-IGNITE. Reynolds also sells POWER; both appear as separate systems on its certified-interface list.
- Job
- ERA's unit of work on a repair order: one concern, its correction, and the labor and parts attached to it.
- Invoice form
- The named print form an ERA repair order is produced on, identified on the document itself.
- RCI
- Reynolds Certified Interface, the sanctioned route for third-party data access. Certification is per platform: Reynolds' public list shows the same product certified separately against ERA and POWER. Forge requires neither.
- Causal part
- The part that caused the failure. The manufacturer adjudicates against it, so it has to stay attached to the right job.
- System of record
- The system that owns the truth about the repair. On a Reynolds store that is ERA, and Forge does not change it.
Frequently Asked Questions
- What is warranty claim software for Reynolds and Reynolds dealerships?
- Warranty claim software for a Reynolds store reads ERA repair orders and prepares warranty claims for the OEM portal the store files through. Forge reads the numbered job structure ERA prints, drafts the claim against the manufacturer's rules, and either submits it or holds it for your administrator. Upload is the whole integration.
- Does Forge integrate with Reynolds and Reynolds?
- Forge works with Reynolds stores today through upload, which needs no integration, no certified interface, and no IT project. Forge does not currently pull repair orders out of ERA automatically, and does not write claims or payments back into it. If a vendor tells you a deep two-way Reynolds connection is required before you can start, ask what it buys you that reading the repair order does not.
- Do we need RCI or a certified interface before we can start?
- No. A certified interface is how a vendor gets a data connection into a Reynolds system, and Forge does not need one, because it reads the repair order rather than the database. Note what that dependency actually looks like on Reynolds' own published list: certification is per platform, so a vendor lists separately against ERA and POWER and can be certified on one while still pre-certified on the other. None of that is on your critical path here.
- We run POWER rather than ERA. Does this page apply to us?
- The repair-order detail on this page is drawn from ERA documents, so treat that part as ERA-specific until we have read yours. Everything after intake is identical — the published labor times, the coverage rules, the narrative an adjudicator accepts, and the fact that Forge needs no certified interface into either platform. Send us a POWER repair order and we will tell you exactly what reads cleanly rather than guessing on your behalf.
- Does Forge change anything in ERA?
- No. Forge reads repair orders and prepares claims for the OEM portal. It does not reprice a job, close a repair order, or post to a schedule, so nothing it does can move a figure your accounting office is reconciling. ERA stays the system of record, which is also why there is nothing to wire and nothing to unwind if you stop.
- Is an ERA repair order different from a CDK one?
- Structurally, yes. ERA numbers its jobs, where a CDK print letters its lines and separates concern from correction using the mileage reading inside the narrative. The same information is on both documents in a different shape, which is why a tool tuned only against CDK prints can mis-associate labor, parts, and story on an ERA repair order without ever reporting an error.
- Who approves a claim before it reaches the manufacturer?
- Whoever you want to. Forge can file a claim as soon as it passes the pre-submission checks, or hold every one for your warranty administrator to approve first, and your store sets which. Claim ownership does not leave the building either way. What changes is that your administrator spends the time on the exceptions Forge flags rather than on retyping an ERA repair order into a portal.
- Forge has fewer Reynolds stores than CDK stores. Should that worry us?
- It is worth asking about, so here is the honest shape of it. The claim work — published labor times, coverage, campaign rules, the narrative an adjudicator accepts — is the manufacturer's and is identical whichever system printed the document. What is genuinely DMS-specific is reading the repair order, and ERA's layout is already handled. Ask us to run a sample of your own ERA prints before you commit to anything; that is the test that actually settles it.
Sources
What this page says about Reynolds and Reynolds itself, as opposed to what we see on repair orders, is cited rather than asserted. Check it.
Other systems
Contact
Let's get you set up.
Tell us about your dealership and your current warranty workflow. We'll reach out within one business day to schedule a personalized walkthrough.