Z_ealot

sorry if this may be common knowledge to alot of people, but i havent been through dealing with an insurance company before. As some of you may know back at the end of october i had some idiot rear end me while i was sittiing at a stoplight, after a few weeks the other guys insurance company finally coughed up a check for me for the damages in the amount that their adjuster believed it would take to get my car back to normal. My question is, does anybody know what im supposed to do with the check they sent me? do i just give it over to whatever body shop i feel will do the best job and then have them deal with the insurance company if they find anything else wrong, or do i just take my Z into the body shop and let them complete the work and the hand the check over to them and have them deal with the insurance company for any amount over what the actual check is for? any and all help is appreciated and sorry for the lack of knowledge, as i said before i have very little experience with this sort of stuff lol.