XactContents Database ... 3
XactContents Database Download ... 3
Removing the XactContents Database ... 4
User Preferences ... 5
XactAnalysis Assignment Workflow ... 6
Manual Estimate Creation ... 7
Claim Info ... 8
Insured Info ... 8
Coverage/Loss ... 9
Parameters ... 11
Estimate Items ... 13
Grouping ... 13
XactContents Search ... 14
Quick Entry Search ... 16
Reference Search ... 20
External Item Source ... 21
Coverage Limits ... 23
Import from Excel ... 24
Contents CAT/SEL Review ... 29
Print Reports ... 31
Email Vendor Item Links ... 33
Payment Tracker ... 35
Assignment Upload ... 43
Real Time Training ... 43
Introduction
XactContents is Xactware’s elite content estimating tool available as a module that can be used inside
the Xactimate estimating software or as a completely online contents estimating package that requires
only Internet access. Both XactContents solutions provide the industry’s fastest and most accurate way
to estimate contents. This guide will give you the basic understanding of how to write an estimate with
XactContents. The intent is not to go into great detail, but rather to give an understanding of the steps
needed to write a contents estimate from start to finish.
XactContents Database
If you need access to a database of contents items while you are not connected to the internet, it will be
necessary to download the XactContents Database. If you are a desk adjuster or if you typically write
your contents estimates while connected to the internet, you can rely solely on the XactContents Online
Database and you will not need to download the database. The XactContents database is updated on a
weekly basis with a new database being released every Friday evening. XactContents Database Download
1. Connect to XactAnalysis to download the XactContents Database
2. Choose “Now” to begin the process of downloading the database.
3. When the connection is complete, click the “Done” button.
4. When the XactContents database is finished downloading, click the “OK” button to the XactContents
update complete message.
Removing the XactContents Database
1. You can remove the XactContents Database and rely solely on the XactContents Online Database if
you are always connected to the internet. To remove the XactContents Database, click “Remove
XactContents Database” from the “Services Menu.
2. A warning message will appear asking you to confirm your selection. Additionally, you will notice
that you can stop the request of the XactContents Database download when connecting to
XactAnalysis. Choose “Yes” to this message about using the XactContents Online Database
exclusively.
Note: You can enable the XactContents database to download again by clicking on System Settings
User Preferences
Before you begin creating your estimates, you should consider the defaults you want applied to each
estimate. This will save you time by not having to enter redundant information on a claim that is for the
most part static.
1. Click “User Preferences” from the Xactimate Control Center.
2. These are your personal user preferences, so you need to think about some of the defaults you want
to see on your estimates. Here are the most common user preference changes (refer to the image
on the next page):
A. Zip/Postal Code Matching: This will match a price list and sales tax jurisdiction based on the zip
code of the loss.
B. Price List Filter: You can change this to “Contents Only” if you only handle contents losses.
C. Depreciation Default: Here you can set the default for recoverable and non‐recoverable
depreciation, as well as the method of how you are depreciating your line items by default.
D. Depreciation Options: The most common change in this section is “Max Depreciation.”
E. Administrative Defaults: Here you can set your Company Header, Claim Rep, Reference,
Contractor, Opening Statement, and a Closing Statement.
a. Include Advance Payments – By selecting this, you will be including any advance
payments you make in the estimate totals and Payment Tracker.
b. Preserve Item Description When Replacing – By having this checked, when you replace
an item in your estimate, the original item description will be added to the line item as a
note.
c. Inspection Not Performed – By selecting this checkbox, you will not be required to enter
a date inspected on the loss. This is most useful for desk adjusters who do not
physically inspect a loss.
Note: All of these preferences can be changed within the estimate. The purpose here is to not have to set
them on a regular basis, but know that they can be changed within the estimate.
When you are finished setting your user preferences, click on the “Dashboard” subtab in the top left
of the window.
XactAnalysis Assignment Workflow
If your company utilizes XactAnalysis, you will need to download your claim electronically. When you
download an assignment, a “Read Only Price List” will automatically be sent with the assignment. All of
the insured, policy, and coverage information will download with the assignment. If your company does
not utilize XactAnalysis, skip to the manual estimate creation section.
1. To download the electronic assignment, you will need to connect to XactAnalysis. From the
XactAnalysis Communication module, click the “Connect” link.
2. The “XactAnalysis Connection” window will appear. This window will provide you with a status and
detail of your connection. When the connection has completed, click the “Done” button in the
lower‐right corner of the window.
3. You will now need to select the assignment, checkpoint price list, and then click the “Accept”
button.
4. Double‐click on the new assignment from the “Recent Projects / New Assignments” window. The
claim we are using in this example is called Tim Jordan.
Manual Estimate Creation
If you did not receive an assignment electronically, you can create an estimate manually by entering a
project name in the “Open Project” field.
1. Enter a unique name or ID for this project and then click the “Add New Project” button.
Claim Info
The first screen you will come to is the Claim Info, Insured Info subtab. Here you can see all the insured’s
information pertaining to this loss. Depending upon your company settings, this screen may look slightly
different and some of these fields may be read‐only with an assignment.
Insured
Info
If you created this estimate manually, you will need to enter the following information manually.
A. Info: If this claim was sent to you by XactAnalysis, you should not need to fill anything out in the Info
section. If this was an estimate you created manually, enter all of the pertinent information in the
Info section.
B. Dates: If this was an assignment sent to you by XactAnalysis, the Date of Loss, Date Received, and
Date Entered will be entered for you. If this estimate was created manually, the Date Entered will
be the only date entered automatically. All of these dates are required to complete the estimate.
Enter the date you contacted the insured, and the date you inspected the loss. If you are a desk
adjuster and did not inspect the loss, place a checkmark in the “Inspection Not Performed”
checkbox.
C. Personnel: The “Claim Rep” and the “Estimator” are the only two fields that are required by default.
You are free to enter additional information such as the Agency, Claimant, Mortgagee, Reference,
Contractor, Desk Adjuster, IA Desk Adjuster, and Loan Number. Some of this information may have
been sent down through XactAnalysis automatically.
Coverage/Loss
The Coverage/Loss screen is broken into two parts; Loss Information and Coverage. The Loss
information will contain the claim number, policy number, type of loss, cause of loss, CAT code, policy
dates, initial coverage dates, form numbers, policy type, and how you are applying the deductible. The
Coverage section will contain all the coverages based on how the policy was written. If this was an
assignment, the majority of the coverage information may be filled out for you. If you created the
estimate manually, you will need to manually enter this information. The main idea here is to
remember that you can add scheduled coverages as well as sublimits.
1. Click the “Coverage/Loss” subtab.
2. To create a schedule limit, click the “Add Coverage” link.
3. Click on the drop‐down menu for the new coverage and select “<F5> To Add.”
4. You can add additional coverages to your coverage smart list by clicking the “Add” button.
5. Enter a name for the scheduled limit. Make sure to set the type as “Contents” from the “Type”
drop‐down menu. If this is a fairly uncommon scheduled limit, you may want to save to the
estimate only by checking the “Save to Estimate Only” checkbox.
6. You can now enter a policy limit for this scheduled limit. You should take notice that the deductible
is grayed out if the deductible is applied across all coverages as opposed to coverage specific.
7. You can add a sublimit to any coverage by clicking the “Add Sublimit” link to the right of the
coverage.
8. From here you can add additional sublimits, remove sublimits, and enter a single and aggregate
amount for each sublimit.
Note: As you are writing your estimate, you will need to remember to attribute line items to their associated sublimits. Coverage amounts will automatically be tracked for you.
Parameters
The Parameters subtab controls how your estimate will be priced, depreciated, and how it will look
when printing reports. If you setup your user preferences, there will be very little that needs to be
changed in Parameters on a regular basis. The Parameters page is broken up into three main sections:
Pricing
Checkpoint Price List: When you downloaded your assignment, it was automatically accompanied
with a read‐only Checkpoint Price List. This Checkpoint Price List serves as a spot check against the
prices in the estimate. If you created the estimate manually, you have the option of selecting a
checkpoint price list or leaving this field empty.
Price List: Price Lists are updated monthly and available for download typically by the 5th of each
month. Price Lists contain structural pricing, General Quote contents items, and sales tax
jurisdictions for that particular area.
Tax Jurisdiction: Click on the Tax Jurisdiction smart list to see all of the jurisdictions associated with
that price list. If one or a limited number of jurisdictions appear, your jurisdiction list is being
filtered by the zip code. You can see all jurisdictions by clicking the “All Jurisdictions” option from
the zip code jurisdiction drop‐down menu.
Activity (Default): This mostly pertains to structural items. It allows an adjuster to set the default
activity on a line item for this estimate. For example, if this was a total loss and all items were going
to be replaced and removal wasn’t needed, the adjuster would select “Replace” from the select
radio button.
Repaired By (Default): This pertains to structural losses.
Labor Efficiency: This pertains to structural losses.
Add Ons
Overhead & Profit: Pertains to structural losses.
Salvage Retention /Advance Payments: By clicking the “Modify” button, you are able to enter a lump
sum salvage amount. By checking the “Include Advanced Payments” checkbox, advance payments
made will be included in the estimate totals.
Depreciation Options: Depreciate Removal, O&P, and Materials Only does not apply to contents
items. The “Max Depreciation” field is where you can specify a maximum amount of depreciation in
percentage form to be taken on any single line item. This will apply no matter which method you
are using to calculate depreciation.
Labor Burdens: This does not apply to contents items.
Sales Taxes: By clicking the sales taxes button, you can see all of the sales taxes applied to the
estimate. To see exceptions, click the “Exceptions” button and here you can see the exceptions
associated with this estimate.
Additional Charges: If there are any additional charges that you want to add to the estimate that will
Tags: By checking the “Show Tags” checkbox, you will see tags associated with each line item. To
add a default tag which will be added to each line item for this estimate, click on the “Default Tags”
button. Here you can tag each line item with any type of tag you want. Distribute Market Conditions: Does not apply to contents items
Preserve Item Description When Replacing: By having this checked, when you replace an item in your
estimate, the original item description will be added to the line item as a note.
Report Text
Company Header: The company header is your company’s information that will print at the top of
each report. This typically includes your company name, company information (i.e. physical
address, city, state, zip code, and web address. You can also include a company logo.
Opening Statement: The Opening Statement will print at the bottom of the coversheet. This
typically includes legal disclaimers and fraud language.
Closing Statement: This is very similar to the Opening Statement, the difference being it shows up on
the last page of the report.
Estimate Items
Estimate Items is where you will predominantly spend your time writing your estimate. There are a few
approaches to getting items into Estimate Items and then pricing, depreciating, and documenting the
source of each item. The most common method of adding line items is importing an inventory from the
Insured or other source. This is the most efficient workflow as you do not need to enter information
about the item to perform a search. XactContents will automatically perform background searches on
these items. Before we get started with importing an inventory, let’s discuss some of the basics first. Grouping
Depending on the size and complexity of the loss, it may make the most sense to group the items by
room or by category. To create a grouping element (element being a base for folder), perform the
following operations:
1. Click the “Add” button in the upper left portion of the grouping window.
2. In the New Group window, you can enter a Name of the room or category, Code, Default Coverage,
and then you can Append, Insert, or Attach. The “Continuous Add” checkbox keeps the new
grouping window open so you don’t have to click the “Add” button again.
3. After creating a room, you can Append, Insert, or Attach. Just keep in mind which grouping element
you have selected. For example, if you have a bedroom selected and you are trying to add a kitchen,
you probably want to append, to add the kitchen below the bedroom. If you click “Insert” you
would be placing the kitchen above the bedroom, and “Attach” would attach the kitchen to the
bedroom.
XactContents Search
There are multiple options and sources for finding and adding line items to your estimate. When you
click the down arrow on the search button, you will see Price List Searches, XactContents Searches,
Integrated Internet Searches, and Internet Searches. The “Prices List Searches” typically contain
structural items. Most users who handle contents only estimates uncheck the “Price List Searches.” The
“XactContents Searches” contains “General Quote Items” and “Vendor Items.”
General Quote items are especially helpful when you have very little information about a particular item.
For example, if the insured said they lost a pair of tennis shoes, you could find a generic pair of tennis
shoes in the General Quote database. The Vendor Items contain items that you can buy from a
particular retailer, as well as discontinued items that will link to a suggested like‐kind‐quality item. The Integrated Internet Searches expands your search options. However, you will need to be connected to
the internet to take advantage of them.
Internet Searches are clickable internet links which will take you directly to the website (in the External
Item Source) of the vendor you click. The vendor’s website will automatically be searched based on the
description of the line item.
Most contents adjusters perform their searches through Quick Entry. Make sure that you are in the
“Quick Entry” tab before continuing.
1. To begin a search, click the “Search XactContents” link.
2. Enter a description of the item. Notice that while you are entering a description for the item,
predictive text will be displayed if you are connected to the Internet. This should help you finish
your search terms faster by not having to enter the full search description. This will also help you
more easily find model numbers and correct spelling issues. Items that are displayed in yellow are
the vendor items. This should be considered a “shortcut” to the item without having to actually
perform a search. When hovering over one of the items in yellow, an image of that item will be
displayed. If you click on this item in yellow, the item will be automatically added to your estimate
and you can begin typing a new search term to find additional items.
3. To perform a search and view the results from multiple sources, enter a description of the item, and
then click the “Search” button.
4. When you click search, XactContents will begin searching through the vendor database as well as
any integrated internet searches you have checked (e.g. NexTag, Amazon, eBay Express, and
Google). To see results from all sources, click on the “XactContents Combined Search Results.”
5. This list contains the top fifteen search results from each search provider. Here you can see an
image of the item, description, price, brand, model number, source, vendor, click a vendor link, and
the date each item’s price was last updated. All of these column headers are sortable, which means
you can sort by price in this list to find the most accurate item or sort by vendor to find a common
vendor.
To add a line item from this list, double‐click on it and it will be added to the estimate.
6. After adding a line item, you will notice that it automatically has the source of where the insured can
find that line item added as a note.
You can add a note to your line item by pressing F9 on your keyboard or by right‐clicking on the line
item and selecting “Line Item Attachments.”
Quick Entry Search
A different way to find and add line items is through Quick Entry. Quick Entry was designed to allow you
to use your keyboard and keyboard shortcuts as much as possible. This allows you to easily add a
category/selector, description, quantity, age, and then perform background searches on the item. This
means that you can move on to the next item while XactContents is searching for the item in the
background.
1. Enter a category and selector for the item. You should note that this is not required, but if you
front. If you are unsure of the item’s category or selector, tab to the selector field and begin
typing a description of the line item. You can use your down arrow to select the correct item
and then press “Enter” or “Tab” on your keyboard to move on to the item’s description.
2. If you selected a general quote item in the first step you may not need to enter any additional
description. However, if this is an item you want to search the database for, begin typing a
description of the item. Just as you performed the search of the first item, you will notice that
predictive text is displayed. This will help speed up the process by not having to type the entire
description of an item. Additionally, the vendor items will show up in yellow allowing you to
quickly select that item opposed to actually searching for the item. If you select one of the
yellow items, it will be added to your estimate and you will be able to move on to the next item.
If you do not click on one of the yellow items, you can press “Tab” on your keyboard to put
focus on the search icon ( ).
3. To begin searching on the description you just entered, press the “Spacebar” on your keyboard.
4. While XactContents is searching for the item in the background, you can enter additional details
about the item:
A. Coverage: By default, contents items are associated with the contents coverage. However,
in some cases you may need to associate an item with a specific sublimit or scheduled
coverage.
B. Reported Cost: This is the cost the insured said they paid for the item. There is a “Cost
Comparison” report that will compare the reported cost with the unit cost.
C. Unit Cost: If you are searching for an item, don’t worry about entering a unit cost. When
you find the applicable item, the unit cost will be entered when you double‐click on the line
item.
D. Quantity: Enter a quantity for each item. Make sure that if you are quoting a group of items
priced as a set, you leave the quantity as 1.
E. Total RCV: The total RCV is based on the quantity times the unit cost.
F. Age: Enter an age of the item. If the item was 2 years 6 months, make sure that you enter it
as 2.5 years.
G. Use: You can specify the use of the item. Your options are Heavy, Normal, Light, New, and
Insured Replaced. If you are depreciating by age/use this value will affect your depreciation.
New and Insured Replaced will not include depreciation.
H. Life: The life expectancy is based on the category and selector. If you do not have a
category, you will need to manually add the category or manually add the life expectancy.
I. Depreciation: You can depreciate by age/use, dollar amount, or by percentage. To open the
list of options with your keyboard, press F5 and then use your up and down arrow keys
followed by your spacebar to select the option. Hit “Enter” to close this box..
J. Salvage: You can enter a salvage amount on the line item opposed to an estimate lump sum.
Enter an amount and choose insured, salvor, or abandoned.
K. ACV: The ACV is the RCV minus the depreciation amount.
L. Tax: Here you specify whether this line item is taxable or exempt (checked means taxable).
M. Replacement: If you purchase the item directly for the insured, you can place a checkmark in
the Replacement column to deduct this amount from the estimate.
Please keep in mind that you more than likely will only enter values in a few of these fields. For
example, your keystrokes would look like this: Enter a category/selector, tab to the description
and enter a description, tab to the search icon and tap your spacebar, tab to the reported cost
and enter the insured’s reported cost, and then tab to the age and enter the age of the item.
5. Now that you have entered all of your items through Quick Entry, you are ready to go back and
find suitable items from the various retailers. Click on the first item, and then select
“XactContents Combined Search Results.”
6. You should take notice that the “Action” has been changed to “Replace.” This changed to
replace because you clicked back on the item to make changes to it and XactContents
automatically assumes that you want to replace the item. This is correct, so when you find the
appropriate line item, double‐click on it and it will replace the selected item in the estimate.
You should get very familiar with giving notice to the current action. Many times adjusters
make a change to the line item (i.e. adding an age) and forget that their action changes to
replace. They perform a search for a new item and when they double click on it; it replaces the
selected item. Get in the habit of clicking in the “Add Row” in quick entry or click on the
“Action” to toggle the replace to add. The empty row beneath your line items is the “Add Row.”
Reference Search
Another way to find and add line items to your estimate is through a graphical representation of
different areas of a home and its most common contents items. The Reference Search is a very useful
tool when the insured has very little information about a particular item. If the insured has a good
description of the item, it is faster to perform a search on the item than it is to use the Reference
Search.
1. Click on “Reference Search” beneath the “Search Price List” link.
2. Within “Reference Search” click on an image that you believe will contain the item you are
looking for. Click on the graphic of one of the items, click on a subtopic within the “Refined
Topics,” click on a type and quality within the search results, and then you can select a vendor
item. You can either select the General Quote item or the vendor item depending on what you
are looking for.
External Item Source
For unique or hard to find items, the External Item Source is an excellent tool which allows you to
browse the internet and edit line items at the same time. The External Item Source automatically
documents the site of the line item you are looking at with the date you found the price for that item.
Modifying a Group of Line Items
1. For the items you plan on using the External Item Source for, place a checkmark in the “Checked”
column.
2. Click “External Item Source” from the “Tools” menu.
3. Within the External Item Source you can perform the following Actions (image on next page):
A. Enter a web address and then press “Enter on your Keyboard.”
B. Search for or browse to find the item you’re looking for.
C. Make changes to the selected item from your estimate.
Modifying a Single Item
You can open the External Item Source by clicking on the link of an Internet Search. For example, we are
looking for an 1890’s Gustav Becker Wall Clock. We’ll click on the “Search Go Antiques.com” link.
1. Click the GoAntiques.com Internet Search link after performing a background search on the item.
Note: The External Item Source will open and take you directly to the vendor’s website. The
description of the selected item will automatically be searched, allowing you to easily find and
Coverage Limits
Policy limits are automatically being tracked as you write your estimate. If you exceed a coverage
amount, a warning will appear in the bottom right portion of the screen warning you that a limit has
been exceeded.
1. In this example we will exceed the cash sublimit. We begin by entering a category of CAS and a
selector of MON. Tab to the coverage field and select the “Money, etc” sublimit. Next, you will
need to enter a “Unit Cost” and then either press enter or tab on your keyboard.
2. If you exceed the limit for this item, you will be notified that the limit was exceeded and the
“Coverage Limits” link will turn red. Click on the “Coverage Limits” link.
3. All coverage information will be displayed within the “Coverage Limits” window. You can edit a
main coverage if necessary by selecting it and clicking the “Edit” button.
4. Any amount in excess of the policy limit will be applied towards the deductible for that coverage.
When the excess exceeds the deductible, the summary totals page will show “Less Amount Over
Limit(s).” To see this report, click the “Grand Total” link at the bottom right of the screen.
5. In the example below, the amount over limits for the “Money, etc” sublimit is $1,150. The amount
deducted from the estimate is $150. This is the amount that is still over the limit after the $1,000
deductible has been absorbed.
Import from Excel
In the introduction of Estimate Items we discussed the possibility of importing an inventory from a
spreadsheet. The XactContents Excel spreadsheet can be used by the insured or adjustor to record all
lost or damaged content items associated with the claim. This information is then used to import items
into an estimate. If you installed Xactimate to the default data path, you can find this document in
C:\Program Files\Xactware\Xactimate27\xm8.
1. You may want to create a shortcut to this file from your desktop. Right‐click on the XactContents
Import Template and select Send To, Desktop (create shortcut). You will then need to locate the
spreadsheet on your desktop and double‐click on it to open.
2. Enter the insured's administrative information in the Claim Info and Instructions tab, then click the
Contents List tab and enter the lost contents items, along with the appropriate information. Note
that this workflow is most efficient if the spreadsheet is emailed to the insured (or given to them
using a different means) so that the insured can enter their inventory directly.
3. To segregate information by room, be sure to enter the room name in the Room column. When the
items are imported into Xactimate, it automatically creates the rooms in Estimate Items and the
items will be placed accordingly. You will want to make sure that at the very least an item
description and quantity are entered. Save your changes (under a different file name) once you
have finished entering in the appropriate information.
4. To import the information from the spreadsheet into your estimate, click Import XactContents from
Excel from the Tools menu.
5. Browse to the file with the saved information and click Open.
6. The Excel Import Options window will appear allowing you to perform background searches on
items as well as highlight items over a specified dollar value. This is helpful if you only plan on
pricing items over a certain dollar amount. This is also helpful in keeping track of items that you still
need to price. Click the “OK” button when you are ready to proceed.
7. After importing an inventory from Excel, there are some important attributes to pay attention to:
A. If you grouped your items by room, the rooms will automatically be created for you.
B. If the insured included a dollar value in the “Your Estimated Cost to Replace (each)” column, the
amount will be shown in the “Reported Cost” column.
C. A note consisting of all of the information from the spreadsheet will be added as an internal
note.
D. Items with a green flag represent completed search results, while items with an icon of arrows
going around in a circle represent active searches being performed.
8. You may find it to be easier to focus on the line items themselves by hiding the notes attached to
each line item. To hide notes, click “Show Line Item Attachments” from the “View” menu.
Note: To show notes, perform the same operation
9. To begin validating item prices, click on the first item and then click on your combined search
results.
10. After clicking on your combined results, locate the most accurate line item and then double‐click on
it to replace the selected item in the estimate.
11. When you double click on an item from your search results and replace the insured’s item in the
estimate, you should take note of a couple of things:
A. There are technically four potential notes that can be added to your line item:
a. The original description the insured had will be kept if you have “Preserve Item
Description When Replacing” checked in Parameters.
b. Discontinued items will automatically have a note letting the insured know that ‘X’
model number has been replaced with ‘Y’ model number
c. When importing a spreadsheet from Excel, all of the detail from Excel will be added as a
note.
d. When adding or replacing an existing item, a note consisting of where the insured can
find the item and a date the price was last updated will be added.
B. Depending on the source of where you find the item, the item may be categorized for you.
Items added from the XactContents database will always include categorization. The example is
from Google, so you will need to categorize this line item.
C. The description of the item you found will replace the description the insured had.
D. The reported cost will remain unchanged; however, the unit cost will be updated from the item
you just selected from the search.
E. The life expectancy is based on the category and selector of this item. By default, USR MISC
items will not have a life expectancy. You will need to add a category and selector before the
life expectancy will be accurate.
F. You can depreciate a line item by Age/Use, Dollar Amount, or by Percentage. This item is being
depreciated by age, but since the life expectancy is 0, no depreciation is being calculated. When
a category and selector are selected, the depreciation will automatically be calculated based on
the age of the item.
Contents CAT/SEL Review
As we just saw in the previous example, categorizing items is helpful in determining the life expectancy
of that particular item. Additionally, categorizing line items correctly will make management
information available in XactAnalysis more meaningful to your company. The Contents CAT/SEL review
tool helps you more efficiently categorize line items.
1. Click “Contents Cat/Sel Review” from the “Window” menu.
2. You do not need to memorize any category/selector combinations. You can tab to the “Selector”
column header and begin entering a description of the item. Use your down arrow key to select the
appropriate selector and then press “Enter” on your keyboard.
3. Tab to the selector column for the next item and repeat this process for each item. When you are
finished, click the “OK” button.
4. Notice from our first example that depreciation is now calculated as we have just updated the
category and selector for this item which updates the item’s life expectancy.
Print Reports
There are multiple types of reports pertaining to contents estimates. The report format and type
depends on what type of information you are trying to provide the insured or a supervisor.
Contents Report
1. Click the “Print” link in the upper right portion of the estimate window.
2. You can select a type of report to print and alter the way it will appear.
A. Report: Select “Contents” from the report drop‐down menu.
B. Filter: You can filter your estimate by categories, coverages, and by tags.
C. Orientation: You have the option of printing a portrait or landscape report.
D. Print Selection: Specify which report sections will be printed.
E. Additional Options: Within the “Additional Options” section, you can choose whether or not you
want line item system and internal notes to print (most commonly excluding internal notes),
exclude line item numbers, include a report index, and display ‘&’ items as 2 items (does not
pertain to contents).
F. Resequence Line Numbers: Before printing or viewing your estimate report, it is a good idea to
resequence your line item numbers so that they are in order.
G. Export: You can export PDF documents to file or to your default email program.
3. Click the “View” button to see how your report will look before printing.
Cost Comparison Report
The Cost Comparison report shows the difference between what the insured reported and what you
actually found the price of the item to be. The information from this report is based on the Reported
Cost and Unit Cost columns in Quick Entry.
2. Click the “View” button to see a full cost comparison on this estimate.
Email Vendor Item Links
Every line item added through the XactContents Database, the Integrated Internet Search options
(NexTag, Google, eBay, and Amazon) and the External Item Source will contain an embedded link
directly to that item. You can send the insured an email listing each of these items, their associated
links, costs, and an image of that particular item.
2. Enter the insured’s email address and a message regarding this claim. To send the email, click the
“Send” button.
3. Below is an example of the email that the insured will see. When they click on the link they will be
taken directly to the item on the vendor’s website.
Payment Tracker
The Payment Tracker allows you to record and track ACV/RCV, Loss of Use, and Advance Payments. This
can be very helpful in keeping all payments made to the insured organized.
1. At any time you can make an advance payment in your estimate. To make an advance payment
before opening the Payment Tracker, click the “Window” menu and choose “Advance Payments.”
2. Here you are able to make an advance payment towards any coverage type. Enter the advance
payment amount in the Advance Payment column in the top‐right of the window. Enter the date,
check # and any notes or comments and click the Record Payment button
3. To access the Payment Tracker, you must first mark the estimate as “complete” using the complete
tab. Within the complete tab, click the “Change estimate status to “A/Completed” link.
4. With the estimate in the “Completed” status, you are now able to access the Payment Tracker. Click
the “Payment Tracker” button in the upper‐right portion of the estimate window, or click the “Open
the Payment Tracker” link from the estimate status section.
5. The first time you open the Payment Tracker (per estimate); you will be asked how you want to
group the line items. You can either group by Room or by Category.
6. The Payment Tracker can look a little intimidating when you look at it for the first time. Once you
begin using the Payment Tracker on a regular basis, the workflow will feel very natural and you will
begin to appreciate all that you can do within the Payment Tracker. Begin by becoming familiar with
the different columns and tabs of the Payment Tracker:
A. Worksheet – The worksheet is where you will be taken to first. Within the worksheet, you will
see all of the line items based on the coverage you have selected at the bottom.
B. Payment Tracker Summary – Within the Payment Tracker Summary, you will be able to see the
full breakdown of your estimate totals. As you can see in this example, we are able to see the
full estimate amount all the way down to the outstanding ACV amount after taxes, depreciation,
7. You will more than likely begin by paying the actual cash value (ACV) for all of the coverages. To pay
the ACV, click the “Submit for Payment” button.
8. If you have multiple coverages that have an amount in the “Total Payments Pending” field, a
window will come up asking you to select which coverages you want to pay the ACV for. You can
select one or all of them and then click “OK.”
9. In the Record Payments window you can enter a check number, specify what notes if any will appear
on the report, and add notes/comments if desired. When you are ready to make the payment, click
the “Record Payment” button.
Note: To be clear, a payment is not actually going to be made to the insured using the Payment
Tracker tool. The Payment Tracker helps you calculate the payments that are going to be made to
the insured through whatever means you typically make payments through today.
10. When the insured begins replacing items and provides you with receipts, you can enter the receipt
amount in the Payment Tracker to calculate Replacement Cost Benefits. You can enter the amount
in either the “Actual Replacement Cost” column or the “Actual Replacement Cost w/Tax” column.
This really depends on whether or not the amount you are entering contains sales tax or is a lump
sum after tax.
11. To see the calculation, you can take the Actual Replacement Cost w/Tax and subtract the Actual
Cash Value amount. This will be the amount in the Payment Pending column.
Note: This is one of the advantages of the Payment Tracker; you will not need to manually calculate
12. The second line item has a Replacement Cost Total of $293.84, yet we have an Actual Replacement
Cost w/Tax of $299.18. By default, the Payment Tracker will not pay more than the Replacement
Cost Total. However, you can override this amount:
A. Right‐click on the line item and select “Override Deferred Amount.
B. You can enter an amount that does not exceed the Actual Replacement Cost w/Tax benefits, or
you can click the “Pay Max” button to pay the full amount of replacement cost benefits based
on the Actual Replacement Cost w/Tax amount.
13. The “Receipt Management” tool allows you to more easily track receipts for items that have
multiple quantities. For example, the insured lost four picture frames but only replaced two of
them. The Receipt Management tool allows you to account for the two purchased picture frames.
A. Click on the “Qty” button.
B. When the Receipt Management window opens, click the “Add” button to enter a receipt
amount.
C. Enter a description for the item, quantity replaced, and total price of all items before tax. The
tax rate from the line item will automatically be applied and will calculate an amount in the
“Total Price of All Items after Tax” field. If you exceed the replacement cost benefits to be paid,
you can click the “Pay Max” button. Click OK when you are finished entering receipts.
14. When you are ready to make a deferred payment based on the receipts provided by the insured,
you can click the “Submit for Payment” button.
15. To see a summary of your payments, click on the “Payments” tab. From here you can click on any of
the payments made to see a report consisting of that particular payment. You can also click the
“Print Payment Summary” button to see a report consisting of all the payments made.
16. Click the “History” tab to see a history of deferred payments, items with estimated amounts
remaining, and an item receipts report. For example, the insured might want a list of items for
which they haven’t provided receipts. Click the “Items with Estimated Amounts Remaining” to see a
full list of items with RC benefits remaining.
17. The Payment Tracker will track supplements and corrections to your estimate after the ACV has
been paid. If you have only paid the ACV and have not made any deferred payments, you will be
prompted with the following message when changing your estimate back to “In Progress.” If you
select a supplement, your ACV payment will be permanent. Additionally, you will be prompted with
a message confirming that you want to perform a supplement estimate.
Note: If you are making a correction to your estimate as opposed to a supplement, your ACV
payment will be voided out. Additionally, if you have already paid the ACV and have made deferred
payments, the Payment Tracker will automatically assume you intend to do a supplement and the
above prompt will not appear.
18. Supplements items will be displayed with an ‘S’ followed by the supplement number.
19. You can view all additions, modifications and deletions by clicking on the “Supplement Details” icon.
20. When you are finished making changes in the Payment Tracker, click the “Save & Send” button.
Assignment Upload
When you are finished with your estimate, you will need to perform the same operation you used to
download the claim: connect.
1. Return to the Xactimate Control Center, Dashboard.
2. Click the “Connect” link in the XactAnalysis Communication window.
3. When the connection is complete, click the “Done” button.
Real Time Training
For additional help or information, you can access real time training by clicking Help in the upper right
portion of the window.
1. If you would like to search for a specific topic, enter a description in the search window, and then
click the “Search” button.
2. As you are writing your estimate, the Real Time Training content will automatically change
dependent upon which window you are looking at. For example, I’ve clicked into the Coverage/Loss
section, and the Real Time Training content now shows “Coverage/Loss window” under the main
topic section. These sections will update as you navigate throughout Xactimate.
