How to Estimate a Burglary

Updated by Bethany W.

Once XactContents is set up, you need to understand the process a claim follows. This scenario will help you understand one possible XactContents workflow so you can create your first estimate. There are many possible workflows you could follow. Please consult any policies issued by your company for the workflow you should follow.

The values entered in this walk through should not be considered standard. Values will change depending on the situation and company.

Create a new project

Christina Travers of Orem, Utah, calls to report a burglary in her home. No one was home at the time of the incident, and the thieves took electronics, jewelry, art, and other assorted items. She called the police and filed the necessary reports. Christina calls you to file a claim.

If you receive this assignment through XactAnalysis, you will not need to create a new project. The project will be available in your inbox.

  1. Launch XactContents and log in.
  2. Type Travers in the Recent Project box, and click Add New Project. Your new estimate will open.
  3. If you already have a project titled Travers, enter TraversCH in the Recent Project box.
  4. Leave Property as the address type and Home as the phone type. Type the following information:
    • Name: Christina Travers
    • Street: 1234 N. Main St.
    • City/St/Zip: Orem, Utah 84058
    • Number: 8015551234
    • E-mail: chtravers@email.com
  5. The Date Entered will be populated automatically. Double-click inside the other date boxes to populate them with the current date and time.
  6. In the Personnel group, click the Claim Rep box .
  7. Type Troy David in the search box.
  8. Select Troy David as the claim rep.

    9. If you don’t have Troy David as an available claim rep, click Add. Enter the following information in the Add a Claim Rep dialog box:

    • Name: Troy David
    • Quick Code: TROY
    • Address: Business
    • Street: 1718 W. Center Street
    • City/St/Zip: Orem, Utah 84058
    • Country: USA
    • Phone: Business
    • Number: 8015559955
    • E-mail: trdavid@email.com
  9. Click OK.

Add coverage & loss information

  1. Click Coverage/Loss.
  2. In Claim Number, type 1234567891.
  3. In Type of Loss, select Theft.
  4. In Cause of Loss, select <Unspecified>.
  5. In Apply Deductible, select Coverage Specific.
  6. In Coverages, click in each field to enter the Contents policy information:
    • Policy Limit: $20,000
    • Deductible: $500
    • Apply To: Both
    • ITV: 80>#/p###
  7. Click Parameters at the top of the page.
  8. Under Pricing, click Price List .
  9. Select Training.
    10. If the Training price list isn’t in the available options, click SmartList. Search for Training and double-click on the price list name. If you have not downloaded the training price list, click Request a price list. Under Select a price list area for your request, click the Current Xactware Price List drop down menu. Select By Name—Xactware Price List. Enter Training and click Download.
  10. If prompted, select a sales tax jurisdiction level.
  11. Under Add Ons, make sure the Cumulative Overhead and Profit check box is selected.
  12. Type 10 in Overhead and 10 in Profit.
  13. Under the Depreciation Options, make sure Max Depreciation is 100%.
  14. Set the Depreciation (Default) to Recoverable.
  15. Make sure Depreciate By is set to Percent.
  16. Under Report Text, in the Opening Statement, click Edit.
  17. Type This estimate is valid for 30 days.
  18. Highlight 30, and click Bold .
  19. Click Save and Exit.
If you receive a project from XactAnalysis the above information will often already be populated. For information about receiving projects from XactAnalysis, see Download an assignment.

Send the Excel Template

During this walkthrough, we will assume that no home inspection will be performed. The easiest way to create an inventory of the items lost is for Christina to create the list. You can send her an Excel template to make the process easier for both of you.

  1. Click the XactContents tab.
  2. Click Import from Excel .
  3. Click Download Template.
  4. Click OK when asked if you want to save the XactContents Import Template.
  5. Select a location to save the file on your computer.
  6. Open the template.
  7. Enter the following information:
    • Insured: Christina Travers
    • Adjuster: Troy David
    • State: UT
    • Claim number: 1234567891
  8. Save your changes.

Typically at this point you would email the file to the insured, they would fill it out, and send it back to you. Since this is a hypothetical scenario, download the sample loss inventory.

Import the inventory

  1. In XactContents, click Import from Excel.
  2. Click Choose File.
  3. Double-click on the file.
  4. Click Import.
  5. Click the menu next to Group to see the organized imported items.
  6. In Group, select the Family room.

The imported items will have a category of USR and a category of MISC. They are considered uncategorized which is evident by the aqua color around the check box. Items that have not been priced will be highlighted in yellow. Both the aqua and the yellow notification colors will disappear as you price the inventory.

Price the Inventory

  1. Click Pricing.
  2. Click Group and select Living Room. The description of the Vizio TV will automatically load in the search bar.
  3. Scroll through the vendor items to find the best price for the model number D58UD3.
  4. Double-click the vendor item. The pricing information from the vendor is now attached to the inventory item in a note and the next item is loaded in the search.
  5. Scroll through the vendor items to find the best price for the model number BDP-S6500.
  6. Repeat this process for the Surface Book and the Xbox 360.
  7. To price the painting “Widow’s Mite,” click General Quote Items.
  8. Double-click ARTPRNT++.

    9. You are done pricing the items stolen from the family room. Now you should price the items stolen from the master bedroom.

  9. In Group, click Master Bedroom.
  10. In General Quote Items, scroll through the available items and double-click JWLNECG Necklace—Gemstone.
  11. To price the Two Sisters painting, scroll through the general quote items to ARTARTP+++ Painting – Artwork – Deluxe grade.
  12. On Grandmother’s antique ruby ring, click Skip Pricing. You review Christina’s policy and find that she had the ring appraised and valued at $610, the amount listed in the claim.

You are done pricing the items.

Review the category and selector

Reviewing the category and selector of an item is a simple way for you to check the selected pricing.

  1. Click Cat/Sel Review. Grandmother’s antique ruby ring is auto-suggested for review.
  2. Notice that the Cat/Sel Description is “Antique book—Enter price.” This is a jewelry item, not a book so the category and selector will need to be changed.
  3. Click the arrow next to Approve.
  4. Select JWL/RNGM – Ring – Gemstone. This is the category and selector that best match the ring that was lost.

The status will change to “Approved.” You are done reviewing the category and selector items.

Complete the project

  1. Click Complete.
  2. Click Submit Required Information. This will open a window where you can enter any missing information and resolve any inspection issues.
  3. Verify the coverage for the jewelry items in the estimate. Since we didn’t add any coverage other than the Contents coverage, we need to ignore the inspection result.
  4. Select the Indicate why the inspection result is to be ignored checkbox.
  5. Enter These items are included in the insured’s Contents Coverage plan in the text box.
  6. Click Next.
  7. Enter the policy number as CT987456.
  8. Click Next. There should be no other missing information. If you have any other missing information, add it as needed.
  9. Click Finish.
  10. Click Change estimate status to Completed.
You may be asked if you want to resequence the line items. If you are, click Yes. You may also be asked to grant Silverlight more space. Click Yes.

Generate reports

You can now generate reports to give to Christina.

  1. Click Print Reports.
  2. Choose the Contents report under Print Options.
  3. Select the Exclude Internal Notes check box.
  4. Click Print to open the report in a new tab. Click Export to save the report on your computer.
  5. Click Close when you are done generating your report.

Record an ACV payment

You will now record an initial payment to Christina for the Actual Cash Value (ACV) benefit portion of her policy.

  1. Click Open Payment Tracker.
  2. Notice the ACV Benefits calculations.
  3. Click Record Payment.
  4. Enter a check number of 654987.
  5. Click Record Payment.
  6. Notice that the Total Payments Pending value is $0.00
  7. Click Close.

You are now done working on this claim until Christina submits the receipts for her replacement items.

Record receipts

Christina went shopping to replace the items stolen from her. Her grandmother’s ring can never be replaced, but she replaced her electronics.

She sends you a copy of her receipt from Best Buy.

Best Buy

Xbox One Microsoft - Xbox One 500GB Name Your Game Bundle – Black  $249.99

Microsoft Surface Book 2-in-1 13.5” Touch Screen Laptop – Intel i5 – 8GB memory – 128GB SS drive – silver $1489.99

Product total $1739.98

Sales Tax (@5.64%) $98.14

Total $1838.12

  1. In the claim, click Payment Tracker.
  2. Find the Xbox 360 in the Family Room group and click Qty. The Receipt Management dialog will open.
  3. Click Add.
  4. Enter the information.
    • Description: Microsoft - Xbox One 500GB Name Your Game Bundle – Black
    • Quantity Replaced: 1
    • Total Price of All Items before tax: 249.99
    • Tax Rate: 5.64>#/p###
  5. Click Pay Max to override the deferred payment.
  6. For the override reason, choose Approved upgrade since the Xbox One is the new version and Xbox 360 is no longer supported by Microsoft.
  7. Click Ok.
  8. Click Ok to close the Receipt Management dialog.
  9. Now find the Surface Book in the Family Room group and click Qty. The receipt Management dialog will open.
  10. Click Add.
  11. Enter the information.
    • Description: Microsoft Surface Book 2-in-1 13.5” Touch Screen Laptop – Intel i5 – 8GB memory – 128GB SS drive – silver
    • Quantity Replaced: 1
    • Total price of all items before tax: 1489.99
    • Tax Rate: 5.64
  12. The Actual Replacement Cost (ARC) is lower than the Total Allowed already paid as part of the ACV so there is no deferred amount to override. Click OK.
  13. Click Ok to close the Receipt Management dialog.
  14. Click Record Payment to record the deferred benefits that Christina will receive for her new Xbox.
  15. Enter a check number of 987654.
  16. Click Record Payment.

You are now done recording the receipt. You can review the payments sent to Christina by clicking Payments. You can also see reports for the Item Receipts and a History of Deferred Payments in the History tab.

You have completed the claim. If this were an assignment, you would submit it back to XactAnalysis. Since this is a fictitious scenario, we will end our workflow here.

Please remember that this is an example of only one possible workflow. Please consult your company policies for the workflow you are to follow. The numbers and information presented in this example are fictitious and should not be expected in any claim.

How Did We Do?