View claim information

The first screen you see when opening a new estimate is the Claim Info. Here, you can see all the insured’s information pertaining to this loss. Depending on your company settings, this screen may look slightly different and some of these fields may be read-only.

Insured Info

Info

If you received the claim through XactAnalysis, you should not need to fill anything out in the Info section.

If you created the estimate manually, enter all of the pertinent information including name, address, phone number, and email.

You can also click Import from Contacts to select information already in your Contacts.

Dates

If you received the claim through XactAnalysis, the date of loss, date received, and date entered should already be entered.

If you created the estimate manually, only the date entered will be entered automatically. All of these dates in this area are required to complete the estimate.

Enter the date of loss, the date received, and the date you inspected the loss.

If you are a desk adjuster and did not inspect the loss, select the Inspection Not Performed checkbox.

Personnel

The claim representative and estimator are required fields. You are free to enter additional information such as the Agency, Reference, Contractor, Claimant, Mortgagee, or Loan Number. Some of this information may have been added in XactAnalysis.

Claim representative

To add an existing claim representative follow these steps:

  1. Click to open the Claim Rep dialog box.
  2. Select the claim representative.
  3. Click OK.

To add a new claim representative follow these steps:

  1. Click to open the Claim Rep dialog box.
  2. Click Add.
  3. Enter the contact information for the claim representative including the name, phone number, address, email, or company information. The Quick Code will be generated automatically, but you may adjust it as needed.
  4. Click OK.
  5. Select the claim representative from the list of claim representatives.
  6. Click OK.
Estimator

To add an existing estimator follow these steps:

  1. Click to open the Estimators dialog box.
  2. Select the estimator.
  3. Click OK.

To add a new estimator follow these steps:

  1. Click to open the Estimators dialog box.
  2. Click Add.
  3. Enter the contact information for the estimator including the name, phone number, address, email, or company information. The Quick Code will be generated automatically, but you may adjust it as needed.
  4. Click OK.
  5. Select the estimator from the list of estimators.
  6. Click OK.

Coverage/Loss

Loss

Enter the claim number, policy number, type of loss, and cause of loss. You may add other information including CAT code, policy dates, policy type, initial coverage, and form numbers.

Coverages

The Coverages section contains 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. This section allows you to add scheduled coverages as well as sublimits.

Follow the steps below to add a coverage to your estimate:

  1. Click Add Coverage. A new coverage line will appear.
  2. Click the drop-down menu for the new coverage.  
  3. Select SmartList. The Coverages window appears.
  4. Click Add to add the additional coverage you desire. The Add Coverage Info dialog box opens.
  5. Enter a name for the coverage. If this is a fairly uncommon scheduled limit, you may want to check the Save to Estimate Only checkbox.
  6. Click OK.

Now, you can enter a policy limit for this scheduled limit. You should notice that there is no deductible if the deductible is applied across all coverages as opposed to coverage specific. Change the deductible setting to Coverage Specific if you want to apply different deductible amounts to specific coverages.

Sublimit

Most policies are written using common sublimits such as Firearms, Jewelry, Money, and more. With Sublimit Macros, multiple sublimits can be added with just a few clicks.

To add a sublimit follow the steps below:

  1. Select an existing class or click SmartList to add a class.
  2. Enter the class limits, both single and aggregate.
  3. Click Add to add an additional sublimit.
  4. Click OK.

When dealing with estimate policies that have common sublimits, sublimit macros can save you valuable time.

To add a sublimit macro to a coverage follow the steps below:

  1. Click Add Options to the right of the coverage. The Coverage Options dialog box will open.
  2. Click on the Macro drop-down found in the upper right-hand corner
  3. Choose an existing macro or click SmartList.

To add, edit, or delete a sublimit macro follow the steps below:

  1. Click Add Options to the right of the coverage. The Coverage Options dialog box will open.
  2. Click on the Macro drop-down found in the upper right-hand corner
  3. Click SmartList to view the list of sublimit macros
  4. Click Add.
  5. In the Edit Sublimit Macro dialog box, click the sublimit class.
  6. Select an existing sublimit or click SmartList to add new sublimits.
  7. Click Add to add another sublimit. Include class limits, both single and aggregate.
  8. Click OK to exit the Edit Sublimit Macro dialog box.
  9. Click OK to exit the Sublimit Macros dialog box.
  10. Modify the class limits as needed.
  11. Click OK.

You may remove a sublimit by clicking Remove in the Coverage Options dialog box.

Parameters

The Parameters control how your estimate will be priced, depreciated, and how it will look when printing reports. If you setup your preferences, there will be very little that needs to be changed in Parameters on a regular basis.

Pricing

When you downloaded an assignment, it may be accompanied by 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.

Followthe steps below to select a checkpoint price list:

  1. Click to open the menu of possible price lists.
  2. Select the appropriate price list.

Select a 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. When you created the estimate, or opened the assignment, you were prompted to select a price list.

To change the selected price list:

  1. Click to open the menu of possible price lists.
  2. Select the appropriate price list.

Click Tax Jurisdiction to see all of the jurisdictions associated with the selected price list. If a limited number of jurisdictions appear, your jurisdiction list is being filtered by the zip code. You can see all jurisdictions by clicking the drop-down menu next to the search box and selecting the All Jurisdictions option.

Click Price List Filter to apply additional filters to the price list.

Activity (Default) 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) mostly pertains to structural items. It allows an adjuster to set whether the repairs will be made by the contractor or homeowner.

Add-Ons

Tags

Select the Show Tags checkbox to associate tags with each line item.

To add a default tag which will be added to each line item for this estimate,

  1. Click Default Tags.
  2. Click Add Tag.
  3. Select the type of tag. For example, you can choose to add the brand, model, source name, or create a new tag type.
  4. Enter the information to be included in the tag.
  5. To add another tag, click Add Tag and repeat steps 3-4.
  6. Click Close.
Market Conditions

Select the Distribute Market Conditions check box to adjust the pricing options so the market conditions will be distributed across the components rather than just lump sum adjustment in the Market Conditions field.

Advance Payments

Select the Include Advance Payments check box to ensure that all advance payments made will be included in the estimate totals.

Salvage Retention

To change the salvage retention from a line item sum to a lump sum follow the steps below:

  1. Click Salvage Retention.
  2. Select Lump Sum.
  3. Enter the amount.
  4. Select a coverage.
  5. Click OK.
Labor Burden

Labor burdens are associated with structural items and does not apply to personal property replacement.

Sales Taxes

To see how sales taxes are applied to the estimate, click Sales Tax. In the Estimate Sales Tax dialog box, you can add, change, or delete tax rates; change the order rates are applied; and add tax exceptions.

Click Exceptions to see the exceptions associated with the estimate.

Additional Charges

To add a charge that is not available as a line item:

  1. Click Additional Charges.
  2. Enter the definition of the charge.
  3. Select a calculation type.
  4. Enter the amount.
  5. Select the coverage, tax application, and overhead and profit.
  6. Enter notes if applicable.
  7. Click OK.
Advance Payments

To add an advance payment follow the steps below:

  1. Click Advance Payments.
  2. Click Add.
  3. Enter the amount in the Advance Payment column.
  4. Enter the check number and notes if applicable.
  5. Click Record Payment.
  6. Click OK in the Advance Payments dialog box.
Depreciation

Select the appropriate check boxes:

  • Depreciate Material
  • Depreciate Non-Material
  • Depreciate Removal
  • Depreciate Overhead and Profit
  • Depreciate Sales Tax

Enter the maximum depreciation to be taken on any single line item. This will apply no matter which method you are using to calculate depreciation.

Set the Depreciation (Default) to Recoverable or Non-Recoverable and set depreciation defaults to percent, amount, or age/condition.

Overhead and Profit

Enter the overhead and profit percentages or select the Cumulative Overhead and Profit checkbox.

Report text

The report text section allows you to customize the estimate reports.

Add a company header. This will print at the top of each report. It 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.

Enter an opening statement that will print at the bottom of the coversheet. This typically includes legal disclaimers and fraud language.

Enter a closing statement that will print on the last page of the report.

Activity Report

The activity report is an administrative report that allows the adjuster to track their work and expenses.

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