What are Xactimate and XactAnalysis: Xactimate is the software in which a property repair estimate is written, and XactAnalysis is the network that assigns, tracks and reviews that estimate for the insurer
Xactimate is the estimating software that property adjusters and restoration contractors use to write a repair estimate line by line. XactAnalysis is the claims assignment and management network around it: the insurer sends the work out through it, follows its progress and reviews the estimate that comes back. Both come from Verisk, and many people still know them by the older Xactware name.
They matter because in US and Canadian property claims the estimate is the document everyone negotiates over. The carrier's desk adjuster, the independent adjuster on the roof and the contractor doing the repair read the same line items in the same format. In the UK and Ireland the person in the adjuster's seat is called a loss adjuster.
What does Xactimate do?
- Line items. The estimate is built from priced actions on specific materials: remove and replace drywall, detach and reset a vanity, paint two coats. Each has a unit, a quantity and a price.
- Price lists. Prices come from lists that Verisk researches and publishes by market, so the same line costs a different amount in different cities.
- Sketch. The estimator draws the floor plan or the roof, and the dimensions drive the quantities. A room drawn at 12 by 14 feet produces its own wall, floor and ceiling areas.
- Photos. Images are added to the estimate and labelled, so a reader can see what each line refers to.
- Reports. The output is an estimate report that a carrier, a contractor and a policyholder can all read.
It runs on desktop, online and on mobile devices, which is how a field adjuster sketches and photographs at the property and finishes the estimate later.
What does XactAnalysis do?
- Assignments. The carrier creates an assignment and sends it to a staff adjuster, an independent adjusting firm or a contractor.
- The round trip. The assignee completes the estimate in Xactimate and returns it through the network.
- Tracking. Each assignment carries its status and dates, so a manager can see what is unassigned, what is waiting and what is overdue.
- Exchange. Notes, photos and documents pass between the parties on the assignment.
- Review. Returned estimates are checked against the carrier's rules and compared with corrected versions.
- Reporting. Data across assignments is used to measure progress and benchmark performance.
Contractors and adjusting firms work in a service provider edition of the same network.
How do photos and evidence reach an estimate?
There are two routes, and they produce evidence of different quality.
Taken by the estimator. The adjuster or contractor photographs the damage at the property, often on the device the sketch is drawn on, and the images are added to the estimate and labelled by room. Measurements come from the same visit.
Supplied by the policyholder. Photos and video reach the carrier by email, through a portal or from a link. A desk adjuster reads them, writes the estimate from what they show, and adds the images that support each line. This is the photo estimate route, and it is only as good as what the policyholder happened to photograph.
Either way, when the estimate is returned the photos travel with it, and the reviewer sees the images, the sketch and the estimate reports side by side on the assignment. The software prices what somebody saw. It does not establish that a picture shows this property, or that it was taken after the loss.
Xactimate example: a kitchen supply line leak
A supply line under a kitchen sink fails overnight. The carrier creates an assignment in XactAnalysis and routes it to a desk adjuster. The policyholder sends eleven photos: swollen base cabinets, laminate flooring lifting at the joins, a water line on the skirting.
The adjuster sketches the kitchen at 12 by 14 feet from measurements the policyholder reads out, then writes the lines: remove and replace the laminate, detach and reset the undamaged wall cabinets, replace two base cabinets, drying equipment for three days. She attaches the photos, labels them and returns the estimate. Review sends it back once, because the skirting is visible in photo seven and is not in the estimate. She adds the line and it is approved. One photo of the whole room would have saved the second pass.
What Xactimate and XactAnalysis do not do, and the mistakes teams make
They do not decide coverage. Whether the loss is covered is the adjuster's decision under the policy. The estimate prices the repair.
They do not vouch for a photo. Where an image came from, and when, is outside the estimate.
The common mistakes: estimating from close-ups with no overview, so the reviewer cannot place the damage; leaving photos unlabelled; guessing dimensions from a picture; asking the policyholder for "some photos" and getting four of the same corner; and leaving the policyholder's images in an inbox so they never reach the assignment.
Where the evidence should sit
On the claim, with the estimate, so that anyone who opens the file later can see what each line was based on. That matters most on a catastrophe claim, where the file may pass through several hands in a week.
Venta Capture, a product of VentaVid, works upstream of the estimate and has no integration with Xactimate or XactAnalysis. The adjuster sends the policyholder a link, the policyholder follows guided steps room by room in the mobile browser with no app, and what is recorded in the session arrives timestamped, located and digitally sealed on a case. The adjuster reviews it, decides, and writes the estimate in their own tool. See remote claim inspection with Venta Capture.
