The four fields of a clear Xactimate estimate
Every line in an estimate carries four pieces of information: the unit, the quantity, the act code, and the description. Together they answer the only questions a reviewer has. The unit tells the reader what the number counts — square feet, linear feet, or an each. The quantity tells the reader how many of those there are. The act code tells the reader what kind of line it is, and the product code ties it to pricing. The description tells the reader what the work actually is, in words.
When all four are present and they agree with each other, the line is self-explanatory. The reviewer reads it once, checks the number against the loss, and moves on. When one is missing or vague, the reviewer has to go looking — and a line that needs interpretation is a line that will slow the claim down. Clear estimates are not a style preference. They are what keep a claim moving.
The four fields are also what the conversion produces. ESXPress converts the carrier scope PDF into a Xactimate .esx estimate with line items, quantities, and the unit prices from the PDF. A clean scope becomes a clean file: the same fields, the same numbers, in the format the estimate is actually worked in.
Unit and quantity: the numbers must be checkable
The fastest way to make an estimate hard to read is to mix units on the same sort of work. Quantities should line up with what the scope actually measured, and the unit should be the one the line is priced in. A line that says 1,200 with no unit cannot be verified by anyone. A line that says 1,200 square feet can be checked against the loss in minutes. The unit is what makes the quantity honest, and the quantity is what makes the dollar figure defensible.
The same principle applies to what the converter carries forward. The conversion keeps the line items, quantities, and unit prices straight from the carrier scope — the numbers the carrier already wrote are the numbers in the file. Nothing is recalculated to make the estimate look neater, because changing a number to make it read better is still changing it. If the scope said 640 square feet, the file says 640 square feet.
Keep quantities honest even when they are awkward. A rounded quantity is a question waiting to be asked; the exact number is an answer. The adjuster is working from the same loss, and the estimate reads best when it matches the loss rather than approximates it.
Units also keep the scope honest. If the carrier measured the job in linear feet and the estimate suddenly shows square feet, the reviewer has to stop and do math. An estimate written in the same units as the scope is an estimate that agrees with itself.
Act code and description: code for the machine, words for the reader
The act code is the shorthand that tells the estimate what kind of line it is, and the product code is what ties the line to pricing. Together they are how Xactimate and the reviewer identify the work. The description is the words beside the code, so a person can read the line without decoding it. The code and the description do different jobs, and a clear estimate uses each for what it is best at. A code is a lookup; a description is a confirmation.
Real claims show how wide the code landscape is. 33,076 line items and 6,648 distinct product codes were extracted from real insurance claim documents in the August 2026 wave. Nobody memorizes 6,648 codes, and nobody has to: the public code dictionary has 1,480+ dedicated Xactimate code pages, each with a description, category, and related links, plus a free code search.
When you write the description, write the part that is not in the code. The code carries the standard meaning; the description carries the specifics of this job — what was measured, where, and any condition that matters. A description that names the material and the location reads well. A description that repeats the code adds nothing.
What happens when a code is unknown
Not every code in a carrier scope is one we recognize. When that happens, the converter does not guess. The PDF price is kept and the line is flagged, so the total never silently changes. The line stays in the estimate at the price the carrier put there, and the flag shows you which lines to look at. That is the honest behavior: the value is preserved, and the uncertainty is visible.
The measured picture explains why that matters. Measured across 289 real claim files and 7,525 line items, 36.6% of line items carry a code our catalog recognizes, and the rest keep their PDF price. The median estimate file moves 17% of its lines, and 39 files move none at all. Most lines are not repriced, and no line changes without a code to back it.
A flagged line is not a broken line. It is a line for review. In Xactimate you can correct the code, keep the price, or adjust against your own list — but the choice stays with the reviewer, never with the tool. A converted estimate preserves the scope; it does not quietly rewrite it.
Why the price on the line is the truth
The clearest thing an estimate can say about a line is where its price came from. In a converted file, every line carries the price from the customer PDF — the source of truth. When an adjuster asks where a number came from, the answer is the scope, which is a much better answer than the software produced it.
The file also carries no pricing identity of its own. The exported .esx has no price-list name, no tax block, and no minimums — those are the receiver to apply. When Xactimate imports the file, it asks to reprice, and that is the intended design: your chosen price list does the pricing. A real import test confirmed the file opens clean.
That boundary is what makes the estimate reviewable. The pricing is yours and yours to defend; the conversion just preserves what the carrier wrote. Clear estimates are built on lines that say what they are, what they cost, and where that cost came from.
Check the file before it leaves your desk
A clear estimate survives the first look. Before a file goes out, run the simple questions: does every line have a unit, a quantity, an act code, and a description? Does every price match the scope? Which lines were flagged? The ESX validator is made for that pass, and the reprice checker shows which lines carry a recognized code. A ten-minute check beats a returned estimate.
The pipeline behind the file is part of that confidence. An automated upload, convert, download smoke test runs every 30 minutes, and every sketch export goes through the same production path as a regular conversion. When you verify the file, you are verifying something the pipeline already exercises end to end.
Then send it. A clear estimate with honest prices and visible flags is the best version of the file — and the one the adjuster can work with on the first read.