Carrier and administrator exports
A carrier export, opened as a Xactimate estimate
A carrier export is the structured file a carrier or a third-party administrator sends alongside, or instead of, the PDF: the same scope, in its own vocabulary. Converting it into Xactimate is a translation and a grounding step, not a reading step. ESXPress recognises the export shapes it has proven, maps their fields onto the same line-item ground the rest of the pipeline uses, keeps the quantity as the file states it and the unit price where the file carries one, then grounds each line against the reference catalogue. A line it cannot ground is flagged with the reason, and a recognised export with a line missing its quantity is refused with that field named rather than filled in silently.
What happens to each shape
Proven and named
The administrator export shape
A third-party administrator export arrives with an estimate wrapper, one estimate block per claim, and line rows carrying a description, a quantity and usually a price. That shape is translated field by field, then grounded like any other scope.
Proven and named
The flat estimate shape
A single estimate block with area or room blocks inside it, where a line's money is split into a removal part and a replacement part. The two halves are added into the line's unit price, so the number you see is the number the file carries.
Read structurally
A shape we have not seen before
If no named shape claims the file, the structural reader finds the repeated table that carries descriptions, quantities and prices. Anything it has to assume is named on the row, never hidden.
Refused
A file with no line items
A sign-on letter, an energy rating file or an API specification is refused with the reason named. An empty estimate would be worse than a refusal, so the refusal is the answer.
The dashboard leg adds the 93-rule completeness audit from the review page; the public API leg runs the import guard.
Questions
What is a carrier export, in plain terms?
It is the same scope the carrier sends as a PDF, delivered as structured data instead. Because it is already data, there is no page to read and no column to guess, so the quantities and the prices are the ones the file states.
Which carrier and administrator shapes work today?
Two named shapes are implemented and measured: the administrator export shape and the flat estimate shape. Any other structured file that carries a line-item table goes to the structural reader. A shape we have not proven is not claimed as supported; send a sample and it becomes a named shape once it is proven on a real file.
What happens to a line whose code cannot be grounded?
It stays unresolved, keeps its own description and price, and is flagged for review. It is never given a guessed code. A guessed code is a wrong price, so a flag is the correct outcome.
Does the export's own unit price survive?
Where the file states a unit price, yes, and the row records that the price came from the payload. A recognised export with a line missing its quantity is refused with the field named; a file read structurally has the missing quantity read as one and that line is named in the report.
Can our system send these files automatically?
Yes. The public API takes one structured payload per request with a key. It answers with a preview by default; add the build flag and the reply is a job you poll for the file, or add the sync flag to wait for it in the same response. Bulk runs today go through the dashboard's multi-file upload.
Do we have to change estimating software?
No. The output is a normal Xactimate ESX file for your own licensed copy. ESXPress is an independent tool and is not affiliated with, sponsored by or endorsed by Xactimate's vendor.
Send one file and read the report
One scope is one conversion, whether it arrives as an export, a PDF or a photo of a scope.