Total loss contents inventory checklist.

1. Preserve and organize the evidence

• Confirm site access and evidence-preservation instructions before capture begins.
• Record exterior context and room overviews before moving into item details.
• Capture a consistent room sweep, including closets, cabinets, storage areas, and adjacent debris when access is safe and authorized.
• Take item-level photos where identifying details remain visible: brand, model, serial number, size, material, or distinguishing features.
• Keep the original file, capture time, room, and photographer or evidence source available.
• Record whether each fact was observed, supplied by the insured, inferred for review, or documented by another professional.

2. Reconstruct items the loss-site photos cannot show

Total losses often destroy or obscure the very evidence the inventory needs. Build those lines from labeled supporting material instead of asking AI to invent missing property.

• Pre-loss room photos and videos
• Receipts and emailed order history
• Bank or card statements
• Warranty and product registrations
• Manuals, packaging, and serial-number records
• Appraisals for specialty or high-value property
• Household-member recollection, labeled as recollection
• Comparable-item research, labeled as research

3. Capture the minimum reviewable fields

The downloadable CSV includes these groups. A carrier template may use different labels or require additional policy-specific fields.

4. Review non-salvageable decisions without automating them

Inventory software can record a disposition; it should not independently decide whether personal property is safe, restorable, covered, or ready for disposal. For each non-salvageable line, identify the item, observed damage and loss conditions, photo reference, stated disposition, reason, decision maker, and supporting standard or report when one applies.

The separate non-salvageable personal-property guide explains this evidence boundary in more detail.

5. Price and value each approved line

• Choose a replacement comparable that matches the documented item as closely as the available facts allow.
• Save the retailer or source, URL, access date, selected comparable, unit price, and quantity basis.
• Flag specialty, collectible, discontinued, unusually high-value, or uncertain items for additional review rather than forcing a generic comparable.
• Keep RCV, the depreciation basis and amount, and ACV visible as separate fields.
• Apply policy- or carrier-directed depreciation and recoverability rules only after the authorized claim professional reviews them.

6. Run final QA before export

1. Resolve duplicates, missing rooms, impossible quantities, and inconsistent descriptions.
2. Separate observed facts from insured-supplied details and reviewer assumptions.
3. Open photo and document references; do not rely on filenames alone.
4. Open replacement-source links and confirm the comparable, price, quantity, and access date.
5. Review age, pre-loss condition, category, depreciation basis, RCV, depreciation amount, and ACV together.
6. Route coverage, sublimit, scheduled-property, safety, restoration, and disposal questions to the responsible professional.
7. Validate CAT/SEL and the first XactContents-format XLSX against the receiving team’s current Verisk template or organization workflow.
8. Record the reviewer, review status, and export version so later changes are traceable.

Sources and method

Contents.team synthesized the field groups above from current insurance-regulator guidance, a FEMA program checklist, Verisk’s published XactContents workflow, the IICRC standard boundary, and the product’s review and export model. The result is a working checklist, not a claim that every carrier uses one universal form.

• National Association of Insurance Commissioners: filing a homeowners claim

  The NAIC advises making a damaged-property list, taking photos and videos, working room by room, keeping receipts, and using pre-loss photos and online retailers when reconstructing a destroyed inventory.

• National Association of Insurance Commissioners: home inventory

  The NAIC describes grouping belongings by room or category, capturing photos, and exporting the inventory.

• FEMA personal-property documentation checklist

  This program-specific checklist illustrates itemized contents, estimated costs or quotes, pre- and post-loss photos, receipts, statements, warranties, and appraisals as possible documentation. Requirements vary by program and policy.

• Xactware help: import inventory with Excel templates

  Verisk documents room, description, vendor, quantity, age, condition, and cost fields for an Excel inventory imported into XactContents.

• Xactware help: review CAT/SEL

  Verisk recommends assigning and reviewing category and selector codes before completing a contents estimate.

• IICRC S500 standard overview

  IICRC publishes the professional water-damage restoration standard. A qualified restoration professional—not inventory software—makes restoration and safety decisions under the applicable standard and loss conditions.