If you want to do insurance water jobs, you’ll hear one word over and over: Xactimate. Here’s what it is, why it matters and how to approach it as a beginner.
What Xactimate is
Xactimate is estimating software widely used by insurance companies, adjusters and restoration contractors. It uses standardized line items and regional pricing, so an adjuster can read your estimate in the same format they see every day. Symbility is another program some carriers use.
Why it matters
When your estimate speaks the adjuster’s language, it’s easier to review and approve. A handwritten or homemade estimate on an insurance job usually means more questions, more back-and-forth and slower payment.
The software isn’t the hard part
Beginners think learning the buttons is the challenge. It isn’t. The hard part is that every line on your estimate needs support: a photo, a moisture reading, a drying log entry. Line items without documentation are the ones that get cut.
How to approach it as a beginner
- Learn the job before the software. Understand what a water job actually involves day by day.
- Document everything so you have something to back each line.
- Start with simple jobs and build from there.
- Bill only for what was needed and done. Padding an estimate is how you lose an adjuster’s trust for good.
- Handle pushback with evidence, not arguments.
On direct-pay jobs, you don’t need Xactimate at all. Price those separately for a customer paying out of pocket.
Learn estimating step by step
Module 3 of the 6-Figure Launchpad covers estimating basics, including Xactimate and Symbility, handling pushback with evidence, and separating insurance from direct-pay pricing.
Keep reading: Pricing a cash water damage job, Invoicing and collections and Documenting a job so you get paid. New to Damage to Dollars? Start on the home page.
