Find how much you have
Sign in to Xactimate Online and open the Projects page. On desktop, open the Project dashboard and choose Cloud, since projects stored locally are automatically backed up there, so counting Local as well would count some twice.
Clear any filters (on desktop the Filter icon offers presets such as Past 7 days, Assignments, Estimates, Checked Out and Completed). The Cloud list mixes assignments sent from XactAnalysis with estimates created manually in Xactimate. On desktop the Assignments filter shows the XactAnalysis ones, and their status carries an A (assignment) or C (collaboration) prefix, so count them separately and take them out of your total.
In Xactimate Online, open the column menu (the vertical ellipsis at the far right of the Projects table) and add any date columns it offers. Clicking a column header sorts the list, which makes the oldest project easy to find.
To count company-wide, ask your instance administrator to open the Projects tab in XactAdmin. It lists projects for all profiles in the instance, with columns for date created, modified date, owner and number of items.
The help pages do not describe a built-in total, so count the rows after clearing filters. Leave out projects sitting in the Deleted projects list.
Take your start date from the earliest date created in XactAdmin, or the oldest modified date on your own list. Note separately how many projects are carrier or third-party assignments rather than your own estimates.
What to put on your intake
Your intake has five boxes for each system. Here is what goes in each one for Xactimate.
- What does it hold?
- Your own estimates: sketches, line items and quantities, scope notes, claim and loss information, and the photos or notes attached to items. Something like: roofing and exterior repair estimates and supplements we wrote.
- Data types
- Structured records for the line items and claim fields. Add Text for scope notes and narratives, and Image for sketches or photos attached to estimates.
- How big is it?
- Choose Estimates as the unit and enter the number of your own projects. Do not count restored versions, duplicates or projects that were sent to you by someone else. Say what you excluded in the description.
- Verified or estimated
- Verified when you counted the rows in an unfiltered project list or XactAdmin. Estimated when you are extrapolating from one year or from a filtered view.
- Records start
- The earliest date created across your projects. If you moved to Xactimate from another estimating tool, earlier estimates live there and belong in their own entry.
Exporting the full history
If a buyer licenses your records, this is how the full history comes out of Xactimate.
A full-history export happens only after a license is signed and the scope is agreed: which projects, which date range, and which items from your own work are in. Verisk price lists and pricing data are third-party content and are excluded.
Xactimate Online: select a project on the Projects page, click the Export icon, choose Save project to get an .esx file (Export to Excel gives a spreadsheet instead), then click Export. The help article describes one project at a time.
Xactimate desktop: close the project first, because a project must be closed before it can be exported. In the Local list, drag the project to a folder, or select it and use the Export icon. Desktop exports are .esx files, and the Export icon route also offers Excel.
For many projects, ask your instance administrator about the XactAdmin Projects tab, which lists import and export among its project actions. Xactimate Online also has a Data transfer tool (Tools, then Export, then Select data), but its help article does not say whether projects can be exported in bulk that way, so confirm with Xactware. On desktop, Data Transfer is not available to every user, and an administrator may need to change your security group.
Estimate reports can be saved as a PDF from the estimate's Documents, then Reports section. PDF is the only report format the help article documents.
Under the license, claim, customer and property identifiers are removed before delivery, and Verisk price lists and pricing data are excluded. How line-item prices are handled is settled when the scope is agreed.
We only ask for an export after you sign a license and agree the scope. Sizing your data for the intake never needs one.
Limits to know
Third-party content
Your own estimates and scopes can be licensed. Verisk price lists and pricing data cannot.
- Verisk price lists and pricing data are not yours to license. Prices reach an estimate through price lists that sync automatically, and third-party pricing, such as asphalt shingle pricing from an outside company, is requested for specific items and then becomes part of the estimate.
- The help pages we reviewed do not say exactly what an .esx file contains, for instance whether photos or price-list data travel inside it. Check with Xactware before promising a buyer a particular file layout.
- A desktop project must be closed before it can be exported. On desktop, deleting a project from the Local list also deletes it from the Cloud. In Xactimate Online, deleted projects can be recovered from the Deleted projects icon on the Projects page, and XactAdmin can restore projects too, but the pages give no time window for recovery.
- Xactimate keeps a copy of a project each time you save it, and restoring a previous version adds an extra project to your list. Duplicates inflate a project count, so count your real estimates, not versions.
- Backup and restore in Xactimate Online is limited to projects, done by exporting and importing them. Do not treat Xactimate Online itself as an archive.
- Assignments sent through XactAnalysis may carry a carrier's or other party's claim data. Confirm you are allowed to share those before including them in a count or a license.
- Online and desktop describe different export paths, and the Online help article covers a single project. We found no documented limit on how long projects are kept, so ask Xactware if your oldest estimates matter.
This guide isn't legal advice. Check your contracts, and any recording-consent rules that apply, with your own lawyer.
Why buyers value it
An estimate is a contractor's decision written down: what damage was found, what scope was chosen, in what quantities, and how the job was structured for the insurer. Across thousands of roofs and exteriors, that is a record of how experienced estimators translate field conditions into line items.
Buyers building estimating, claims-review and scope-checking tools want exactly this, especially when it can be tied to the outcome in your CRM: approved, supplemented, denied or sold. Your estimates and scope notes are the licensable part. The pricing underneath them belongs to someone else.
What stays private
Policyholder and customer names, property addresses, claim and policy numbers, phone numbers and emails come out of the files before delivery. Adjuster and carrier contact details are removed, along with your staff members' personal details.
Verisk price lists and pricing data are excluded because they are third-party content, not data you own. The same goes for third-party pricing and any vendor reports attached to an estimate. What is left is your own scope, structure and notes.
Common questions
Sources
Vendor documentation, checked . Screens and plans change, so if a step looks different in your account, check with Xactimate.
- Xactware Help: Export projects from Xactimate online (opens in a new tab)
- Xactware Help: Export a project to your computer from Xactimate desktop (opens in a new tab)
- Xactware Help: Import .esx project files to Xactimate desktop (opens in a new tab)
- Xactware Help: Project storage in Xactimate desktop (opens in a new tab)
- Xactware Help: Filter and search for a project (opens in a new tab)
- Xactware Help: The Projects tab in XactAdmin (opens in a new tab)
- Xactware Help: Customize columns in Xactimate online (opens in a new tab)
- Xactware Help: Data transfer in Xactimate online (opens in a new tab)
- Xactware Help: Back up and restore data in Xactimate online (opens in a new tab)
- Xactware Help: Deleting and recovering projects in Xactimate online (opens in a new tab)
- Xactware Help: Delete a project in Xactimate desktop (opens in a new tab)
- Xactware Help: Restoring previous versions of projects (opens in a new tab)
- Xactware Help: Project status in Xactimate desktop and online (opens in a new tab)
- Xactware Help: Export reports in Xactimate online (opens in a new tab)
- Xactware Help: Third-party pricing in Xactimate online (opens in a new tab)
- Xactware Help: Request price lists in Xactimate online (opens in a new tab)