If you’ve ever opened a carrier’s estimate, you’ve met Xactimate. It’s the software behind most of the property estimates roofers argue with, and sooner or later every roofing company that does insurance work asks the same question: do we buy a license and learn it, or do we hand the estimates to someone who already speaks it fluently?
Here’s how to think about it, from the people who used to write those carrier estimates.
What Xactimate is, and why carriers care so much
Xactimate is Verisk’s estimating platform, and it’s what most carriers and their adjusters use to write property claims. It prices every line item from a regional price list that’s updated regularly, uses its own line-item codes, and produces an estimate in a format desk adjusters review all day long. A few carriers, Farmers among them, use Symbility instead, but Xactimate is the default language of residential roof claims.
That matters because a desk adjuster reviewing your supplement wants to reconcile it against the carrier’s estimate, line for line. When your supplement is written in the same software, in the same price list, with a note justifying every added item, approval is mostly a matter of checking your documentation. When it shows up as a spreadsheet or a retail proposal, someone has to re-key it, and that’s where line items go to quietly disappear.
Do roofers need an Xactimate license?
Short answer: no, not to get supplements paid. What you need is a supplement written in Xactimate. Those are two different things, and the difference is worth real money.
Owning a license makes sense if you run steady claim volume and have a dedicated estimator whose whole job is writing and defending scopes. It makes a lot less sense if you’re mostly a retail roofer who picks up the occasional claim, a newer company where the owner is also the salesperson, or anyone currently writing estimates at 10 p.m. after a full day on roofs.
What it actually takes to run Xactimate well
The license is the easy part. Learning Xactimate is a bit like learning guitar: the first chord takes an afternoon, and sounding good takes years. To write supplements carriers approve, someone on your team needs to handle all of this:
- Picking the right regional price list and keeping up with price list updates.
- Knowing which line items cover the work, and which ones carriers push back on.
- Writing F9 notes that tie every added item to a photo, a code section, a manufacturer requirement or a roof report page.
- Building macros so common roof systems don’t get written from scratch every time (see our Xactimate roofing macros and templates).
- Importing roof measurement reports and checking quantities, waste, and steep and high charges.
- Following up with the desk adjuster until a revised estimate is issued, which is the part nobody has time for.
Writing the supplement is maybe a third of the job. Getting it approved is the rest.
Hiring an Xactimate estimator: in-house or outsourced
In-house gives you control and someone down the hall, but it also means a salary through the slow months, training time, and a single point of failure. When a hailstorm drops 200 claims on your desk, one estimator becomes a very expensive bottleneck.
Outsourced means you pay per job and the capacity flexes with the weather. If you go this route, here’s what to look for in an Xactimate estimator or supplement company:
- Former adjusters who’ve written carrier estimates, not just people who completed the training.
- Supplements written in the carrier’s own price list, delivered as both a PDF and an ESX file.
- Follow-up included. A supplement that’s written but never chased is just a very detailed wish list.
- Pricing tied to results, so they only win when you do.
- A clear line on what they don’t do. Estimators who inspect roofs, meet adjusters or advise homeowners on coverage are drifting into public-adjuster territory, which creates problems you don’t want.
Where EOD fits
Every estimator at Estimate on Demand is a former field adjuster. We work entirely from what you send us: the carrier’s estimate, your roof measurement report and your photos. We don’t go on roofs or meet adjusters in the field. If a photo is missing, we tell you exactly what to shoot.
From there, we write the supplement in Xactimate in the carrier’s price list, with a justification on every added line item, and you review it before it goes out. It’s in the carrier’s hands within 24 hours of a complete file, and we chase it until the revised estimate is issued. You pay 10% of the increase, after the job closes. No increase, no fee, no minimums.
See how our roofing supplement service works, or read more about Xactimate roofing supplements and what carriers usually miss.
A quick decision guide
- High claim volume and a dedicated estimator: own the license, and keep an outside team for storm overflow.
- Mixed retail and insurance work: skip the license and outsource the Xactimate estimates.
- New company or owner-operator: outsource now, and revisit once claims are a steady share of revenue.
- Already own Xactimate but nobody has time to chase: keep writing, and hand off the follow-up, or the whole file.
Either way, the goal is the same: a supplement the desk adjuster can approve without re-keying a thing. Whether your team writes it or ours does matters a lot less than whether it gets written well and chased until it’s paid.
