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Contents Inventory Template for Insurance Claims

A free room-by-room template for listing personal property after a fire, flood, theft or total loss. Excel or CSV, seven columns, no sign-up — and it imports straight into Kevin if your adjuster uses it.

Kevin Godfrey, KevinLast updated 29 October 2026

What should a contents inventory template include?

Room, description, quantity, make, model number, age and content class — one row per item. Description and age do the most work: the first decides what gets priced, the second decides how much depreciation comes off it.

Download the Excel templateDownload as CSV

No email required. The CSV opens in Excel, Numbers and Google Sheets.

What goes in each column

Seven columns. Only Description is strictly required.
ColumnWhat it isHow to fill it in
Room / areaWhere it wasKitchen, Primary bedroom, Garage. Any name you use — it does not have to match a floor plan.
DescriptionWhat it wasThe one column that matters most. "Sofa" prices as a generic sofa; "3-seat fabric sofa, dark grey, chaise right" prices as that.
QtyHow manyA number. Six identical dining chairs can be one row with Qty 6.
MakeBrand, if you know itLeave blank rather than guess. A wrong brand is worse than an empty cell.
Model #Model or serial, if you have itOff the item, the manual, a receipt or the box. This is what moves a price from close to exact.
Age (yrs)Roughly how oldA whole number is fine. Age drives depreciation, so a rough figure beats a blank.
Content classWhat kind of thing it isOptional. Leave it blank and it gets classified on import.

A filled-in example

Five rows, showing the level of detail that prices well. Note the blanks — two rows have no brand, one has no model number, and that is correct. Guessing is worse than leaving a cell empty.

The template, filled in
Room / areaDescriptionQtyMakeModel #AgeClass
Living room3-seat fabric sofa, dark grey, chaise on right1——4—
Living room55" 4K smart television, wall-mounted1SamsungUN55TU80003—
KitchenStand mixer, 5 qt, red1KitchenAidKSM150PSER7—
Primary bedroomQueen bed frame, dark wood1——6—
GarageCordless drill with two batteries1DeWalt—2—

The example is on this page rather than inside the file on purpose: an example row left in a spreadsheet gets imported and priced as though it were your property.

How to work through it

  • One room at a time, finished before you move on. Picturing a single shelf recovers far more than trying to list the whole house by category.
  • Open drawers, wardrobes and cupboards in your memory. The things that get missed are the ones that were never on display — linens, tools, kitchenware, the contents of a garage shelf.
  • Photograph a model plate wherever one survived. On anything where brand moves the price, that photograph settles a question no description can.
  • Group identical items on one row with a quantity. Six matching dining chairs are one row, Qty 6 — not six rows.
  • List high-value items even though they are capped. Jewelry, firearms, fine art and furs usually have separate policy limits. That is the adjuster’s call to apply, not a reason to leave them off.
  • Do not throw anything away to tidy up. Damaged property is evidence until the adjuster has seen it.

For adjusters: send this to your insured

The columns are the ones Kevin’s importer recognises, so a returned file maps without re-keying — parse, map, preview, import, and nothing is created until the preview step. Section headings your insured leaves in (“KITCHEN” on its own line) are flagged for removal rather than silently priced as property, and large lists chunk automatically.

From there each line prices against retail comps with a source link on the row, depreciates by content class and age against a published schedule, and exports as Xactimate (Excel) .xlsx in the XactContents template. The full written-import path, including PDFs and a restoration company’s pack-out list, is on pricing contents without photos.

Common questions

What is considered contents for insurance purposes?
Broadly, the things that would fall out if you turned the house upside down — furniture, appliances that are not built in, electronics, clothing, kitchenware, tools, décor, toys and linens. What is attached to the building is usually structure, not contents. Jewelry, firearms, fine art and furs are contents but most policies cap them separately, so list them and let the adjuster apply the limit.
What is the best way to create an inventory list?
Room by room, one row per item, with a photograph of anything whose brand or model affects the price. Work through one room completely before moving on — it is far easier to remember what was on a shelf while you are picturing that shelf than to list the whole house by category.
How detailed does the description need to be?
Detailed enough that someone who never saw the item could shop for it. Size, material, colour, capacity and the number of pieces all change the price. "Rug" could be $40 or $4,000; "8x10 wool area rug, hand-knotted, blue" could not.
What if I do not know the brand or model?
Leave those cells empty. A blank is honest and gets priced from the description; a guessed brand sends the search after the wrong product and the error survives into the claim. If you find a receipt later, add it then.
Do I need photographs as well as the list?
They help, and for anything where brand or model moves the price they help a lot — a photograph of a model plate settles a question a description cannot. But the list works on its own, which is the point of it for a total loss where nothing survived to photograph.
What happens after I send this to my adjuster?
If they use Kevin, the file imports directly — the columns match what the importer expects, so nothing is re-keyed. Each line is then priced against retail comps with a source link, depreciated by class and age, and exported in the format the carrier reads.

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