You send a converted scope to a client, they open it in Xactimate, and the total that comes back is not the total that left your desk. Or you open a file someone sent you and the numbers move before you touch a thing. The question that follows is always the same: why did the total change?
The answer is usually not a bug and not a bad conversion. Xactimate prices every file against the price list loaded on the machine that opens it. That is how the platform works, and once you can see which lines moved, the change stops being a mystery and becomes a supplement line.
Here is the mechanism, the one error that moves more single lines than any other, and a pre-import workflow that surfaces all of it before you submit.
What reprice actually means
A Xactimate estimate is line items, quantities, codes, and notes. The prices are not locked into the file the way most people assume. When the file opens, Xactimate prices each line from the list loaded on that machine, for that region, for that price month.
So two people can open the same file on two machines in two regions and see two different totals before anyone edits anything. The file carries the record. The receiver's list does the pricing.
That is the idea behind keeping the printed price on every line in a converted file. The price you saw on the carrier's PDF stays attached to the line as a reference, and Xactimate prices it again against your list. When the two differ, the difference is information, not noise.
When the delta is a legitimate supplement line
Price lists move with the market and by region. A scope the carrier priced on an older price month can come back higher today for no reason other than the list moved. When the work is still ahead of you, that gap is a supplement conversation.
The pattern is simple. Date the list the carrier used. Reprice the same scope on your list. Compare the two line by line. Where a line moved and the work has not been done yet, you have a documented supplement line with a reason attached: the scope was priced on an edition that no longer reflects current costs.
Key Insight: Do not argue with the total. Argue with the line. A total that moved is a headline. The line behind it is what a reviewer can act on, and a line only moves when you attach the reason it should. Repricing hands you the list of lines that already moved on their own.
Date the carrier's price list before you submit
Every Xactimate estimate carries a price-list identity: a region and an edition, often called the price month. On a carrier's PDF you will find it near the estimate header or on the summary. The exact label varies with the product and version that produced the file, so look for the region and the date rather than one fixed heading.
Write it down as the first line of your supplement narrative. Something as plain as "priced on [region] [month]" tells the reviewer exactly which list your comparison is built on. That puts the conversation on the document instead of on a memory of a phone call.
Where that edition differs from the one you have loaded, expect movement when the file opens. The conversion did not fail. Two price lists disagreed, and now you can name them.
The activity-code mismatch, the biggest single-line error
Line items carry an activity code. Install means material and labor. Removal means labor only: you take the old material off, and you do not buy and install anything new. Add covers a smaller addition to an existing line.
The most common reprice error on a file that was converted, re-keyed, or assembled by hand is a removal priced as an install, or a line that should have been a removal left as a full install. It is one line, and because install lines carry material, that one line can move a total hard.
Before you submit, sort the file and read the activity on every large line. Anything that says remove, tear out, or detach should be a removal activity. Anything going back on the roof should be an install. Check the biggest labor lines first, because the cost of the mistake lives there.
The catch-all code trap
Xactimate has catch-all and miscellaneous classes. When a scope uses one, Xactimate prices that line itself on import, from its own list, and the figure that comes back can land far from what the file carried.
This is the failure mode behind files that reprice to several times their original figure. The line looked harmless in the scope. On import, the platform did what a catch-all class tells it to do, and the total followed.
ESXPress does not emit catch-all codes. It keeps the printed price from the carrier's PDF on the line and flags anything it cannot match to a real code, so an unresolved line shows up in a review list instead of hiding inside a number. You see the line that needs a decision, and you make it.
A pre-import workflow that catches all of this
- Date the price list on the carrier scope. Region and edition, written down.
- Convert the PDF to ESX with the printed price kept on each line.
- Read the review list. Unresolved lines are flagged there, not guessed at.
- Run a reprice check to see which lines your list prices differently.
- Compare the totals item by item: replacement cost, overhead and profit, tax, depreciation, and the net figure. Name every line that moved.
- Fix the activity codes and the catch-alls, then submit.
Steps two and four are the ones people skip, and they are the ones that turn a mystery into a list.
Why line by line beats eyeballing
A total that moved tells you nothing about which line moved. Comparing a PDF against an estimate by eye means you cannot reconcile quantity by quantity, and the line you miss is usually the expensive one. Get both sides onto the same structure first, then compare.
Convert the carrier scope PDF to a Xactimate ESX file so the comparison is line for line, with the printed price kept on every line and anything unverifiable flagged for review. Start on the free plan: five conversions a month, no card required.
To go deeper on the mechanism, read why Xactimate reprices an estimate and the repricing explainer. To see which lines your own list prices differently, run the reprice check. If you build supplements from satellite scopes, the satellite supplement guide covers the carry-over items that go missing before the file ever opens, and the complete PDF to Xactimate guide walks the full conversion.