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By: The Encircle Team
Floor Plan Update – From property scan to Xactimate sketch in under 6 hours
For restoration contractors performing emergency mitigation services, speed and accuracy are critical to getting a homeowner on the path back to normal. Timely and accurate documentation is a key piece of the puzzle, since these situations often involve property insurance claims.
Documentation is crucial to determine coverage, set loss reserves, and settle the claim for the policyholder (not to mention helping contractors get paid fairly for the work performed!). Unfortunately, documentation is often seen as a necessary evil for many restoration contractors — they didn’t get into this business to do paperwork, after all.
Imagine a world where the painstaking process of sketching and documenting a property loss was instead digital, automated, and totally reliable… Now stop imagining it, because the wait is over!
Encircle – restoration contractors’ preferred weapon of choice for field documentation — released Floor Plan in March 2023. Since then, users have been able to save hours in the field, removing the need to measure and sketch by hand. Now, with an integration with Xactimate, those floor plans can be imported into the industry’s leading estimating platform with a click of a button.
A complete property sketch automatically generated in Xactimate? Yep – it’s real, and it’s spectacular 😉
Fantastic floor plans
Encircle Floor Plan, combined with Encircle’s Xactimate integration bridges the gap between field documentation and estimation, speeding up the entire property claim cycle for everyone. Anyone with a smartphone can capture an entire property in 5 minutes and get a 2D floor plan back in around 90 minutes (guaranteed under 6 hours). With a few clicks and a little bit of integration magic, that floor plan can be imported into Xactimate to automatically generate the property sketch.
Get estimates started on Day 1
Manually sketching a property is a time-consuming, error-prone process. Other digital solutions are either too complicated to use in the field or take too long to get the sketch returned — oftentimes both.
With Encircle Floor Plan, contractors can get professional sketches the same day, without ever lifting a pencil. A simple import into Xactimate automatically creates the sketch, allowing an accurate estimate to be started on the same day the scan was done on site. Click here to learn more about the advantages of starting estimates on Day 1.
Accurate estimates
Measurement inaccuracies in an estimate are a point of friction with adjusters, often leading to delays in approvals and payments for restorers. Encircle Floor Plan uses advanced technology to capture properties with accurate dimensions, creating consistency and minimizing the risk of human error. Those accurate dimensions come right into Xactimate, making sure that every estimate is based on precise measurements of the property and reducing the risk of disputes down the line.
Properties of all shapes and sizes
Properties come in all shapes and sizes, with intricate layouts, angled walls, rooms within rooms, etc. This poses challenges not just for measuring and sketching by hand, but also for creating those property sketches within Xactimate. Using a simple video scan, Encircle Floor Plan accurately captures any property up to 10,000 square feet, no matter how complex. And now that the floor plan can be imported to create an automatic Xactimate sketch, this will save estimators significant time and cognitive load, so they can get started on estimate line items faster.
Click here to learn more about the advantages of Encircle Floor Plan vs a 3D tour solution.
Collaboration and clarity
Property insurance claims involve many parties — contractors, adjusters, managed repair networks, property owners, and insurance companies. With Encircle Floor Plan, there's a clear, standardized, visual representation of the property and its dimensions. This gets everyone on the same page with the scope of work and the estimated costs from Day 1, creating a smoother, more collaborative, and more successful claim resolution.
3 steps to sketching success
Follow these 3 steps to generate automatic sketches in Xactimate:
- Set up the integration between Encircle and Xactimate (only needs to be done once)
- Capture a floor plan by scanning the property with the Encircle mobile app
- Import your floor plan into Xactimate
These sketches will reflect the actual dimensions of the property and give a solid foundation for refining and customizing the sketch as needed, making sure you can start your estimates on Day 1.
Wrap up
Encircle’s new integration with Xactimate is more than just a product update — it’s a leap forward for the entire property restoration and claims industry. Restoration contractors now have the power to enhance efficiency, accuracy, and collaboration through the delivery of estimates that aren't only timely but impeccably precise.
The Xactimate integration is available to anyone with an Encircle subscription. A fee of $10 USD will be charged for each sketch import into Xactimate.
Already an Encircle customer?
Chat with your success manager for help setting up the integration.
Not an Encircle customer yet?
Book a demo to see Encircle Floor Plan and this integration in action!
