Review the estimate before submission.

Before the review

Confirm which project the estimate is supposed to represent.

An estimate review cannot be stronger than the source record. Begin with the latest estimate version and the available scope, photographs, measurements, sketches, reports, job notes, invoices or bids, project conditions, and prior estimate-related correspondence. Identify whether the review concerns planned repair, work already performed, a supplement, a contractor-versus-carrier comparison, or an unpaid account.

Then separate documented facts from assumptions. A photo may show a damaged wall but not its exact dimensions. A sketch may provide dimensions but not concealed conditions. A report may document conditions but not every repair component. The estimator should state what the file shows and what still requires confirmation.

The RSR six-pass review

Read the estimate as a connected model of the work.

1. Scope pass

Compare every documented affected area, material, assembly, trade, task, and phase with the estimate. Look for missing rooms, overlooked elevations, unrepresented work, inconsistent descriptions, and scope that appears in the estimate without available support.

2. Quantity pass

Verify dimensions, counts, units, equipment days, labor units, waste, openings, deductions, and formulas against source measurements. Check whether the estimate uses the correct unit and whether quantities are duplicated across related items.

3. Method pass

Test whether the estimate represents the documented repair or restoration sequence. Removal, access, protection, cleaning, drying, repair, replacement, finish, and reset activities may each require different components depending on the work.

4. Component pass

Inspect labor, materials, equipment, protection, access, detachment, resetting, disposal, mobilization, and related tasks. Confirm whether a component is included in an item assembly, separately listed, or genuinely missing.

5. Price-detail pass

Review item definitions, quality assumptions, price-list date and region, bids, invoices, subcontractor information, and documented market or project conditions. A price difference needs a specific factual explanation.

6. Support pass

Connect material scope decisions to photographs, measurements, notes, reports, bids, invoices, standards, or explicit assumptions. Identify the exact record that would resolve any remaining uncertainty.

Review omissions and duplication together

Adding every related item is not quality estimating. A review should find both missing components and components already included elsewhere. Verisk makes item definitions and assemblies available for inspection, and the Restoration Industry Association points estimators to related, similar, category, and division searches that can surface alternatives and supporting tasks.

Price-list context

Understand what the price data can—and cannot—tell you.

Verisk’s Pricing Research Methodology says its property price data combines a top-down review of completed estimates and market surveys with bottom-up research into labor, materials, equipment, and item components. Verisk reports reviewing nearly 20,000 market surveys each month and receiving more than 400,000 estimates each day for analysis.

Those figures explain the breadth of the publisher’s data process; they do not prove that a specific item, assumption, or price fits a specific project. Verisk also states that published prices target a common job scenario, that prices can vary among providers, and that users can inspect item detail and assemblies in Xactimate.

RIA’s guidance on pricing feedback recommends detailed, local inputs such as competitive labor, material, and equipment costs, contact information for local suppliers or subcontractors, and itemized bids, bills, or receipts. It warns against vague cost references and lump-sum support.

Comparing two estimates

Compare the reason for the difference—not only the dollar difference.

Create a comparison by area and task. For each material difference, classify it as scope, quantity, method, component, price detail, or support. Then identify the record that supports each position.

Same item, different quantity

Check source measurements, units, deductions, waste, counts, equipment duration, or calculation method.

Different item, similar task

Inspect the item definition, quality, components, and repair method. The name alone may not reveal the functional difference.

Item present in one estimate only

Determine whether it represents missing scope, a related component, a different sequence, an included assembly component, or unsupported work.

Same scope, different price

Check region, date, item detail, bids, invoices, local inputs, documented conditions, and any permitted user adjustment.

Different total, unclear cause

Normalize the comparison by room, area, trade, task, and phase before drawing a conclusion.

Final quality-control checklist

Ask these questions before the estimate leaves your team.

1. Is the correct project, customer, property, estimate version, price list, and date clearly identified?
2. Does every documented affected area appear in the estimate?
3. Can every material quantity be traced to a measurement, count, duration, or stated calculation?
4. Does the estimate reflect the documented repair or restoration method and sequence?
5. Have related components been considered without duplicating what an item already includes?
6. Are item definitions, quality, components, and units appropriate for the documented work?
7. Are project-specific conditions and deviations supported with reliable records?
8. Are assumptions, exclusions, missing inputs, and unresolved questions visible?
9. Do estimate versions preserve the chronology of changes?
10. Does the estimate remain within the estimator’s qualifications and the contractor’s professional scope?

If the answer is unclear across several areas, Estimate Assurance can provide a structured second review. If no detailed estimate exists yet, Precision Estimating may be the better starting point.

Sources & further reading

Review the estimating references.