What Disappears When an Xactimate Estimate Becomes a PDF

You've got two estimates open — your Xactimate ESX on one screen, their PDF on the other. The RCVs don't match, and you’re trying to figure out why.

You start going line-by-line. Thirty minutes in, you spot it: a modified line item buried on page twenty-one. The description says "seal and paint trim – two coats", but it's actually been repurposed for drip edge work. There's no green highlight to tip you off — that disappeared when it became a PDF.

Now you're wondering: how many more of these are hiding in here?

This is the hidden cost of custom line items. In Xactimate, they're flagged in green. In a PDF, they're invisible. And if you don't catch them, you're leaving money on the table. 

What are Green Items?

Xactimate flags modified items by highlighting them in green – a “Green Item”.

There are a couple reasons someone might create a “Green Item”. 

1. Repurposing existing line items: Sometimes there isn’t a suitable line item for a particular repair action. 
   
   For example, roofing estimators might want a line item for  “seal and paint drip edge”, but because it doesn’t exist, they might instead modify the description of an existing line item: “seal and paint trim - two coats”.
   
   

2. Creating new line items: Users might also create Green Items to include new line items and prices in their estimate.
   
   For example, estimators often need to include outside invoices and custom prices in their estimates, such as Tree Service Invoice* or Southern Chute Invoice*. These are often created using Bid Items, MISC items, or user-defined codes.

Green Items give estimators and adjusters the flexibility to include non-standard work and costs in their Xactimate estimate.

Xactimate highlights them in green because they fall outside the standard line item list. They carry assumptions the system doesn’t underwrite – that’s what makes them worth paying attention to.

What Happens When Green Items Disappear?

When an estimate is exported as a PDF, the green highlighting disappears. The custom items are still there; they just look like everything else.

Some estimators might leave indicators — asterisks, Bid Item codes, F9 notes — but in a 60-page estimate, these are easy to miss. And sometimes they're not included at all.

The cost shows up in two ways:

• Time – Slower Claims Cycles: As William Ledbetter puts it: “Converting a PDF to Xactimate can take 2-3 hours, especially when there are custom line items that I have to dig into”. 

• Money – Overlooked Money: Custom items get missed. These items carry non-standard assumptions about the work and costs necessary to repair a property.
  
  These items deserve scrutiny. They're where the real disagreements lie.

Xactimate is powerful precisely because it creates a shared foundation for adjusters and contractors to negotiate. Custom line items undermine that foundation when they're hidden, turning what should be a conversation into guesswork and eroding the common ground that makes quick settlement possible.

How ClaimsFlow Recovers Green Items with PDF to ESX

ClaimsFlow automatically flags custom line items when you upload a PDF estimate.

That means before you make a single edit, or write a response, you have full visibility into which items are non-standard. No rebuilding the estimate into Xactimate. No reconciling line-by-line against the PDF. No wondering if you missed anything. 

Instead of spending your time finding the disagreements, you spend it solving them. That's where your expertise as an estimator or adjuster actually matters.

The result is better negotiations, faster cycles, and greater transparency for both sides – exactly what Xactimate was designed to do in the first place.

Try It On Your Next Estimate

Upload a PDF estimate and see which custom items ClaimsFlow highlights for you. Try for free at www.ClaimsFlow.io