File administration
Claim Diary & Activity Log Template & Example
Last updated 2026-08-03
The diary is not an optional internal habit. Model 910 §6(A) lists what a property and casualty claim file must contain at a minimum, and "adjustors logs" is on that list by name, alongside "any documented or recorded telephone communication related to the handling of a claim". Model 910 is a drafting template and binds nobody by itself, but it is the language states worked from, and it says plainly that the oral half of the claim is part of the file. The only place that half lives is the notes you type after you hang up.
That gives every note a job with three parts: when it happened, how it happened, and what was actually said or done. Miss the first and the file cannot be put in order. Miss the second and nobody can tell a voicemail from a conversation. Miss the third and the note records that you were busy, which is not the same as recording that the claim moved. The template below is that three-part schema plus the two things a note also has to carry: what changed as a result, and what happens next.
The worked example runs the first week of a fictional water loss and includes the exercise worth doing once: a real-looking note that fails, rewritten as one that does not. The failing note is nine words long and every adjuster has typed it.
Jurisdiction
Written primarily against US first-party property practice. Claim handling is regulated state by state — acknowledgment and response deadlines, prompt-payment requirements, adjuster licensing and unfair claims practices standards all differ — and the policy actually issued governs the claim. Where a page cites a statute, model act or regulation, confirm what applies in the state where the loss occurred. Outside the US, treat the structure as transferable and the legal references as not.
Claim Diary template
Free Word download, no email required. Or open it in Professional Drafter — it lands in your template library, ready to draft against.
When to use this document
- Every claim, from first notice to closing. The diary is the spine the reports are later reconstructed from, not an artifact you build at the end.
- Immediately after any contact that was not itself written down: telephone calls, voicemails left and received, doorstep conversations, site meetings, anything agreed verbally with a contractor or vendor.
- Whenever a number, a position or a plan changes: a reserve movement, a referral, a decision to retain an expert, a deadline reset. The figure lands in the system; the reason it moved only ever lands here.
Worked example
Fictional scenario: the first six days of a water loss diary, claim PC-2026-11482, insured D. Okonjo, adjuster R. Calloway. It includes a nine-word note that fails the reconstruction standard, rewritten as one that passes, and it ends with a question the log deliberately leaves open.
Claim header block
Claim PC-2026-11482. Policy HO-4471903, term 1 March 2026 to 1 March 2027. Insured: D. Okonjo. Risk: 118 Harbour Lane, single-family dwelling. Date of loss: reported 14 July 2026, discovered approximately 07:15. Date of assignment: 15 July 2026. Adjuster: R. Calloway. Examiner: C. Mendez. Coverage parts in play: dwelling, unscheduled personal property. ALE not claimed to date.
Entry number, date and time
Entry 004. Event 15 July 2026, 16:42. Entered 15 July 2026, 17:05. Entered by R. Calloway.
The first three entries are assignment receipt (entry 001, 15 July 09:20), file setup and initial reserve (002), and an outbound call at 11:15 that reached voicemail (003). Entry 003 is logged as its own entry rather than folded into 004, because an attempted contact and an achieved contact are different facts and the interval between them is what a reviewer measures.
Manner
Outbound telephone call, answered. Duration 10 minutes.
Entry 003 by contrast reads: voicemail left, no callback received as at the time of entry 004. The distinction matters here because entry 003 is the first attempted contact and entry 004 is the first actual one, and any question later about contact timeliness turns on which of the two counts under the adopted state rule.
Parties and how identified
D. Okonjo, named insured, on the mobile number given at first notice, ending 4417. Identity confirmed against the loss address and the date of loss as reported. Speaking from out of state; he confirmed he is away 15 to 17 July.
No representative involved. No public adjuster, no attorney, no contractor on the line. Recorded as a negative because the file will be read later by someone who cannot otherwise tell whether representation existed from day one.
Content: what was said, requested and agreed
Here is the note as it was first typed, and it is the note this template exists to prevent:
"Called the insured, 10 min. Will inspect next week."
Nothing in that survives contact with a reviewer. It does not say who called whom, whether anyone answered, what was discussed, what was asked for, what the insured said, what was agreed, or which day next week. Six months on, the person reading it cannot reconstruct the event, which is the standard Model 910 §6(A) sets for the file as a whole. The same ten minutes, written so that it can:
Told: acknowledged the loss and confirmed the claim number, the applicable dwelling and personal property limits, and the $2,500 all-peril deductible applying once to this occurrence. Explained that no coverage position is taken until the inspection and the file are complete, and that a written status update follows if the claim is still open at the interval his state's regulation sets.
Requested (15 July): access for inspection at the earliest date; the plumbing invoice for the water heater replacement he mentioned; a contents list for the stored items he described as water-damaged. Told him photographs of the affected area before any drying work would help and are not required.
He said: he was out of state until the evening of 17 July and declined to release a key to a neighbor or to the restoration vendor. He last occupied the dwelling at about 18:00 on Friday 11 July and found standing water at about 07:15 on 14 July. The water heater was replaced roughly a year ago by Feldstrom Plumbing and he believes he can locate the invoice. He asked whether the drywall would be replaced or dried, and was told the scope is determined at inspection.
Agreed: inspection 18 July at 09:00, the first date he offered. He will look for the invoice and email it. He will not disturb the failed supply line, which he has already disconnected and placed in the garage.
Documents received, processed or transmitted
Nothing received on this entry. Sent: nothing on this call; the acknowledgment letter went out under entry 002 on 15 July at 10:40, by email and mail, and its transmission date is recorded there rather than duplicated here.
Subsequent entries: entry 009, 18 July, contents inventory received by hand at inspection, 14 line items, unpriced. Entry 010, 18 July, Feldstrom Plumbing invoice 20941 dated 3 August 2025 received by email, legible as to date and vendor but illegible at the line-item detail, re-requested same day.
Action taken, decision made, and the reason
Inspection set for 18 July, the earliest date the insured offered. Diary set. No reserve movement on this entry; the indemnity reserve of $19,000 and expense reserve of $2,500 set under entry 002 stand until the scope is taken, and the basis recorded there is a desk estimate from the reported extent of wetting.
Decision recorded and not taken: I considered requesting the vendor be allowed to access the property before 18 July to begin drying, and did not pursue it after the insured declined a key release. Recorded so the three-day interval to inspection reads as the insured's availability rather than as inactivity. That interval, and its effect on the moisture readings, is carried through to the captioned report on this claim under Assignment.
Next action and diary date
Next action: attend inspection, 118 Harbour Lane, 18 July 09:00. Owner: R. Calloway. Diary 18 July.
Secondary diary 25 July: chase the plumbing invoice and the contents list if either is still outstanding. Both were requested today, 15 July. (Entry 010 later re-requests the invoice on 18 July for legibility, and entry 009 adds a request for pricing on the inventory received unpriced that day; the 25 July date carries both.)
Standing diary for the written status update, set against the interval in the adopted state regulation rather than against Model 902 §7(B) itself. Confirmed with C. Mendez which applies before the date was set, and the confirmation is logged at entry 006 rather than assumed here.
Corrections, late entries and author
Entry 014, 20 July 2026, entered 20 July 16:10 by R. Calloway. Corrects entry 004.
Entry 004 records the insured stating the water heater was replaced "roughly a year ago". Invoice 20941 received 18 July gives the date as 3 August 2025, eleven months before the loss. Entry 004 is not altered; the invoice date governs and this entry records the difference. The distinction is not cosmetic, since the recovery unit will work from the invoice date.
Open and deliberately unresolved as at entry 014: the duration of the release. The insured's last occupancy of 18:00 on 11 July and discovery at 07:15 on 14 July give an outer interval of about 61 hours, but there is no sub-meter, the municipal supply is read quarterly with the next read due in September, and there is no alarm or occupancy log. The diary records the interval as undetermined and does not estimate it. Entry 011 logs the question referred to C. Mendez on 20 July; no response yet, diary 27 July.
Section-by-section guide
What each section is for, what a good one contains, and where they typically go wrong.
1.Claim header block
Written once at the top of the log, not repeated in every entry. Claim number, policy number and term, insured, risk address, date of loss, assigned adjuster and examiner, coverage parts in play. It exists so that a printed extract of the log is self-identifying: diary pages get pulled out of the file for exam samples, reinsurance reporting and litigation holds, and a page of entries with no header is a page of orphaned text.
2.Entry number, date and time
Number entries sequentially and date-stamp each one, including the time for anything where sequence within a day matters. Keep the date of the event separate from the date you typed it, because the two diverge more often than anyone admits and the gap is the single most common reason a file cannot be reconstructed. Model 910 §6(A) states the standard the numbering serves: a claim file maintained so as to show clearly the inception, handling and disposition of each claim, and sufficiently clear and specific that pertinent events and the dates of those events can be reconstructed. Model 902 §4(B) puts the same test in one line — detailed documentation in each claim file sufficient to permit reconstruction of the insurer's activities on the claim. Sequential numbering also makes a missing entry visible, which an unnumbered chronology never does.
3.Manner
How the contact happened, in one word or two: outbound call, inbound call, voicemail left, voicemail received, email sent, email received, text, portal message, site meeting, doorstep. This is the field most often skipped and the one that changes the meaning of everything after it. "Discussed the scope with the insured" reads as a conversation; if the manner field says "voicemail left", it was not a conversation at all and the claim did not move. Written communications carry their own manner already, which is why the field matters most for the ones that do not.
4.Parties and how identified
Who you spoke to, in what role, and on what number or address. Include how you confirmed you were speaking to the right person where that is not obvious, and note whenever the contact was someone other than the named insured: a spouse, an adult child, a contractor, a public adjuster, an attorney. A file that logs six calls to "the insured" when three were actually to a restoration contractor will produce a coverage chronology that is wrong in a way nobody can detect later.
5.Content: what was said, requested and agreed
The substance, in enough detail that a reader can tell what changed. Three things belong here every time: what you told them, what you asked for, and what they said. Record requests with the date requested, because an outstanding item with no request date cannot be chased and cannot be defended. Write what was said rather than your reaction to it. Characterizations age badly and quote badly, and a note that says the insured was evasive is a note you will be asked to justify; a note that records the question and the answer given lets the reader form their own view.
6.Documents received, processed or transmitted
Date-stamp material documents on the way in and on the way out: proofs of loss, estimates, invoices, inventories, photographs, correspondence, authorizations. Record the date received rather than the date on the document, and note the channel. This is one of the few places a model regulation is specific about the mechanism: Model 902 §4(C) provides that each relevant document in the claim file be noted as to date received, date processed or date mailed. Most claim clocks run from receipt of something, so a document whose receipt date is unrecorded takes the clock with it. Note partial or illegible receipt too, since "received, line-item detail illegible, re-requested" is a materially different fact from "received".
7.Action taken, decision made, and the reason
What you actually did as a result, and why. Reserve changes belong here with their basis, not just their amount. So do referrals, retentions, coverage questions escalated to the examiner, and anything you decided not to do. The decisions not taken are the ones a reviewer most often cannot find, and a file that shows an option was considered and declined for a stated reason reads completely differently from a file that is silent about it. Adequate claim file documentation is one of the claims standards summarized in the NAIC Market Regulation Handbook examination standards, and this is the field that carries it. It is also the field a later report is assembled from: the Assignment and Further Activities blocks of a captioned report are, in practice, the diary rewritten for an outside reader.
8.Next action and diary date
Every entry ends with an owner, a next action and a date. This is what makes the log a diary rather than a transcript. Set the forward date against whatever governs the claim, not against a habit: Model 902 §6(A) recommends acknowledging receipt of notice within fifteen days, and §7(B) recommends that where more time is needed to accept or deny, the insurer notify the claimant within twenty-one days of the proofs of loss and then write again forty-five days from that notification and every forty-five days thereafter. Note what the forty-five runs from: the notification that more time is needed, not the date of loss. Those are model provisions and bind nobody by themselves. Your state's adopted version is the one to diary against, and it may run a different interval or count business days rather than the calendar days §3(D) specifies. An entry that ends "will continue to monitor" has set no date and owns nothing.
9.Corrections, late entries and author
Never overwrite an entry. Append a correcting entry that names the entry it corrects, states what was wrong, and gives the correct fact and the date the correction was made. A log with edits in place cannot be relied on for anything, because a reader has no way of telling which lines were written when. Same discipline for a note typed days after the event: enter it with both dates and say why it is late. A late entry that is labelled is evidence; a late entry that is backdated is a problem.
Common mistakes
The failure modes that show up most often when this document is reviewed later.
Logging the duration of a call instead of its content: "called the insured, 10 min".
It records that time passed, not that the claim moved. Six months later nobody can tell what was requested, what was agreed or what the insured said, and the entry cannot support any of the dates that were set from it. Model 910 §6(A) frames the file as something whose pertinent events and dates must be reconstructable; a duration reconstructs nothing.
Omitting the manner, so a voicemail reads like a conversation.
"Contacted the insured" covering an unanswered call makes the contact chronology wrong in the one direction that flatters the file. If the timeliness of first contact is ever tested, the correction comes from the phone records rather than from you.
Recording a document by the date printed on it rather than the date it arrived.
Most claim clocks run from receipt. A proof of loss dated the 3rd and received on the 19th sets a very different date, and a file that only carries the printed date has no way to show which one it worked from.
Editing an earlier entry to fix it rather than appending a correcting entry.
A log that can be silently amended cannot be relied on for anything, including the entries that were never touched. One in-place edit devalues the whole chronology, which is a bad trade for tidying a sentence.
Ending entries with "will continue to monitor".
No owner, no date, nothing to fall due. It is the phrase that lets a claim sit, and it is easy for a reviewer to grep for. Every entry should end with a named next action and a diary date set against a real interval.
Writing characterizations of the insured instead of what was said.
"Insured was evasive" is a conclusion you will be asked to justify from a file that contains no evidence for it. The question asked and the answer given carry the same information, age better, and let the reader reach their own view.
Questions
- Is a claim diary actually required?
- Closer to yes than most adjusters assume. Model 910 §6(A) sets out the minimum contents of a property and casualty claim file, and the list includes "adjustors logs" and "any documented or recorded telephone communication related to the handling of a claim" — the log is named, not merely implied. The same subsection sets the standard it serves: the file must show clearly the inception, handling and disposition of each claim and be sufficiently clear and specific that pertinent events and their dates can be reconstructed. Model 902 §4(B) states the reconstruction test as well. Both are model drafting templates that bind nobody by themselves. The wording your state adopted, and what it requires be logged, is the one that governs, so work from your own state's regulation.
- How long does the diary have to be kept?
- As part of the claim file, not separately from it. Model 910 §6(A) recommends the file be maintained for the calendar year in which the claim is closed plus three years, and its own drafting note tells states to match the period to their examination authority, adding that for some states it may be five years. So the model's own text expects the number to move. Whichever state you are licensed in, confirm the period there rather than working from the model, because retention is one of the details states routinely change on adoption.
- Does a thin diary on one claim create liability?
- That is a question for counsel in your state, not one this page can answer, but the model framework is worth knowing because so much competitor content misstates it. Model 900 §3 treats conduct as an improper claims practice only where it is committed flagrantly and in conscious disregard of the act or any rules under it, or with such frequency as to indicate a general business practice, and §1 says nothing in the act shall be construed to create or imply a private cause of action. What the diary affects is which side of that line a sample lands on: exams work from samples, and consistent documentation is what shows an isolated lapse to be isolated. Private rights of action and bad faith standards are state-specific and several states depart from the model, so this is a description of the model rather than of your state.
- How much detail is too much?
- The test is whether a stranger could reconstruct the event, not whether the entry is long. A call that produced one request and one agreed date is three lines. A coverage discussion with the examiner that moved a reserve is not. What consistently costs more than it saves is padding entries with narration while leaving the request dates, the manner and the next action out.
The blank template
Exactly what is in the Word download, so you can see the structure before deciding whether you want it.
Claim header block
Entry number, date and time
Manner
Parties and how identified
Content: what was said, requested and agreed
- Told:
- Requested (date requested):
- They said:
- Agreed:
Documents received, processed or transmitted
Action taken, decision made, and the reason
Next action and diary date
Corrections, late entries and author
Download this template
Free Word download, no email required. Or open it in Professional Drafter — it lands in your template library, ready to draft against.
Sources
- NAIC — Market Conduct Record Retention and Production Model Regulation (Model 910, January 2004)
- NAIC — Unfair Property/Casualty Claims Settlement Practices Model Regulation (Model 902, 1991 amendment, July 1997 print)
- NAIC — Unfair Claims Settlement Practices Act (Model 900, 1991 amendment, January 1997 print)
- NAIC — Market Regulation Handbook: Examination Standards Summary, 2025 Edition
Related templates
This page is a documentation aid, not legal advice and not a coverage opinion. Claim-handling requirements vary by state and by policy wording, and a template cannot tell you what your file requires. The worked example describes a fictional loss.