Investigation and scope
Scope Sheet Template & Example (Scope of Loss)
Last updated 2026-09-05
A scope sheet answers one question: what has to be done, and how much of it. Not what it costs. The document travels under more than one name — scope sheet, scope of loss, sometimes just the scope — and the names are often used interchangeably in property-claim workflows; this page uses scope sheet. What separates a usable one is not the name but a discipline about pricing. Most templates published for this document get that wrong — they carry a unit-price column, sometimes an extension column, and the moment those exist the scope stops being a record of observation and becomes a draft estimate with a different heading.
Keep them apart and disagreements stay small. If the contractor says the drywall run is 44 linear feet and you have 31, that is a measurement argument and it is settled with a tape. If the same sheet also carries pricing, the same conversation reopens the unit rate, the depreciation and the overhead, and a two-minute check turns into a re-adjustment. Separated, each layer can be corrected without disturbing the other. The scope is what you saw; the estimate is what it is worth; those are different assertions supported by different evidence, and actual cash value in particular is a valuation question that varies by state — California, for instance, defines it by statute in a way that does not match every other state's approach.
The convention below is room-ordered, price-free, and continuously numbered from the first line of the first room to the last line of the last. The worked example is a fictional water loss and it includes two lines that are deliberately left open, because a scope sheet that contains no undetermined items is usually one where somebody guessed.
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.
Scope Sheet 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
- At inspection, as the primary field record — written on site with the tape in your hand, not reconstructed that evening from photographs.
- Whenever the scope will be handed to somebody else to price: a desk estimator, an in-house estimating unit, or a contractor bidding the work.
- When a contractor's or public adjuster's estimate has to be compared with yours, since a price-free line-by-line comparison isolates the actual disagreement in minutes.
- Not as the settlement document. The scope feeds the estimate, the estimate feeds the statement of loss, and collapsing the three loses the audit trail between what was observed and what was paid.
Worked example
Fictional scenario: scope of loss on a water loss at a single-family slab-on-grade dwelling, taken at the inspection four days after the reported date of loss. Two line items are left undetermined rather than estimated — the flooring under the closet base cabinet, and the extent of insulation in the affected wall cavity — because neither could be established without opening work that had not been authorised.
Header block
Claim PC-2026-11482 | Insured: D. Okonjo | Risk: 118 Harbour Lane | Date of loss: reported 14 July 2026 | Date of inspection: 18 July 2026 | Prepared by: R. Calloway | Instruments: Delmhorst BD-2100 moisture meter (wood scale), 25 ft steel tape, Leica laser | Others present: insured throughout | Revision 1, 18 July 2026.
No pricing appears on this document. Pricing is prepared separately against these quantities.
Room order and room headers
Rooms are listed in the order walked, entering by the side door nearest the garage.
Room 1 — Utility closet. 5 ft 4 in x 3 ft 0 in, ceiling 8 ft 0 in. Floor: sheet vinyl on slab. Walls and ceiling: 1/2 in gypsum, painted. Affected: yes.
Room 2 — Hallway. 22 ft 6 in x 4 ft 0 in, ceiling 8 ft 0 in. Floor: engineered wood on slab. Walls: 1/2 in gypsum, painted, with 3 1/4 in colonial base. Affected: yes.
Room 3 — Living room. 16 ft 0 in x 14 ft 6 in, ceiling 8 ft 0 in. Floor: engineered wood on slab, continuous with hallway. Walls as hallway. Affected: yes, south and west walls only.
Room 4 — Kitchen. Inspected, no damage observed. Readings at the shared wall with the hallway at baseline.
Room 5 — Bedroom 1. Inspected, no damage observed.
Room 6 — Bedroom 2. Inspected, no damage observed. Baseline reading 9.6% taken here, approximately 40 ft from the source.
Room 7 — Detached garage. Inspected, no water intrusion observed. Photographed for completeness.
Line items — description, QTY, UNIT
Room 1 — Utility closet
1 | Detach and reset 40-gallon water heater to permit access | 1 | EA
2 | Remove sheet vinyl flooring and underlayment to slab | 16 | SF
3 | Remove 1/2 in gypsum board to 24 in above slab, all four walls | 34 | SF
4 | Remove and replace closet surround framing to 24 in, water-damaged | 6 | SF
5 | Clean and disinfect slab | 16 | SF
6 | Install 1/2 in gypsum board, tape, float, texture to match | 34 | SF
7 | Seal and paint new gypsum, two coats | 34 | SF
8 | Install sheet vinyl flooring to match existing | 16 | SF
Room 2 — Hallway
9 | Remove 3 1/4 in colonial base, both sides of run | 45 | LF
10 | Remove 1/2 in gypsum board to 24 in above slab, south wall | 18 | LF
11 | Remove engineered wood flooring, cupped and delaminated | 90 | SF
12 | Clean and disinfect slab | 90 | SF
13 | Install 1/2 in gypsum board to 24 in, tape, float, texture to match | 18 | LF
14 | Install 3 1/4 in colonial base to match existing | 45 | LF
15 | Install engineered wood flooring to match existing | 90 | SF
16 | Seal and paint gypsum and base, two coats | 45 | LF
Room 3 — Living room
17 | Remove 3 1/4 in colonial base, south and west walls | 30 | LF
18 | Remove 1/2 in gypsum board to 24 in above slab, south and west walls | 13 | LF
19 | Detach and reset shelving on west wall to permit access | 1 | EA
20 | Remove engineered wood flooring in affected area | 116 | SF
21 | Clean and disinfect slab | 116 | SF
22 | Install 1/2 in gypsum board to 24 in, tape, float, texture to match | 13 | LF
23 | Install 3 1/4 in colonial base to match existing | 30 | LF
24 | Install engineered wood flooring to match existing | 116 | SF
25 | Seal and paint gypsum and base, two coats | 30 | LF
Total drywall removal across rooms 2 and 3: 31 LF, which is the figure carried forward to the report on this claim. The utility closet is stated separately and in SF, because a 5 ft 4 in by 3 ft closet stripped on all four walls is measured by area rather than by run; adding its perimeter to the 31 LF would double-count against a number the rest of the file uses as a wall run.
Measurements and how they were taken
Wall runs measured at the base with a 25 ft steel tape, along the face of the finished wall, corner to corner. Room dimensions taken with a laser at 4 ft above slab, wall face to wall face.
The wet line was established by meter rather than by eye. Visible wicking on the painted gypsum stopped at approximately 14 in above slab along the affected run. Delmhorst BD-2100, wood scale, on the slab at 4, 8, 12 and 16 ft from the closet: 18.4%, 16.1%, 14.8%, 11.2%. Baseline in Bedroom 2, approximately 40 ft from the source: 9.6%.
Removal height is specified at 24 in rather than at the 14 in wicking line: 24 in is the next standard cut above the highest wet reading, and cutting at 14 in leaves an unsupported edge mid-sheet. The measured damage boundary and the scoped cut height are therefore different numbers, and both are recorded so that neither is mistaken for the other.
Flooring quantities are taken two different ways and the difference is deliberate. The hallway is scoped at its gross area, 90 SF, because the run is 4 ft wide and the wet boundary crosses it; there is no partial replacement of a corridor that does not show. The living room is scoped at 116 SF, measured to the wet boundary rather than to the walls, on a room of 232 SF. That boundary is the quantity the insured disputes — see sign-off — and it is left as measured rather than adjusted to accommodate the dispute.
Notes, exclusions and undetermined items
Notes
- The dwelling is on slab. No crawlspace, no subfloor, no under-floor cavity to inspect.
- Restoration vendor attended on 14 July, the day of discovery, and placed air movers; the equipment was collected on the morning of 18 July, before this inspection. Nothing was cut or removed. The readings above were therefore taken after four days of drying and are lower than they would have been at discovery.
- Access to the utility closet is through a 28 in door; the water heater must be detached and reset for any work on lines 2 to 8.
Excluded from this scope
- Contents. Fourteen cartons of water-stained books are on the contents inventory, not here.
- Detached garage. Inspected, no damage observed, nothing scoped.
- The water heater itself. Inspected, undamaged, nothing scoped. It is detached and reset under line 1 for access only.
- Kitchen and both bedrooms. Inspected, at baseline, nothing scoped.
Undetermined
- Flooring beneath the base cabinet in the utility closet. Cannot be established without detaching the cabinet, which was not authorised at inspection. Approximately 6 SF is at issue. Entered as undetermined, not as zero. To be confirmed when the closet is opened for line 1; owner R. Calloway, target 8 August 2026.
- Insulation in the affected wall cavity, rooms 2 and 3. The south wall is an exterior wall; whether the cavity insulation is wet cannot be determined until the gypsum is removed under lines 10 and 18. If wet, add removal and replacement at approximately 31 LF. Owner R. Calloway, to be confirmed at demolition.
Photograph and diagram keys
Photographs 11 to 26 are keyed to line numbers. Specifically: 11-18 the wicking line along lines 10 and 18; 19-22 the cupped flooring at lines 11 and 20; 23-24 the closet at lines 2 to 4; 25-26 the shelving at line 19. Photographs 27 and 28 are the detached garage, recorded as inspected and undamaged.
Sketch: HarbourLane_scope_r1.pdf. Dimensioned floor plan of rooms 1 to 3, showing the four moisture reading locations with their values, the 31 LF of affected wall marked, and line numbers annotated at each scoped element.
Sign-off and revision control
Prepared by R. Calloway, 18 July 2026, revision 1.
Walked with the insured, D. Okonjo, who was present for the full inspection. Lines 1 to 25 were read back to him on site. He agreed all quantities with one exception: he considers the living room flooring should extend to the full room, 232 SF, rather than stopping at the wet boundary, on the basis that a partial replacement will show. Line 20 is scoped at 116 SF as measured; his position is recorded here rather than absorbed into the quantity, and it is a scope question to be resolved before pricing.
This scope contains no pricing. Quantities only. Pricing is prepared separately against these line numbers, and any change to a quantity is issued as a new revision of this sheet rather than as an amendment to the estimate.
Section-by-section guide
What each section is for, what a good one contains, and where they typically go wrong.
1.Header block
Identification and provenance in one band across the top: claim number, insured, risk address, date of loss, date of inspection, who took the measurements, what instruments were used, and who else was present. The instrument matters more than people expect — a moisture reading means nothing without the meter, the scale and the material it was taken on. Add a revision number and date here from the first version, because scope sheets get revised and an undated second version circulating alongside the first is a genuine source of error.
2.Room order and room headers
Order the sheet the way you walked the building, and say so. Each room gets a header carrying its name as the occupants use it, its dimensions, ceiling height, and the finishes present. Then the line items for that room. The reason to order by room rather than by trade is that the sheet has to be walkable — anyone can stand in the hallway with the sheet and check it, whereas a trade-ordered scope can only be checked by reconstructing the building in your head. Include unaffected rooms with a one-line note that they were inspected and no damage was observed. That entry is doing real work: it records what you looked at, not only what you found.
3.Line items — description, QTY, UNIT
Three columns and no fourth. The description states the operation and the specification: not "drywall" but "remove and replace 1/2 inch gypsum board, tape, float and texture to match". QTY is the number. UNIT is the unit of measure — LF, SF, SY, EA, CY, HR — and it is the column most often left implied and most often the cause of an argument, because 31 of something is meaningless until you know whether the something is feet or sheets. Number the lines continuously across the whole sheet rather than restarting in each room, so that line 24 refers to one thing in every conversation anybody has about this claim.
4.Measurements and how they were taken
A number without a method is not reproducible. Record how each significant quantity was derived — walls measured at the base, ceiling by room dimension, the wet line established by meter readings at stated distances. Where you measured a damage boundary rather than a room, say where the boundary was and how you decided it. This block is what allows a second adjuster to reproduce your scope two months later instead of remeasuring from scratch and arriving somewhere else. It is also the part of the sheet that answers the standard the NAIC's record-retention model regulation describes at §6 — a claim file clear and specific enough that the pertinent events and the dates of those events can be reconstructed from it. The model binds nobody by itself, but that is the shape of file a reviewer is looking for.
5.Notes, exclusions and undetermined items
Three separate lists and they should not be blended. Notes are observations that affect the work but are not themselves line items — asbestos suspected in the flooring, the run is above a finished ceiling, access is through a single 30-inch door. Exclusions are things deliberately not in this scope and why: pre-existing damage, work outside the affected area, items belonging on the contents inventory rather than the building scope. Undetermined items are quantities you could not establish on this visit, each with what is needed to establish it and who is getting it. Never carry an undetermined item as a zero, because a zero is read downstream as a finding of none.
6.Photograph and diagram keys
Every line item that a reader might question should point at an image, and the sketch should point back. Key the photographs to line numbers rather than describing them in words, and mark the sketch with the same numbers. The value is not tidiness — it is that a reviewer who doubts line 19 can look at line 19 without asking you anything, which is the difference between a query and a phone call.
7.Sign-off and revision control
Who prepared it, on what date, and at which revision. If a contractor, public adjuster or the insured walked the scope with you and agreed the quantities, record who agreed what and note any line they did not agree — a recorded disagreement at line level is far easier to resolve later than a general assertion that the scope was disputed. Then state expressly that this document carries no pricing and that pricing follows separately, so nobody downstream treats the absence of money as an omission.
Common mistakes
The failure modes that show up most often when this document is reviewed later.
Putting a unit-price or extension column on the scope sheet.
It merges two layers that need to be arguable separately. Once price sits on the same row as quantity, a challenge to 31 LF becomes a challenge to the rate, the depreciation and the overhead at the same time, and what should have been a tape-measure conversation becomes a re-adjustment.
Restarting the line numbering in each room.
Three separate line 4s exist and every subsequent conversation has to be qualified by room. Continuous numbering means "line 18" identifies exactly one thing to everyone who ever reads the file, including the estimator who never visited.
Leaving the UNIT column implied.
31 of what. Linear feet, square feet and sheets of board are three different jobs, and the ambiguity is only ever discovered after somebody has priced it. The column costs two characters per line.
Entering an item you could not measure as zero.
A zero reads downstream as a finding that there is none, and it is treated as measured. Carry it as undetermined with what is needed to resolve it and who is getting it — the same discipline the [captioned report](/adjuster-reports/captioned-report/) applies to a cause that is not established.
Omitting undamaged rooms entirely.
The sheet no longer shows what you inspected, only what you found. A reviewer cannot tell whether the garage was dry or never opened, and the answer to that question a month later is usually nobody's clear memory.
Writing the scope that evening from photographs.
Photographs do not carry dimensions, and the measurement you did not take on site is the one you will approximate. Field-written scopes are corrected by walking back to the wall; office-written scopes are corrected by a second visit.
Questions
- Why should the scope carry no pricing at all?
- Because scope and price are separate assertions supported by separate evidence. A quantity is settled with a tape; a rate is settled with a price list, a market, and a valuation method that differs by state. Keep them on one page and every disagreement about either reopens both. Keep them apart and you can correct a measurement without disturbing a settlement, which is the normal case.
- Should the scope be ordered by room or by trade?
- By room. The sheet's main job is to be checkable by someone standing in the building, and a trade-ordered scope can only be checked by mentally reassembling the property. Estimating software will regroup by trade for pricing if that is wanted; nothing will regroup a trade list back into a walkable order without the dimensions you did not record.
- What goes on the scope sheet versus the contents inventory?
- Building and permanently attached components go on the scope. Unscheduled personal property goes on the contents inventory, priced and depreciated by its own method. Blending them is common on water losses because the wet boxes are sitting in the room you are measuring, and it makes both documents harder to review. Note the crossover on the scope as an exclusion so the reader knows where the items went. There is a structural reason the two never merge: the statutory standard fire policy in New York and California calls for an inventory of destroyed, damaged and undamaged property showing quantities, costs, actual cash value and amount of loss claimed — a different set of columns entirely from a scope sheet's description, QTY and UNIT.
- How much detail belongs in a line item description?
- Enough that a contractor who never saw the property could bid it and a reviewer could tell whether the specification matches what was there. "Drywall repair, 31 LF" is not a scope line. Material, thickness, height of the cut, and the finish to be matched is a scope line, and it is also the difference between a supplement conversation and a dispute.
The blank template
Exactly what is in the Word download, so you can see the structure before deciding whether you want it.
Header block
Room order and room headers
- Rooms in the order walked, numbered
- Dimensions and ceiling height for each
- Existing finishes, since they set the replacement specification
- Unaffected rooms listed with "inspected, no damage observed"
Line items — description, QTY, UNIT
- One operation per line — remove and replace is two lines where the removal is separately measurable
- Specification in the description: material, thickness, finish, grade
- QTY as measured, not rounded to a comfortable number
- UNIT written out on every line, never inherited from the line above
- Continuous numbering across all rooms
Measurements and how they were taken
Notes, exclusions and undetermined items
- Notes — conditions affecting how the work is done
- Exclusions — with the reason, in the same line
- Undetermined — never entered as zero, always with an owner and a date
Photograph and diagram keys
Sign-off and revision control
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 — Market Regulation Handbook: Examination Standards Summary, 2025 Edition
- Cal. Insurance Code §2051 — actual cash value
- N.Y. Insurance Law §3404 — standard fire policy (statutory text)
- Cal. Insurance Code §2071 — standard form fire policy
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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.