Property and fleet schedules: how brokers prepare them

A property or fleet schedule lists what is being insured, with the details an insurer needs to price it: each building's address and value, or each vehicle's registration and use. To prepare one well, build it from the client's information, find gaps and changes before the insurer does, and lay it out so an underwriter can read it quickly.

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What a schedule must hold

Property schedules are sometimes called a statement of values (SOV), the term more common in the US. The idea is the same: one document that lists every item and the figure the client wants covered for it.

For a property schedule, each line normally holds the address, the construction and age of the building, what it is used for, the sum insured for buildings, contents and stock, and any security or protection that affects the risk. For a fleet, each line holds the registration, make and model, year, value, who drives it and what it is used for.

The lines are only the start. An insurer also wants the totals to add up, the same item to be described the same way throughout, and a clear date for when the information was accurate. A schedule that contradicts itself invites questions, and questions slow the quote.

Where the information comes from matters just as much. A client's spreadsheet, last year's schedule, a valuer's report and a purchase invoice may all say different things about the same building. Keep a note of which source supports each figure, so you can answer when an underwriter asks where it came from.

Common gaps and errors

Most problems in schedules are boring ones. They repeat from client to client, which is why a checklist helps.

• Missing values: a line with a description and no figure, or a figure with no note on how it was reached.
• Stale values: a sum insured that has not moved in years while building costs and stock levels have.
• Duplicate lines: the same vehicle listed twice, once under an old registration.
• Items that should have gone: a van sold in the spring still on the list.
• Items that should be there: a new unit, a new machine or a new vehicle that the client did not mention.
• Inconsistent descriptions: "warehouse" in one place, "storage unit" in another, with different construction details.
• Typing slips: a transposed registration, a missing digit, a postcode that does not match the street.

A made-up example: a client sends a spreadsheet of twelve vehicles. Eleven have registrations and values. One has a description, "white van", and nothing else. Another registration appears twice with different values. Neither problem is visible if you only skim the totals, and either would earn a query from the insurer.

In the UK, disclosure to an insurer for a business policy has to be done carefully. Section 3 of the Insurance Act 2015 requires a fair presentation of the risk, and the part that matters here is about how information is given. The Act says the disclosure must be made in a manner "reasonably clear and accessible to a prudent insurer", and that each material representation of fact must be "substantially correct". Those words apply to business (non-consumer) insurance contracts in the UK, and your compliance contact can tell you how your firm applies them. For a schedule, they point at the same habits as above: a tidy layout, honest figures, and mistakes found before the insurer finds them. The Act's official explanatory notes, published with it in 2015, say the clear-and-accessible requirement is aimed at "data dumps", where the insurer is presented with "an overwhelming amount of undigested information", and that an "overly brief or cryptic presentation" would not satisfy it either.

Comparing against last year's version

The fastest way to find what has changed is to put this year's schedule next to last year's and compare line by line. Done by hand on a long schedule, this is slow and the eye gets tired. Done carefully, it turns up the changes that matter.

Sort the differences into four groups:

• New items, which need full details and probably a conversation with the client.
• Removed items, which need confirming so you do not cover something that has gone, or leave something out by mistake.
• Changed values, which need a reason. A rise may be sensible; a fall needs explaining.
• Changed details, such as use, construction or location, which may alter how the insurer sees the risk.

Write the result as a short list at the top of the schedule: what is new, what has gone, what has moved and by how much. An underwriter who sees the list first can trust the rest of the document. A client who sees it can confirm in a minute that nothing was missed.

The same comparison helps at renewal. The renewals guide covers how the schedule fits into the wider submission, and a clean schedule saves a good deal of back and forth there.

Presenting it clearly to insurers

Underwriters read many submissions. A schedule that is easy to scan gets a faster, better-informed answer.

Use one consistent layout: the same columns in the same order, the same units, the same way of writing dates and addresses. Put totals at the bottom and check that they match the sum of the lines. Group related items together, such as all the buildings at one site, so the reader sees the shape of the risk. Keep notes short and put them next to the line they concern, not on a separate page.

Flag anything unusual in a sentence or two at the top. If one building is empty, if one vehicle is used differently from the rest, or if a value is an estimate, say so. Insurers do not mind unusual facts. They mind finding them late.

Send the schedule in the format the insurer prefers, and keep a copy of exactly what you sent. If a question comes back in six months, you want to be able to show what the insurer was told and when.

What stays with your team

Your team confirms the schedule with the client before it goes anywhere. Only the client knows whether a building is still occupied or a vehicle is still on the road. Your team also decides how to explain a change in value, which insurers to approach, and how much of an awkward detail to raise. Those are judgements about the client and the market.

The preparation around them is mechanical: merging the spreadsheet with the attachments, tidying descriptions, finding missing values and listing the differences from last year. It is the part that takes hours and rewards no one for doing it well.

For how this job sits next to the others in a broker's office, see AI for insurance brokers.

Can AI do this?

Yes, for the preparation. A system can merge spreadsheets and attachments into one schedule, flag missing values and list what changed from last year, with each line tied to its source. Your team confirms the schedule with the client before it goes to any insurer.

Where Navicade fits

Navicade builds and runs AI systems for jobs like this one. For schedules, spreadsheets and attachments become a property or fleet schedule, with missing details and changes from the previous version flagged. We start with a free 30-minute call and a free operations map, then take on one agreed task at a time. Results arrive in your existing tools. Insurance decisions stay with your team. The system checks its work on every run and alerts us.

See the row on organising property and fleet schedules, or ask for the free call at our contact section.