The home inventory app fields that settle a claim.
A home inventory app has one job on the worst day you will ever have in your house: prove what was in it, what it was worth, and that it was yours. Not a memory of a laptop and some rings, but a record with photos, serial numbers and receipts that an adjuster can work from. This page is part of our app examples series, and like the rest of it, it starts with the job rather than the software: the fields worth recording, the insurance rules that decide what actually pays out, and why a warranty tracker app is the same record with a clock on it.
Then the practical question, which app for home inventory to use: your camera roll, a spreadsheet, a free consumer app, a paid inventory tool, or one built around your own house.
See what a home inventory needs to recordThe short version
Photo, serial number, receipt, and a value an adjuster can use.
For every item that matters, a household inventory app should hold a description, the room it lives in, brand and model, the serial number, where and when you bought it, what you paid, at least one photo, and the receipt or appraisal that proves it. Two numbers then decide whether that record pays out: the personal property limit on your policy, usually a fixed percentage of the dwelling limit, and the special treatment of jewelry, collectibles and similar items, which often need their own schedule. The rest of this page is the detail, with the sources.
The record
What a home inventory app needs to record.
State insurance regulators and the industry's own institute agree on the shape of the record, and it is more than a photo. The Triple-I says to note where you bought each item, the make and model and what you paid; to record serial numbers, usually found on the back or bottom of appliances and electronics; to count clothing by general category; and to keep sales receipts, purchase contracts and appraisals with the list. The NAIC's consumer guide adds the method: go through each room, write down and photograph or video everything, include the valuable items (antiques, electronics, jewelry, collectibles and guns), and keep receipts for new purchases and repairs.
- A description and category a stranger would understand
- The room or location it lives in, storage unit included
- Brand, make and model
- The serial number, typed and photographed from the plate
- Where you bought it, the purchase date and the price paid
- At least one photo of the item, plus a wide shot of the room or shelf
- The receipt, purchase contract or appraisal, attached to the record
- An estimated replacement cost today, separate from what you paid
- Condition, and any damage that was already there
- Warranty end date and who to contact, for anything still covered
- A quantity, for the everyday items you count rather than list
Two of those fields are the ones most apps skip. The replacement cost today is separate from the price paid, because a claim is paid on one or the other depending on your policy, not both. And the serial plate photo is separate from the item photo, because the plate is what a police report and a manufacturer both ask for. See the Triple-I's home inventory guidance.
One record, all fields
- Item
- What it is, in plain words
- Room
- Where it lives
- Brand, model
- From the label, not memory
- Serial
- Typed, plate photographed
- Bought
- Date, retailer, price paid
- Proof
- Receipt or appraisal attached
- Replace today
- Your estimate, not the old price
- Warranty ends
- Date, reminder before it
The record above is the same for a kettle and a watch. What changes by category is which fields are mandatory, what counts as proof of value, and whether the item is likely to hit a special limit on your policy. Pick a category below.
Coverage notes follow the NAIC's 2022 consumer guide and the Triple-I's guidance. Your policy is the final word; the notes tell you what to ask about.
Try it
What does this item's record need?
Pick the kind of thing you are holding. The fields change, and so does whether your policy will treat it like everything else.
Record these
- Brand, model and serial number, with a photo of the serial plate
- Purchase date, retailer and price paid
- The receipt, attached to the record
- Warranty end date and who handles service
Proof of value
The receipt. For anything bought used, the seller's invoice or the marketplace order page.
Flags for the record
- May need its own schedule
- Ask, for computers
- Worth a warranty clock
- Yes
Coverage note
Computers are on the NAIC's list of items whose value might be greater than the normal limits of a homeowners policy, so ask whether yours need to be scheduled.
The policy side
Home inventory app for insurance: the two numbers that decide the payout.
A home inventory app for insurance is only useful if it produces a total you can hold up against your policy. The NAIC's consumer guide explains where that policy number comes from, and it is not a number most people have ever checked.
Contents coverage is usually a slice of the dwelling limit.
In the NAIC's guide, the limits for personal property, loss of use and other structures are expressed as percentages of the dwelling limit, and the typical figure for personal property is 50%. Its worked example: a $150,000 dwelling limit with personal property capped at 50% gives you $75,000 for everything you own. The guide adds that your policy may use different percentages, so check it.
That is the number your inventory total has to fit under. Without an inventory, nobody knows whether $75,000 is generous or a third of what is actually in the house, which is why a per-room and whole-house total is the one report a home inventory app must be able to produce.
Typical limits, as a share of the dwelling limit
- DwellingYou choose
- Personal property50% of the dwelling limit
- Loss of use20% of the dwelling limit
- Other structures10% of the dwelling limit
Table 2 of the NAIC's consumer guide (2022). Your policy may differ; the guide says so.
Replacement cost, or actual cash value.
The NAIC's guide says you can insure your home and its contents for either. Replacement cost is the cost to rebuild or repair using materials of similar kind and quality. Actual cash value takes age and wear and tear into account, and the guide notes it often doesn't pay enough to fully repair or replace the damage.
For the record, that means both numbers matter: the purchase date and price paid feed an actual cash value settlement, and the replacement cost today feeds the other kind. Store both, and let the report show either total.
Items that usually need their own schedule.
A scheduled personal property endorsement, which the NAIC also calls a personal article floater, covers jewelry, furs, stamps, coins, guns, computers, antiques and other items whose value might be greater than the normal limits in a homeowners policy.
In the app that is one flag per item, scheduled or not, with the appraisal and its date attached. A filter on that flag is the list you take to your agent. Read the NAIC's consumer guide.
The warranty side
A warranty tracker app is the same record with a clock on it.
People search for a warranty tracker app and a home inventory app as if they were different products. They are the same item record with a few extra fields and a reminder. The FTC's consumer guidance on warranties is the checklist: save your receipt with the warranty, because the receipt proves the date you bought the product and that you are the original owner; whenever there is a warranty, the law says it must be available for you to read before you buy; and laws in every state create implied warranties on almost everything you buy, even with no paperwork at all.
| Warranty field | Why it is on the record | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Purchase date | Starts the clock. The FTC's advice is to save the receipt with the warranty because it proves the date and that you are the original owner. | Receipt |
| Warranty length and end date | The date a reminder should fire a few weeks before, while a claim is still possible. | Warranty document |
| What is covered, and what is excluded | The FTC's first question: are specific parts of the product or specific repairs not listed as covered? | Warranty document |
| Remedy: repair, replacement or refund | Decides what you can ask for, and how long you will be without the thing. | Warranty document |
| Who to contact: manufacturer or seller | Saves the first hour of every claim, and stops the two from pointing at each other. | Warranty document or registration email |
| Who pays labor and shipping | The cost that turns a covered repair into an argument. | Warranty document |
| Extended service contract, if you bought one | Sold separately from the product, with its own dates and terms. | The contract itself |
Questions to ask of a warranty from the FTC's consumer advice on warranties, dated July 2023: how long it lasts, what is and is not covered, whether you get a repair, a replacement or a refund, who to contact, and who pays labor and shipping.
The weekend version
How to build a home inventory in a weekend.
The order matters more than the tool. Capture everything fast, then add detail to the items that would be expensive to argue about, then make sure the whole thing exists somewhere other than the building it describes.
- 1
Walk every room with the camera rolling.
Open closets, drawers and the garage, and say what you are looking at. Both the NAIC and the Triple-I put video first because it captures everything in one pass, including the things you would never think to list.
- 2
Photograph every serial plate and every receipt you can find.
Serial numbers are usually on the back or bottom of major appliances and electronics. A photo of the plate is faster than typing and harder to get wrong.
- 3
Create full records for the items you would hate to argue about.
Electronics, jewelry, art, tools, the good bike. Brand, model, serial, where bought, date, price, photo, receipt. This is the part an app makes easier than a spreadsheet, because the camera and the form are on the same screen.
- 4
Count the everyday items by category instead of listing them.
Five pairs of jeans, three pairs of sneakers, twelve towels. The Triple-I's point is that toys, clothing, towels and linens are cheap one at a time and expensive all at once.
- 5
Attach appraisals and ask about scheduling.
Jewelry, furs, stamps, coins, guns, computers and antiques are the items the NAIC names as possibly exceeding your policy's normal limits. A dated appraisal on the record is what your agent will ask for.
- 6
Put a copy somewhere that is not the house.
The NAIC suggests your workplace, a safe deposit box, a relative's house or online. Whatever app you use, confirm the photos and records are off the phone, not just on it.
- 7
Update it once a year, and whenever you buy something new.
Pictures and videos included, and keep the receipts for new items and repairs with the inventory. A last-verified date on each record makes the annual pass a short one.
Picking an approach
Which home inventory app is best?
The one that can produce the record above for every item and hand it to an adjuster in a form they can read. Judged on that, the usual options split like this.
| Approach | Photos tied to the record | Custom fields | Export for a claim | Copy outside the house | Cost, and who maintains it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Camera roll and a notes app | Loose; nothing ties a photo to a receipt | No | A folder of photos | Only if cloud backup is on | Free; you, from memory |
| Spreadsheet plus a photo folder | By hand, one link per row | Yes | The sheet itself | If it lives in the cloud | Free; you, and it drifts |
| Free consumer inventory app | Yes | Few or none | Varies; check before you rely on it | The vendor's cloud | Free; the vendor sets the roadmap |
| Paid inventory tool (Sortly, for example) | Yes | Capped by tier: 1 on the free plan, 5 on the first paid plan | Built-in reports | The vendor's cloud | From $288 for the first year (20 Sep 2026); the vendor |
| Custom-built home inventory app | Yes | Whatever your house needs | Whatever the adjuster asks for | Your own backend | A builder subscription; you |
Sortly's caps and price are from its pricing page on 20 September 2026: 100 unique items and one custom field on the free plan, five custom fields on the first paid plan at $24 a month billed yearly at $288, an introductory first-year price.
The same build-or-buy question runs through every household app in this series, from a recipe app to a plant care app: the off-the-shelf tool is fine right up until your records need a field the vendor never planned for. For a home inventory that field is usually the scheduled flag, the serial plate photo, or a replacement total per room.
Free vs. paid
Is there a free home inventory app?
Yes, and for a studio apartment one may be enough. Free consumer apps exist, including one published by the NAIC, the association of state insurance regulators, and most paid inventory tools have a free tier. The catch is the cap: a hundred records and a single custom field, in Sortly's case, before the paid ladder starts. Count a house the way the Triple-I suggests, towels and linens included, and a small cap runs out before you leave the kitchen.
Building your own is not free either. Newly starts at $25 a month and has no free plan; what the money buys is a record shaped like your house instead of the vendor's plan ladder, and no cap on how many things you own.
When to build your own
Building a home inventory app around your own house.
Off-the-shelf inventory apps assume a generic record. The moment your house needs a field they did not think of, a serial plate photo separate from the item photo, a scheduled flag with the appraisal date, a per-room replacement total to hold against the 50% figure, a warranty clock with a reminder, you are either paying for the tier that unlocks custom fields or keeping a second spreadsheet on the side. That gap, a record no off-the-shelf tool quite fits, is what Newly is for: describe the record you actually want, the categories, the fields that must never be blank, the reports, and it builds a real native app around it. On the current version the iOS build goes up through App Store Connect and you submit it for review yourself, and there are no Android release builds yet, so plan for iPhone first.
The fields are the part to settle on paper first, because they are free to change before anything is built. The camera and storage side is implementation detail, and it is the first thing to get right, since the item photo, the serial plate and the receipt all come in through the same flow. Start with adding photo upload to your app, and decide the export format with your agent, not after the loss.
Sources
Where the specifics came from.
Four things on this page come from a primary source rather than general advice:
FAQ
Home inventory apps, answered.
A description a stranger would understand, the room it lives in, brand and model, the serial number, where and when you bought it, what you paid, at least one photo, and the receipt or appraisal that proves it. Add an estimated replacement cost today, the condition, and the warranty end date for anything still under warranty. This is the shape both the Triple-I and the NAIC describe: note where you bought it, the make and model, what you paid, record serial numbers, and keep receipts and appraisals with the list.
Start with the record, not the app.
A home inventory only pays off if the fields were there before the loss. Settle what your house needs to record, then look at how other apps in this series were scoped before you describe yours.