Loss run to Excel
Loss run to Excel, with every policy period tied to the carrier's totals
A loss run arrives as a PDF and an underwriter wants a spreadsheet. Getting the rows into Excel is the easy part. Knowing the rows add up to what the carrier printed is the part that takes time, and it is the part LossRun Pro adds.
Your claims schedule
Claims schedule
Swipe the table sideways to see every column.
Tie-out to the carrier's totals
Definition
What does "loss run to Excel" mean?
Loss run to Excel means turning the claim table in a carrier's PDF loss run into spreadsheet rows and columns: one row per claim, with the claim number, dates, status and the paid, reserve and incurred amounts held as real numbers and dates. Done properly it also carries the carrier's printed totals, so the spreadsheet can be checked against the report instead of trusted on sight.
The columns are mapped by their headings, not by carrier. A report that heads a column "Loss Paid" and another that heads it "Indemnity Paid" both feed Paid Loss. Where a report splits an amount into parts, such as indemnity and medical, the parts are added and a note records which headings were added.
The output
What lands in the Excel workbook
| Sheet | What it holds |
|---|---|
| Claims Schedule | One row per claim in 20 fixed columns. Dates are Excel dates and amounts are numbers. Filters are on. |
| Policy Year Summary | One row per policy year: claims, open claims, paid loss, paid expense, reserve, incurred, largest claim, valuation date and the tie-out result. A total row closes it. |
| Tie-out | Each check that the report allowed: claim count, paid loss, paid expense, reserve and incurred, with the claim-row total, the printed total and the variance. |
| Flags | Every flag with its severity, claim number, policy year and a plain-language message. |
| Notes | Present only when the read produced warnings, for example a merged continuation row or a file read with OCR. |
The claims schedule columns
The same columns, in the same order, whichever carrier the report came from.
| Column | What it holds |
|---|---|
| Claim Number | The carrier's claim or file number, as printed. |
| Policy Number | From the row, or from the policy heading above the table. |
| Policy Year | Label such as 2023-24, derived from the policy effective date. |
| Policy Effective / Expiration | ISO dates (YYYY-MM-DD) so Excel sorts them correctly. |
| Line of Business | GL, Auto, WC, Property, Umbrella, Prof or Other. Coverage keeps the carrier's own wording. |
| Date of Loss / Report Date | ISO dates. Slash dates that could be read two ways are flagged. |
| Claimant | As printed. No masking is applied. |
| Unit | The unit or vehicle number, as printed, when the report has such a column. Blank otherwise. |
| Status | Open, Closed, Reopened or Subrogation. |
| Paid Loss / Paid Expense | Indemnity (and medical) paid, and ALAE or expense paid. |
| Reserve | Outstanding amount. Negative values stay negative. |
| Incurred / Incurred Basis | The carrier's figure, or paid plus reserve when the report left it blank (basis reads computed). |
| Description | Cause or description, with wrapped lines joined. |
| Flags | Codes for the checks that fired on that claim. |
| Source | The file the row came from, so five carriers stay traceable. |
Steps
How to convert a loss run PDF to Excel
Five steps, and the third is the one that matters.
- Start from the best copy you haveA PDF exported from the carrier's system or portal reads most cleanly. If all you have is paper, scan it flat and straight, and expect to look harder at the tie-out.
- Upload the PDFDrop it on the converter above, or choose it from your files. A long report or a scan takes longer, and the status line shows the elapsed time.
- Read the tie-outEach policy period shows Ties or Variance next to the carrier's printed figures. Resolve any red line against the PDF before you rely on the numbers.
- Look at the flagsOpen claims over three years old, incurred below paid, duplicate claim numbers and loss dates outside the policy period are listed with the claim they belong to.
- DownloadChoose the Excel workbook for the schedule, summary, tie-out and flags together, or the CSV files if you want to paste into your own template. Upload the next carrier first if you want one combined file.
Why loss runs resist a plain conversion
The parts of a loss run that break generic converters
- Totals inside the table. A period total, and often a grand total, sits in the same grid as the claims. Read as a claim, it doubles the sums. LossRun Pro treats a row with amounts and no claim number as a total and keeps it out of the schedule.
- Descriptions that wrap. A long cause-of-loss description breaks onto a second line with every other cell empty. That row is merged into the claim above it, and the note on the read says how many were merged.
- Policy periods as headings. Many reports print the policy number and term above each table; others put them in columns. Both attach to the claims below, and the policy year label comes from the effective date.
- Negative amounts. Recoveries show as (1,250.00), 1,250.00- or 1,250.00 CR. All are read as negatives. A dash is zero. A blank paid or reserve cell is read as zero, and a blank incurred is computed from the other amounts and flagged.
- Decimal commas. A report that prints 1.234,56 is read as 1,234.56 once the style is clear from the amounts.
- Day and month order. A slash date such as 03/04/2024 is ambiguous. One date in the report with a day above 12 settles the order for the whole report. If nothing does, dates are read month first and the schedule says so.
Comparison
Re-keying, generic PDF-to-Excel, or LossRun Pro
All three get claims into a spreadsheet. They differ in what you can say about the spreadsheet afterwards.
| What you need | Manual re-keying | Generic PDF-to-Excel | LossRun Pro |
|---|---|---|---|
| Getting rows and columns | Read each line and type it. Slow, and easy to transpose a digit. | Fast. Reproduces the page layout, including its quirks. | Fast. Reads the claim table and maps each column by its heading. |
| Totals rows | Skipped or typed in as if they were claims. | Arrive as rows among the claims and double the sums. | Recognized as totals (per period and grand) and kept apart from the claims. |
| Wrapped descriptions | Retyped into one cell, if noticed. | A second line becomes a row with a blank claim number. | A row with no claim number is merged into the claim above it. |
| Numbers Excel can add | Whatever the typist entered. | Often text. Amounts in parentheses or with a trailing minus stay text. | Numbers and dates in the workbook. Parentheses, trailing minus, CR and dashes are read as negatives and zero. |
| Checking against the report | Add the column and compare to the printed total, if there is time. | None. | Automatic for every printed total: sum of claim rows, printed figure and the difference to the cent. |
| Five carriers into one table | Five hand-built tables, then a merge. | Five differently shaped sheets. | One fixed 20-column layout and a Source column, with each report's tie-out kept. |
Limits
What a clean conversion does not settle
A tie shows that your rows add up to the carrier's total. It does not show that the carrier's total is right, that every claim was reported, or that the loss run is valued recently enough for the market you are approaching. Those remain judgment calls for the person preparing the submission. LossRun Pro also needs a loss run that is a claim table: a narrative letter, or a report with no claim number column, cannot be turned into a schedule, and the page says so rather than guessing.
FAQ
Questions about converting loss runs to Excel
How do I convert a loss run PDF to Excel?
Drop the PDF on the converter above. LossRun Pro reads the claim table, maps each column by its heading, and builds one row per claim. When the result appears, choose Excel workbook in the download panel. The workbook holds the claims schedule, a policy-year summary, the tie-out against the carrier's printed totals and the flags. If you need the file for several carriers, upload each in turn and download once at the end.
Can Excel open a loss run PDF directly?
Some versions of Excel can import tables from a PDF (Data, Get Data, From File, From PDF). The import brings each table in as it sits on the page, so repeated headings, totals rows and wrapped descriptions arrive as ordinary rows, dates and amounts may arrive as text, and nothing checks that the rows add up to the carrier's total. That cleanup is the work this page removes.
Why not use a generic PDF to Excel converter?
A generic converter reproduces the page. A loss run needs something different: claim rows separated from total rows, wrapped descriptions rejoined to their claim, policy periods attached to each claim, and a check that the claims add up to the printed totals. A converter that does not know what a total row is cannot do any of those, and it cannot tell you when a page was missed.
Which columns does the spreadsheet have?
Twenty fixed columns, in the same order for every carrier: Claim Number, Policy Number, Policy Year, Policy Effective, Policy Expiration, Line of Business, Coverage, Date of Loss, Report Date, Claimant, Unit, Status, Paid Loss, Paid Expense, Reserve, Incurred, Incurred Basis, Description, Flags and Source. Unit holds the unit or vehicle number when the report prints one, and Source holds the file name, so rows from five carriers stay traceable. If a report has no column for one of these, the cell is left blank.
Are the dates and amounts real Excel values or text?
In the Excel workbook, dates are real Excel dates shown as mm/dd/yyyy, and amounts are numbers shown with thousands separators and negatives in parentheses, so they sort, filter and add. In the CSV files, dates are written as YYYY-MM-DD and amounts as plain numbers, which Excel reads as dates and numbers when you open the file.
Does the workbook contain formulas?
No. Every figure is a value, so the file shows exactly what was read from the report and what the check computed. The policy-year totals are calculated by LossRun Pro and written as numbers. If you add rows or build your own loss summary on top, add your own formulas there.
What if the incurred column is blank or missing?
If a claim row has no incurred figure, Incurred is computed as paid loss plus paid expense plus reserve, the Incurred Basis column says computed, and the claim is flagged so the number is not mistaken for one the carrier printed. If the report has no incurred column at all, the same rule applies to every claim and a warning says so. If the carrier's printed incurred matches paid loss plus reserve without expense, the report appears to leave expense out, and blank incurred values follow that basis.
Does it work on a scanned loss run or a photo?
It can. Pages without a text layer are read with OCR, and a file read that way carries a warning. OCR can misread a digit, so look at the tie-out first: a misread amount usually appears as a variance against the printed total. A text PDF exported from the carrier's system is more dependable than a scan of a printout.
What if the loss run has several policies or several pages?
Both are normal. A policy number and term printed above a table, or in policy columns inside the table, are attached to the claims beneath them, and each distinct policy period is tied out on its own. A table that continues on the next page without repeating its heading keeps the same column map. Claims that sit under no policy heading are grouped as Unassigned and flagged, because they cannot be tied out.
Is there a limit on rows or file size?
Free: 1 file per day, up to 10 pages, no account. Pro files can run to 150 pages. A longer file is not refused: its first pages are converted, the page says how many were left out, and the downloads are named -partial. The page accepts files up to 25 MB. The on-page schedule shows the first 1,500 rows of a combined schedule; the downloads always contain every row that was converted.