The short definition

A Schedule of Values (SOV) is a structured list of every insured location in a commercial property portfolio, together with the values and underwriting attributes a carrier needs to price the risk. Each row of an SOV represents one building or location, and the columns capture everything from the street address and total insured value to the construction type, occupancy, year built, square footage, and protection details. In many shops the same document is called a Statement of Values, emphasizing that the insured is certifying the figures reported.

Put simply, the SOV is what a carrier quotes from. A property submission without a clean SOV is not really a submission at all — it is a request for the underwriter to go find the data themselves, which they rarely have time to do. That is why the quality of the SOV so often decides whether an account gets a fast, competitive quote or sits in a queue.

What belongs on an SOV: the required fields

While every carrier and wholesale market has its own template, the underwriting data on an SOV almost always organizes around four categories, known collectively as COPE: Construction, Occupancy, Protection, and Exposure. A complete row typically includes the fields below.

Location and value fields

• Full street address, ideally geocoded to latitude and longitude so catastrophe models and flood lookups run against the correct point.
• Total insured value (TIV) — usually building value, business personal property (contents), and business income combined.
• Building value reported on a replacement cost basis wherever possible.
• Square footage and number of stories.

Construction and occupancy

• Construction class — frame, joisted masonry, non-combustible, masonry non-combustible, modified fire resistive, or fire resistive.
• Occupancy — office, retail, warehouse, restaurant, apartment, manufacturing, and so on.
• Year built, plus the year of the last roof, electrical, plumbing, and HVAC updates.

Protection and exposure

• Protection class (PPC), distance to the nearest fire station, and distance to a hydrant.
• Sprinklered status and alarm/monitoring details.
• Flood zone, distance to coast, and windstorm attributes such as roof geometry, roof age, and opening protection for coastal risk.

Why carriers need a clean SOV

Underwriters build a quote directly from the SOV. Construction class and occupancy set the base rate; protection class and sprinkler status adjust it; and exposure fields such as flood zone, distance to coast, and roof attributes drive catastrophe pricing and wind deductibles. When a value is missing or contradicts itself, the underwriter cannot rate the location — so they either return the submission for more information or apply conservative assumptions that cost the insured money.

The SOV also governs how much the insured actually collects at claim time. Values reported here determine policy limits, and if a location is underinsured relative to a coinsurance requirement, the insured absorbs a penalty on even a partial loss. Whether a policy is written on a blanket or scheduledbasis depends on trusting those SOV figures. Accurate values protect the client; sloppy ones create E&O exposure for the broker.

The most common SOV mistakes

Most problem SOVs fail in a handful of predictable ways:

• Missing COPE data. Blank construction, protection, or roof-age fields force the underwriter to assume the worst — or return the file.
• Understated values. Reporting old or purchase-price values instead of current replacement cost triggers coinsurance penalties and leaves the client underinsured.
• Bad addresses and geocoding. A typo or a location that geocodes to the wrong spot pulls the wrong flood zone and distance to coast, mispricing the risk.
• Inconsistent formatting. Merged cells, mixed units, and non-standard construction labels break carrier templates and slow everyone down.
• Stale data carried year to year. Renewal SOVs are often copied forward without re-verifying roof updates, occupancy changes, or new construction.

How AI verification produces a better SOV

Historically, cleaning an SOV meant a broker or account manager cross-checking each location by hand against county property appraiser records, mapping tools, and prior applications — a slow, error-prone job that scales poorly across a large book. This is exactly where SOV AI helps.

SOV AI ingests any Schedule of Values — xlsx, xls, or csv — auto-maps the columns even when they use unfamiliar labels, and enriches every location with the construction, occupancy, protection, flood, and wind data carriers underwrite on. It then AI-verifies each property against reputable public records, filling missing fields and flagging values that contradict the SOV, with a source link on every finding so you can confirm it into the schedule. When the SOV is clean, it exports straight into the AmRisc, CIBA, and Jupiter templates your markets require — no reformatting, no broken macros, and no manual re-keying.

The result is a submission that underwriters can quote on the first pass, values the client can rely on at claim time, and a Schedule of Values that protects you from avoidable E&O exposure. For definitions of any term above, see the SOV & P&C insurance glossary.