Templates for Disaster Recovery.

A curated set of 9 spreadsheets — and the guides that go with them — for the months after a fire, flood, or storm. Value what you lost, follow every claim from filed to paid, keep the receipts and the living-expense log, and put every deadline somewhere it cannot be missed.

The disaster is the part everybody prepares for

In the first week right now? Start free with the After-the-Disaster First Steps Checklist — the calls to make, what to photograph before anything moves, and the figures to find on your declarations page. No signup.

Nobody prepares for the six months afterward: the adjuster who does not call back, an inventory of every object you owned, receipts you were too shocked to keep, and deadlines nobody explains until one has passed. These templates hold the details so they are ready when an adjuster, a contractor, or a tax preparer asks.

Start with the two numbers that decide most of what a household gets paid, because almost nobody is told how either one works before it is used on them. The first is actual cash value — what your things were worth allowing for age and wear — and the depreciation an insurer holds back until you actually replace each item and send in the receipt. That second payment is the one that is easiest to forget, because nothing prompts you to claim it. The second is additional living expenses, which pay the increase over what you were already spending, not the whole bill. The Disaster-Recovery Claims & Rebuild Binder computes both, line by line.

The single highest-value hour of a recovery happens before anyone thinks about a claim: photographing every room and every damaged item before anything is moved or thrown away. It cannot be repeated later.

For any part of a home still intact — or for a family member preparing somewhere else — the same argument runs forward: build a home inventory before it is needed, and read why a home inventory is worth the evening. The Emergency / Evacuation Readiness Binder is the "before" half of the same job, and the two are built to be used together.

Learn what a proof of loss is before you sign one, and what an insurance adjuster does — including the difference between the one your insurer sends and the one you would hire. Compare an owned claims binder against a hosted claims app, or follow the step-by-step tutorial on documenting a home insurance claim to build the file.

And if a deadline is close, or has already passed, call today rather than assuming it is over. After a large declared disaster, insurers and agencies often extend deadlines by bulletin, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) can waive the flood proof-of-loss period for an affected area — those extensions are announced, so ask whether one applies to you. Never assume a missed date will be forgiven. Whatever a template tells you, always work from the deadline printed on the letter in your hand.

An honest word. These templates organize and record; they do not file anything, value your loss, adjust your claim, or guarantee any result, and they are not insurance, legal, tax, or public-adjusting advice. Ardent Workshop is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to FEMA, the Small Business Administration, any insurance company, or any government agency.