Reading the inventory PDF
A guided tour of the exported Descriptive Inventory: the header boxes, the seven columns, what <> means, the room bands, the end marker, and the appendix sections.
When you export a job, Van Line Pro produces a Descriptive Inventory, the standard van-line form that movers and claims adjusters recognize. It is the official legal inventory. This article walks through every part of it so you can read one at a glance and hand it to a customer with confidence.
The document goes out on your company's letterhead. There is no app branding on it.
The header on every page
The top of every page carries the same boxed header so a single loose page is never orphaned.
- Title strip. Your company logo, name, and contact line sit at the top left. The centered title reads RELOCATION SERVICES over DESCRIPTIVE INVENTORY. A Registration No. cell sits top right, filled from the job's order number (or lot number if there is no order number).
- Form rows. Three boxed rows below the title hold the shipment details:
- Row 1: Customer's Name, Company Name, Page No., No. of Pages.
- Row 2: Origin Address, City, ST, ZIP, Govt Bill of Lading No.
- Row 3: Destination Address, City, ST, ZIP, Tractor / Trailer #.
Note: Cells the app cannot fill honestly are left blank, never guessed. If an address does not parse cleanly into city, state, and ZIP, the whole address stays in the street cell and the rest stay empty.
The seven columns
Below the header is the ruled grid where every piece is listed. There are seven columns, left to right:
| Column | What it holds |
|---|---|
| WHSE | A pen-tick box for warehouse handling. Blank on export, ticked by hand. |
| SHIPPER | A pen-tick box for the shipper. Blank on export, ticked by hand. |
| ITEM NO. | The permanent inventory number for that one physical piece. |
| LOCATION – ARTICLES | The item name, plus any descriptive symbols in braces. |
| CP / PBO | For cartons only: who packed it, carrier packed or packed by owner. |
| CONDITIONS AT ORIGIN | The pre-existing condition recorded at pickup. |
| CONDITIONS AT DESTINATION | Left blank, filled by pen at delivery. |
WHSE and SHIPPER
These two narrow columns are pen-tick boxes, printed empty. Crews check them by hand as pieces are handled.
ITEM NO.
Each piece carries a permanent number that is stickered to it and never reused. A piece that has been retired prints NO ITEM in the articles column with its void reason, and its number stays in sequence rather than being reassigned. See Item numbers: void vs. delete.
LOCATION – ARTICLES
The item name prints here. If the item carries any
descriptive symbols, they follow the name in braces,
for example Grandfather Clock {HV CRATE}.
CP / PBO
Carrier packed (CP) and packed by owner (PBO) apply only to cartons. This column prints a label only for items in the Boxes category. For furniture and everything else it stays blank.
CONDITIONS AT ORIGIN
This is where pre-existing damage is written, one phrase per condition line, for
example Top, Corners: Scratched, Chipped. See
Condition codes and Location symbols.
An item with no recorded exceptions prints <>, which means good condition
except for normal wear. The column header carries this note verbatim:
NOTE: "<>" indicates good condition except for normal wear.
CONDITIONS AT DESTINATION
Always blank on export. The delivery crew records the condition at destination by pen, so any change during transit is documented at the far end.
Room bands
Items are grouped by room. A shaded band with the room name introduces each group, and anything not assigned to a room falls under an Unassigned band at the end. Within a room, pieces are listed in item-number order.
The end marker
After the last piece, the inventory closes with XXX in the ITEM NO. column
and — END OF INVENTORY — in the articles column. This is the standard
"nothing follows" marker, so no one can add a line after the fact.
The signature footer
The bottom of every page carries a footer block:
- A Remarks / Exceptions line.
- A tape lot row: Tape Lot No., Tape Color, and the item-number range on that page (Nos. From … Through …).
- A signature grid split into ORIGIN (left) and DESTINATION (right), each with agent and driver code lines, a Customer signature row, and a Carrier signature row.
Your captured acceptance signature prints in the origin Customer row. The other signature cells are left for signing at origin and at delivery.
The appendix
After the item grid, the inventory adds reference sections under the same boxed header and footer. Each appears only when it has content.
| Section | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Shipment Summary | Total pieces, total cube in ft³, and estimated weight in lbs, plus the <> note. |
| Packing Summary | Two carton tallies side by side, Carrier Packed and Packed By Owner, each with per-carton counts and a total. Appears only when the job has cartons. |
| Inventory Symbol Key | A legend of only the symbols this job used: descriptive symbols, location symbols (by number), and condition symbols (by code). |
| Room Layouts | The measured top-down floor plan for each room that was captured with LiDAR. |
| Condition Photos | Pre-existing condition photos, each captioned with the item name, room, exceptions, and any note. |
Note: The symbol key is job-specific. If a job used only two condition codes and no descriptive symbols, only those two codes appear, and there is no descriptive-symbols block. This keeps the legend honest to the document.