The building damage is only half the loss. The income you didn't earn is the other half.
Business interruption and lost rents are calculated, not observed — which means they are argued. Carriers hire forensic accountants to build that number. We build yours, from your own books, and defend it.
What a complete BI claim actually includes
Lost net income
The profit the business would have earned had the loss never occurred, projected off pre-loss trend rather than a flat prior-year average.
Continuing expenses
Payroll, debt service, insurance, management fees, and other costs that keep running while the doors are closed.
Extra expense
Temporary space, expedited freight, generator rental, overtime — costs incurred specifically to reduce the loss.
Lost rents (Business Income for landlords)
Unit-by-unit rent roll analysis for the period units are untenantable, including concessions and turnover.
Extended period of indemnity
Income losses that continue after repairs finish while the customer base or occupancy rebuilds.
Civil authority & ingress/egress
Coverage triggered when access to the property is blocked by government order or adjacent damage.
Where the carrier's number comes up short
- Period of restoration cut short — the carrier assumes a repair timeline no contractor could hit.
- Pre-loss trend flattened to a prior-year average, erasing a growing business's real numbers.
- Payroll treated as saved rather than continuing, despite ordinary payroll endorsements.
- Extra expense denied as 'betterment' when it demonstrably reduced the overall loss.
- Deductible expressed in waiting-period hours or days rather than dollars — often misapplied.
- Forensic accountant's worksheet presented as final when it is an opening position.
Records to start gathering today
- Profit & loss statements — 36 months pre-loss plus loss period to date.
- Federal tax returns for the last three years.
- Monthly sales or occupancy reports and current rent roll with lease terms.
- Payroll registers and any layoff or retention documentation.
- Invoices for every extra expense incurred after the loss.
- Contractor schedule showing the realistic repair timeline.
Keep loss-period expenses coded separately in your accounting system from day one. Reconstructing them later is the single most common reason a valid BI claim gets discounted.
Closed for repairs and losing income?
The earlier we're involved, the cleaner the documentation — and the harder your number is to discount.