What It Can't Do — Said Plainly
A tool you can trust tells you its limits before you pay, not after. Here is what InventoryByHand cannot do, why not, and what to do instead. If a job on this list is the job you need, this is not the tool for it — and we would rather say so now than take your money and waste your time.
Decide your coverage, or what a claim is worth
Coverage decisions and claim amounts belong to your insurer, under your policy. An inventory app holds records; it does not read your policy for you, and it does not decide any part of a claim.
What we do instead: Use the inventory to give your insurer a complete, itemized record, and ask your insurer or agent — before any loss — whether your coverage matches the replacement totals in your list. Coverage questions go to the company that wrote the policy.
Be 'insurance-approved' or 'certified'
No such approval exists for inventory apps. No insurer approves or certifies a home inventory program, and any app that says it is approved is claiming a thing that does not exist.
What we do instead: Judge an inventory by whether it holds the fields and photos insurers ask for — brand and model, room, serial number, dates, prices, replacement cost, condition, proof of ownership, and photos in place — and whether that record can be handed over as one file. That is what claim-ready means here, and the phrase is chosen carefully.
Bring back a vault you never exported
Your list lives on your device. There is no server copy, by design — so if a phone is lost or destroyed and no export was ever made, there is nothing anywhere to bring back. That is the honest price of having no account and no copy on someone else's system.
What we do instead: Export early and often — after any batch of items, and again monthly while you are building the list. Keep the file in email, in cloud storage, and with family at another address. An exported file restores in minutes on a new phone.
Protect a Safari tab that was never installed
On iPhone and iPad, Safari can delete a website's stored data after 7 days without interaction. Data held only in a browser tab is held under that rule, and no web app can override it from inside a tab.
What we do instead: Install the app to your Home Screen, which is exempt from that 7-day rule, and export copies of your file as well. The app teaches both habits on its first screen; do them on day one, not day thirty.
Prove what something was worth
Photos and receipts document that you owned a thing and what shape it was in. They do not, on their own, set the value of a high-value piece — a painting, a ring, an antique. Putting a value on such a piece is separate, skilled work.
What we do instead: For jewelry, watches, art, and collectibles, get an appraisal and keep the appraisal paper with the item's entry and photos. Many policies also limit payment for these kinds of items unless they are listed separately, so ask your insurer about listing valuable pieces.
Know every product from its barcode
Barcode lookup depends on outside product records, which are strong for common packaged goods and thin for furniture, handmade things, older items, and things that never had a retail barcode. Lookup is best-effort, and some scans will find nothing.
What we do instead: Treat scanning as a shortcut when it works and manual entry as the normal road when it does not — manual entry is one tap away, uses the same fields, and never blocks an item from being listed.
Replace your policy papers, or give insurance advice
This is a records tool. It organizes what you own; it does not interpret your policy, recommend coverage, or stand in for your insurer, your agent, or a licensed adviser. Claim decisions belong to your insurer.
What we do instead: Keep photos of your policy papers with your inventory file so you have them when you need them, and take coverage and claim questions to your insurer or agent. Bring them the inventory — it makes that conversation shorter and better.