GUIDES / AI TOOLS

Claim Log Worksheet: Checking an AI PDF Summary Against the Source

Author: AI Tools Editorial Team

AI disclosure: this article was drafted with AI assistance. No human review has taken place yet.

Last updated: October 29, 2026

This page is a tool, not a tutorial. It gives you a worksheet to record how each factual claim in an AI-generated PDF summary matches the source file. For the general steps to summarize a PDF and read the result, see How to Summarize a PDF with AI. This worksheet assumes you have already read that guide’s verification section.

What the worksheet checks, and what it does not

• It checks: whether each factual claim in a summary appears in the PDF, with the same qualifiers, numbers, dates, and units.
• It does not check: whether the summary is well written, whether it is useful for your purpose, whether the source is accurate, or what the document means legally or technically.
• It needs: a PDF with selectable text. For scanned files, first confirm the text can be read; a summary cannot be checked against text you cannot read.

Step 1: Define the purpose

Write one sentence: what do you need this summary for? Examples: “to decide whether to read the full policy,” or “to brief a colleague on the findings.” The purpose decides which sections matter in Step 5.

Step 2: List the claims

A claim is a sentence in the summary that states something checkable: a number, date, name, rule, cause, or conclusion. Skip framing sentences. Copy each claim into the worksheet below.

Step 3: Find the support

For each claim, find the passage in the PDF and copy a short quote. Record the page or section. A claim without a quote cannot be marked supported.

Step 4: Assign a status

Use one of four statuses for each claim:

Check numbers, dates, and units against the table or sentence itself, not only the paragraph around it. Confirm the period (quarter, year, fiscal year) and the currency or unit.

Step 5: Check coverage against the purpose

Coverage is a separate check from the claim statuses above.

• Not covered: a section of the PDF that is outside your purpose from Step 1. Record it as “not covered” and do not treat it as a problem.
• Material omission: a section that matters to your purpose but has no matching claim in the summary. Record it as “omitted” with the page or section.

Make the coverage list before you read the summary, so you do not decide what matters based on what it left out.

Step 6: Decide how to use the summary

These are suggested working rules, not an external standard.

• Use with corrections: the claims you rely on are supported, or partly supported with the missing qualifiers added to your notes.
• Do not rely on an affected claim: a claim is contradicted or cannot be found. Correct it only against the source. You can ask the tool for a new summary, but you must then check every claim in the new output, because a new output is not confirmed by a new request.
• Use only as a reading guide: many claims are “not found,” or important sections are omitted. The summary still points you to parts of the PDF, but it cannot stand in for them.
• Read the source yourself: for contracts, medical, financial, academic, or workplace documents, a summary helps you find sections. It is not a substitute for reading them.

Step 7: Keep the record

Store the worksheet where only people with access to the document can read it. Keep quotes short, and copy only what you need to show the status. Do not paste whole pages, and do not share a worksheet that contains confidential material without checking the document’s permissions.

Record the document name, the date, the tool, the plan or version used, and the prompt.

Template

Copy this table and fill it in.

Purpose:
Date checked:
Tool, plan, and version:
Prompt used:

| # | Claim as written in the summary | Location in PDF | Short quote | Status | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|

Coverage:
| Section | Purpose relevance | Covered in summary? | Coverage status |
|---|---|---|---|

Counts: Supported __ | Partly supported __ | Not found __ | Contradicted __
Material omissions: __

Filled example: the lab’s bakery memo

This example reuses the record from the lab’s test on October 28, 2026. The source was one fictional English-language memo with five known facts. The summary the tool produced was in Portuguese, so the claims below are translated for this example.

For this worksheet example, we retrospectively chose the purpose: decide which facts from the memo to include in a brief. This purpose was not an instruction used in the original test.

Coverage:

Counts: Supported 3 | Partly supported 0 | Not found 0 | Contradicted 0 Material omissions: 2

The summary also suggested two follow-up questions, about total profit and the reason for the sales increase. The memo contains neither answer. Those questions are not claims in the summary and are not counted here. Do not use them as if they had answers.

This was one document, one tool, one session, and one test. It does not show how the tool performs on other documents.

What this worksheet cannot show

• It cannot show that a summary is complete. Coverage is judged against your purpose, using your own reading.
• It cannot show whether the source document is accurate.
• It cannot replace review by a qualified person for consequential decisions.

Sources

• ChatPDF, PDF Summary. Tool used for the fictional example; checked October 29, 2026.