ABS Training 4.0. June 2013

ABS Training 4.0 June 2013

Table of Contents I. Layout Overview... 5 A. Search... 5 B. Explorers... 9 C. Fly-out*... 12 II. Client Management... 16 A. Adding Clients*... 16 B. Importing Clients in Bulk*... 19 C. Adding Service Teams*... 19 D. Exposures... 21 E. Tasks / Notes / Documents... 24 III. Submission Management... 27 A. Add a Submission... 27 B. Quick Submission... 28 C. Create Policy from Submission... 31 IV. Policy Management... 34 A. Adding Policies*... 34 B. Endorse / Change a Policy... 40 C. Renew / Rewrite a Policy... 42 D. Request to Cancel a Policy... 44 E. Cancel a Policy... 45 F. Reinstate Policy... 47 G. Copy / Merge... 50 H. Generate Documents... 54 I. Create a Binder... 57 J. Create Summary of Insurance... 60 K. Line of Business Hierarchy... 62 L. Products and Services... 64 2

V. Billing & Invoice Management... 68 A. Agency Bill... 69 B. Direct Bill by Invoice... 73 C. Installments*... 74 D. Subsidiary Billing... 79 E. Premium Allocation... 83 F. Reset for New Invoice... 86 G. Reverse an Invoice*... 87 H. Adjust an Invoice... 90 I. Invoice an Endorsement... 92 VI. Certificate Management... 95 A. Add Master Certificate / Evidence... 95 B. Create Master Documents... 97 C. Add Certificate Holders... 100 D. Create Holder Documents... 104 E. Recreate Documents... 106 F. Renew Certificates... 107 G. Activate / Deactivate Holders... 108 H. Move / Copy Certificates... 110 I. Distribute... 111 VII. Claims Management... 114 A. Create Claim from Policy... 114 B. Create Incident... 116 C. Create Claim from Incident... 117 D. Report Claim... 120 E. Set Subro Status... 121 F. Close Claim / Incident... 121 G. Reopen Claim... 122 VIII. Accounting... 124 3

A. Invoice Batches... 124 B. Receipts*... 127 C. Checks*... 136 D. Other Batches*... 145 E. Month End... 157 *Contains recently updated information highlighted in yellow 4

I. Layout Overview A. Search 1) To search for a particular entity you can use a prefix on the search value. a. EXAMPLE: To search for a policy number enter policy: 12345 or p: 12345. 2) Search terms separated by a space use an OR search. a. EXAMPLE: If you entered a search as client: nancy peacock, the system would search for nancy or peacock 3) Search terms in quotes are searched as a phrase. a. EXAMPLE: If you entered a search as client: nancy peacock, the system would search for the entire phrase nancy peacock 4) All numeric, currency, and date fields are searched by exact match. 5) Text fields are searched as a partial match unless the search string is three characters or less. In this case, the field must use a prefix value such as policy: or p: 6) To limit the search for only currency, prefix the search value with a dollar sign ($). 7) To limit the search for only currency and numeric fields, use a decimal. 8) Administration entities are not included in the general search. A separate search box/search is provided for Administration entities. Prefix Values & Fields Searched SEARCHING FOR: PREFIX VALUE FIELDS SEARCHED Client client c Name Subsidiary Name DBA Name Former name Client # Status Comment 5

SEARCHING FOR: PREFIX VALUE FIELDS SEARCHED Submission Policy Quote Proposal Contact Service Issues submission sub s policy p quote q proposal prop contact con service si Class Insured Name Effective Date Profit Center Office Status Policy # Insured Name Class Expiration Date Policy Status Office Payto Company Insuring Company Profit Center Class Insured Name Insuring Company Market Status Insured Name Class Last Name First Name Related To Primary Phone Status Date Opened Insured Contact Insured Name Status Claim claim Claim Class Client Date Of Loss 6

SEARCHING FOR: PREFIX VALUE FIELDS SEARCHED Status Incident incident Incident # Client Date Of Loss Master Holder holder Holder Name Master Cert/Evidence Certificate Holder cert evidence ev certhold ch evholder eh Status Name Cert/Evidence Number Description Client Status Holder Name Cert Holder # Client Status Vehicle vehicle VIN Driver driver Last name First Name License # Task Task Task Name Assigned To Status Insured Note note Type Third Party Company Check third tpc check chk Subject Notation Insured Name Check # Payment Date Pay to Check Amount Check Batch cb Batch # 7

SEARCHING FOR: PREFIX VALUE FIELDS SEARCHED Entity Direct Bill Invoice Batch dbib Batch # Direct Bill Invoice dbi Invoice # Client Policy # Invoice Date Pay To Company Amount Direct Bill Receipt dbr Check # Direct Bill Receipt Batch Invoice Received From Receipt Date Amount dbrb Batch # invoice inv i Invoice # Client Policy # Invoice Date Pay To Company Amount Invoice Batch ib Batch # Payment payment pay Payment Date Payment Type Client Payee Amount Payment Batch pb Batch Type Receipt receipt rec Batch # Entity Check # Received From Receipt Date Amount Receipt Batch rb Batch # 8

SEARCHING FOR: PREFIX VALUE FIELDS SEARCHED Entity Payee payee Name B. Explorers Staff Explorer Type Status List tasks, contacts, clients, submissions and notes assigned to you. This is determined if you are a member of a client service team for a client. 9

Client Explorer Lists all the information associated to the client. 10

Accounting Explorer Contains all of the accounting functionality of the application. 11

C. Fly-out* The fly-out provides quick access to the following useful tools and frequently-used entities: 1) My Tasks 2) Favorites 3) Gadgets 4) Downloads 5) Help 12

My Tasks Tasks can be managed from the Task tab of the fly-out. Click the pin to keep the pane open. Click the pin again to hide it. Favorites Items that appear in Favorites are added and removed by each individual user. 13

A Star displayed at the top of each page is used to add items to your Favorites. A grey star indicates item is NOT part of your Favorites. A yellow star indicates item IS part of my favorites. Gadgets Gadgets contains Recently Viewed items, Unearned Premium Calculator and other custom items that can be added as desired. Downloads Downloads contains files and add-ins provided by Terrace for users, such as the Outlook add-in and the latest release notes. 14

Help Context sensitive help is available in the Terrace User Guide. 15

II. Client Management A. Adding Clients* From the Home tab, Add Client on the ribbon bar, choose the type of client you want to add. The following types of clients are available: 1) BR-Insured Company A BR-Insured (short for broker insured) is an insured with whom you do not deal directly. Select this option if you deal with a Retail Agency instead of an insured (i.e., the Retail Agent is your client). Select BR-Insured Company for a commercial account. 2) BR-Insured Individual This is an insured individual with whom you do not deal directly (see BR- Insured Company above). 3) Insured Company This is a commercial account with whom you deal directly. 4) Insured Individual This is an individual who you deal with directly. An insured individual is typically used for personal lines. 16

5) Retail Agent Select Retail Agent if the retail agent is your client and you do not deal with the insured directly. Depending on the type of Client you choose to add, the fields that appear on the Add Client screen will vary. You are able to enter all the new client-related information from this screen, including primary address and phone numbers. The required fields are outlined in orange. 17

Once the record has been saved, the new client will appear with additional tabs for adding more clientspecific information. The client will also display in the Explorer window to the left, with all associated details in the tree below. NOTE: The Explorer window will not display Exposures if the client is a Retail Agency. Client Tabs 18

1) Addresses & Phones manage all client addresses and phone numbers. There can be only one primary address and one primary phone number. The primary address and phone can be added on the Main tab. The Addresses & Phones tab is used to enter additional addresses and phone numbers. 2) Profiles & Other Names manage Subsidiaries, DBAs and Former Names for the client. You can also associate the client to Related Clients through configurable relationship types. Additionally, add one or more Profiles (i.e. size, industry, etc.) to a client to categorize in more detail the client s business. This provides the ability for more detailed reporting. 3) Service Team manage the list of all staff members that may service the client and earn production credit for a client. 4) Custom Data contains additional client related fields that can be configured by the Administrator to track additional data that is not currently within ABS. B. Importing Clients in Bulk* Clients can be imported in bulk with basic information using an Excel spreadsheet. To do so, go to Administration Utilities Import Clients. Download a template of the spreadsheet using the link provided. Once the spreadsheet has been filled out, save it locally, then select and save it back into ABS. C. Adding Service Teams* The Service Team is the list of all staff members that may service the client. Service team members can be entered for multiple offices, multiple profit centers and multiple roles. 19

The service team must consist of at least one staff member with a primary activity of Account Handler and at least one staff member with a primary activity of Producer. A staff member can have a primary activity of both Producer and Account Handler. These team members are later used to assign a Primary Account Handler and a Primary Producer to a policy. Team members can also be assigned a participation percentage for receiving production credit on policies. From the Client Overview, choose the Service Team tab. Click on Add Service Team Member(s). Any number of staff can be set up for any office and profit center. The Participation % indicates the production credit percentage the staff member will earn for business from the client. When a policy record is created, any Service Team entries that match the office and profit center of the new policy and are marked to Include on Policies will be copied to the policy. This allows you to set up different teams in Production Credit for the different offices and profit centers. If no matching entries are found in the Service Team for the policy s office and profit center, no staff credit will be created and you will have to manually add the staff credit to the policy. Clicking the Add button allows you to add more than one client team at a time. It will add the client team member and bring up the same screen to enter another team member. When all of the client team members have been added, click Close. 20

D. Exposures An exposure is any physical item that a client may want to insure. A master exposure(s) list is managed at the client level. Once an exposure has been created at the client level, it can be attached to any number of submissions or policies. Physical information about each exposure (i.e., non-coverage information) is entered at the client level. This is the information about the exposure that doesn t change from policy to policy. For a location: 21

The Description field will default to the Street Address, City, State and Zip if left blank. The required fields are outlined in orange. For a vehicle: The Description field will default to the Year, Make Model and VIN if left blank. The required fields are outlined in orange. For a driver: 22

The Description field will default to the First Name, Last Name, and License Number if left blank. The required fields are outlined in orange. For equipment: The Description field will default to the Model, Model Year, Manufacturer and Serial Number if left blank. The required fields are outlined in orange. The Named Insured tab is a read only section that shows any additional named insureds who have been added to the custom data section on a policy. This screen will also show which policy(ies) they have 23

been added to. You cannot add Additional Insureds from this screen; you must add them in the Custom Data section of a policy. E. Tasks / Notes / Documents Tasks, notes, and documents can be attached on the client level and accessed via the Client Explorer. The Tasks grid view can be filtered based on due date, critical status, or completion. To add a task, click Add Task from the grid on the Tasks tab. Information about the task is entered in the following screen. If you would like an email notification sent as a reminder before the task is due, check the box next to Send Notification and enter a number in Days Before to indicate when you would like to be notified. 24

To add a note related to the client, go to the Note tab and select Add Note. After a note has been created, you can append additional text to the note, but you cannot edit any text already entered. Each addendum to a note will be added with a time/date stamp next to each entry. 25

The Documents tab contains documents associated with the client. External documents (created outside of ABS) can be added. Emails can also be sent with documents attached. 26

III. Submission Management A. Add a Submission During the application process, the submission is where the information is maintained and used in the creation of applications, quotes, proposals, documents and reports. To create a new submission for an existing client, search for your client, click on the Marketing folder and choose Add Submission. This is located in the window on the right side which lists all the submissions for the client. Once you have entered the information, click Save. Required fields to complete the submission are outlined in orange. 27

B. Quick Submission Quick Submission is a way to enter a new client and a new submission in one screen. From the Marketing tab, Quick Submission icon, choose either Wholesale Submission or Retail Submission. Wholesale Submission is for a new BR-Insured client, for an existing Retail Agent in the system. The Retail Agent is your client and you do not deal directly with the BR-Insured. Retail Submission is for a new insured. The insured is your client and you deal directly with them. Wholesale / Retail Submission After selecting Wholesale Submission from the drop-down menu, a screen with both client and submission information will be displayed. If there is not an active client in the client Explorer, the Retail 28

Agent field will be blank and you will have to select one. If a Retail Agent is active in the Client Explorer, the Retail Agent as well as the Client Service Team will default. If you select Retail Submission, you do not have to select at Retail Agent. If you are already viewing an existing Insured client, the insured information will be defaulted in the screen. If you want to create a new Insured, first navigate to a screen not associated with an insured, such as the ABS Home screen. Information required to create a quick submission is the same for both wholesale and retail with the following two exceptions: Retail Submission has an area to enter a primary contact for the insured. Wholesale Submission you choose a contact from the existing Retail Agent. The remaining sections for both wholesale and retail are the same. The required fields are outlined in orange. 29

Sublines sublines are associated to the line of business code assigned to the submission and are automatically set for monoline (one) coverage. For a package submission, the user can choose the applicable subline(s) after saving the submission. 30

Submission Tabs 1) Coverage Detail enter detail information such as limits, deductibles and rating information that can be used to create proposals and documents 2) Marketing lists all quotes and proposals associated to the submission 3) Production Credit (optional) list of staff and the percentage of commission they will receive; it will be carried to the policy when the business is bound; staff credit must equal 100%. In general, you do not need to set up production credit at the submission level. It is useful only for complex multi-layer policies where different teams manage separate lines of business within a single profit center. 4) Policies list of all policies created from the submission record 5) Tasks - management of tasks for the submission; this includes adding a new task, closing or reassigning a task 6) Notes management of notes for the submission; this includes adding a new note or appending existing notes 7) Documents list all documents generated for this submission; ability to add documents from other sources (not generated from the system) and email documents C. Create Policy from Submission After selecting your submission record, from the Marketing tab on the ribbon bar select Create Submission Policy. 31

Information from the submission will be copied to the policy record. When you have completed the required fields you can click Save to save the record. Required fields are indicated in orange. 32

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IV. Policy Management A. Adding Policies* A policy is a written contract for insurance between an insurance company and a policyholder stating details of coverage. Policies can be added to the system from a submission, a quote or simply just added as new. NOTE: Creating a policy from a submission or quote is discussed under the Marketing process section. Search for your client and select Policies tab from the ribbon bar and choose the type of policy you wish to add. In this example, a Commercial Policy is chosen. You can also add a policy from the Explorer window. From the Client Explorer expand the Policies folder. Click on the folder for the type of policy you want to add. Click Add Policy. 34

The Policy Overview screen will appear. You must complete the required fields which are indicated in orange. 35

The expiration date will automatically default one year from the effective date. You can override this date by typing in a new date or choosing a date from the pop-up calendar. When choosing the class code from the drop-down you can type a portion or all of the class code you are searching for and the system will find it. You do not need to scroll down the entire list. You must assign an office and profit center to the policy. Once the office and profit center has been assigned a list of Account Handler(s) and Producer(s) will appear in the drop-down(s). These are the client service team members at the client level that are assigned to the same office and profit center you assigned to the policy. 36

Production Credit Production credit is tracked based on the service team on a particular policy. This allows you to split production credit between producers and maintain a service team with any roles desired. Each policy must have production credit total 100%. Production credit information is located both on the policy overview and in the Billing Center, which can be accessed on the Policies tab (the Billing Center will be covered in more detail later in this document). The screen shot below shows a policy team with two producers splitting the commission, and one account handler in a non-commissioned role. The service team on a policy can change over the policy term; the system allows you to set effective dates for the team members. Each team member has a beginning effective date. An end effective date is entered when a staff member is removed from a client policy team. The screen shot below shows a policy team with a single producer receiving 100% commission before January 31, 2011, and two producers sharing the commission as of February 1, 2011. 37

When an invoice is posted, the total production credit must total 100% as of the date the invoice is recognized in the general ledger. In the example above, one producer receives 100% of the commission for invoices from January 1 to February 29, and two producers receive 50% of the commission each for invoices on March 1 and after. In both cases, the total commission is always 100% for any date. Policy Tabs 1) Coverage manage detail information such as limits, deductibles and rating information that can be used to create documents; manage the exposures assigned to the policy; manage noncoverage related information such as prior carrier information, named insured etc. 2) Tasks - management of tasks for the policy; this includes, adding new tasks, closing and reassigning existing tasks. 3) Notes management of notes for the policy; this includes, adding new notes and appending existing notes. 4) Binders & Documents lists all binders and documents generated for this policy; contains the ability to add external documents (not generated within ABS) and email documents. Fee Only Policy Fee only policies allow you to create invoices for a client that has no association to coverage or an insurance company. It may be a one-time charge to a client for a service or can reoccur over a specific time period. Search for your client and select Policies tab from the ribbon bar and choose Fee Policy. 38

Complete the required fields indicated in orange. The policy number will default to FEE ONLY but can be changed after the policy has been created. Payee, Line Item Type, and Total Amount will be used when the fee invoice is generated. 39

B. Endorse / Change a Policy An endorsement is a written form attached to an insurance policy that alters the policy s coverage, terms, or conditions. It is sometimes called a rider. In the agent and broker system, this function is also used to maintain a policies transaction history by creating a new version of the policy. After selecting a policy, from the Policies tab on the ribbon bar, select Change / Endorse Policy. Enter the required fields outlined in orange. The change/endorsement date must be within the term of the policy. The endorsement summary and endorsement reason will appear on the policy page for quick reference. You will be able to easily determine the reason for the endorsement/change. Click Save when completed. 40

When an endorsement / change has been done for a policy, you will see a dropdown box at the top of the policy overview. Clicking on the dropdown displays a listing of all versions that have been created for this policy with the current one at the top. Version 1 is the original version of the policy. Once a new version has been created for a policy, the prior version becomes a view only record with the exception of invoicing, generating documents and adding claims. You cannot add, change or delete any coverage information. 41

From the pre-viewer, you can move between versions of the policy by clicking on the version line. In this example, I have selected version 2, indicated by the orange high-lighted row. You can also edit the endorsement information for a version of the policy by clicking on the pencil icon. C. Renew / Rewrite a Policy Renewing a policy extends the policy term and continues coverage for a specified time period. During the renewal process policy coverage and details can be modified. After selecting a policy, from the Policies tab on the ribbon bar, select Renew. If the policy has more than one version, you will need to select the current version of the policy. 42

All information from the current version of the policy will be copied to the renewal. The policy effective and expiration dates will be updated for the next policy term and the transaction type is changed to Renewal. You can make any changes to the policy record. When all changes have been made, click Save. If you do not want to complete the process, click Cancel to have the process rolled back. 43

Rewrite Rewriting a policy is similar to renewing a policy in that a new policy is created with the same information as the old one, and the old policy is inactivated. The key difference is the term of the policy does not change. Use this action when the carrier on a policy changes, for example. After selecting a policy, from the Policies tab on the ribbon bar, select Rewrite. D. Request to Cancel a Policy Cancellation of a policy ends the policy s coverage, terms and conditions. A Request for Cancellation can be made prior to the actual cancellation of coverage. After selecting a policy, from the Policies ribbon, click the Cancel button and select Request to Cancel Policy. 44

You will be required to enter a Termination Reason. This is a required field and is high-lighted in orange. The Cancellation Date will default to the current date but can be over written by either typing in a new date or using the calendar but must be within the policy term. This will update the policy information workflow status, cancellation date and termination reason but the policy will remain active. When completed, click Save. E. Cancel a Policy Cancellation of a policy ends the policy s coverage, terms and conditions. After selecting a policy, from the Policies ribbon, click the Cancel button and select Cancel Policy. 45

If a request to cancel has been processed for the policy, the information previously entered will default and the policy status will default to Inactive. You may want you can update the Workflow Status now. Click Save when completed. If a request to cancel has not been processed you will need to update the correct Workflow Status and complete the Termination Reason. This is a required field and is high-lighted in orange. 46

F. Reinstate Policy Reinstatement of a policy can be processed if either Request to Cancel Policy OR Cancel Policy has been completed. For a request to cancel policy, select the policy you would like to reinstate, go to the Policies tab on the ribbon bar and select Reinstate Reinstate Policy. 47

The policy status will default to active and you can change the Workflow Status. When complete, click Save. For a canceled policy, select the policy you would like to reinstate, go to the Policies tab on the ribbon bar and select Reinstate Reinstate Canceled Policy. 48

The policy status will default to active and you can change the Workflow Status. When complete, click Save. 49

G. Copy / Merge You have to ability to copy detail information to a policy from another policy, quote or submission record. These can be done from any client. From the Policies tab, Copy on the ribbon bar, select Copy to Policy: Survey/Coverage Data. The client will default to the client the policy is attached. You can select another client from the dropdown. Choose to copy the data either from a submission, a policy or a quote and click Next. Select the item and click Next. 50

You will be walked through each custom/coverage section to select one or many coverages. After making your selections, clicking Next will move you to the next option. If you have made an error in the previous screen you can click Previous to move backwards. Once all selections have been made, click Finish. 51

Copy Policy Vehicle allows you to copy vehicle exposure information from one vehicle to another within the same policy. After you have edited and updated the vehicle information for one vehicle, you can copy that coverage information over to an additional vehicle on the policy. From the Policies tab, Copy on the ribbon bar, select Copy Policy Vehicle. Select the vehicle with the coverage information and click Next. 52

Select one or many vehicle(s) where the information will be copied. To select all vehicles, click the Unit Number box. Once you have selected the vehicles click Next. A confirmation screen will display listing the coverage that will be copied to each vehicle. Click Finish to complete. 53

H. Generate Documents Documents for a policy are generated from the Home tab. There are the three following options: 1) Generate Documents This option contains templates that are not either not addressed to any particular person or is a fixed contact / address that does not change each time the document is generated. 2) Submission / Policy Correspondence This option contains templates where the contact and/or address information may change each time the document is generated. It provides you a choice for the contact and/or address. 3) ACORD Forms This option contains all the supported ACORD forms in the ACORD Form Library (AFL) and is available only it has been purchased as part of your system. Generate Documents After selecting your policy, from the Home tab choose Generate Documents from the ribbon bar. 54

Choose from the list of templates the documents you wish to generate for the policy. You can select one or many templates by clicking the box next to each document. To select all, click the box next to Name and click Save. Documents will be generated and the screen will be refreshed to the Documents & Binders tab where you can view the document. Submission / Policy Correspondence After selecting your policy, from the Home tab click Submission / Policy Correspondence from the ribbon bar and choose the type of correspondence. 55

Choose from the list the documents you wish to generate for the policy. You can select one or more templates by clicking the box next to each document. To select all, click the box next to Name and click Next. Select the contact for the correspondence and click Next. 56

Select a contact and click Finish. The documents will be generated, and the screen will be refreshed to the Documents & Binders tab where you can view the document. I. Create a Binder A binder is issued to show proof of insurance (temporary authorization of coverage) prior to the actual insurance policy. 57

After selecting a policy, from the Policies tab on the ribbon bar, select Binder Create Binder. A listing of all templates associated to a binder will appear. You may choose one or many templates. Click Save after selecting the template(s). Under Binder Details, the binder effective date will default to the policy effective date. The binder expiration date will default based on the number of days set by your administration. This example, the default was set to 90 days. You may override the dates by simply typing in a new date or using the calendar. 58

After saving the Binder, it will appear in the Documents & Binders tab of the policy. To finish the binder process, you need to issue the binder. From the Policies tab on the ribbon bar, select Binder Issue Binder. Click Save to issue the binder. 59

Once a binder has been issued, changes cannot be made. If an error was made or a change does need to be made, you will need to void the binder and then create it again. To void the binder, from the Policies tab on the ribbon bar, select Binder Void Binder. Click Save to void the binder. If a new binder needs to be issued to reflect changes in coverage, you will first have to endorse/change the policy, and then create the binder again. J. Create Summary of Insurance A commercial summary of insurance can be created at the client level for one or more policies for that client. Select a client, and from the Policies tab click Create Summary of Insurance. 60

Check the box next to the policies you would like to include on the report. If you would like to include all policies, check the box at the top of the grid. Once you have selected all the policies you wish to include, click Next. Under Report Format, you can choose either Summary or Detail. Select a Producer from the dropdown; any active client service team members that are assigned production credit at the client level will appear in the list. The producer will appear on the cover page as the presenter of the report. You may also select any other staff members to include under the producer on the cover page. Once you have made all of your selections, click Finish to generate the report. 61

Please note a personal lines summary of insurance is created from the client level through the basic Generate Documents action. K. Line of Business Hierarchy Overview of Line of Business / Sub-Lines / Class Code Relationship 62

LINE OF BUSINESS CODES Assigned To Personal Lines Commercial Lines Benefits SUB-LINES (Equivalent to Type of Coverage) Survey (Coverage) Sections Associated Here Liability Business Automobile Property Assigned To CLASS CODES (Next Level of Coverage Detail) LIABILITY: General Liabiity Liquor Liability D&O 63

LINE OF BUSINESS CODES Personal Lines Commercial Lines Benefits SUB-LINES (Equivalent to Type of Coverage) Survey (Coverage) Sections Associated Here Liability Business Automobile Property CLASS CODES (Next Level of Coverage Detail) LIABILITY: General Liabiity Liquor Liability D&O L. Products and Services Both internal and external Contracted Services as well as Pension Products can be maintained inside of ABS. Contracted Services (Inside) can be used to track work done associated to a policy that you will receive payment for, but that is not premium or commission related. 64

To add a new contracted services inside, from the Policies tab on the ribbon bar select Products and Services Contracted Services Inside. Alternatively, navigate to the Client Explorer and select Contracted Services Inside, then click Add Contracted Services - Inside from the grid. Enter the appropriate information into the required fields in orange below. Once finish, click Save. 65

Follow the same steps for adding a Contracted Services Outside. External contracted services are used for tracking external work done related to a policy that you will not receive payment for such as a TPA. To add a Pension Product, from the Policies tab on the ribbon bar select Products and Services Pension Product. Alternatively, navigate to the Client Explorer and select Contracted Services Inside, then click Add Pension Product from the grid. 66

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V. Billing & Invoice Management Invoices are generated in the Billing Center. The Billing Center can be accessed on the Policies tab on the ribbon bar. Select the Billing Type on the policy to indicate what type of invoice you would like to create. There are three types of invoices to choose from: 1) Agency Bill you bill the insured and then pay the net premium to the carrier 68

2) Direct Bill the carrier bills the insured directly and then pays you your retained commission; no invoice is created for direct bill; the accounting entry happens upon receipt of commission 3) Direct Bill by Invoice - same as Direct Bill, but in this case, an invoice is created by the user upon issuance of policy to show due payment Within these three main invoice types, you can also use the following billing options: 1) Installments payment for a policy is broken up into a selected number of invoices over selected intervals; the user can designate the amount for each invoice 2) Subsidiary Billing the policy is billed to a subsidiary of the insured company 3) Premium Allocation the premium amount can be allocated to different carriers/pay to companies if there is more than one carrier insuring the risk A. Agency Bill To start the invoicing process, select a policy and enter the Billing Center. The following fields are required before you can calculate line items: 69

1) Billing Description this will appear on the printed invoice as the premium line item description 2) Billing Premium total premium due 3) Gross Commission this will default to the gross commission percentage entered on the policy; if there is an external producer on the policy with a commission split, this will be factored into the gross commission You must also add Staff Credit if it did not default to the policy from the client-level production credit. If you try to calculate line items without Staff Credit entered you will receive the following error: If someone outside of your company is receiving commission for this policy, enter that person here as an External Producer. If you select Billing Split Percent, the external commission will be calculated as that percentage of the gross commission. Alternatively you can select Billing Split Percent and enter the exact amount of the commission. 70

Once all of the required information has been entered, the Calculate Line Items button will become active. Clicking that creates the Net Premium and Retained Commission line items. If an External Producer is assigned, an External Commission line item will be calculated as well. Depending on the set up of the Payee, a State Tax line item might also be calculated. You can enter a value in the Taxable Amount field if the total amount that is taxable differs from the premium. If taxable amount is left blank, the system will automatically calculate the taxes based on the premium. If $0.00 is entered, no taxes will be calculated. Until an invoice is generated, the policy line items can then be edited manually (by clicking the pencil) or deleted (by clicking the red x ). Additional line items can also be added manually, if desired. Once the line items have been finalized, click Invoice to create the invoice. 71

The invoice is now listed in the tree on the left-hand side of the Billing Center. Click on it to view it. Because the application parameter Auto-Post is set to on, you can see that the invoice automatically posted as indicated by the lock on the invoice icon. To print or view the printed invoice, click Print. Notice that the Net Premium and Retained Commission are consolidated into one line item with the description you provided. 72

B. Direct Bill by Invoice A direct bill by invoice (DBI) invoice is generated using the same steps as an agency bill invoice. One key distinction is the line items that appear on a DBI invoice are only commission line items Retained Commission and External Commission (if applicable). 73

Note: Subsidiary Billing cannot be used for Direct Bill by Invoice. C. Installments* If the policy is to be billed on installments, select Installments and enter the following additional information: 1) Equal Installments or Percent Down choose the type of installment plan for calculating the installment allocation 2) Number of Installments the number of invoices you wish to allocate payment for this policy across 3) Installment Frequency the time interval for sending out the invoices which can be selected from the dropdown 74

Once this information has been entered and line items have been calculated, click Invoice. The Create Installment Invoices screen will pop up with the values defaulted based on either equal installments or the percent down. All tax and fee line items will default the full amount to the first installment (deposit). Here you have the opportunity to edit the amounts and the invoice dates. The premium line items are grouped together on the allocation screen, so that amounts can be viewed and entered as gross premium. When the installments are saved, the net premium and retained commission line items for each invoice will be calculated based on the commission percentages. 75

If you want to edit the amounts on the allocation screen and bill $10,000 up front with the remaining balance spread evenly over the next three installments, click on the calculator as shown above, enter 10,000 and click Change Total. Installment 1 is updated with new amounts that add up to $10,000. You ll see that the amounts in the Totals column now appear in red, because the installment amounts do not add up to the total premium. Now click each of the line item calculator buttons to calculate across to the last three installments based on the new amount of Installment 1. 76

Notice that some rounding occurred, so that the first installment is now $9,999.99. If desired, you can manually move 1 cent from a different installment. All numbers in green indicates you can now save and create the installments. The installments are listed in the tree on the left-hand side of the Billing Center. Click on one to view it. Because Auto-Post is on, the first invoice automatically posted as indicated by the lock on the invoice icon. 77

Edit Installments After creating installment invoices, if you wish to edit them, you may do so using Edit Installments. Only unposted installments can be edited. The total amount cannot change. Money can only be reallocated between invoices. When finished editing, click Save. 78

D. Subsidiary Billing A policy may be billed to one or more subsidiary companies of the company insured by the policy. After entering the Billing Center, select Subsidiaries under Bill To. Select the subsidiary(ies) you would like to bill the policy to. Calculate line items as you normally would and click Invoice. You have the option of billing the policy entirely to the subsidiary or allocating between the main client and the subsidiary. 79

Again, numbers appear in red until the allocation matches the totals. Once you have entered your desired amounts, totals will show in green. Click Save to generate the invoices. The invoice is listed under the subsidiary in the tree on the left-hand side of the Billing Center. The subsidiary is displayed as the Bill To company, while the main client shows as the Insured. 80

Subsidiary Installments Subsidiary invoices can also be created on installments. In the Billing Center, select Installments and fill in the required fields. Click Invoice to bring up the screen below. 81

First enter the totals for the client and the subsidiary so that the total numbers appear in green. This will enable the subsequent two tabs. Each tab contains the installment information for the invoices for each entity. 82

Make adjustments as desired, and then click Save to generate the invoices. E. Premium Allocation Use premium allocation when more than one carrier is insuring the risk and receiving a portion of the premium or when you wish to bill with multiple commission percentages. Enter the Billing Center and click Premium Allocation. Do not enter an amount in the Billing Premium field when using premium allocation. Click Add New PayTo/Insuring Companies to add a carrier. 83

Required fields are highlight in orange. For description, choose Billing Description if you want the billing description from the Billing Center overview to be used on the printed invoice. In this case, the line items will be grouped together as one line item on the printed invoice. Choose SubLine Description if you want the subline to appear as the line item description on the printed invoice. In this case, line items will not be consolidated on the printed invoice. Enter the Commission Rate and Premium Amount for each carrier you have added. The example below shows a package policy with a different carrier insuring each subline at a different commission rate. 84

Allocation Percentage is used for informational/reporting purposes; it is not used in any calculations. The amounts indicate the percentage of the risk insured by each carrier. Once all the values are entered, click Save to return to the Billing Center. Billing Premium now shows as $40,000. You can click on the link to return to the premium allocation screen. Click Calculate Line Items. Calculating line items will generate two net premium line items and two retained commission line items. 85

Click Invoice to generate the invoice. F. Reset for New Invoice Use Reset for New Invoice when an invoice has already been generated for a policy and you would either like to redo the invoice or generate a second invoice for that policy (a second option for this situation is to endorse the policy). All line items will be deleted and the billing information will be reset. 86

A warning will pop up asking if you are sure you want to do this. If you have done so in error, click Cancel. Otherwise, click OK. G. Reverse an Invoice* If an invoice was billed in error or requires a change, you can reverse the invoice. After entering the Billing Center and selecting the invoice, click Reverse. 87

A screen will pop up to verify you want to reverse the invoice. It will also ask if you want to Rebill. If so, check the box, and this will enable you to bill the policy again. Otherwise, just click Save, in which case you will not be able to bill the policy again. A reversing invoice will automatically be generated, reversing all the line items as they were originally entered. The invoice number will be the original invoice number appended with Rev. If no money has been received from the client, an adjustment will automatically be created to close the receivable balance on both the reversed and reversing invoice. If no money has been paid to the payee, an adjustment will automatically be created to close the payable balance for non-income line items on both the reversed and reversing invoice. 88

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H. Adjust an Invoice Adjustments to invoices are done usually when there has been a change in commission. Adjustments can be made to an invoice that has been posted and has no money paid to payee. This is displayed on the Invoice Item grid on an invoice. After entering the Billing Center and selecting the invoice, click Adjust. In the Adjusted Amount fields, enter the new amount for net premium and retained commission. The total adjusted amount must agree to the invoice total amount. The difference between the original amount and the adjusted amount appears in the far right column. In this example, net premium was decreased by $300.00 and retained commission was increased $300.00. 90

An adjustment invoice will be automatically created. The invoice number will be the original invoice number appended with Adj. You can mark an invoice overdue by clicking Mark Overdue in the Billing Center. 91

I. Invoice an Endorsement An endorsement is invoiced in the same way as a regular policy save a few additional options and details that are explained in this section. After creating the endorsement, enter the Billing Center. The primary difference for billing an endorsement is the Premium Adjust Type field that must be entered in the Billing Center. 92

For policies billed on installments, you have the option to either create a new set of installments (same process as explained in Invoice a Policy) or update a set of installments that exists on a previous version. Use Update Installments to append existing installments with new amounts from the endorsement. Enter the Billing Center, calculate line items, and then Update Installments will be active. Click Update Installments to add the additional money to the remaining installments of the original policy. Updates can only be done to unposted invoices. In the example below, an additional premium of $10,000 has been added. 93

Notice the Selected Installment Set dropdown at the top of the screen. If more than one set of installments already exists on prior versions, this is where you choose the set to be updated. After updating the amounts and the totals appear in green, click Save to complete the update. You will return to the Billing Center screen, but no new invoices are listed on the left-hand side. Exit the Billing Center, return to the original policy (or the version that the installments were originally created on), and re-enter the Billing Center to view the updated installments. 94

VI. Certificate Management A. Add Master Certificate / Evidence Certificates of Insurance and Evidence of Property are issued to show evidence of liability coverage. Each master certificate is associated to one or more policies, while a master evidence is only associated to one policy. Both are associated to specific holders and master documents. After selecting your client, expand the Certificates folder, and click on the Master Certificates / Evidence folder. Select Add Certificate / Evidence. 95

Here you have the option to create either a Certificate or Evidence by selecting the corresponding radio button. If Evidence is selected, the same general information is required, but the policy mapping has only one dropdown as an Evidence can only be attached to a single policy. Enter all of the required information and select policies to attach to the certificate. Policies available in each dropdown are configured by the system administrator based on line of business. For a client, active policies are displayed in blue and inactive policies are displayed in red. A Master Certificate can be created for the client or any of its subsidiaries. Once all of the information has been entered, click Save. 96

The required fields are outlined in orange. After creating the Master Certificate, double click on the record to open the Certificate Center (Cert Center). The majority of your activity will take place in the Cert Center. B. Create Master Documents Master Documents are created at the master certificate level. They contain the information related to the insured, policy(ies) and coverage data; they do not contain any holder information. Holder documents will be created from the master documents in later steps. To add master documents, click Create Master Documents from the ribbon bar in the Cert Center. 97

Select from the template listing the documents you would like to create, then click Next. The following screen displays an Upload Status of Working indicating documents are being created. Once complete, the Upload Status will show Complete. Click the Close button that is now enabled at the bottom right corner of the dialog. 98

The Master Document is now displayed in the grid on the right side of the Cert Center when the Master Cert is selected in the tree (holders will later be displayed below in the tree). Additional Master Documents can always be created at a later time. 99

C. Add Certificate Holders After creating your Master Documents, you can create Certificate Holders. Certificate Holders are specific holders attached to a single certificate. To add a certificate holder, click Create from the ribbon bar in the Cert Center. Holder information can be added for a single certificate as shown below. For an entirely new holder, fill in the required fields outlined in orange. Holders can also be created from holders that already exist on the client. To do so, select the holder from the Copy From Existing Holder dropdown. Alternatively, click the Multiple Certificates radio button to create multiple certificate holders at the same time. You can select from existing holders associated to the client as well as add new ones. 100

After selecting all holders you wish to create, click Add to move them over to the right hand side of the screen. If you have added one in error, you can also select it and click Remove. Once all holders you wish to create are in the grid on the right hand side, click Next. Enter the certificate details for the holder(s) you are creating. Required fields are outlined in orange. If a holder certificate already exists on for this master cert, you can choose to copy details from there by 101

selecting it from the dropdown. The details will fill in, but you will still have the opportunity to edit. Once all information has been added, click Next. Now you can select which certificate documents to create for these holders. The grid contains all master documents created in step I. After selecting the documents, click Next. 102

A screen similar to creating master documents will appear displaying a working status for each document. Once all have completed, click Close. In this case, no documents were selected, so no documents were created for the holders. This is indicated by the caution icon next to the holder in the tree. Notice also, there are no documents listed in the grid on the right hand side when the holder is selected. 103

D. Create Holder Documents If certificate documents were not created for a holder when the holder was created, they can later be generated using Create Certificate Documents. Certificate Documents are comprised of a certificate master document plus holder information. After clicking Create Certificate Documents, select all holders you wish to create documents for and click Add to move them to the pane on the right hand side of the window. Once all holders have been selected, click Next. Now select which master documents you would like to create for the holders. Once all selections are complete, click Next. 104

A dialog indicating the working status of the upload will be displayed. When all documents show a status of Complete, click Close. Select the holder in the tree and the generated documents are now displayed in the grid on the right hand side. Notice the check boxes located next to each document under the Distrib column. Checking 105

the box means the document will be included when using the Distribute action, which will be discussed in section X. E. Recreate Documents Recreate documents is used when master documents on a certificate have been updated and holder documents need to be updated. Recreate documents will create new documents for holders based on the templates already existing for the holder. Click Recreate Documents from the ribbon bar in the Cert Center. Select any or all holders from the list for which documents need to be updated, click Add and then click Next. 106

A dialog indicating the working status of the upload will be displayed. When all documents show a status of Complete, click Close. F. Renew Certificates Use Renew when a policy has been renewed to easily create certificate documents for the same holders as the previous policy. Select the renewed policy(ies) in the Policy Mapping section as shown below. The option is also given to inactivate the previous certificate or not. 107

All certificate and active holder information will be carried over to the new certificate, but no documents are created by the process. G. Activate / Deactivate Holders Holders can be activated and deactivated at a client level or at a certificate level. If done so at the client level, the effect will flow through to all certificates that the holder exists on for that client. At a certificate level, it only affects that single certificate. At the client level, select the Holders node form the client explorer. Click Deactivate Holders on the top of the grid. 108

Choose the holder(s) to be deactivated from the list and click Add to move them to the grid on the right hand side. When finished, click Save. 109

An inactive holder is indicated by the red X displayed on the icon. To deactivate a holder for only a specific certificate, select the desired certificate to open the Cert Center. From the ribbon bar, choose Deactivate and follow the same steps as above. Activating holders at the client level and certificate level is done the same way as deactivating. H. Move / Copy Certificates Use Move/Copy to either move or copy one or more holders from one certificate to another on the same client. All holder information will be carried over in the process. Select Move Copy from the ribbon bar in the Cert Center. 110

Choose Move Certificates to remove a holder from the current master certificate and add it to the master certificate selected in the dropdown. Choose Copy Certificates to add a copy of the chosen holder(s) to the master certificate selected in the dropdown. After selecting the holders to move/copy and adding to the right hand pane as well as the destination master certificate, click Execute. I. Distribute The Distribute action is used for creating a batch of certificates to either print or convert to PDF. Click Distribute from the ribbon bar in the Certificate Center. Select the individual certificates to be included in the batch and print or check the box at the top of the grid to select all. When finished, click Add to move them to the pane on the right hand side. 111

There are two distribution methods: Print and Store. Print creates a print job that is sent to the ABS Notifier and can be printed locally. Store creates a single PDF of all certificates selected. In both cases, the certificates are ordered first by holder name, then by document name. After selecting the certificates and choosing the distribution method, click Distribute. 112

A dialog indicating the working status of the upload will be displayed. When all documents show a status of Complete, click Close. 113

VII. Claims Management A. Create Claim from Policy A claim is a notification to an insurance company requesting payment of an amount due under the terms of the policy. It can be reported on either an Occurrence or Claims Made basis. Occurrence basis pays a claim arising out of incidents that occur during the policy term, even if they are filed many years later. Claims Made basis pays a claim presented to the insurer during the term of the policy OR within a specific term. It limits liability insurer s exposure to unknown future liabilities. On a claims made policy, if coverage has been purchased prior to the policy effective date, the Retro Date field on the policy will contain the effective date of this coverage. If coverage has been purchased after the expiration date, the Extended Reporting Period End Date field of the policy will contain the expiration date of this coverage. Creating a claim from a policy allows you to easily verify the enforce policy coverage prior to creating the claim. After choosing and verifying coverage on a policy, select Claims from the ribbon bar then Create Claim. 114

The date of loss you entered will be verified against the policy term. The required fields are outlined in orange. Location, Driver and Vehicle of Record are exposures that are attached to the policy. If you choose a Location of Record, this will automatically update the Location of Accident. If the claim involves an exposure not entered on the policy, the information should be entered in the Location of Accident, Driver Not of Record and Vehicle Not of Record. Claim Tabs 115

1) Transactions management of reserves, payments and deductibles SIRs (self-insured retentions) 2) Claimants list of person(s) reporting the claim. 3) Contacts list of person(s) that would need notification of the claim. Contact types include payees, clients, staff and other 4) Allegations list of statements by a party to a legal action which the party undertakes to prove. Also could include assertions that are unsupported. 5) Tasks management of tasks for the claim. This includes, adding new, closing and reassigning 6) Notes management of notes for the claim. This includes, adding new and appending existing notes 7) Documents list of documents generated for this claim. Ability to add documents from other sources (not generated from the system) and email documents B. Create Incident An incident is an occurrence of an action or situation reported by the insured. An incident may never become a claim to the insuring company. After selecting the Incident folder on your client, click on Add Incident. The required fields are outlined in orange. 116

Incident Tabs 1) Claimants list of person(s) reporting the claim 2) Contacts list of person(s) that would need notification of the claim 3) Tasks management of tasks for the claim; this includes, adding new, closing and reassigning 4) Notes management of notes for the claim; this includes, adding new and appending existing notes 5) Documents list of documents generated for this claim; ability to add documents from other sources (not generated from the system) and email documents C. Create Claim from Incident Choose the incident that will now become a claim to the insuring company. You can choose from either the Explorer window by expanding the Incident folder and choosing or by clicking on the Incident folder and choosing from the list that appears in the right hand side window. 117

You can click Create Claim from the Claims tab on the ribbon bar as shown above or scroll down to the Claims grid on the Incident and click Create Claim there. Information from the incident such as Date of Loss and Claim Type will default. 118

Once the Claim Line of Business has been entered, the Policy Listings will list all policy versions for the client where the date of loss is within the effective date (endorsement date) and expiration date of the policy and the policy line of business is the same as the Claim Line of Business. The required fields are outlined in orange. Select a policy from the Policy Listings. The Policy Listings are all policy versions for the client where the date of loss is within the effective date (endorsement/version date) and expiration date of the policy and the policy line of business is the same as the Claim Class. 119

D. Report Claim Use the Report Claim action to generate a document to send to the carrier. Select the claim you would like to report and click Report Claim. Select the template to create the document from and click Save. The document will be generated and saved on the Documents tab of the claim. 120

E. Set Subro Status To mark a claim for subrogation, select the appropriate claim and click Set Subro Claim Status from the ribbon bar. To complete the action, click Save on the dialog that pops up. F. Close Claim / Incident After selecting your client, expand the Claims folder and select a claim. From the Claims tab, select Close Claim from the ribbon bar. 121

You may enter settlement information about the claim but it is not required. You can just click on Finish to complete the process. Follow the same steps to close an incident. G. Reopen Claim To reopen a claim, select the desired claim and click Reopen Claim on the ribbon bar. 122

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VIII. Accounting A. Invoice Batches After an invoice is generated it must be posted to create the general ledger transactions. To post an invoice, it must be added to an invoice batch. From the Accounting Explorer select Invoice Batches (either agency or direct bill) and click Add Agency Bill Invoice Batch. When Office Level Security is enabled, you will be required to select the appropriate office from the Office dropdown, click Finish. To add more than one batch, click Add then Finish. 124

When Office Level Security is disabled, an invoice batch will automatically be created. Click Attach Invoice to add one or more invoices to the batch. A list of all unposted invoices that are not currently attached to a batch will appear. You can select one or many invoices to include in your batch. To select all invoices on the page, click the box at the top left corner of the grid. 125

After all the invoices have been added to a batch and you are ready to post, click Post Batch. The GL Transaction Date will default to the current date. Under normal circumstances, this date should not be modified. Click Finish to post the batch. 126

If you want to post the invoices in a prior accounting period, you can override the GL Transaction Date entry by either typing in a new date or using the calendar function available. The prior accounting period must still be open to allow you to post. B. Receipts* Money can be received from either a client or a payee. The process of entering a receipt is the same for both a client and a payee. In this example we will be entering a receipt from a client. First, a receipt batch must be created. Navigate to the Accounting Explorer and select Receipt Batches, then click Add Receipt Batch. 127

Choose the proper entity (client or payee) and bank account. The payment date will default to the current date. Click Save to create the batch. Once the batch has been created, double click on the batch to enter the batch overview. Click on Add Receipt to add a receipt to the batch. You may add one or more receipts to a batch. 128

Select the client and enter the check amount. If the payment was received as an EFT (electronic fund transfer) check the EFT box, otherwise enter the check number. If this was received from a third party, a finance company for example, you can use the Alt Name field to record this information. Once all information has been entered, click Add to save the receipt and enter another one. Alternatively, click Save and View Detail to go directly to the receipt overview and begin applying invoices to the receipt. 129

The receipt(s) will be listed in the batch overview as shown below. Once a receipt has been added for a client, it can be applied to that client s account. Double click on the receipt to enter the Receipt Overview. There are two options for applying a receipt to an invoice: 130

1. Apply by Invoice - To apply the receipt to the full amount of the invoice. 2. Select Line Items To apply the receipt to specific line items from an invoice. Apply by Invoice When using this method, the dollar amount of the invoice(s) selected needs to be equal to or less than the amount of the payment being applied. From the Accounting tab on the ribbon bar, click Receipt and select Apply by Invoice. A listing of all open and posted invoices for the client will be displayed. If there are multiple pages of invoices listed, use the filters at the top of the grid to find the invoice(s) you are looking for. Select the invoice(s) to apply the receipt to and click Save. 131

The applied payment will be automatically distributed across the invoice line items. The top line in the Receipt Detail grid displays any remaining unapplied portion of the payment. 132

Apply by Line Item This method of applying a receipt is done in two steps. First, you select which line items the receipt will be applied to. Second, you apply the desired amounts to the selected line items. This method also allows you to write-off amounts of the invoice line items at the same time. 133

From the Accounting tab on the ribbon bar, click Receipt and select Select / Apply Line Items. A listing of all open invoice line items from posted invoices for the client will be displayed. Filters can be used to search for invoice item(s) to apply the receipt to. Click Add to move them to the Selected Items list, then re-filter to find additional items. Once all line items have been selected, click Next. 134

Enter the Amount to Apply for each line item. If the payment is under by a small amount, you can writeoff the difference by entering the amount in the Write Off column (also see Payment Batches). Do not enter overpayments in this way. The overpayment will automatically remain unapplied and can be refunded or written off with a different process. Once all amounts have been entered, click Save. Corrections For corrections prior to the posting of a receipt, if the user needs to correct the amount applied to an invoice line item, the detail line can be deleted on the receipt overview. Posting Receipts When all the receipts have been entered and you are ready to post them to the GL, you can post the batch by clicking Post Batch. Once the batch has been posted no receipt can be added or deleted. Receipts can be applied to invoices before and/or after it has been posted. 135

Reversing Receipts If a receipt has been posted in error you can use the Reverse Receipt action. This will offset any invoice applications or GL postings. After doing this action, the user should go to the Payment Batch folder on the Accounting Explorer. A Receipt Reversal batch will be available with the reversal in it. This batch must be posted. Other Actions If you have selected line items for a receipt, but are not going to apply anything to those line items, the action Unselect Line Items should be used. If you leave the line item selected, it will not be available for other receivables or payables processing. C. Checks* Checks can be issued to either a client or a payee. The process of creating a check is the same for both a client and a payee. The Check Memo field is used to provide additional information on the printed check. In this example we will be creating a check for a payee. A check batch must first be created and one or many checks can be added to a batch. From the Accounting Explorer, Check Batches click Add Check Batch 136

Choose the proper Entity (whether for a client or payee) and select the bank account. The payment date will default to the current date. Once the batch has been created, you can add one or multiple checks. Click on Add Check. 137

Select the payee and address. The payment date will default to the current date. If this is a check to be issued as an EFT (electronic fund transfer), check off the EFT box. If this is a check to be issued to a name and/or address different from the payee, you can use the Alt Name and Alt Address fields to record this information. Once all information has been entered, click Add to save the check and enter another one. Alternatively, click Save and View Detail to go directly to the check overview and begin applying items to the check. 138

A check number is automatically assigned and will be listed in the batch overview. 139

There are two options to issue a check on an invoice: 1) Select Line Items for Full Pay this method is used when issuing a check for the full invoice amount. 2) Select Line Items for Partial Pay this method is used when issuing a check for specific line items. Select Line Item for Full Pay From the check overview screen, from the Accounting tab select Check from the ribbon bar and choose Select Line Item for Full Pay. 140

In the select line item window, use the filters to select the desired invoices. The Received in Full checkbox is checked by default and will display only invoices that have been fully paid by the client. After selecting all of the invoice items to pay, click Save. 141

Select Line Items for Partial Pay This method of creating a check is done in two steps. First, select the line items of an invoice the check will be issued. From the check overview screen, from the Accounting tab select Check from the ribbon bar and choose Select / Apply Line Items for Partial Pay. In the select line item window, use the filters to select the desired invoices. Click Add to move invoice items over to the Select Items list. Re-filter to search for additional line items. The Received in Full checkbox is checked by default and will display only invoices that have been fully paid by the client. After selecting all of the invoice items to partially pay, click Next. 142

Enter the specific amounts to apply to each line item. If the full amount of the line item will not be paid, you can write-off the difference by entering the amount in the Write Off column. When all amounts have been entered, click Save. When all the checks have been entered you can post the batch. Once the batch has been posted no checks can be added or voided. Refund Unapplied Cash To refund money that has been received from a client or payee, use the Refund Unapplied Cash action. From the check overview screen, from the Accounting tab select Check from the ribbon bar and choose Refund Unapplied Cash. 143

All receipts from the client or payee that have an unapplied amount will be listed. Choose one or many and click Add. Once a check batch has been successfully posted the checks can be printed. From the check overview screen, from the Accounting tab select Print from the ribbon bar and choose Checks. 144

D. Other Batches* There are three other types of payment batches which can be used for clearing balances. 1) Write-Off this is used to write-off balances on either clients or payees that will not be collected or refunded 2) Adjustment this is used to move balances from one invoice to another (similar to a journal entry); it can be for a client or payee balance. Adjustments must be done between like invoice line items that affect the same GL account. EXAMPLE: For a payee type adjustment, you cannot move money from a net premium line item to an external commission line item because these represent two different payable accounts. 3) Direct Pay this is used to record payments that either a client made directly to the carrier or the carrier made directly to a client (in the case of a return premium) Write-Off Two methods to write off balances: 1) Write Off Balances on Line Items 2) Write Unapplied Amounts The process of writing off balances is the same for both a client and a payee. In this example we will be writing off a balance on a client. A payment batch must first be created and one or many payments can be added to a batch. From the Accounting Explorer, Other Batches click Add Payment Batch. 145

Select the Batch Type of Write-Off and choose the proper Entity (whether for a client or payee). Once the batch has been created, you can add one or multiple payments. Click on Add Payment. 146

Select the client and click Add. Write Off Balances on Line Items This method of writing off balances is done in two steps. First, select the line items of an invoice containing the amount you wish to write off. Next, enter the amounts to write off on each line item. From the payment overview screen, go to the Accounting tab of the ribbon bar and select Payment Select / Apply Line Items. 147

Use a filter to search for the line item(s) you want to write off. Select the line item(s) and click Add to move them over to the Selected Items list. Re-filter to search for additional line items. Once all line items have been selected, click Next. Enter the dollar amount to be applied to each line item. After entering the amounts, click Save. 148

When the write-off payments have been entered and you can post the batch. Once the batch has been posted no write-offs can be added or deleted. Write Off Unapplied Unapplied cash can also be written off instead of being refunded. From the write-off overview screen, go to the Accounting tab of the ribbon bar select Payment from the ribbon bar and choose Write-off Unapplied Cash 149

Adjustments This procedure allows you to move payments from one line item or invoice to another for either a client or payee. If a client is selected, the adjustment made will affect the totals under the Received by Client column on the invoice overview. If a payee is selected, the adjustment made will affect the totals under the Paid to Payee column on the invoice overview. The process of adjusting invoice balances is the same for both a client and a payee. In this example we will be adjusting the invoice balances for a client. Adjustments are done in two steps. First, select the line items of an invoice you wish to adjust. Next, apply the specific amounts to each line item. A payment batch must first be created and one or many payments can be added to a batch. From the Accounting Explorer, Other Batches click Add Payment Batch 150

Select the Batch Type of Adjustment and choose the proper Entity (whether for a client or payee) and click Save. Once the batch has been created, you can add one or multiple payments. Click on Add Payment. 151

First, from the payment overview screen, from the Accounting tab select Payment from the ribbon bar and choose Select / Apply Line Items. 152

Use a filter to search for the line item(s) you want to write off. Select the line item(s) and click Add to move them over to the Selected Items list. Re-filter to search for additional line items. Once all line items have been selected, click Next. Enter the dollar amount to be applied to each line item. The total amount applied for an adjustment must net to $0.00. After entering the amounts, click Save. When the adjustments have been entered and you can post the batch. Once the batch has been posted no adjustments can be added or deleted. Direct Pay The direct pay process is used to record payments that a client has paid directly to a carrier or a carrier has returned money directly to the client. The process of a direct pay is the same for both a client and a payee. In this example we will be creating a direct pay for a client. A payment batch must first be created and one or many payments can be added to a batch. 153

From the Accounting Explorer, Other Batches click Add Payment Batch. Select the Batch Type of Direct Pay and choose the proper Entity (whether for a client or payee) and click Save. Once the batch has been created, you can add one or multiple payments. Click on Add Payment. 154

Enter the client, the payee the payment was directly made and the payment amount. The payment date will default to the current date. Click Finish. From the payment overview screen, from the Accounting tab select Payment from the ribbon bar and choose Select / Pay Items. 155

Select your invoice number and click Finish. Enter the payment amount in the Amount to Apply column for each line item. The total Amount to Apply must equal the direct payment amount. 156

When the direct payments have been entered and you can post the batch. Once the batch has been posted no more direct payments can be added or deleted. Note: If the client pays the commission as part of the payment to the carrier, enter this amount on the Retained Commission amount to apply. The result will be that the receivable is cleared and that the Net Premium line item will be marked as overpaid on the Payables. As a result, the system will end up with a payable credit. This amount will then be cleared when the carrier sends a commission check or as a credit on a subsequent check to the carrier. E. Month End At the end of each month, there are steps that should be taken in order to validate that all accounting data is complete and accurate for the month prior to beginning any accounting processing in the next month. There are 3 major components to this process. 1) Database Backup the first component is a month-end backup of your database and will require the participation of your technology staff. A scheduled backup should take place at month-end. A copy of this backup should be restored to the ABSBalancing database. This allows the accounting staff to always have a snapshot of the previous month-end anytime in the following month. It also helps immensely in trouble-shooting any data issues that may arise. 2) Closing Month End the second component is for an Accounting user to use the action Close Accounting Period. 157