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When it comes to managing your insurance agency in Applied Epic, much of the focus is on sales and revenue, client service and retention. These areas are critical for growing and maintaining the business. However, there are other key reports and processes in Epic that deserve regular attention as well.

Most often, agencies pass on some of these tasks to various employees throughout the agency. This, unfortunately, can create inconsistencies if not documented well and confusion if roles are not clearly defined. Some areas are even overlooked completely until an issue arises.

In this article, we’ll identify key areas in Applied Epic that your agency should monitor and the best practices for keeping everything running smoothly.

Employee Onboarding and Offboarding

Before a new employee starts their new duties, several configurations in Applied Epic need to be made. Your agency should use your onboarding guide— or create one if you haven’t already— to ensure consistency when adding new employees based on their role.

As a note, don’t forget that if they aren’t a true employee, they should be entered as a broker. Additionally, areas such as servicing role, commissionable producer and commission agreements will need to be configured. It is recommended that Pr/Br Commission agreements be reviewed on a regular basis.

Security Groups

When setting up a new employee’s login, ensure that you assign them to the appropriate security group. Always use security groups to identify access. Never modify at the individual level. Using security groups will help you easily track who has access to what on a group level instead of going through each employee individually.

Relatedly, make a habit of reviewing Security Groups on a regular basis. You can do this by using On Demand -> Security Group Detail.

Other important aspects of logins are employees’ Epic Dashboards and database access. Ensure the appropriate level for Dashboards access, and double check that everyone has the correct databases, which are typically DEMO and PROD. Under users configuration, you can use Actions -> “Copy Settings To” to replicate settings from an existing user setup to a new one. This will save time and ensure consistency. Program access is driven by the Security Group, so you’ll want to leave that alone.

User Options

Another key configuration to be aware of is user options. You can create efficiency in your employees’ day-to-day work by defaulting information in field defaults based on their role. For instance, there could be defaults for adding clients, policies, and more. Many agencies find it beneficial to establish standards for the field defaults for each role. You may want to go a step further and establish standards for column settings on the various screens in Epic so that when training or troubleshooting, you know what their screen view should look like.

User Offboarding

When a user has left the agency, be sure to properly offboard them as well and have a plan for this. The Workload and Pr/Br Reassignment tools should be used to move accounts from the old user to a new one where it’s possible. Run reports such as Book of Business and Activity Reports to identify any areas that user remains. You may also need to remove the former employee from defaults in activity and interface configuration. Be sure to copy out any of their My Reports before inactivating completely. Inactivating the user’s login does not remove the user completely. Remember to address their employee file once everything is reassigned, as they have been removed from active clients.

Company and Broker Management

Managing companies and brokers in Applied Epic is key to ensuring proper reporting, accounting and servicing in the agency. This area is often overlooked until an issue occurs. It is recommended to have only users who fully understand the company and broker configuration along with the different types of companies and brokers to have access to adding and editing these entities in Epic.

Configuration is slightly different for company versus broker. In company configuration, it is extremely important that you make the right selections for issuing and billing the company. If you do not get money from or send money to a company, it should never be listed as billing. Adding a company as billing makes them available in the PPE dropdown on the policy. If the wrong PPE is selected, accounting will have issues with recording and reconciling commissions and agency bill transactions. Adding a company as billing will also create several subaccounts in the general ledger, which will create confusion when accounting needs to select a specific company for applying funds.

Brokers can be configured as receivable, commissionable or premium payable. Often, agencies will select all of these options, which is not correct. Only one selection is typically applicable for each broker. Here’s how to view each type of broker:

• Receivable broker: A broker that the agency would bill for an agency bill transaction and have the broker send the funds to the agency, often withholding their portion of commission.
• Commissionable broker: A person or entity who is not an employee but who is producing business for your agency.
• Premium payable broker: A broker who you would be using on a policy most often for excess and surplus lines business.

In addition to configuring companies and brokers properly, it’s also important to update and make changes as necessary. For example, if there is an acquisition of one company by another and the name will change, you need to make those changes in Epic to reflect the appropriate carrier on the policies. You can review your Book of Business Summary by PPE to identify any carriers or brokers on policies that need to be cleaned up. Always fix these at the policy level before configuring or inactivating any company or broker.

Applied Epic Updates and Configuration

As a robust agency management system, Applied Epic implements new updates on a regular basis. Reviewing the release notes as they occur helps you and your agency understand the potential benefits of new features. The release notes will include details about how to take advantage of these new features. Many features will simply need to be turned on to begin using them, while others require some additional configuration.

In addition to new feature implementations, there are many elements in Applied Epic that can be custom-configured. It’s important to understand how configuration will affect workflows and processes throughout your agency. Standardizing workflows will require a level of configuration in areas such as account, activity, interface, policy and more.

As configuration changes are made, they will affect various departments. It’s important to communicate those changes and make decisions that work for each department. For example, if you make a change to an endorsement activity that both commercial and personal lines use, ensure that it works for both departments’ workflows. Some areas can be configured by department, such as Interface Policy and eDocs.

Overall, configuration within Epic is not a set-it-and-forget-it sort of thing. Out-of-the-box configuration works for most agencies, but taking advantage of the customization options has the potential to increase efficiency and accuracy of your data in Applied Epic.

Next Steps

Effective management of these critical, non-client-facing priorities can result in more day-to-day efficiencies and stronger data quality for your agency. To consistently maintain and review the areas discussed in this article, you’ll need to have the proper resources. If you choose to distribute these responsibilities among several team members, be sure they take clear ownership, receive the necessary training, and are granted the appropriate permissions in Applied Epic.

If internal capacity is limited, outsourcing can be a practical alternative. In many cases, hiring a dedicated Epic administrator provides the oversight needed to manage these tasks effectively and keep your systems running smoothly.

The Agency Consulting Team at Kite Technology is here to support you. Whether your goals involve Epic administration, optimization, workflow improvements or other system management, KiteTech’s agency consultants have the expertise to help you maximize your Applied Epic investment. Contact KiteTech today to start your conversation