Note: You must have the authority, "Agency Setup," (Diamond Administration group) to add or edit agency information.
Agency Setup allows agencies to be established, edited, closed, non-renewed or suspended. Additionally, lines of business, producers, interface and EFT information is also entered on a per agency basis.
Setting up the company / agency relationship is an important function and should be completed during the implementation stage. It is important to determine the following:
Agency Commissions: How will commission be paid to agents? Will it be on written or paid premium?
Lines of Business: What line (s) of business will each agency produce?
Other Carriers: Are other carriers assigned to an agency?
Producers: Will any agency have additional producers?
EFT: Will agencies be handling EFT transactions (Electronic Funds Transfer)?
Workflow Queues: Does an agency need the ability of assigning tasks to a group of users as well as an individual?
Once the criteria is established, information may then be entered for each agency via Agency Setup.
To add an agency:
On the Employee Web, select Utilities / Administration / Agency.
When the Agency Setup screen displays:
Company: Choose the company the agency is associated with from the combo box.
State: Select the corresponding state from the combo box.
Line of Business: Choose the line of business from those available in the combo box.
Click Add. This returns the New Agency screen.
Four (4) sections on the New Agency screen include:
Once you have added information in the sections above, click Save Agency. This enables the remaining nodes and allows you to add any lines of business and agency commission.
To add a line of business and set up options for Automatic Renewals for an agency:
Click Add LOB in the Line of Business section of the screen.
When the Add Line of Business screen is returned:
Company: Select the company from the combo box; defaults the company selected from the Agency Setup screen.
State: Choose the state from the combo box where policies will be written for this line of business.
LOB: Select the line of business from the list of those available in the combo box.
Pay Plan Options: Select a pay plan option from the combo box; optional.
Non-Renew Date: Leave blank.
Establish Date: Entry format MM/DD/YYYY; date represents when the agency began writing the LOB.
Appointed Date: Leave blank.
Suspend Date: Leave blank. (Note: This is used for an agency that is being closed or non-renewed. By entering a date in this field, this will stop new business and prevent cancel-rewrites.)
Close Date: Leave blank. (Note: This is also used for an agency that is being closed or non-renewed. The date entered here stops Renewals from being processed for that agency.)
Rehab Date: Optional. Generally used for documenting an agency's performance for large sums of claim payments on this LOB. If an entry is made here, this is the date the agency is no longer being monitored.
Renewal Lead Days: This is the number of days before the policy expires that a policy can be renewed. So if it is set to 45 and the policy expires on 7/15/2013 the policy cannot be renewed until 6/1/2013. Enter the number of days here.
Pre-Renewal Lead Days: This is the number of days before the policy expires that a policy can be run through the pre-renewal process through automated renewals. Enter the number of days here.
Renewal Offer Lead Days: This is the number of days before the policy expires that a policy can have a renewal offer done on it.
Do Not Automatically Renew: Select this field to place a check mark in it if you do not want an agency to automatically renew for a particular Company / State / LOB
Do Not Issue Automatic Renewals: Select this option if you want to create "Pending" Renewals for the agency but not actually issue them.
Underwriter: If your agency chooses the option to assign an underwriter in the agency that policies / and or quotes should be sent to for review (prior to issuance), select that underwriter from the list. (Note: There are two system settings that must be enabled to use this function. Please see the Additional Functionality section at the end of this topic.)
Choose Save LOB after making all selections and entries.
Note: If an agency is writing all LOBs for all states, select the Add All States button. The Add All States and Lines of Business screen displays. Make the appropriate entries and selections. Click Save. The Agency Setup screen opens; all lines of business display in the Grid View.
The Add All button allows you to add all lines of business to a selected state.
Agency commission is added on a per line of business basis. In Diamond, agency commission is paid on written premium or paid premium.
To add an agency's commission:
Choose the pencil icon next to the line of business and click.
Select the Agency Commission button.
When the Agency Commission screen displays, choose the Add New Agency Commission button in the Agency Commission section of the screen.
Choose the Agency Commission Type from the combo box.
Enter the commission's starting date; entry format MM/DD/YYYY.
Click Save Agency Commission.
Click Add New Agency Detail Commission to add the agency's commission detail type.
Choose the Agency Commission Type from the combo box.
Enter an amount.
Click Save.
Click Close on the Agency Commission screen.
Reimbursements to agencies are set up on a per company / line of business basis.
To establish a reimbursement rate for an agency:
Click the pencil icon next to the LOB for which the reimbursement is being allowed in the Line of Business section at the bottom of the screen.
Click Agency Reimbursement.
Highlight the reimbursement at the bottom of the screen.
Click Add Reimbursement. This moves the reimbursement to the top of the screen, placing it in the Agency Reimbursement section.
To change the reimbursement amount, choose pencil icon next to the reimbursement.
On the Edit Agency Reimbursement Amount screen, change the amount.
Choose Save Agency Reimbursement. The Agency Reimbursement screen displays with the new amount shown.
Repeat the process for each reimbursement, if necessary.
When finished, select Close.
Once all information has been entered, choose the Save button to retain the agency's information.
If no further information is needed, click Close to return to the Agency Setup screen.
The system allows an underwriter user to be selected by company / state / line of business to transfer policies and / or quotes to. The system will also allow Workflow Queues to be assigned to agencies at the company / state / line of business level. If your company chooses to do this, the system will transfer the associated policy or quote when the Route to Underwriting button is selected in the Web Client.
The following criteria are used for determining the recipient for the task:
1. When the “Consider the individual agency underwriter for task assignment” system setting (Workflow folder) is set to "True" (Enable) in Diamond System Editor:
a. The underwriter user at the CSLA level will be used when an exact match for the CSL is found (if available).
b. The underwriter user at the agency level will be used (if available).
2. The underwriting queue at the CSLA level will be used when an exact match for the CSL is found (if available).
3. The underwriting queue at the agency level will be used (if available).
During the Automatic Renewal Process, the system will assign any renewal that “Pends” to the Renewal Queue set up for the agency. Prior to this change, all “Pended” renewals could only be sent to one Renewal Queue for the agency. Additionally, the underwriter for the agency would never be assigned the “Pending” renewal. The following criteria are used for determining the recipient for the “Pending” renewal:
1. When the "Consider the individual agency underwriter for task assignment” system setting (Automatic Renewals folder is set to "True" (Enable) in the Diamond System Editor:
a. The underwriter user at the CSLA level will be used when an exact match for the CSL is found (if available).
b. The underwriter user at the agency level will be used (if available).
2. The underwriting queue at the CSLA level will be used when an exact match for the CSL is found (if available).
3. The Underwriting Queue at the agency level will be used (if available).
Functionality to copy an existing agency's information from one agency to another is available. From Admin / Agency Setup: