Applied Epic

How to Streamline Your New Employee Onboarding with Applied Epic

September 18, 2023 by Laura Whaley Leave a Comment

Hiring a new employee is a significant undertaking, but the work doesn’t end once they join. Effective employee onboarding includes both the process of familiarizing your employees with your organization as well as managing the necessary administrative tasks. Did you know that Applied Epic can help you with that? In this blog post, we share how you can use Epic to better manage your new employee onboarding process.

Applied Client Network Resources for New Employee Onboarding

You can find several resources on the Applied Client Network for New Hire Onboarding. They offer a:

New Hire Checklist for Agency Hiring Managers
Customizable Onboarding Education Tracker for New Employees
Industry and Company Terminology Resources for New Employees template

In addition to these documents there is an entire Communications Template Package with various email and word templates that can be used in communication with your new hire. These documents can be found at https://www.appliedclientnetwork.org/education/new-hire-onboardingN (appliedclientnetwork.org)

Managing New Employee Onboarding Tasks with Applied Epic

The Agency Consulting Team here at Kite Technology Group also recommends using Applied Epic to help manage some of the additional tasks that you need to complete for your new employee.

We recommend adding an activity when adding a new employee. This activity may be tied to the event of adding a new account or a manual activity. Once the activity is decided upon, tasks can be added and/or assigned for all the items that need to be done for that new employee. These could include:

Adding User Login
Adding User to the Security Group
Assign the employee’s lookup code to the User
Assign/Schedule Reports
Process Workload Reassignments
Assign access to Carrier Websites
Documenting User Access at hire
Assigning rights to access other employees’ signatures, activities, tasks or renewals.
Assign Applied University Courses or other Training Modules

With a good onboarding process, you can tailor the new hire experience, keep new employees engaged and improve your time to productivity. A good onboarding program will help to improve your employee retention and retention means less time and money on rehiring and retraining.

Managing Employee Offboardings

We also recommend creating a manual activity for employee exits. Like employee onboarding, the activity and tasks will be started as soon as HR notifies the employee will be exiting. These tasks will create a checklist that can be shared across a team to ensure that your system access is terminated, and all of the proper procedures are followed upon the employee’s departure.

Training for Applied Epic Users

Ensuring that your new employees are proficient in Applied Epic is vital for both their success and that of your agency. Applied Epic training that focuses on your agency’s workflows boosts operational efficiency and guarantees consistent, high-quality service. If you don’t have the internal resources to provide training, KiteTech can help. Check out our Applied Epic Resources Page for our collection of on-demand webinars, blog posts, and training videos.

Our suite of Applied Epic Consulting Services includes customized training solutions for your new employees or those transitioning to a different role. With our expertise, your team will be equipped to harness the full potential of Applied Epic, driving productivity and fostering a culture of excellence. Contact us today to learn more!

Laura Whaley

Agency Consultant
Kite Technology Group

Decoding Applied Epic Accounting: Your Comprehensive Glossary

September 12, 2023 by Kellie Halfpap Leave a Comment

Applied Epic’s accounting features introduce a range of terms that may vary from traditional accounting vocabularies or those in other agency management systems. For agencies newly adopting Epic for their accounting practices, unfamiliar terms can lead to uncertainties regarding process accuracy. To assist, we’ve provided a list of commonly used words and phrases in Applied Epic as they relate to various accounting workflows. Use this as a guide to help clarify any ambiguities in your agency’s accounting procedures.

Applied Epic Accounting Glossary of Terms

Accounting Method

Configured based on how agency recognizes income and pays producers/brokers.

Cash – Agency recognizes income when it is received.
Accrual – Agency recognizes income when policy is billed/transacted.
Partially Paid – Agency pays producers/brokers when partial commission is received. This would include installments (either Direct or Agency Bill) or client down payments.
Fully Paid – Agency pays producers/brokers when full policy commission is received or when client pays premium or down payment in full.

Accounts Receivable

Any money owed to the agency by a client or Finance Company for Agency Bill policies.

Agency Bill

Policy premiums are paid to the agency by the client. The Agency retains their commission and forwards net premium and any applicable fees to the company/broker.

Applying Credits to Debits

Applying client payments and CFIN transactions to outstanding balances on client accounts.

Balance Sheet vs Income Statement

Balance Sheet – A report that shows all Asset, Liability, and Equity GL balances. Assets equal Liabilities + Equity. These GL balances perpetually roll year-to-year.
Income Statement – A report that shows all Income and Expense GL balances. At year end, net income moves to Retained Earnings on the Balance Sheet and all GL balances revert to $0 for the beginning of the new fiscal year.

CFIN vs Actions > Finance

CFIN – Finance company pays the company/broker.
Actions > Finance Transaction – Finance company pays the agency who then pays the company/broker.

Chart of Accounts

General Ledger (GL) accounts specifically coded for recording Assets, Liability, Equity, Income & Expense.

Regular – GL account codes that do not require sub-accounts (i.e., Accounts Receivable, Bank Accounts, Sweep, Equity accounts)
Title Accounts – Primary GL accounts that typically include Sub-Accounts (i.e., Income accounts, Payable accounts, Expense accounts)
Sub-Accounts – Breakout categories for your Title Accounts by entity (Carriers, Brokers, Expenses, etc.)

Direct Bill

Policy premiums are paid directly by the client to the company/broker. Company/Broker will forward commissions to the agency.

Direct Bill Commission Download

A way to receive commissions through IVANS which puts them into Download Suspense for processing to Direct Bill Reconciliations.

Direct Bill Download Suspense

Where downloaded commissions are waiting to be processed and recognized as actual transactions and income received to the agency.

General Ledger

Receipts – Where deposits are recorded. This can be client payments, Direct Bill commission, miscellaneous income items, return premium, or money received from a Finance Company.
Disbursements – Where agency payments are recorded, either electronically or by check. This could be Premium Payables, Vendor Payables, payroll, sweep payments, etc.
Journal Entry (JE)– Created when you need to move balances from one GL account to another.
- System Generated Month-End Journal Entries (MJEs) – Configuration-driven Journal Entries that run automatically at month-end based off the completion of a specific workflow (Direct Bill Commission Receivable and Cash on Account Receipts tied to a Reconciliation, Invoiced Agency Bill items, Producer/Broker Commission Expense and Payable accounts).
- Manually Entered – Journal Entries agency creates to correct GL account balances, or as a second option to record transfers between bank accounts, payroll, credit card payments, etc.
Reconciliations –
- Direct Bill – Where to record commissions agency receives for direct bill policies through Download, Import, or manual entry.
- Premium Payable – Where to pull in the transactions made on the client screen to pay net premium to company/broker. Creates a Disbursement when Finalized and Actions > Pay Statement.
- Pr/Br Payables – To reconcile commissions due to a producer/broker.
- Bank – To verify all activity entered in Epic matches activity in your bank account.
Direct Bill Import – A way to record Direct Bill commission received through an Excel mapping file that contains criteria from the commission statement.

Issuing Company (ICO)

The company that underwrites the policy being written. Think of it as the ‘paper the policy is written on.’ The NAICs are configured to the Issuing Company, which ensures Download operates properly.

Payables

Any items the agency needs to pay.

Vendor – Items owed to entities not related to policies. This can be agency expenses like electricity, rent, advertising, license renewals, loans, credit card, office expenses, etc.
Premium Payables – Carrier invoices for clients with agency bill policies.

Premium Payable Entity (PPE)

This can be a company or broker and is the one who pays commission to the agency and who the agency pays for Agency Bill items. A PPE company can be the same as an ICO, but it is important to check the policy to ensure if there is a difference.

Status of Accounts (aka General Ledger) Report

A report that shows all GL account activity as debits and credits with beginning and ending balance for each GL account. In standard accounting, this report is well known as a General Ledger report.

Conclusion

To properly utilize the accounting reports (or any report) in your Epic system, you need accurate data. To help maintain accurate data it is crucial to understand accounting workflows in Applied Epic, including its various terms and phrases. If you have any questions on the terminology defined above, or on Epic accounting in general, do not hesitate to reach out to us at consult@kitetechgroup.com. You can also visit our website to learn more about KiteTech’s Applied Epic Accounting and Outsourced Bookkeeping Services. Want to download and save this glossary as a PDF so you can easily refer to it as needed? Click here to download now. And be sure to check back next month for our next glossary of General Applied Epic vocabulary.

Kellie Halfpap

Buffy Johnson

Laura Fisher

Brooke Perrone

Applied Systems’ Hosted Exchange Retirement: What it Means for Your Agency

August 1, 2023 by Jason Gobbel Leave a Comment

Recently, many of you may have received an email from Applied Systems, notifying users about their decision to retire their Hosted Exchange and Insuremail services by the end of December 2023. This development could have significant implications for agencies relying on these services. In this video and blog post, we’ll explore how Applied Systems’ Hosted Exchange retirement might affect your agency and what strategic measures you can take to ensure a seamless transition to a new service.

A bit of history

Several years ago, Applied began hosting email for agencies using a product called Microsoft Exchange. Exchange is a fantastic product, and back in the days of servers, this is exactly what we deployed in agencies. But as the years went on, Exchange was increasingly designed for large organizations. It required larger servers and more server roles. It required special skills to manage, and it was difficult to keep secure. This meant more expense. Meanwhile, cloud alternatives were getting better and more cost effective all the time.

These days, there are far better options out there for agencies and Applied is recognizing that. This will allow Applied Systems to reallocate time and effort into products like Epic, where their core expertise really shines. Check out this recent update from Applied Systems to learn more.

So what does this mean for your agency?

Receiving the letter doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re using the service. So the first step is determining if this applies to you. Your IT folks should easily be able to determine this. They’ll want to check inbound email, your copiers and scanners, and Epic DMS.

If you ARE using Applied’s email services, you’ll need to have all of your data off of those services before the end of December 2023. That’s not much time, so you need to start making a plan now to transition to another solution. For this, I recommend Microsoft 365. Microsoft 365 has become the industry standard for email, but the 365 ecosystem is much larger than that. You can use Microsoft 365 to replace servers, deliver cybersecurity, implement cloud desktops, and meet compliance requirements.

KiteTech is here to help

If you are currently using Applied’s email services, and need help migrating to Microsoft 365, we can help. I would encourage you to reach out to Kite Technology sooner than later, so we can begin helping you plan for the change.

If you’re already using Microsoft 365, and you’re curious about how you can make it more effective and secure, we can help with that, as well. We have made Microsoft 365 a part of everything we do, and we would love to help you make Microsoft 365 part of everything you do. Contact us today, to learn to learn more about our Managed IT Services and Microsoft 365 Consulting.

Jason Gobbel

Chief Solutions Officer
Kite Technology Group

5 Key Benefits of Using the Applied Epic Browser

July 20, 2023 by Laura Fisher Leave a Comment

Warren G. Bennis, a well-known advisor to four of the US Presidents, said that “In life, change is inevitable. In business it is vital.” I am sure we can all look back and remember many times in our personal or professional lives when we have had to learn something new. While change can be challenging and feel uncomfortable, once we overcome the learning curve, the benefits often become apparent.

Similarly, in our work with hundreds of agencies using Applied Epic, we’ve seen some resistance from end-users to adopt the Applied Epic Browser. However, we can assure you that while it may take some getting used to, switching to the Applied Epic Browser will be a decision you won’t regret. Let’s discuss some of the key benefits of the Applied Epic Browser.

1. Enhanced Accessibility and Flexibility

In the wake of the pandemic, our lives and work underwent significant changes. As we transitioned to remote work, organizations were faced with the daunting task of ensuring the protection and integrity of client information stored on personal desktops or laptops outside of the traditional office environment. Consider the convenience and peace of mind that would have come with accessing everything through the internet and storing it securely in the cloud. That’s precisely what the Epic Browser offers—a seamless solution that enables you to access your Applied Epic application anytime and anywhere, as long as you have internet access.

2. Improved Client Service and System Management

The enhanced accessibility that comes with the Epic Browser revolutionizes how seamlessly you can access your clients’ information on the go, enabling you to provide superior client service. Similarly, you also have the ability to stay on top of critical management tasks. You are able to manage privileges, initiate workflows, and monitor data use by just logging in to your computer.

3. Advanced Security

The Applied Epic Browser is not just user-friendly, but also prioritizes security. Web-based applications use cryptographic technology, which is one of the safest and most efficient ways to protect your clients’ information. Additionally, the browser allows you to customize security features based on your organization’s needs. This flexibility enables you to choose and implement the best security practices that meet your agency’s needs. You’ll be able to work confidently knowing that your organization is equipped with top-notch security measures.

4. Streamlined Updates

The Applied Epic Browser introduces the advantage of more frequent and smaller updates, which greatly benefits both your back and front office staff. This approach of smaller updates at a higher frequency minimizes disruption to your team by making changes easier to understand, learn and implement. As a result your team will adapt more seamlessly to new features leading to smoother transitions and improved productivity. Not only that, but you’ll have access to the latest features and enhancements as soon as they are released.

5. Greater Productivity and Simplified Workflows

Another significant benefit of the Epic Browser is related to how it maximizes productivity and simplifies workflows. One example of how it achieves this is by offering features like pre-fill/population and suggest-as-you-type functionality. These features help your staff work faster and more efficiently by reducing the time and effort required for data entry.

In addition, recent updates to the Epic Browser have introduced the Attachment Preview feature, which allows you to view attachments without the need to open them separately. This feature saves time and makes the process more efficient for your staff, eliminating unnecessary steps to complete tasks.

By focusing on improved features like these, the Epic Browser empowers your team to work with greater speed and effectiveness, enabling them to accomplish their tasks with greater ease and efficiency.

Conclusion

As you can see, if you’re not already using the Applied Epic Browser, there are many great benefits to make the change. While it may take some time to learn the new features and functionality, the investment of time will be well worth it. To learn more about the Applied Epic Browser, check out this article by Applied Systems: Your Epic Browser Questions Answered.

Ready to unlock the full potential of your Applied Epic system? Our team of Applied Epic experts can provide tailored solutions to meet your agency’s unique needs. From optimizing workflows to helping you streamline your Epic accounting, we’re here to guide you every step of the way. Contact us for a consultation and let’s embark on the path to success together!

Laura Fisher

Applied Epic Agency Bookkeeper
Kite Technology Group

Correia, R. (2022,Dec. 15) Browser-Based Technology Is Transforming Insurtech | Applied Systems Blog

Driving Your Agency’s Success with Performance Auditing

June 19, 2023 by Laura Whaley Leave a Comment

The term “audit” has long been associated with skepticism and apprehension, and performance audits in insurance agencies are no exception. However, despite the initial unease they may provoke, performance audits can be invaluable for your agency’s growth and success. The key lies in understanding why these audits are necessary and how to effectively carry out this seemingly daunting task. In this article, we aim to shed light on the benefits and provide you with some strategies on conducting performance audits that yield meaningful insights.

Benefits of Performance Audits

Avoid Errors & Omissions

When your agency migrated to your agency management system, whether it was Applied Epic, AMS360, or another, you likely implemented workflows and established expectations that were use in training your staff. These workflows and expectations have not only served as a foundation for your existing team but also continue to be utilized during the onboarding process for new employees. However, It’s human nature to start finding shortcuts and workarounds for tasks that we perform daily. Sometimes, these lead to bad habits and consequently an opportunity for an error & omission. A critical mistake agencies often make is solely relying on training without actively verifying if staff members are adhering to established workflows. The best way to determine if your team is following those established workflows is to audit files.

Evaluate Effectiveness of Workflows & Identify Necessary Changes

Audits are also a great way to evaluate if your Applied Epic or AMS360 workflows are working for your agency or if they need to be amended. If you audit files and find that certain portions of workflows aren’t being followed, it raises the question of whether the issue lies in the clarity of the workflows themselves or their effectiveness. Is it possible that the workflows have become unclear over time, or that they no longer align with the agency’s operational needs due to the adoption of new technologies or integrations? While we don’t recommend frequent changes, we do encourage that agencies review questions and concerns with workflows and update them when necessary.

Identify Departments that Need Additional Resources

Auditing can also identify areas of the agency that may need additional resources. For example, if you review workloads and find that one department has written a substantial amount of new business in the past 12 months, you may also find it necessary to hire an additional resource to help support those accounts or shift a portion of your book to a carrier service center.

Best Practices for Conducting Audits in Your Agency

Now that we’ve discussed some of the more important reasons that your agency should conduct performance auditing, let’s delve into some best practices that can ensure the effectiveness of these audits.

Be Transparent with Your Staff

So how do you implement audits without creating that environment of fear and hostility toward the process? We encourage the process to be implemented with transparency. Clearly identify what is being audited and the scale on which they will be evaluated. Explain to your staff that the process isn’t just to find out what someone is doing wrong but to also find what is being done right. What can the agency do better for them? The results will foster an environment where staff wants to do well and more importantly give them an opportunity invest in their own development.

Provide Additional Resources and Training

Did you know that based on a recent survey 86% of millennials shared that they could be prevented from leaving their current position if training and development were offered by their employer? That’s right, your staff wants to feel like you invest in them and encourage them to be better versions of themselves. Make the audit process one that is positive and that also gives back. When you find that someone has underperformed give them the resources to fix the problem. This can be done through written documentation, recorded documentation, or even live support and training.

Outsource your Performance Audits

While agencies can perform their own performance audits, it’s often challenging to allocate the resources and time for this task – that’s where outsourcing comes in. By outsourcing your performance audits, you can tap into the expertise and specialized knowledge of industry professionals who have in-depth experience with insurance and the agency management system you are using. They bring the necessary skills, tools, and processes to conduct comprehensive audits, ensuring accuracy and thoroughness.

Another benefit of outsourcing your performance audits is the objectivity that it brings to the process. External auditors bring an objective perspective to the process, as they are not directly involved in day-to-day operations. That objectivity enables them to assess workflows and performance without bias, identifying potential gaps or areas for improvement that may have been overlooked internally.

How Kite Technology Can Help

KiteTech has helped countless agencies over the years implement auditing programs, resulting in significant improvements in data reporting, errors and omissions claims, and employee morale.

To learn more about our auditing services, Applied Epic agencies, click here and AMS360 agencies, click here. If your agency would like assistance in developing an auditing program or configuring reports to support your processes, contact us today to schedule a conversation. We are here to help!

Laura Whaley

Agency Consultant
Kite Technology Group

Performing General Ledger Account Reconciliations in Applied Epic

May 12, 2023 by Buffy Johnson Leave a Comment

It’s month end and time to run your month end accounting balancing reports and financial statements. You review your balance sheet and income statement and one or more of your general ledger account balances looks incorrect…what do you do? How do you know if the general ledger account balances are correct? Where do you even start with how to research and make corrections?

This is a task that many agencies face every month or when the time comes to send your financial statements to your CPA. This can be a very overwhelming and time-consuming task but learning strategies about where to look and how to make those corrections will empower you with the tools necessary to analyze and ensure that your GL balances are accurate. Most of the time, it is your Cash, Receivables, Cash on Account, and Payables balances that can become incorrect and figuring out why can be like finding a needle in a haystack.

Time to put on your analytical hat and perform your General Ledger Account Reconciliations! This important process will help ensure the accuracy and integrity of your agency’s financial statements. It is equally important as reconciling your commissions, producer payables, and bank statements.

Getting Started Performing General Ledger Account Reconciliations

1. Obtain a good understanding of your accounting configuration in Epic.

Is your agency set up as Cash or Accrual for Agency Bill and Direct Bill Income? How do you post Direct Bill Commissions and how are your Producers and Brokers paid? This configuration is what sets the “behind the scenes” entries for Epic to calculate and post policy transactions.

2. Run your Balance Sheet to include sub-accounts.

Make sure you select to run this report as “Open” through your current month or the month you are researching. Balance sheet accounts roll from year to year so you always must start with your beginning month in Epic. On this report, you can view your receivable and payable accounts by sub-account and look for balances that look incorrect. Balances with negatives or that are uncharacteristically large or small are good places to start. Assets (Cash, Receivables, Cash on Account, and Fixed Assets) are natural debit balances and Liabilities (Vendor/Company/Broker/Producer payables and Debt payables) are natural credit balances. If you see negatives in these general ledger accounts, start there.

3. Run your Income Statement to include sub-accounts.

Also in this report, balances with negatives or that are uncharacteristically large or small are good places to start. Income accounts are natural credits and Expense accounts are natural debits. If you see negatives in these balances, it indicates that perhaps a Receipt or a Disbursement was entered incorrectly. Missing commissions could mean that receipts and reconciliations have not been completed, depending on your accounting configuration.

4. Run a Status of Accounts Report for the general ledger accounts that look incorrect on your Balance Sheet and Income Statement.

This report contains information about every transaction that is posted to these general ledger accounts. Here you will find line-item details about the Receipts (R), Disbursements (D), Journal Entries (J), System Generated Journal Entries (MJE), and Voided Entries (DV, RV). Each one of these entries has a reference number that you can look up in Receipts, Disbursements, and Journal Entries to review and make sure they were entered correctly. Journal Entries (J) are always a good place to start since they are manually created debits and credits to GL accounts, and it is easy to select the wrong GL account or enter incorrectly.

5. Reconcile your bank accounts in Epic every month.

This will catch missing or incorrectly entered Receipts and Disbursements in your cash accounts in Epic. Every entry that is posted in your bank accounts must also be entered into Epic as a Receipt or a Disbursement. Think of it as a mirroring process. If you are struggling to balance your bank reconciliation, use your Status of Accounts report to help identify debits and credits in your cash accounts that may need correcting. Reconciling your bank accounts in Epic every month ensures the accuracy of your cash account balances on your balance sheet.

6. Find duplicate, missing, or incorrect entries in the Status of Accounts Report.

In the Status of Accounts Report, you can find duplicate entries or perhaps if an entry was entered backwards (entered as a debit instead of a credit or vice-versa) or not at all. If you receipt commissions to Cash on Account or Direct Bill Commission Receivable instead of directly to Commission Income, the Status of Accounts report is a great place to review the Receipts (which are credits to the asset account) and make sure that you see the offsetting MJE that moves the commission from the Balance Sheet to the Income Statement (which are debits to the asset account). They should offset each other to zero and if you have a balance in this account at month end, it can indicate that the Direct Bill Commission Reconciliation has not been completed and/or associated to the Receipt for that accounting month.

7. Correct your entries and re-run the reports.

Once you identify errors, the accounting team can make the correcting entries and re-run the reports to make sure the general ledger balances now look correct on your financial statements. Making this GL Account Reconciliation analysis part of your month end accounting process will help your agency stay on top of making sure your financial statements are accurate and will prevent having to spend countless hours and days at year end having to go back to find and correct errors in previous months. If there are consistent GL account errors happening, you need to review your agency’s accounting and servicing workflows to make sure transactions are being entered and reconciled correctly.

How KiteTech can help

Performing these General Ledger Account Reconciliations in Epic is an important step in your month end closing process but can be an overwhelming and time-consuming task. If you find that your agency is struggling with understanding and ensuring the accuracy of your month end accounting reports and financial statements, the KiteTech Agency Consulting team is here to help! We have extensive experience in Applied Epic accounting, and we are ready to provide customized solutions that meet your agency’s unique needs. We can assist your agency with accounting optimization, forensic accounting and cleanup, as well as Outsourced Bookkeeping Services. Contact us today for more information!

Buffy Johnson

Agency Consultant
Kite Technology Group

Bookkeeping in Applied Epic: 10 Best Practices for Accurate Financial Reporting

April 18, 2023 by Buffy Johnson Leave a Comment

Accurate bookkeeping in Applied Epic is an area where many agencies struggle and lack confidence in the integrity of their accounting data and financial reports. Applied Epic has a well-designed accounting system that captures all your agency’s financial data and organizes it into various financial reports. These reports are critical analytical tools that can help management understand the financial health of your agency, as well as assist in making financial decisions about agency growth and process improvements. In this article, we will explore 10 best practices for bookkeeping in Applied Epic to help you ensure accurate financial data.

Best Practices for Accurate Bookkeeping in Epic

1. Record Every Financial Transaction with Receipts and Disbursements

Accurate financial data involves keeping track of every single financial transaction in your agency. Knowing how much you earn and how much money you spend is important for getting an idea of your actual income and expenses. Entering your receipts and disbursements and verifying them on your bank statement or your online banking portal is a critical step to ensuring that every transaction is recorded in Epic and reported on your financial statements.

2. Record Payroll Entries

Another important step of bookkeeping is recording the payroll. Whether you calculate, record and submit your agency payroll on your own or use an outsourced payroll service, entering your payroll data into Epic ensures that all payroll transactions are recorded on your financial statements accurately.

3. Reconcile Direct Bill Commissions

Reconciling your direct bill policy commissions is another critical step in accurate financial reporting. For direct bill commissions, you can download, import, or manually reconcile your commissions and once reconciled, tie them to your commission deposits to ensure that they will be reported on your income statement correctly.

4. Reconcile Premium Payables

There are multiple steps necessary for the accurate recording of your premium payable/agency bill policies in Epic. The accurate invoicing of the policies to your clients, recording the receipt of their payment, reconciling the premium payable to the company or broker, and disbursing payment of the premium payable to the carrier are the steps necessary to properly record these transactions in Epic.

5. Record Direct Bill Sweeps

Many agencies offer the courtesy of collecting policy payments for their clients and paying the carrier on their behalf. These are called “sweeps”. Making sure the client’s payment is receipted to their account and the payment to the carrier is recorded as a Premium Advance will accurately capture these transactions in Epic and keep the premium bank account balance and accounts receivable on the balance sheet accurate.

6. Reconcile and Pay Producer and Broker Commissions

Whether you use the Pr/Br Reconciliation feature in Epic or reconcile and review your producer/broker payables manually, you need accurate Pr/Br commission data in your system so you can pay them commissions that are owed. Verifying that commission agreements are set up and attached to policies in Epic will ensure that your producers and brokers are paid accurately and timely every month.

7. Perform Monthly Bank Reconciliations

Reconciling your bank accounts monthly is a critical bookkeeping step that ensures that all financial transactions are recorded in Epic and that your bank balance in Epic ties to the bank account. This reconciliation will ensure that all financial data is correctly reported on your financial statements.

8. Run Month End Accounting Reports

In Epic, there are several month end accounting reports that you can run and review before closing your month. These reports will help you determine if there are any incomplete transactions and ensure that you have reconciled all commissions received and that your receivables and payables tie to your General Ledger.

9. Analyze General Ledger Account Balances Using the Status of Accounts Report

The Status of Accounts report is a valuable tool to review the debit and credit transactions in all your General Ledger accounts. Use this report to analyze the detail of your balance sheet and income statement balances when balances look incorrect. Once you determine what caused the errors in your balances, you can further complete transactions and/or enter a journal entry to correct balances.

10. Review of Final Income Statement and Balance Sheet

Once you determine that your financial reports and data are complete and accurate, the final monthly bookkeeping step is to close the month in Epic. Once you close the month, you are now ready to submit your final monthly financial reports to your CPA if required. Management will also now have the tools they need to analyze the agency’s financial data to plan for future financial decisions.

Conclusion

Proper bookkeeping in Applied Epic is essential for agency management to understand in order to be able to make informed financial decisions. Without knowing the details of your agency’s finances, it’s difficult to evaluate opportunities for growth and investment. Monthly and yearly financial statements can give you a lot of information about your agency and help you pinpoint areas for improvement. They are also vital for your CPA to obtain for accurate and timely tax reporting.

Accounting and bookkeeping in Epic can be very overwhelming for an agency when they don’t trust the accuracy of their financial data. If your agency needs help with accounting and bookkeeping in Epic, the KiteTech Agency Consulting team is here to help! We have extensive experience in Applied Epic accounting and we are ready to provide customized solutions that meet your agency’s unique needs. We can assist your agency with accounting optimization, forensic accounting and cleanup, and even outsourced bookkeeping services. Contact us today for more information!

Buffy Johnson

Agency Consultant
Kite Technology Group

Outsourced Applied Epic Bookkeeping

Applied Epic

EXPERT OUTSOURCED BOOKKEEPING

Are you struggling to keep up with the demands of accounting in your agency? Kite Technology can help! Our Agency Consulting team has bookkeepers on staff with expertise in Applied Epic, ready to provide customized solutions that meet your agency’s needs.

We understand that every insurance agency is unique and has specific accounting needs. Our expert team takes a custom approach to outsourcing and will develop a plan that meets your agency’s specific accounting requirements. We will also implement our KiteTech Best Practices to ensure that you get the best possible service.

With our outsourced bookkeeping services, you’ll have a dedicated KiteTech bookkeeping team member who will be focused on all of your agency’s accounting needs.

Do you have concerns about the accuracy of your agency’s current accounting data? We can also provide forensic accounting and cleanup services to help agencies achieve accuracy in their financial reporting.

BOOKKEEPING SERVICES

including but not limited to

ENTRY OF RECEIPTS, DISBURSEMENTS, AND JOURNAL ENTRIES

We will handle the accurate and timely entry of all bank transactions, which is vital to your agency’s accounting data and report integrity.

VENDOR PAYABLES

We will manage your vendor payables, ensuring that all bills are paid accurately and on time, ensuring that expenses are appropriately allocated.

ACCOUNTING MANAGEMENT REPORTS

Our team will deliver regular accounting management reports, providing an accurate picture of your agency’s financial health.

DIRECT BILL COMMISSION RECONCILIATION

We will ensure that your direct bill commissions are accurately recorded and reconciled to your financial records, including manual recording, importing, and direct bill commission download processing.

PRODUCER/BROKER PAYABLES

We will provide a method for producer and broker payables whether that be by producer commission reports, production reports, or by utilizing the Pr/Br reconciliation in Applied Epic.

REGULAR SCHEDULED MEETINGS

We will schedule regular meetings with your bookkeeper to review progress, discuss any accounting issues, and ensure that all your accounting needs are being met.

PREMIUM PAYABLE RECONCILIATION

We will reconcile your agency bill invoices and statements, ensuring that all transactions are paid on time and recorded in Applied Epic. This ensures that your premium payable reports are balanced to your financial records.

MONTH-END BANK RECONCILIATION

We will reconcile your bank accounts at the end of each month, ensuring that all transactions are recorded accurately and that all discrepancies are identified and resolved.

Learn how we can eliminate your agency’s accounting headaches!

MAXIMIZE YOUR AGENCY’S POTENTIAL

Maximize your agency’s growth potential by outsourcing your bookkeeping tasks to our team of experts. KiteTech’s Agency Consulting team understands that your time and resources are valuable, which is why we provide efficient and cost-effective solutions that allow you to focus on your agency.

By choosing our services, you’ll have peace of mind knowing that your accounting and bookkeeping needs are being handled by a team of professionals with extensive Applied Epic expertise. Our customized solutions are tailored to meet the unique needs of your agency, and we work closely with you to ensure that all your requirements are met.

BENEFITS OF OUTSOURCING:

Expertise

Professional bookkeepers have the necessary skills and experience to handle complex accounting tasks, ensuring accuracy and compliance with accounting standards.

Cost Savings

Outsourcing can be a cost-effective solution, as it eliminates the need to hire a full-time bookkeeper and reduces overhead costs associated with in-house bookkeeping.

Peace of Mind

With an outsourced bookkeeper, you can have peace of mind knowing that your financial records are accurate and up-to-date, allowing you to make informed decisions for your agency's future.

Efficiency

Outsourcing bookkeeping tasks can help streamline processes, reduce errors, and save time, allowing you to focus on core business activities.

Customization

An outsourced bookkeeper can tailor their services to meet your agency's specific needs and requirements, providing customized solutions that align with your business goals.

Growth Potential

With our outsourced bookkeeping services, you can focus on growing your business without worrying about the time-consuming tasks of bookkeeping.

Maximizing Security in Applied Epic: Best Practices for Effectively Managing Security Groups

March 9, 2023 by Laura Whaley Leave a Comment

Effective management of security groups is a critical aspect of ensuring the security and integrity of your data in Applied Epic. Security groups are a way of controlling access to different parts of the system, and as you get started in Epic, security groups are typically very basic and include a group for Servicing, Producers, HR, Accounting and Download. Have you taken the time to review your security groups to ensure that the rights delegated are appropriate? Do you have adequate groups set up based on responsibilities of your staff?

If you are feeling intimidated like most agencies do, we are here to help. In this article, we will discuss some of the best practices for managing security groups in Applied Epic to help you better protect your organization’s data.

Best practices for managing security groups in Applied Epic

1. Review existing group rights to ensure they meet job duties

Review the existing groups and the rights granted in each. Determine if the rights granted allow the staff to process work as needed. If you are reviewing rights and unsure what it might do, the Epic help file has become tremendously better at providing guidance to specifics of each right in the various areas. You can click into each area and the Permission is shown with what it enables, the implications for each and if there are related items, those are also provided.

2. Never add rights to an individual user

It is important to remember that you should never individually add rights for a user. If you add rights for one person on a user level, that configuration isn’t visible with a bird’s eye view of who has what. Create additional groups if rights are requested outside of a user’s basic group.

3. Add new users with groups identified rather than “..same rights as..” method

It is common when a new user starts for HR or an operations leader to say, “this person needs the same rights as..”. The problem here is that if an individual has rights that they may not be aware of, you are going to grant those same rights inherently and erroneously for the new employee. However, granting rights based on security groups guarantees rights based on their work duties.

4. Audit groups and users at least annually

How many employees do you hire and either promote or move within your organization to another role? It happens all the time. With these changes their responsibilities might change. Run management reports to audit who has what groups and if those groups are still appropriate or if changes need to be made.

5. Create subgroups to help with separation of duties

Does your agency have the ability to create a separation of duties in accounting? This separation of rights can help protect your agency from fraud and theft where you may otherwise be exposed. For example, create separate groups for those in your payables department from those in your receivables department and from those who get access to financials or vendor payables.

6. Consider a dual approval for security changes

Depending on the size and complexity of an agency it may be advantageous to have an approval system in place. Consider having a system admin approve and send to an operations manager for final approval before implementing any change.

7. Document, Document, Document

Add backup documentation to each change made and who requested/approved the change on the employee account. This way, there is never a question of who, when what or why.

Conclusion

Applied Epic is a powerful agency management system that serves as a centralized repository for critical information, including client data, policies, financials, and bank accounts. However, without establishing robust security protocols and best practices for managing security groups, you risk exposing this sensitive information to malicious actors. The importance of implementing and adhering to security guidelines cannot be overstated. By leveraging best practices like those outlined above, you can help safeguard your agency’s data and protect against potential security breaches.

If you find that you need assistance with establishing security groups or auditing existing ones, the KiteTech Agency Consulting team is here to help. Our team of Applied Epic experts can guide you through the process of setting up security groups and ensuring that they align with your agency’s needs. With our guidance, you can rest assured that your agency’s data is secure and protected against unauthorized access. Contact us today to learn more!

Laura Whaley

Agency Consultant
Kite Technology Group