Suspense Utility

Use the Suspense Utility form to create multiple suspense items at once, covering all expiring policies within a set of parameters. Assign the suspense items to the appropriate recipients. Save your parameter set, and reuse it to create suspense item batches on a regular basis.

You can also use this utility to re-assign one employee's suspense items to another employee, within a date range and for a line of business that you specify.

 

The Suspense Utility is an "add-on" custom utility: it is accessible only if you have purchased the custom license. For more information, please contact your agency’s Account Manager.

The following information explains the use and features of the Suspense Utility form.

From the 360 Toolbox or a data entry form that has a Toolbox menu, select Toolbox > Launch Programs > Suspense Utility. The Suspense Utility form appears.

The Suspense Utility has two main functions.

The first function allows you to create and assign a batch of Suspense items, covering expiring policies within specified parameters (e.g., only commercial lines policies, only policies that expire in 30 days, excluding all cancelled policies, etc.). This function requires that you enter information in the Criteria for Expiring Policy Selection section of the form.

The second function of this utility allows you to re-assign one employee's Suspense items to another employee. This function requires that you enter information in the Suspense Re-Assignment section of the form.

Creating a Parameter Set

Before you can create a Suspense item batch, you must first designate a set of parameters:

  1. Click New. The data entry fields open below the grid.
  2. Select the parameters of the policies for which you would like to create Suspense items.
  3. Click Add: the new set of parameters now appears in the grid.
  4. You can create and save multiple parameter sets to the grid.

To edit a parameter set, select it in the grid and click Edit. To delete a parameter set, select it in the grid and click Delete.

Processing Suspense Items

To create a Suspense item batch using the Suspense Utility, follow these steps:

  1. In the grid, mark the box next to each Criteria Description that you want to include in the process.
  2. Click Preview Suspense Logging. The Preview Suspense window opens. The items that appear in the Preview Suspense grid are based on the parameter set(s) you selected in the Criteria for Expiring Policies grid. If the results are unexpected, you may wish to edit the parameter set(s) or modify your grid selection before processing the Suspense items.
  3. When you are ready to create the Suspense items, click Create Suspense. The Preview Suspense window closes, and the status message at the bottom of the screen notifies you that "Processing completed successfully". The Last Run Date in the grid fills with the current date.

Once the Suspense items are processed, each item appears on the Suspense view of the assigned employee's Home Center.

The same Suspense item is not created twice for the same employee, even if that employee matches more than one criterion in the parameter set. For example, if an employee is both the Executive on an applicable expiring policy, and the designated Other employee under Suspend to, then he or she will only receive one Suspense item for that policy, even if both Executive and Other are checked as part of that parameter set.

You can also create the Suspense item batch without previewing the results.

  1. In the grid, mark the box next to each Criteria Description that you wish to include in the process.
  2. Click Process Suspense Logging. The status message at the bottom of the screen notifies you that "Processing completed successfully".

    If AMS360 has already processed a Suspense item batch for a particular parameter set on the same day, you will receive an alert when you try to process the batch again.

If an employee is on vacation or leave, you may wish to temporarily re-assign the employee's Suspense items to one or more employees.

To re-assign an employee's Suspense items for a particular range of dates, follow these steps:

  1. Select the name of the employee to whom the Suspense items would currently apply, prior to this re-assignment.
  2. Select the name of the employee to whom you want to re-assign the Suspense items: this is the employee who will receive the items after they are re-assigned.
  3. Select the Line of Business applicable to the Suspense items to be re-assigned.
  4. Enter the earliest (From) and latest (To) dates in the range during which this re-assignment applies.
  5. Click Re-Assign Now to complete the process.
SelectionsWhat is this?

Criteria Description

Enter a meaningful description of this set of parameters.

Example:

The description "30 Day Personal" could indicate a set of parameters for personal lines policies expiring within the next 30 days.

Suspense Settings

You can choose settings for the Suspense items generated by this utility.

Group/FieldWhat is this?

Action

Select a Suspense Action from the list. In other words what action are you taking when setting up this suspense.

Priority

Select the Priority level of the Suspense Action.

Description

Describe the action that should be taken by the Suspense item's recipient.

Example:

30 days prior to a policy's expiration, the recipient should "Send a renewal letter" to the customer.

Suspense Due Date

Select one of these options to determine the due date for the Suspense items:

  • # of Days Prior to Expiration
    The Suspense items are due when the policy expires in this many days. (The report range is inclusive of the maximum number of days to expiration.)
  • Specific Date
    Select the date from the date picker, or manually enter a date.

Suspend To

Choose the recipient of the Suspense items by checking one of these boxes:

  • Representative on the policy
  • Executive on the policy
  • Other: select an employee name from the list.

Policy Criteria

Group/FieldWhat is this?

Type of Business

From the list, select the Type of Business of the expiring policies to be processed.

Example:

To process only Personal Lines policies, select this type from the list.

Bill Method

Select the policy Bill Method from the list (i.e., Agency Bill or Direct Bill).

Division

Select the policy Division from the list.

Policy Executive

Select the policy Executive from the list.

Policy Status to Include/Exclude

If applicable, select whether to Include Only or Exclude policies with the following flags (you can check one or more boxes):

  • Renewed
  • Non-Renewed
  • Active
  • Rewritten
  • Not Taken
  • Cancelled
  • Expired

Example:

By selecting the Exclude option and marking the Renewed check box, you can exclude those policies that have already been renewed.

 

If you select Include Only, then only policies marked with one or more of your selected flags will be processed.

Expiration Date

Expiring in exactly: __ # of Days
To process only those policies that expire in a specific number of days, select this option and enter the number of days.

Expiring in: ___ to ___ # of Days
To process only those policies that expire within a number range of days, select this option and enter the minimum and maximum number of days. (The report range is inclusive of the minimum and maximum number of days to expiration.)

Expiring Between: __ and __
To process only those policies that expire between certain dates, select the earliest and latest dates from the date picker, or manually enter the dates. (The report range is inclusive of the dates entered.)

Company

Select the type of company (e.g., insurance or brokerage, and the parent and writing company for the policy. Each list of available selections is dependent on the selection above it.

 

The Suspense Re-Assignment tool is useful when one employee is on leave, or is otherwise unavailable for a period of time. The suspense items originally assigned to this employee are re-assigned to another employee during the date range that you specify.

Once a Suspense item is re-assigned to another employee, it does not automatically return to the original user at the end of the re-assignment period, even if it is incomplete. You must run the Suspense Re-assignment tool again for that date range to assign it back to the original user.

SelectionsWhat is this?

(Assigned and Re-Assigned Employee Names)

From
Select the employee to whom the Suspense items currently apply, prior to this re-assignment.

To
Select the employee to whom you wish to re-assign the Suspense items: this is the employee who will receive the items after they are re-assigned.

Line of Business

Select the Line of Business applicable to the reassigned Suspense items to be re-assigned.

For Date Range: From/To

Enter the earliest (From) and latest (To) dates in the range during which this re-assignment applies. The re-assignment range is inclusive of the dates entered in this field.

Select the dates from the date picker, or manually enter the dates in the fields.

Re-Assign Now

Click this button to process the re-assignment.

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