Broker Setup

Brokers place business with your agency on behalf of their insureds. They collect the premiums directly from their insureds, and pass the net or gross premium onto your agency. Use this form to set up a new broker or edit an existing broker.

Complete the following sections, paying attention to the red required fields:

General

Enter the following information in the General section.

Type	Is your broker an Individual or a Firm? Select the appropriate option.
Net Commissions	When setting up a broker, Net Commissions defaults as checked. If checked, this is considered a net broker. If you prefer to issue all invoices to the broker on a "gross" basis and handle commissions through a Pay Commission Statement, clear this box. This broker is then considered a gross broker. You should set up the broker based on the most common type of invoice you wish to issue, gross or net. It is possible to adjust the commission method at the invoice level for occasional exceptions to the chosen setup method.
Inactive	Check this box to inactivate the broker. This hides the broker name in drop-down lists.
Tax ID#	Enter the broker's Tax ID#. You must have this information to file a 1099 tax report, if such a filing is required.
Contact	Enter the Name and Phone Number of your contact within the broker's office.
1099	Check with your agency accountant if you are unsure whether this broker qualifies for 1099 reporting. Category: Select the category, as defined by the IRS, for this broker's 1099 reporting. Leave blank if 1099 reporting is not required. Type: If a 1099 category is selected, then a type is required. The drop-down list fills based on the category selected.

Name & Address

Enter the following information in the Name & Address section.

Name & Address

Enter the broker name as you want it to appear on transactions, reports and correspondence.

Type the First, Middle, and Last name if the broker Type is an Individual.
If the broker Type is a Firm, type the firm name in the Firm name field.
Type the broker's complete web address. The system formats the information as a web site link when you open a broker in view mode.

Image Display

Browse for and apply a graphical image that appears in the Broker View for this broker. See Image Display for setup help.

Phones Numbers and Email

Type the broker's phone, fax, cell numbers, and email address where indicated.

Commission Setup

Creating a Commission Default

The Commission Setup section lets you set up commission defaults by Effective Date. Commissions pull from the latest effective date for the broker that is less than or equal to the effective date of the policy being billed.

From there, you can setup commissions using the following parameters:

Parent Company
Writing Company
Line of Business
Plan
Transaction

AMS360 then finds the closest commission match for the policy based on the parameter ranking set up in Agency Setup > Accounting Options > Commission Rankings.

You can create as many commission setup combinations as necessary for the selected broker. If you subsequently revise commission schedules it is recommended that you add additional combinations with new effective dates, rather than editing existing commissions.

The first billing for a policy period uses commissions from setup. Subsequent policy billings use the commissions from the most recent billing transaction.

Don't forget to enter a general commission default record that applies to All parent companies, writing companies, lines of business, plans, and/or transactions. Consequently, when a specific match is not found, the general commission default applies.

To setup your commission schedule, do the following:

Click New on the Commission Setup section bar. This opens the data entry fields.
For your commission default, choose to apply to both Premium and Fees. (Although, you can set up default commissions for Premium and Fees separately.)
Enter the desired effective date for your commission default record.
Select any combination of Parent Company, Writing Company, Line of Business, Plan, and/or Transaction.
Select the Commission Method (% of Agency Commission, % of Premium/Fees or Flat Rate), and the corresponding percentage rate or commission amount.
Click Add.

Fields in Commission Setup

Click New (or Edit) and enter the following information. When finished, click Add (or Update). The updated information appears in the associated grid. To add multiple entries, repeat this procedure.

Applies To	Premium and Fees: The setup selections you enter apply to both premium and fees. If you select this option, you cannot choose a line of business, or plan. Premium: The setup selections you enter apply to premium only. Line of Business and Plan are available when the commission setup applies to only premium. Fees: The setup selections you enter apply to fees only. If you select this option, you cannot choose a line of business, nor plan.
Effective Date	Select the date the commissions take effect. If you enter an effective date that matches an existing record, you receive a warning that the system cannot copy a duplicate entry.
Transaction	If the broker is paid different commission based on Type (New Business, Renew Policy or Rewrite) of transaction, choose the transaction type.
Line of Business	If the broker is paid different commission based on Line of Business (LOB), choose the line of business.
Parent Company	If the commission applies to a particular Parent Company, select the company. The parent company is not used in commission ranking. It is used to appropriately fill the writing company and plan fields. See the Writing Company and Plan fields below for more information.
Writing Company	If the commission applies to a particular Writing Company, select the company. If a Parent Company is selected, fill the Writing Company field with only the writing companies that belong to the selected parent. If All is the selection for the Parent Company field, fill the Writing Company field with All writing companies that belong to all parent companies.
Plan	If the commission applies to a Plan select the plan. If a particular Parent Company is selected, fill the Plan field with all plans that are assigned to the selected parent. If All parent companies are selected, fill the Plan field with all plans assigned to all parent companies.
Commission Method	Use to identify the method for calculating the broker commission. Based on the Method you select, the corresponding Percent or Amount field becomes active. % of Agency Commission % of Premium/Fees Flat Rate

If you are setting up a new broker, there is an additional step you must complete for Brokers to receive commission on billed invoices. After completing Broker Setup take the following steps.

You must have security rights to Administration Center and to the Billing Charges and Credits data entry form.

Open the Administration Center.
On the Accounting menu, click Billing Charges and Credits.
From the list of Billing Charges and Credits, click the Category heading drop-down menu and choose Premium. This limits the list to only premium type billing charges.
Open each Billing Charge and Credit in the list and select the Broker check box (or verify it is selected) in the Default Commissions in Billing section.
Click the Save & Close icon to save your changes and return to the Billing and Charges list.

If you do not select the Broker check box, the Broker receives no commission and is unavailable on the invoice.