Policy, Direct Bill Commission Statement (DBCS), and Claims Download Overview

Download provides a means of electronically updating your AMS360 system by downloading the information from your insurance companies' system. Policy and DBCS download can occur via one of the following methods:

  • IVANS Dial-up
  • IVANS Internet
  • Company Direct
  • FTP
  • Progressive Direct

A number of companies are certified for download with AMS360. (TransactNOW and Download share a Carrier Partner list.) Click Carrier Partner List for a spreadsheet of companies. If you choose to open the file, you will see two dialog boxes asking if you want to open the file.

 

AMS360 downloads Flood business as personal lines 'Flood' even if the flood coverage is for a commercial line of business such as commercial property. A license for personal lines download is required to receive these policies.

This topic provides a general overview of the steps involved in downloading and includes links to other topics with additional information.

All types of Download (policy and direct bill statement) require the following setups.

Your agency must be licensed with Vertafore for Download. The license is purchased from Vertafore and is applied by the Data Center or, for in-house agencies, passed to your system by the Data Center.

For more information on purchasing a license, contact Vertafore Sales at 1-800-444-4813 or complete the Request Sales Contact form at www.vertafore.com/contact.

Your agency must also be enabled for Download with each company. Contact your company representative to arrange for download, if you have not already done so.

The company that sends you data via download will provide you with the information you need to complete the following sections of Company Setup.

Select the appropriate Download Type. For more information on download types, see the Billing Options section in Company Setup.

Most companies use plans, therefore it is important for a successful download to set up and assign the applicable Plans to your company. For information on plan assignment, see the Plan Assignments section in Company Setup.

For additional information on setting up plans, see Company Plan Setup.

Set up the Writing companies for each Parent company with which you download and assign the appropriate NAIC codes. For more information on setting up writing companies, see the Company Setup topic, Writing Company section.

Set up the download Origination Addresses. For more information on origination addresses, see the Download Addresses section in Company Setup.

Complete the Download Option group and the Upload Option group in the Download Options section of Company Setup.

The company that sends you download data will provide you with the information you need to complete the following options in the System Configuration Options section of Agency Setup.

  • IVANS Machine Address (if you download via the IVANS Advantis Network)
  • Participant Code
  • Download Session Nightly Pickup

When your licensing and setup are complete, your company will begin sending download data.

For more information on these options, see the System Configuration Options section in Agency Setup.

Some companies have set ups specific to their company or their method of Download. Progressive is one of those companies. Click here for information on setting up Progressive Direct Download.

After you have completed download setup, you contact the company to begin sending you transactions. The following sections define the process involved in download IVANS and Progressive download. Click here for information on Company Direct download.

If your agency uses IVANS, FTP, or Progressive Direct Download AMS360 will attempt to pick up your download data nightly. If the pick up is successful you are notified by suspense (see note below) that your agency has received download transactions.

 

The employee(s) set up to log download suspense receive a suspense when the file has been picked up and processed. (See the General section of the Employee Setup topic for more information on the Log Download Suspense option.)

If the suspense reads:

Suspense reads...

Then, do this...
Download session concluded. Please review Download Report for important messages.

Print and review the Session Log and Download Detail Report for information about the processing of the file.
Store Transactions complete - Some transactions require manual customer/policy assignment.

This message means that AMS360 was not able to match all customers and policies. You must match these transactions using Customer/Policy Assignment.

Continue with the next step, Customer/Policy Assignment.

Reports may be incomplete if viewed or printed before completing Customer/Policy Assignment and processing these transactions.

When you are notified that a download file has been received and processed, you should always view or print the Session Log to confirm the file was received and processed successfully.

Occasionally, when the download file is merged into your database, AMS360 is not able to match the information with a customer or policy. In these cases you must review the unmatched transaction and assign it to the proper customer and policy. For more information on this process see the Customer/Policy Assignment topic.

When you are finished assigning customers and policies, on the 360 Toolbox menu, click Integration > Download > Process Transactions to merge the newly assigned customers and policies into your database.

After assigning customers and policies use Process Transactions to merge the newly assigned customers and policies into your database.

  1. From a center or data entry form that has a Toolbox menu, select 360 Toolbox > Integration > Download > Process Transactions. The following message appears with your agency name. Process Transactions has been scheduled to run for agency dnlmain on the server.
  2. The message indicates that Process Transactions is pending. Click OK. The employee(s) set up to log download suspense receive a suspense when the file has been processed. (See the General section of the Employee Setup topic for more information on the Log Download Suspense option.)

    The suspense includes one of the following two messages.

If the suspense says...

then...
Download session concluded. Please review Download Report for important messages.

Print and review the Download Detail Report for information about the processing of the file.
Store Transactions complete - Some transactions require manual customer/policy assignment.

Repeat Customer/Policy Assignment. There are additional customers and policies to be matched.

Reports may be incomplete if viewed or printed before completing Customer/Policy Assignment and processing these transactions.

When you have matched and merged all or Direct Bill transactions in a download file, print the Download Report. The report lists transactions that require further attention and may not have loaded completely. If a transaction was not loaded, a message appears on the report telling you why. The Troubleshooting Download Messages topic provides more information about the messages and their solutions.

Download processes Quote transactions in the following ways:

  • When a renewal is received after a quote, the prior policy number will now appear in the prior policy field in the basic policy information section. This allows the renewal increase alert to work properly.
  • Expiring policies will now be marked as renewed when a renewal is received after a quote.
  • Renewals received after the quote will now merge with the quote instead of creating a separate policy image.
  • If the expiring policy has a notation and a renewal quote is received in download, the notation will be carried forward to the renewal quote.

Direct Bill Commission Statement download is the downloaded version of the paper direct bill commission statement (DBCS) you receive from your companies. In preparing the paper statements the company sends to you each month, their system generates data that can be transmitted electronically along with other downloaded items (personal lines policies, commercial lines policies) during your regular download.

Features available when selecting Direct Bill Statements Modifiers and in Reconciling a Direct Bill Statement allow for matching of the downloaded company transaction to an existing AMS360 transaction. The reconciliation task focuses on only the transactions that do not match between company and agency records, instead of reconciling transactions item by item.

DBCS Download is available from any carrier certified to provide them for download. Click Carrier Partner List for a list of carriers currently offering DBCS Download. For more information on purchasing a license for this feature, contact Vertafore Sales at 1-800-444-4813 or complete the Request Sales Contact form at www.vertafore.com/contact.

Once the license is activated, refer to Workflow: Process Direct Bill Statement Download Transactions for more information.

Claims Download provides your agency with claims detail from your companies who can provide the service. Claims Download requires a license like Policy Download does.

The download of claims occurs on a nightly schedule similar to policy download. However, they come via TransactNOW. Claims Download doesn't have an Assign process like Policy Download does. Instead it looks for a match on policy number and term, and NAIC codes across all your agencies. Claims sent but not loaded will appear on the Download Session Report.

For a list of carriers certified to provide Claims Download click Carrier Partner List. Once the license is activated, refer to Claims Download for more information.

What's Next?

Do you need to print the Download Reports? See Report: Download, Report: Download Electronic Mail, Report: Download Session Log for more information.

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