Maintain Producer Business Unit

Use the Maintain Producer Business Unit page to manage a producer's assignment to one or multiple business divisions, segments, distribution channels, or geographic locations in your organization.

View screen capture

To open the Maintain Producer Business Unit page, choose one of the following methods:

From the Licensing menu, select Producer and then select Maintain Producer Business Unit. Then, perform a Producer Search to find the individual or firm producer for which you want to manage business units.
With the record of an individual or firm producer open in the Review/Update Producer page, in the Business Units data section click the Add/Update Business Unit link.

The Maintain Producer Business Unit page contains the following sections:

Record Summary

Displays summary information of the producer record currently open for review and/or updating.

View screen capture

Fields and controls in the Record Summary section include the following:

Search Producer: Click the link to start a new search for a producer record. For more information, see Searching for Records.
[Producer Name]: Displays the name of the individual or firm producer whose record currently is open in theReview/Update Producerpage. An icon to the left of the producer name signifies the producer's entity type, either individual () or firm ().Click the producer name link to refresh the producer record that is currently open in the Review/Update Producer page or to re-open the producer's record in the Review/Update Producer page from any other page in the system.
Rating: If a producer has been assigned a productivity rating (no stars, meaning “not rated;” one star, “poor;” two stars, “satisfactory;” three stars, “good;” four stars, “outstanding;” or the symbol signifying a “Do Not Contract” alert), the display-only rating will appear to the right of the producer’s name.
SSN: Individual producers only. Displays an individual producer's Social Security Number. The Social Security Number can be set per security role to mask the first five digits and display only the last four digits. For more information, see Maintain Security Role.
EIN: Firm producers only. Displays a firm producer's Federal Employer Identification Number.
External System ID: Displays the producer's identifier code in the external system that has been Vertafore-configured as your company's "preferred" system. For more information, see External System IDs, Configuration Options, and Advanced Producer Search.
Active BU: Displays the short name of the business units to which a producer is actively assigned (sorted alphabetically). To expand the field to display all active business units, click the node ().
NPN: Displays a producer's unique National Producer Number, assigned by the National Insurance Producer Registry (NIPR).
Resident State/License: Displays the codes of the states that a producer claims as a resident state for licensing purposes (sorted alphabetically) and the producer's license numbers in those states. Includes active or inactive licenses. To expand the field to display all resident states and license numbers, click the node ().
Additional States/Licenses: Displays the codes of the states in which the producer holds non-resident licenses (sorted alphabetically) and the license numbers in those states. Includes active or inactive licenses. To expand the field to display all resident states and license numbers, click the node ().
Producer Contracting Workflow: If your company uses the onboarding and maintenance transaction component of the Sircon Platform, Producer Express, and a producer currently is associated with a request record in Producer Express, you can click the number in the field to launch Producer Express and view or work with the request record. (For more information, see the Sircon Producer Express Online Help.)
Missing Required Information Alert: Displays an alert that the producer record lacks information that has been configured to be required in your company's deployment of the Sircon Platform. A producer record deficient of required information is considered "incomplete," and appointment or termination requests may not be submitted for the producer until the deficiency is corrected. Review the Quick Links box to identify and correct the specific details sections in the record with missing required information. For more information, see Configuration Options.
CE Compliance: Display-only indication of a producer’s unfulfilled continuing education requirements. Indication will not appear if producer is current with continuing education requirements. Available by Vertafore configuration only; for more information, seeConfiguration Options.

Current Business Units

Displays a table listing the selected producer's current business units.

Fields and controls include the following:

Add a New Business Unit: Click to activate the edit fields in the Add/Update Business Unit section, allowing you to add a business unit to the selected producer record.
Name: For each business unit displaying in the table, displays its name.
Status: For each business unit displaying in the table, displays its status, either Active or Inactive.
Begin Date: For each business unit displaying in the table, displays the date on which its status most recently became Active.
End Date: For each business unit displaying in the table, displays the date on which its status most recently became Inactive.
Default: For each business unit displaying in the table, indicates whether it has been selected as the selected producer's default business unit. A checkmark in the checkbox indicates a default business unit; an empty checkbox indicates a non-default business unit.
Cost Center: For each business unit displaying in the table, displays its preferred cost center, if any.
Actions: For each business unit displaying in the table, offers the following controls:
Edit Producer Business Unit (): Click to transfer a selected business unit's information to the edit fields in the Add/Update Business Unit section, where you can update the information.

Add/Update Business Unit

Displays edit fields in which you can add new or update existing business unit information.

Fields and controls include the following:

Clear: Click to clear all information currently in the data entry fields.
Name: From the dropdown menu, select the name of a business unit to which to assign a selected producer.
Status: From the dropdown menu, select a value to indicate the selected producer's assignment to the business unit. Select Active to indicate the producer is currently assigned to the business unit; select Inactive to indicate the producer is not currently assigned to the business unit.
Begin Date: Enter the date on which the selected producer became active with the business unit. Use the mmddyyyy date format. Or, click the Calendar button () to open a popup calendar from which you can click to select a date. Must be on or before current date.
End Date: Available only for existing business units. Enter the date on which the selected producer became inactive with the business unit. Use the mmddyyyy date format. Or, click the Calendar button () to open a popup calendar from which you can click to select a date. Must be on or before current date and on or after the Begin Date.
Cost Center: From the dropdown menu, select a cost center to configure as the "preferred" or default cost center for the selected business unit.
Make this the default Business Unit: Click to checkmark to set the business unit as the producer's default business unit. Only one business unit may be set as a producer's default business unit.

Page Controls

Notes

Note: The values displaying in the Name dropdown menu in the Add/Update Business Unit section are the values of the Short Name field for business units as user-configured on the Maintain Business Unit page. Do not confuse them with the values of the BU Name field on the same page.

Note: You may assign a producer only to a business unit that has been enabled in your user account. Only those business units that have been enabled in your user account are available for selection from the Name dropdown menu in the Add/Update Business Unit section. For more information, see Maintain Staff Member Business Unit.

Note: You may assign as a preferred cost center for a business unit only a cost center that has been enabled in your user account. Only those cost centers that have been enabled in your user account are available for selection from the Cost Center dropdown menu in the Add/Update Business Unit section. The dropdown menu is disabled for a business unit where no cost centers are configured for your use. For more information, see Maintain Staff Member Cost Center.

Note: The Edit Producer Business Unit () button in the Actions column of the Current Business Units section that corresponds to a business unit that has not been enabled in your user account is not available. For more information, see Maintain Staff Member Business Unit.

Note: Vertafore can configure the system to allow you to track a producer's assignment to a business unit by status or by specific duration. If you choose to track a producer's business unit assignment by status, the Status dropdown menu will display, but the Begin Date and End Date fields will be hidden. If you choose to track a producer's business unit assignment by specific duration, the Begin Date and End Date fields will display, but the Status dropdown menu will be hidden. For more information, see Configuration Options.

Note: Based on your company's business rules, the system may be Vertafore-configured to require that an individual or firm producer be assigned to at least one business unit. Then, if a producer record lacks a business unit, the record may be considered to deficient of required information. A producer record deficient of required information is considered "incomplete," and appointment or termination requests may not be submitted for the producer until the deficiency is corrected. For more information, see Configuration Options, Producers With Missing Information, or consult your Vertafore representative.

Note: Based on your company's business rules, the Name dropdown menu in the Add/Update Business Unit section may be Vertafore-configured to display the business unit set as the default in your user account. For more information, see Configuration Options and Maintain Staff Member Business Unit.

Note: If you attempt to inactivate a business unit that is set as the selected producer's default business unit, the system will hide the Default checkbox and display the following message: "An inactive Business Unit cannot be marked default." The system will allow you to proceed with the inactivation, but the producer no longer will have a default business unit.

Note: The system will presume the use of a producer's default business unit at any time that it does not prompt you to specify a business unit for the producer, such as when performing an automated operation (e.g., Scheduled Sync).

Note: When you are manually processing any fee-based transaction, the system will display the name of the cost center associated with a producer's default business unit as the default option in the Cost Center dropdown menu. The default cost center option will be pre-selected. You may accept the default, or you may select a different cost center to apply to the transaction and override the default, provided that additional cost centers are configured per business unit and enabled in your user account.

Note: A business unit to which a producer is actively assigned may be inactivated automatically through a maintenance transaction request submitted in Producer Express. The request can automatically update the values of the Status and End Date fields.

Tips

If your company is using the Auto-Appoint feature, the system automatically can submit a state appointment request for a producer belonging to one or more specific business units, anytime an automated data reconciliation finds that the producer holds a new state license or line of authority (qualification). For more information, see Add Appointments and Configuration Options.

You can add business unit information to producer records in batches, using the Bulk Business Data Updates capability in Producer Express. The value of the Name field (i.e., Business Unit Short Name) is used in the Bulk Business Data Updates process to assign batches of producers to business units. For more information about Bulk Business Data Updates, contact your Vertafore representative.

A producer can be assigned to a business unit automatically based on information obtained from Producer Express during the processing of an onboarding or maintenance transaction request. For more information about this capability or about Producer Express, contact your Vertafore representative.