Blog

We added a ton of life insurance based fields this patch, don’t worry though! If you don’t want them you can disable them in the Options section under Data and Hide Policy Fields. These new fields will give us more flexibility in the future and all have been standardized per our research. If we are missing some data options, please let us know!

Policy Statuses

We added some new Policy Statuses! We also cleaned up some of the workflow (Which buttons show when). We tested it pretty thoroughly but if something isn’t working as intended please let us know.

What Changed?

• “Pending” Statuses no longer show up before Submission as most people have moved away from this workflow.
  • To use a “Pending” status you should submit the policy, then move the Policy into the appropriate pending status.
    • This way the Sale Date gets stamped on the lead because the policy was indeed submitted to the carrier at that point.
    • You can reactivate the policy once it moved out of pending, or set it to a negative or other pending status.
• “Renewal” statuses related to payments now only show on Active policies, or Lapsed / Termed or other Renewal Policies. Normal payment issue statuses will show otherwise. They only cross paths on an Active Policy.
• All pending statuses now show as yellow “In Work”.

As usual, you can disable some of these statuses from showing in the dialer section if you don’t want to use them.

• New Pending Statuses
  • Pending: Approved
    • Policy is approved by underwriting but not yet placed or in force.
  • Pending: Finalized
    • Work on the approval process has been done by case manager, but waiting for underwriting.
• New Interrupted Statuses
  • Death Claim
    • Client died and a death claim has been made.
  • Payment Issue (General)
    • This is a generic payment issue for use after a policy is active as well as during the verification and submission process.
• New Cancelled Statuses
  • Cancelled: Client Deceased
    • Client has passed away and the policy is cancelled.
  • Cancelled: Rescinded
    • Cancelled due to Wrong medical information provided on an app, MIB Report being different than the information on the app. This can also happen at the time of Death Claim. It would be the final status over Client Deceased if this was the case.
  • Cancelled: Client Surrendered
    • The client themselves called and cancelled the policy.

Workflow Theory for Life Insurance where Sale is made after Approval.

• Press Sale
• Press Verify
• Press Pending Approval
• Press Pending: Finalized
• Press Pending: Approved
• Press Submit
• Press Pending Pending Carrier Payout

Alternate Workflow Theory for Life Insurance where Sale is made before Approval

• Press Sale
• Press Verify
• Press Submit
• Press Pending Approval
• Press Pending: Finalized
• Press Pending: Approved
• Press Pending Carrier Payout
• Press Reactivate

Products

• Added new Validation Rules
  • Student Age Limit
  • Child Only Age Limit
    • This is for Child Only Plans, where the owner is the primary contact but the covered person is the dependent child.
  • Maximum Dependents
  • Maximum Children
• Coming Soon: Internal Product Quote and Pricing Tool
  • We have been working hard on the “Pricing” section of our Product system It has become exceptionally robust and allows for you to fill in premiums, enrollment fees and admin fees for nearly any combination of allowed options.
  • We are looking into a way to lock users into having to choose the available options. At the start, they will be just clickable suggestions.
  • We built this to grow in the future. We can add new criteria at will and make it as complex or simple as needed. We may even be able to use it for marking commissions or points.
  • We have added tons of tools to make it easy to fill out the data.
    • You can filter individual permutation columns so you can search for permutations that are the same and use our copy tools to auto fill the costs.
    • You can auto fill either blanks in the same column, overwrite everything below a certain permutation’s column, or copy over all permutations in that column. This makes data entry a snap.
    • We will be providing system standardized configurations for certain products in the future as we get them. You will be able to copy the defaults in with the click of a button if provided.

Here are some screenshots of our new Pricing configuration tool! We are really proud of this!

Policies

• New Billing Field
  • Billing Cycle
    • Monthly
    • Quarterly
    • Semi-Annually
    • Annually
• New Life Fields
  • Paid Up
    • 7  Pay
    • 10 Pay
    • 20 Pay
    • Pay to 100
  • Issue Type
    • Underwritten
    • Simplified
    • Guaranteed Issue
    • Medical
    • Non-Medical
  • Issue Test
    • CVAT (Cash Value Accumulation Test)
    • GPT (Guideline Premium Test)
    • TAMRA (Technical Miscellaneous Revenue Act 7-Pay Test)
  • Rating Class
    • Preferred
    • Preferred Plus
    • Standard
    • Standard Plus
    • Preferred Smoker
    • Standard Smoker
    • Sub Standard
  • Dividend Option
    • Cash
    • Apply to Premium
    • Dividends on Deposit
    • Accumulate Interest
    • Paid Up Additions
    • One Year Term
  • Coverage Type
    • Level
    • Graded
    • Modified
    • Variable
  •  NFO
    • Cash Surrender
    • Extended Term
    • Automatic Premium Loan
    • Reduced Paid Up
  • MEC
    • No
    • Yes
    • Pending
• These new fields can be hidden under Options -> Data -> Hide Policy Fields
• These new fields can be added as validation rules in product configs.
• These new fields can be posted and uploaded into the system and have been added to the Vendor Post system.
• These new fields have been added to the policy schema and should work in the column builder.

Lead Filters

• Added County search

Policies Filters

• Added new sidebar menu item: Life
• Added Paid Up Multi-checkbox under Life
• Added Issue Type Multi-checbox under Life
• Added Issue Test Multi-checkbox under Life
• Added Rating Class Multi-checkbox under Life
• Added Dividend Option Multi-checkbox under Life
• Added NFO Multi-checkbox under Life
• Added MEC Multi-checkbox under Life

Product Validations

We have made some major modifications so that when you change carriers in the carrier select menu on the dialer screen, we now do a lookup in the database for any rules related to this product. This will provide us with many useful features to come (including some basic pricing auto fill capability).

If a product has state or zipcode limitation and there is no state or zipcode provided on the contact/lead, it will disable the option (but still show it) and append a message in brackets next to the product name such as [STATE REQUIRED] or [ZIPCODE REQUIRED]

If a product has state or zipcode limitation and there is is an invalid state or zipcode set on the contact/lead, it will disable the option (but still show it) and append a message in brackets next to the product name such as [STATE INVALID] or [ZIPCODE INVALID]

We originally considered hiding the menu option items outright, but realized this could cause confusion for agents and more reason to ask managers and admins where the heck their products went once they had these rules set.

If the CONVERSION Validation section of a Product has the “User License Required to Sell in State” selected it will show a warning in brackets [STATE UNLICENSED] next to the product names that the agent is unlicensed in but WILL allow an agent to select it. This allows your agents to set a quote for someone before passing it on to a licensed agent. If you try to press “Sale” on that policy, it will give the unlicensed error since it was set to conversion. We recommend not to set License Required for Verification and Submission unless your agents self submit, so that your verifiers and submitters can continue to process the application as they do not require a license to do so.

State Validations

• Trying to quote, verify, or submit with an incorrect state will give an error as it has before
• We now check, on change of carrier, the states required for each product. If a product required a state and no state is selected, it will disable the option and list [STATE REQUIRED] next to the product name. If a state is selected and the state is invalid it will disable and show [STATE INVALID]. These queues should help your agent understand why they can’t quote those policies.

Zipcode Validations *New!

• You can now set a comma separated list of zipcodes in product validations anywhere between 3 to 5 numbers long (yes we keep the front 0 for those pesky zipcodes that start with 0).
• Trying to quote, verify, or submit with an incorrect zipcode will give an error when zipcodes are provided as it would with states. If you change the zipcode to get around the limitation, it will still check for each part of the process. Try not to circumvent the system…if there is an error ask an admin to add the zipcode to the product config.
• We check from left to right, to allow you to take care of 3 – 4 digit prefixed zipcodes instead of having to type in all 5 numbers. This allows you to cover more territory with less work.
  • For example: You enter: 330. This means that Zipcodes such as 33015, 33014 and 33025 will be valid. If you set 3301, then 33015 and 33014 will be valid and 33025 would be invalid. If you set 33015 as the zipcode, only 33015 would be valid.
• You can mass edit Zipcode validations.

Leads

• Leads Total and Notes Total added to lead schema and are now selectable in the column builder. Use it to build some reports with the aggregate Checkbox!

Policies

• Added Group Notes to Policies.
• Dependent Age Range added to Lead Schema and now can be searched in both Leads and Policies sections. Added Dependent Ages Combined and Dependent DoB’s Combined to Schema so you can get a list.
• “New Customer” was added to Schema. This is a customer that no policies sold other than on a single date.
• “Group State” was added to filters in Leads and Policies. Use this with the Aggregate checkbox to create some custom reports!

Commissons

• Now showing Policy Status in commissions list. We had a client who discovered, while using the commissions tool, that the carrier had not paid two initial payments but was paying residuals. They recovered over $1,000!
• Fixed an issue with Typeahead for Editing Commissions after entered.

Admin Dashboard

• Sales summary now shows total unique customers for the search (unique leads).

Vendor Fields

• Added Date Terminate to Post Fields

Mobile and Style Updates

• Newer Table sections (leads, policies) will not convert to a list of cards instead of a table when a mobile device is detected. It also is responsive based on what device it is (iPad, iPhone, etc).
  • We will update other older sections soonish.
• Fixed some styles on the Admin Dashboard main menu bar for mobile.
• Made Page Titles smaller, and centered on mobile
• Fixed Filters view on Mobile to fit in the Filter Bar.
• Changed behavior or Column builder so the screen doesn’t pop to top after selecting or removing a column on mobile. Does not pop up on Desktop either but continues to keep the filter bar highlighted.
• Moved Column builder filter to top of page
• Added “Save” to column builder filter area so you don’t need to scroll down to update columns.
• Update column builder filter section to work better with Mobile.
• Modals are now full screen on mobile to allow for good editing experience.

Vendor Questionnaire

• We added a simple vendor questionnaire with common questions you may want to ask a new Lead Vendor in the edit vendor popup. You can use this for research purposes or to just store information about the vendor. If you use it for research and decide not to go with the vendor you can simple deactivate that vendor. You can find it again later by searching for inactive vendors.

Minor updates in this patch.

Responsive Update & Dialer Mods

• Dialer Info more responsive
  • Cleaned up Menu, tabs, and more. Hid new slider sidebar when in mobile view.
  • Centered Name when in small view.
  • Stacked buttons and Lead ID when in Small view
• Leads
  • Made more responsive. Should be easier to use in Mobile view
  • Made medications and conditions textareas so you can see more of what you are typing.
• Policies
  • Made more responsive. Should be much easier to use. Most columns are now 2 x 2 instead of full width.
• Dependents
  • Made more responsive.
• Fixed an issue where you could not enter CC number when half screen. Most of these issues should have been fixed with the responsive update. Let us know if you find any more of those!

Embedded Products

• Embedded products now respect state validation rules. Will silently fail if the state the primary is being created in does not fit the criteria for the embedded product.

Policies

• Fixed an issue where we were not using the product custom type, and always reverting to the product type. Product Custom types will now reflect in Sales Board, Profile and Policies sections. We may need to update a few more reports with this method.
• Added “Future Effective” policy disposition. This is for sales that have been made, and paid, have an in force date and effective date but do not go into effect until sometime in the future.

Sales Board

• You can now sort by total commissions
• Salesboard settings now save until you hit “Reset”
• Cleaned up filter dropdown to look more like rest of the system
• Removed some spacing from top and bottom of header so you can fit more on screen.

Sales Board

• You can now set the beginning of the week to any day, not just Sunday or Tuesday.
• On Fire now has a Fire Effect. Please let us know if you receive any retina damage.
  • Moved On Fire to top right corner of the cell it belongs in to keep the layout data cleaner and more even.
• Added “Stack Columns” capability so you can see two rows of data per agent.
• Added “Size” capability so you can change the font size of the main table for easier visibility.
• Reordered the Carriers Summary + the Sales Summary so Sales stacks on top of Carriers naturally, which makes for a more even table when there is too much data.
• Fixed an error when there was no results for the week.

Filters

• UX Update: I was getting annoyed adding columns then pressing backspace and having it auto-delete what I just added. So I made it require you press backspace 3 times before it starts deleting columns.

Policies

• Fixed an issue with the “Is Active Customer” column and search.
  • Our original query was not working correctly
  • An Active customer is a lead with at least one active policy
  • An Inactive customer is a lead with at least one policy that has been active before, but has no active policies
  • Other results will not show (Unsold Quotes, Kicked Policies that were never sales, etc).
• Added “Has and Doesn’t Have” to Premium, Enrollment Fee, Admin Fee, Deposit, Policy Number, Application Number, Deductible, Terms, Current Term, Lapses In. Thanks new query system!

Products

• You can now mass edit product validation rules.
  • If you set no rules in any validation section, nothing will be updated
  • If you set no rules in a section, nothing will be updated in that section.
• Added “Copy All From”
  • Will copy all validation rules from specified product for every section: Conversion, Verification, and Submission, including State Validation rules.
  • This also works with Mass Edit
• Added Copy All but State”
  • Will copy all validation rules from specified product, EXCEPT the state validation rules. This is useful for mass updating while maintaining state validations.
  • This also works with Mass Edit

Sales Board

• The sales board has now been updated to treat primary and ancillary policies bases on the Primary ID being set. It also respects the system configuration for treating ancillary products as ancillaries even if it is a primary policy with no primary set.
• Commissions Paid has been added as a toggleable field either per day and agent or overall for the agent.
• The hybrid and contest sales boards have been merged into the main sales board. They can still be turned on and off and both required the contest date set.
• Pretty much everything on the sales board is now clickable. It will take you to the main policies page with a preset search based on what you clicked. Please let us know if there are any errors, although we did test thoroughly!

Admin Dashboard: First Worked Leads

This is a new section in the admin dashboard that allows you to see how many first touches on a lead an agent received during a certain period.  This will also show you the total amount of unworked leads in the chart section, along side who worked what % of your leads that came in during that period. This circumvents the issue of not being able to pull reports based on Last Modified By, since the verifiers often become the new Last Modified By User when they get passed the lead to verify. We are pulling this data out of the action log and filtering out the system user, which is usually the first one to touch a lead. Hope this helps!

Commissions Paid

This is the first step toward the Payroll module. This is a manual entry version of commissions paid to your agent, as opposed to commissions received, which is from the carrier to your agency (or agent). There are three ways to generate commissions and the final two ways are coming soon!

1. Manually set the Commission Paid on the Dialer screen under a policy.
   1. This is currently active and selectable as a column in Policies sections. You can also use the Total and Average aggregate fields to build reports.
   2. This is simply a commission_paid column in the Policies table.
   3. The following permissions can view this field
      1. Superadmin, Admin, Manager, Accounting, Payroll, Commissions, Change Commissions Paid, View Commissions Paid
   4. The following permissions can edit this field
      1. Superadmin, Admin, Manager, Accounting, Payroll, Commissions, Change Commissions Paid
2. Coming: Generate commissions amounts based on triggers in the product config
3. Coming: More complex commissions payouts with the Payroll module, where you will be able to calculate hourly wages, bonuses, manager pay, and also deal with reoccurring commissions for agents who get paid monthly.  This is the complex one since there are some crazy schemas for payouts out there. This will also work with the points system.

Commissions Paid has been added to the Mass Edit policies screen.

Policy “Others”

This section has been removed, and the “Commissions” section added. The bill me later option has been moved into the main policy section.

Custom Status Option: Change Converted Lead Status

It is now possible to change the status of a converted policy by customizing any status and selecting “Show on Converted Leads Sidebar and allow change if converted?”

This will keep the conversion data but prevent the system from throwing the error that the lead is already converted. This is useful for campaigns where there is an extra step in the lead process flow, but no policies being sold.

Previously there was a workaround to this by using the Mass Edit feature.

Bugfix

• Fixed an issue where bolding datetimes were bolding too many datetimes…

Policies

• Terminate Date
  • Normally we calculate the lapse date by taking the effective date and the duration if set, and then looking at today and calculating it from there. However, some policies have a hard fixed termination date that may be either a few days in the future or the past.  The terminate date is able to be manually set and overrides the calculation if it exists. The Date terminate will be either what it is set to or nothing, but the date lapse will not modify itself based upon it’s presence. All calculations for renewals, including the auto terming feature of the system have been updated to use this method.
    • TLDR: If you set a date_terminate (Terminate Date) the date lapse will be set to that instead of the calculation.
  • In the Dialer Screen, if a policy has a duration and effective date we will show a Suggested Terminate date in the box as a placeholder(ie:” Calculated: 2018-01-01″. This does NOT need to be set unless you want to override.

Filter Improvements

• Redid a couple of theory items in Filters
• Added the ability to turn a filter into a Menu item in the Leads, Customers or My Business Sections. Works with both private and global filters. You will only see sections that you are permitted to view based on your permissions. Try it out!
  • This is useful for creating things like a “About to Turn 65” Menu item. You know who you are who wanted this!!!

Bugfix

• Fixed schema bug with CSR Date Modified
• Cleaned up CSR Date’s headers vs labels.

Fields

• Mass Customize Fields. Turn them on and off in bulk, or reorder them in bulk.

Products

• Mass Customize Products. Turn them on and off in bulk, or reorder them in bulk.

User

• You can now clone permissions from another user! Just use the mass edit tool under users.
  • Beware this will drop any permissions they had!
  • You can’t clone their permissions if the permissions would be higher level than you!

Lead Posts

• Now checks for dupes by Email if provided.
  • The post system always allowed either phone or email, and always accepted a lead if it had one or the other but never checked for dupes via email.
• Fixed an issue where no actions where being inserted on a lead when a lead was posted, making it impossible to untrash.

Vendors

• You can now set dupe checker to by Criteria.
  • This was already in but not enabled on live until it was tested.
• Clone Vendors
  • You can clone vendors just like cloning relays. The only difference is it will UNSET the Inbound phones for the clone since an inbound phone cannot be assigned to more than one vendor.

Vendor Logs

• Performance Tuning:
  • Vendor Logs have had account ID added to them for increase query performance.

Action Logs

• Performance Tuning:
  • Action Logs have had account ID added to them for increase query performance.

Relay Logs

• Performance Tuning:
  • Relay Logs have had account ID added to them for increase query performance.

Auto Term

• Auto term had it’s main query rewritten to support new account_id’s on policies. Much faster now.
  • Also fixed a bug where it wasn’t running for some, (timing out).

Campaigns

• Added is_terming flag. This allows you to only send on the final term, when the Terms matches the Current Term. this is useful for sending renewal messages or renewals to your dialer when your multi-term policy is about to lapse or lapses.

Agent Production Report

• Now that we have tuned the action logs, we have enabled the agent production report, which tells you what an agent has modified in the system. We were hesitant to release this when we weren’t able to effectively query by account id without creating temp tables. Yay!

Users

• You can now mass edit user permissions.
  • Mass Add
  • Mass Remove
  • Mass Drop

Vendors

• You can now mass edit vendor relays.
  • Mass Add
  • Mass Remove
  • Mass Drop

Agent Report

• The agent report now allows you to include post dates when searching by status and date converted.
• Removed the Agent activity section since the agent clock is no longer supported (for a long while now).
• Found and fixed a bug with the comparison charts that was also effecting the agent dashboard report.