PRACTICAL GUIDE
Agency bill reconciliation in Applied Epic
Agency-bill reconciliation in Applied Epic starts by matching a carrier's statement to the agency's premium-payable transactions, then explaining differences in premium, commission, credits, and payments. Review the correct company, reporting period, and open balance before approving settlement. Build a working comparison that preserves each source reference and gives every difference a clear next action.
Start with Premium Payable Reconciliation
Applied University's accounting catalog identifies Premium Payable Reconciliation as the workflow for reconciling company statements. It separately identifies Direct Bill and Bank Reconciliation and Producer/Broker Reconciliation. Use the premium-payable records for this carrier-settlement review, and keep those other accounting tasks in their own reconciliation populations. [1]
The catalog also names Billing Register, Verify Transaction Commissions, Premium Trust Reconciliation Report, and On Demand Transaction Reconciliation Report. Record the report used for each question in your review: the billing entered, the commission recorded, the accounting balance, or the transaction detail behind it. [1]
Create an extraction log before building the worksheet. Include the report or output name, selected entity, cutoff, included statuses, field labels, and extraction time. Save the selections with the file so another authorized user can reproduce the population and investigate any later change.
Ask the accounting administrator to identify the detail output containing individual payable transactions and related settlements. Keep the balance report or screen reference alongside it. Trace billing activity through its subsequent adjustments and payments before placing an item on the proposed remittance.
Create one clearly defined reconciliation population
Start with one premium-payable entity, agency account code, currency, and cutoff. Preserve the original carrier statement and record whether it lists new activity, all outstanding items, or a mixture. Separate current-month activity from earlier open items, and compare each population with the corresponding agency records.
- Document any branch, department, or other organizational filters used.
- Keep the statement date, transaction dates, and payment dates as separate fields.
- Record whether already-settled and zero-balance items are included in the supporting output.
- Identify pending settlements before starting a second payment batch.
If two companies use similar names, identify the actual payable entity from the underlying policy and carrier account. If the carrier combines several agency codes, record that mapping explicitly. Reconcile each mapped account, then combine the results for the statement-level comparison.
Save a frozen source copy before cleaning data. Use a working sheet for comparisons, leaving a reference back to each original statement line and agency transaction.
Match transactions before comparing amounts
A useful comparison begins with the strongest identifiers available: payable entity, policy or bond number, policy term, invoice or transaction reference, transaction type, and effective date. Treat insured names as supporting information rather than the sole matching key. Similar names and reused policy numbers can create plausible but incorrect matches.
When the source splits a single transaction across several rows, preserve that detail and identify what each row represents. Separate premium from fees, and group related rows under their transaction reference. Check a row repeated across imported statements against its period and settlement history before counting it again.
Assign one of four initial statuses: matched, amount differs, found only on the carrier statement, or found only in agency records. Keep possible matches in a review list until the documents establish the connection. Give each open item an owner and the specific evidence needed to finish the review.
For each accepted match, record the identifiers and source references that justified it. Write enough detail for the next reviewer to reproduce the decision from the original records. Attach the relevant document when the reference alone would leave the transaction unclear.
Separate the obligation, payment history, and remaining amount
Build analytical columns for original net obligation, adjustments, prior applied settlements, and remaining balance. Preserve each raw Epic amount and its label before adding a normalized comparison column. Match each field to the accounting event it represents, and count repeated invoice totals once.
For this worksheet, positive amounts mean money owed to the carrier and negative amounts mean credits that reduce that obligation. Trace a known charge, cancellation credit, partial payment, and reversal from the source record to the exported value, then document the calculation that places each in the worksheet.
Keep debit and credit labels, parentheses, transaction types, and the original amounts in the raw-data columns. Apply the documented worksheet treatment in separate columns. Check a beginning balance against its supporting detail so the same obligation enters the comparison once.
Compare gross premium with gross premium and net carrier due with net carrier due. Review the commission basis and any separately billed taxes or fees. An amount mismatch can be a basis mismatch even when both systems calculate their own figures correctly.
Worked example: the same total can hide two errors
Compare each invoice and credit before reviewing the combined statement total. The three transactions below have no taxes, fees, or previous payments, so the net-due comparison isolates the amounts recorded for each transaction.
| Reference | Carrier net due | Agency net due | Carrier minus agency | Initial finding |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| POL-410 / invoice A | 4,250 | 4,100 | 150 | Commission or premium basis differs |
| POL-520 / invoice B | 2,550 | 2,700 | -150 | Offsetting difference on another policy |
| POL-630 / credit C | -340 | -340 | 0 | Credit agrees |
| Total | 6,460 | 6,460 | 0 | Two exceptions still unresolved |
The statement and agency totals both equal $6,460, but invoices A and B still require investigation. Approving the statement from the total alone would miss two separate discrepancies. The $150 differences could have different causes and different owners.
Suppose the documents show that invoice A should be $4,250 and invoice B should be $2,550. Review the two agency corrections individually and retain the basis for each. If the carrier record needs correction instead, request it and preserve the correspondence. Resolve each row against its documents and applicable agreement.
After resolving the rows, preserve both the original comparison and the corrected position. That gives the next reviewer evidence of what changed and why.
Surety bond reconciliation in Applied Epic
For surety work, add the bond identifier and the relevant term or transaction description to the matching sheet. A recurring bond number can appear with a renewal, continuation, adjustment, or return premium. Pair the number with the term and transaction to identify the obligation represented by the statement line.
Use the identifiers present in the agency record and source documents. If a required detail is stored elsewhere, keep a controlled reference to it beside the statement row. Preserve the original bond number and place any normalized spelling, prefix, or suffix treatment in a separate comparison column.
When a carrier statement continues to show an older bond transaction, trace its original billing and settlement. Classify the issue as an unpaid balance, an unapplied payment, a missing credit, a different term, or a source-record error. Use the underlying documents to establish the transaction status and required action.
A good exception note states the exact transaction, amount, document needed, responsible person, and next follow-up date.
Apply the same review checks to automated matching
Applied describes Applied Recon as an accounting-automation product that extracts carrier statement data, matches agency-bill records, and presents uncertain matches for review. Its public materials describe statement formats including PDFs and spreadsheets. Review each suggested match against the payable entity, transaction, and amount basis used in your reconciliation. [3, 4]
Set acceptance checks before processing the file: the included population, treatment of credits and settlements, source totals, and evidence needed for an exception. Apply those checks to each proposed match. Review the remaining dollar balance and its underlying items alongside the matched-row count.
When evaluating a matching workflow, use a test set that includes a partial payment, return credit, duplicate statement, and wrong policy term. Follow each case from source input to its proposed result. Check that the original records remain traceable and that the exception includes a clear reason and next step.
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Finish with an approved settlement and a reproducible record
Before settlement, summarize the carrier amount, agency amount, resolved differences, and outstanding exceptions. Document the proposed payment and who approved it. Apply the agency's authorization process to the specific items and amount, and retain the reviewer’s decision with the transaction-level evidence.
After an authorized payment or correction, inspect the updated transactions and confirm that the intended items changed once. Keep the payment reference, supporting report, source statement, and exception log together. Carry unresolved items forward by the same reference rather than creating a fresh unexplained difference next month.
Common questions
- Which Epic report should I export?
- Start with the detail output supporting Premium Payable Reconciliation, selected with your accounting administrator. Record the output name, fields, entity, cutoff, and included statuses. Trace sample charges, credits, and payments to their source records, and compare the detail with the supporting balance before reusing the worksheet.
- Is agency-bill reconciliation the same as direct-bill commission reconciliation?
- Agency-bill reconciliation reviews the agency's carrier-payable position. Direct-bill reconciliation reviews carrier commission activity and receipts. Keep their records, amount bases, and settlement evidence in separate review populations, and identify the billing arrangement before comparing the statement with agency transactions.
- Can I approve a statement when the totals agree?
- Review the underlying transactions and exceptions before approval. Equal totals can hide offsetting discrepancies, as the worked example shows. Follow the agency's authorization process and retain the transaction-level evidence supporting the selected items and proposed settlement.