Insurance brokers constantly manage a large number of applications – across different lines of business, with varying terms and often several products per application. Using a generic CRM originally designed for general sales quickly leads to free-text fields, external Excel lists and duplicate data entry. 1Tool takes a different approach: the system maps the entire life cycle of an insurance application as a structured data model – from receipt of the application to payout of the commission.
The application as the central data object
At the centre is the application itself, with clearly defined fields: the application status, the associated line of business (division), the closing date and the date the application was received, plus a unique application number. Each application is also assigned a contact and a responsible employee. This shows at a glance what stage an application is at, who is handling it and when it was received or closed – without this information being scattered across separate spreadsheets or notes.
Several insurance products per application
In practice, a single application often consists of several insurance products, for example when a customer takes out home contents insurance and legal expenses insurance in the same transaction. 1Tool allows exactly that: several products can be stored per application, each with its own main-product flag and its own start and end date. If an existing policy is replaced as part of a new application, this replacement is documented too. This keeps even complex, multi-part applications clear, instead of having to manage each product as a separate, unconnected record.
Tracking commissions without gaps
For insurance brokers, tracking commissions correctly is business-critical. That is why 1Tool records, for each product, the commission amount, the percentage of the commission already received and whether the commission has already been paid out. For every application and every single product in it, you can see at any time how much commission to expect, how much has already come in and where amounts are still outstanding. Especially for applications with several products – and therefore potentially several commission payments that develop differently – this end-to-end recording creates a level of transparency that is hard to achieve with collective spreadsheets.
Frequently asked questions
Why is a generic CRM often not enough for insurance brokers?
A generic CRM has no concept of lines of business, main-product flags or product-specific commission rates. This information would have to be recreated in free-text fields or external lists, which is error-prone and makes it harder to keep track of application status.
Can several insurance products be assigned to one application?
Yes. 1Tool lets you store several products per application, each with its own start date, end date and main-product flag.
How is the commission status represented?
For each product, the commission amount, the percentage of the commission already received and a payout status are recorded, so outstanding and already settled commissions can be clearly distinguished.
Would you like to see how 1Tool structures your application and commission management?