When it comes to non-standard lines of business, do you wish you had a place to enter coverage information for reference and to pull into output documents? Get started with Applied Epic Custom Forms today! Following the advice of Brenda Nevil, IT program manager at Alliant Insurance Services, Inc., which was shared during her Applied Net 2021 session “Applied Epic Custom Forms – Getting Started”, we’ve compiled this how-to just for you.

Getting Started

Most insurance lines of business have an Acord application that can be associated with the line of business code in your Epic environment. Alternatively, non-standard lines of business will often have a carrier-specific application, which the Insured must complete and sign.

Before getting too excited and jumping in, make sure you have a plan and have done your homework as to which type of business you’re working with. Some questions to ask:

• What is the purpose of this form?
• What information do I need to collect?
• What should the form, and its layout, look like? (Tip: If you’re a visual person — like Brenda — make sure you have a map!)

Next, set up a testing environment. In the session, Nevil strongly discouraged setting up forms in the live environment, as you always want to ensure your workflow is set up properly before making forms accessible companywide.

What Line Codes Would Benefit from a Custom Form?

Several Commercial Insurance examples of non-standard lines of business are listed below for consideration.

• Kidnap and Ransom
• Directors & Officer’s Liability
• Employment Practices Liability
• Cyber Liability
• Pollution Liability
• Professional Liability – generic and by profession (Law, Medical, Real Estate, Insurance, Broadcasters, etc.)
• Fiduciary Liability
• Control of Well

A Custom Form might also solve for a problem that isn’t related to insurance coverage (e.g., client details you want to capture for reporting purposes) and, in those instances, can be associated with a dummy line of business code.

Creating a Form

Now, you’re ready to follow Brenda’s form-creation steps. At a high level, here are the core steps to creating a Custom Form:

1. Log in to Epic.
2. Click on “Configure / Policy / Custom Forms”.
   1. Choose the Add icon — pictured below — to begin the process.

3. Under “Details”, enter the name of your form. (Example: Cyber Liability)
4. Select the “Common Screens” that you want to make available in the Navigation Panel when users are in the “Policy Details” section. (Tip: If your Custom Form has multiple tabs of information, you can have a “Remarks” section on each tab.)
   1. Note: These items will appear in the Navigation Panel on the left side of the screen under “Servicing/Billing” and “Custom Form” information.
   2. Click the Add icon under “Custom Screens” to enter a label that will appear as a tab in the Custom Form.
5. Select “Finish” to complete, then repeat this process as necessary for all tabs. (Tip: You can use the up and down arrows on the left side of the screen to change the order of tabs, which impacts where they appear form left to right.)
6. Double-click on the first tab label and, on the right side of the screen, you will see the Controls option. Double-click on “GroupBox”.
   1. In Controls, there are five items: TextBox, Logo, Label, GroupBox, and ComboBox. (Tip: These are not listed in workflow order, Brenda suggests following this order – GroupBox, Label, TextBox, ComboBox, Logo. Beginning with GroupBox allows you to organize, or group, information together.)
   2. A small box will appear and will be labeled “GroupBox1” by default. Travel to the right and adjust the GroupBox title by changing its name in the “Text” field.
7. With your GroupBox selected, double-click on “Label” and a label will appear within the selected GroupBox. Drag the Label where you want it to sit within the form. (Tip: When you roll your mouse on the right side of the screen to the left of the Controls box you’ll get a double-arrow that will allow you to make the Controls section of the screen larger or smaller.)
   1. Within Controls/Appearance you can adjust the style, text and alignment of the Label.
8. Next, double-click “TextBox” to insert a text field and align it to the Label.
   1. Within Controls/Appearance you can adjust the following fields: PromptText and TextAlign.
   2. Alternatively, double-clicking “ComboBox” will allow you to configure dropdown responses if that is more appropriate for a Label. (Tip: To adjust the options that \ appear in the dropdown, click on the ellipsis next to “Empty Collection” on the right side of the screen.)
9. Repeat the above steps until your form is complete.  
10. To save your form, choose the “x” in the top right corner to close the edit window, then click “Finish”.

These steps offer a very high-level start at creating a custom form. For more detailed tips, we encourage you to register to access the full on-demand session.

Testing Your Form

With the in-progress form selected from your list of Custom Forms, choose “Actions / Install Custom Form” from the top navigation in order to launch the form for testing. A message will pop up that indicates when installation complete and reminds you to associate the form with a line of business code in order to active and test the form.

To associate the form with a line of business:

1. Go to “Configure / Policy / Types”.
2. From the list that appears, select the item, or line of business, that you’d like associated with the in-progress form.
3. Double-click the line or choose the pencil icon to edit the policy type.
4. From the dropdown next to “Application Detail”, find and select the form that you created.
5. Choose “Finish” to save.

Once the form is associated with a policy type, you can then add it to Policy and test the form. Below is a sample view of a live form.

Importing to Live Production

When testing is complete, it’s time to add your new form to your production environment. From the home screen, single click on “Procedures” and choose “Export / Custom Items”. Select the “Custom Forms” tab and click the Add icon in the top left. Find the form that you’ve tested and choose “Finish”. Click on “Export”, then select the folder where you want the form to save and choose “Save”. Epic will automatically save the form in a Zip file and it will no longer appear in the “Custom Forms” window you’re working in.

As a final step, you’ll exit the testing environment and enter your production environment. From there, go to “Procedures” and choose “Import / Custom Items” in order to import the file you’ve just exported into production. Follow the same steps shared previously to associate the now-imported form to the appropriate line of business. Voilà! You’ve created your first Custom Form.

For more insight like this, sign up for an upcoming Applied Client Network webinar or register for Applied Net 2022 today! If you’d like even more in-depth tips, access Brenda’s session on-demand through the ACN Learning Center.