Do you want to maximize your efficiency in using Applied Epic Download? Look no further. In this article, we recap a panel discussion from Applied Net 2021 during which the speakers — Doug Wertz, of Clockwork Insurance Services, Inc. Miriam Kasseris, of Lloyd Bedford Cox Inc., Deb Welsh, of RiskSOURCE^®️ Clark-Theders, Karla Myers, of Franconia Insurance & Financial Services, and Jeff Niemann, of Applied — shared their top tips and tricks for navigating the Applied interface, covering topics like best practices for cost savings, download errors, how to set up download to avoid suspense and how to effectively set up direct-bill download. 

1. Go through Status Codes in ADI

Miriam Kasseris  encouraged panel participants and fellow users to go through status codes when using Applications Desktop Integrator, or ADI. “One thing that I learned the hard way is that when you set it up, you have to go through your status codes and make sure that, if you have a renewal, a rewrite or a cancellation, you’ve set each one of them up in the company interface,” Kasseris said. Kasseris also shared that even if you forget to do this, you’ll still get downloads, but they will not be invoiced. “[This makes] a lot of work on the back end,” Kasseris confessed. 

2. Use the Download Dashboard 

Panelist Deb Welsh recommended using the download results and dashboards together. “It is great because you can see the specific reason why something hits suspense,” Welsh stated. This refers to the space within Epic where all of the policies from carriers that struggle with finding a home end up. Suspense can be a very intimidating, daunting area if the user does not identify the issues that are reoccurring. “Things are always going to end up in suspense, but what you don’t want to happen is that the system becomes overwhelmed.” Welsh also said that the dashboard offers more of a high-level view of what is going on and shows the main reason why something hits suspense. Both of these tools can be found under the “interface management” section in Procedures. 

3. Train Your Staff 

Yet another tip from Kasseris centers around one of the main reasons new business policies go into suspense: Because the policy number is not set up correctly. “If the person entering the line into Epic doesn’t know the right configuration, it will send [the new entry] right into suspense,” Kasseris said. By properly training staff, this can be avoided. 

If you want even more tips to maximize your Applied software at your agency or brokerage, click here.