Q&A With Applied Systems Senior Solution Consultant, Danielle Westcott
Has your team struggled to create the right kinds of reports in Applied Epic? Are report types and styles inconsistent between departments or locations? It’s no secret that Applied Epic’s robust reporting functionality provides for seemingly endless opportunities. We get it. While insurance agencies can greatly benefit from the customization of reports, it’s easy to get overwhelmed by the myriad options.
Applied Systems Senior Solution Consultant, Danielle Westcott, answered some big questions to help insurance agencies and brokerages get on the right path to success. Her insights below are invaluable for accounting, servicing and operations teams.
For an independent insurance agency, which Epic reports would you recommend running each month?
Westcott: Many aren’t aware of this, but there is a “MonthEnd Checklist” available in the Applied Epic “Help” section, which includes a list of recommended accounting reports. This checklist also consists of some suggested management reports, which can be beneficial for both operating and service teams. Some examples of reports include:
- Activity Reports. These pull all open activities, sorted by Activity Owner, to identify who is behind or not following procedures by closing follow-ups.
- Book of Business Comparison. Use this comparison report to help assess the value of your book year-to-date compared to the previous year.
- Claims Reports. This is especially important at the end of the year to make sure carriers are closing claims promptly and reviewing high reserve sets. Throughout the year, it’s critical to be continually monitoring the number of open claims, as this can directly affect your bottom line when it comes to loss ratio/contingency payouts.
- Expiration Reports. While I recommend using “Report Quickview” to provide your account managers and CSRs access to these reports on their home screen in a real-time manner, it may also be wise to additionally provide them a hard copy of the expirations reports because some still appreciate the ability to mark-up or cross-off items as they renew. I would also recommend running “Missed Expiration Reports” to verify all policies have been marked renewed or non-renewed. To do this, run a standard “Expiration Report,” and change the expiration criteria to “System Date Minus 999 Days.”
Month-End Checklist in Applied Epic Help
Now that we’ve determined which reports would be most helpful on a monthly basis, there still lies the question of who should have access to these reports? Do you recommend creating specific versions of reports for the C-suite, managers and/or operational roles?
Westcott: The degree of report access is really personal to the agency itself. Access to reports should be determined based on the role that individual plays within the agency. Since security in Epic is so granular, we can set security for each default report and have it built into Epic. Therefore, you could grant access to specific policy- or general ledger-type reports and deny access to others. If you are concerned about security of reports, you could limit all users except the system admin to access “MyReports.” This way, you can control who gets access to even agency-developed reports.
Are there any resources that you would recommend to new Epic users to generate high-quality reports? What do you think is the most common mistake made when creating Epic reports, and how can it be avoided?
Westcott: There are many resources at your fingertips: Applied Client Network forums, Applied office hours (available twice per day!), Applied University, chapter meetings and Applied Net (offers many reports sessions, including workshops) can really be of assistance. For those that are not live on Epic yet, don’t skimp on the reports training sessions during implementation!
Another important resource is the “Help” section in Applied Epic; they’re very underutilized. My team asks and receives a lot of questions, and we always reference the “Help” section. The more we can drive users there, the better they can find the answers themselves. This can oftentimes be a better learning tool than just asking somebody.
How can you get the most out of Epic’s powerful reporting functionality?
Westcott: Practice, practice, practice! Don’t be afraid of the unknown; the more you understand Epic and where the information lies, the more you will understand reporting.
When searching for additional criteria, think about where this information is found within Epic. Use the folder structure to easily follow the path to find that additional criteria. As an example: let’s say you need to run a Production Report for all policies issued in a particular state. This information resides inside Epic in the Policy>Service/Billing>Line area of the account. Once you know this, you can simply edit the Production Report, Add Criteria, and open the following folders to find this particular criteria: Production>Line>Issuing Location.
Use folder path to find additional criteria
How does Epic reporting specifically differ from TAM? What additional reporting functionality might agencies get with Epic over TAM?
Westcott: There are many differences between Epic and TAM’s reporting capabilities. To use the example from the last question again, you are not able to pull an Issuing Location of a policy into TAM’s Production Report. You would have to pull a Production Report for all, export into Excel and manipulate the data outside of the management system. Adding additional criteria in Epic is simplified, along with its strong layout tool that allows you to personalize the columns and sorting options.
One last tip: There is a TAM/Epic Reports Comparison section of the “Help” section to assist agencies in understanding equivalent reports that they were used to running in TAM and what those reports are titled in Epic. In this section, you will also be provide a list of the Epic unique reports available: “Verify Policy Commission,” “Interface Reports," "Policies with No Transactions” and “Activity Declination” are a few examples. Find it here: Applied Epic Help>Reports/Marketing>TAM/Epic Report Comparison.
These in-depth insights from Danielle Westcott are an excellent jumping-off point for running great reports in all departments of an insurance agency or brokerage. Be sure to take advantage of the resources listed for additional help and support.
Danielle L. Westcott brought 17 years of insurance knowledge and experience to Applied Systems in 2010, along with agency experience she has been a past vice chair of the Education committee and presented many courses on behalf of the association. Now as Team Lead- Solution Consulting, Danielle is dedicated to proving how utilizing technology will allow agencies to work smarter and more efficiently.