Direct Bill Commissions is when your customer pays the carrier. Then, the carrier takes out their cut and then sends the agency the commission statement with their cut. Using the Commissions feature, you can input these commissions statements into EZLynx and use the Commission Service Team & Rules to track what your CSRs, Producers, and Agency is making in commissions each month. This article we will cover how to setup commissions by creating a dummy account for fees, creating your service team, creating your commissions rules, and finally how to apply those commissions rules to your customer accounts. Make sure to check out our live webinars or our previously recorded ones for commission training as well!

 

TABLE OF CONTENTS


Step 1 - Chargeback & Carrier Fee Dummy Account


A commission statement may include charge-back and/or carrier fees.  A "commission chargeback" is the reversal of a commission already paid by the carrier. Carrier fees include various charges like MVR report fees. A “dummy” applicant and policies are created to record these items when needed to reconcile a commission statement. 


To create the “chargeback/carrier fee” Applicant:

  • Hover over the Applicants icon, and select Create New Applicant.
  • At First Name, enter “Chargeback” -  At Last Name, enter “Carrier-Fees”.
  • Enter any Rating State, and scroll down to the bottom and click the Save button.


Add a policy for each type of fee you may receive from a carrier: Commission chargeback, MVR fees, etc.

  • Go to Overview tab, then click the Actions button, click Add Policy.
  • At Line of Business, Transaction Type, and Master Company: select any answer.
  • At Policy #, make-up a policy # but it is helpful to add the type of fee in the policy #. For example, 001-MVR for use with MVR fees, or 001-CCB for commission chargebacks.
  • Enter any Effective/Expiration Dates.
  • At all Premium fields, enter $0.
  • Check the Override Rule box, and remove producers listed in the Service Team.
  • Click Add Policy.
  • Repeat these steps to add a policy for each type of fee.

Step 2 - Create Service Team

The Service Team is used to pay commissions and track EZLynx users on reports.  When creating the Service Team, add every person who is paid commissions (internal and external producers), and every non-commissioned person to track on reports (CSRs).  Setup the team initially, then keep it up-to-date as staff or commission changes occur.


To Add a Service Team Member:

  • Hover over the Policy Management icon, and select Manage Service Team. If you don’t have this option, contact support@ezlynx.com for setup.
  • Click Add New Mapping, select a Producer Type
    • Select carefully; Once saved, Producer Type cannot be edited.
    • CSR/Producer = Paid from the agency's net commission.
    • External =  Paid from the agency's gross commission.
  • At Producer Code, enter any 3-digit code; for example, a series of numbers like “001” or the person’s three initials like “MHJ”.
  • At Producer Name, enter the person’s name.
    • If adding an EZLynx user, enter the name on their EZLynx account; to find this, hover over the Settings icon and select Agency Admin.  See the Users tab.
  • Click Save.
  • Repeat steps 2 - 5 to add all Service Team members.


To edit or disable a Service Team Member:

  • Hover over the Policy Management icon, and select Manage Service Team.
  • Locate member, go to Actions on the right.
    • Click Edit, change the Producer Code or Name, and Save.
    • If agency uses EZLynx Account, contact accountingsupport@ezlynx.com before making changes.
    • To disable a Service Team member, click Inactive.


To re-activate an inactive Service Team Member: 

  • Check the Show Inactive box at top left.
  • Locate the inactive member, go to Actions on the right.
  • Click Activate.


EZTip: If a service team member is created with an incorrect Producer Type, you can NOT edit this once saved. You must create a new service team member, with a different producer code. You can not use the same producer code that has been used for any other (inactive) service team members.

Step 3 - Creating Rules


Assigned To vs. Producer Code Rules

When creating commission rules and updating applicants or policies we talk about creating rules based on 'Assigned To" or "Policy Producer Code". Here is some additional information about where to find those fields in EZLynx as they relate to Commissions. Please do not confuse the Commissions related Policy Producer Code with the code a carrier provides an agent when appointed to write business with the carrier. For EZLynx Commissions, "Policy Producer Code" has a very different meaning.


Assigned To

Some commission rules are created to pay based on "Assigned To" user (when all of a customer's policies will be paid commissions the same way).  

  • Assigned to user is displayed on the upper left of all applicant screens. 
  • To change the Assigned To user, go to the applicant's Lead Info tab.


    


Policy Producer Code

Some commissions rules are created to pay based on Policy Producer Code (when a customer's policies will pay different ways). 

  • Policy Producer Codes are added to a Policy's Producer Code Override field then display in on the Policies grid (see below).
  • Policy Producer Codes are created when adding a Service Team member (hover over the Settings icon, and select Mange Service Team).


Creating Specific Rules

Create a specific rule for every special commission payment circumstance that falls outside of your “catch-all” rule; the rule that pays 100% of a policy’s commission to the agency. 


1. Hover over the Management System folder.

2. Click Service Team Rules.



3. Click the New Rule button


4. Now, you need to add Conditions based on the scenario you want to build a rule for. There can be many different scenarios and every agency pays their agency different. Take a look through all the options that we have available for Conditions to help you build your rules. You can add as many conditions as you need! Once you've set your conditions, click the Add Payees button.



5. In the Payee phase we need to decide who to pay and how much based on the scenario we built out in the previous step. Click the +Add Payee button to get a drop-down to select Assigned To User, Service Team, Assigned Policy Producer, or Producer Code Override. This is where all that work creating your Service Team and learning about Assigned To vs. Producer Code rules comes into play! 


Use the drop down to decide who to pay. Then, use the % or $ fields to decide how much they get paid. Finally, use the last drop-down to decide whether that % or $ comes from the Agency Commission, Written Premium or is a Flat Fee.


You an add as many Payees as you need so there is no need to make a rule for everyone single producer or CSR. You just need to make the rules for the scenarios! Once you are done, click the Preview & Name Rule button.


6. This is the final step for creating rules! You just need to name the rule something that is descriptive and unique which will allow you to easily find it if you ever need to make changes or someone else takes over tracking commissions for you! 


Note! There is a lovely statement built at the bottom that gives you a sentence like structure of what your rule will do and how it works. 


Once you are happy with your rule, click the Save Rule button. Rinse and repeat for as many rules as you need! 



Ordering Your Rules

Commission rule order is very important. Policy transactions run through commission rules in order, from the first rule down to the last catch-all rule, until a criteria match is found. Commission is then paid based on the matched rule’s “Pay Producers” instructions.


The basic order for EZLynx Commission rules is as follows:

  • Rewrite rules to match by Producer Code 
  • All other rules to match by Producer Code
  • Rewrite rules to match by Assigned To user
  • All other rules to match by Assigned To user


To reorder the rules, simply hover over the grid icon. Then, click and drag the rule to the order you want it!


Step 4 - Applying Rules to Accounts or Policies


If your agency created rules based on “Assigned To” match criteria, every applicant with at least one active policy must be verified that the correct EZLynx user is assigned to each applicant.


Applying Assigned to Rules

  • From the Customer's Account, go to the Details tab, then check the Assigned To field.
    • If correct- No further action is necessary. Commissions will pay correctly.
    • If incorrect- click the field and select the correct EZLynx User. Then, scroll to the bottom and click the Save button.


Applying Policy Producer Codes

If your agency created rules based on “Producer Code” match criteria, every active policy must be verified that the correct Producer Code is entered in the Producer Code Override field. 

  • From the Customer's Overview tab, click the Policies card. Then, click the More Actions icon and then click Edit.

  • Confirm if the Producer Code Override field is accurate.
    • If correct- No further action is necessary. Commissions will pay correctly.
    • If incorrect- input the correct Producer code and then click the Save Policy button. 


Did you know? - You can build an Applicant Report that will make this process even easier! See our Applicant Reports article to learn more!