In this guide 6 sections
Have the vendor demonstrate a placement slip sent to three carriers, quotes compared side by side, client money held apart from your funds and an audit trail of edits. Then ask how you get your data out. Weak answers here usually mean weak software.
Placement slips and the broking workflow
Broking is not agency selling. You describe a risk and approach markets. Ask the vendor to walk through one live placement from a blank slip to a bound cover, including a carrier that declines part of it.
Watch where the slip lives. A free-text slip gets retyped for every carrier. A structured slip with insured details, interest, sum insured and deductibles can be sent out and reused at renewal without anyone opening a blank document.
Ask what happens when terms change mid-negotiation. Revisions should be kept as versions.
- Can a slip be built from a template per line of business?
- Can one slip go to several carriers at once?
- Are revisions kept as dated versions?
- Can attachments such as survey reports travel with it?
Multi-carrier quotes and comparison
Ask to see three carrier quotes entered for the same risk and compared on one screen, not three browser tabs and a calculator. Premium alone is a poor basis for advice, so check that exclusions, limits, deductibles and validity dates sit beside it.
Then ask what the client receives. A clean comparison document in your own layout beats a screenshot or a spreadsheet pasted into an email that the client cannot read on a phone.
See how the decision is recorded. The choice, the date and the reason belong on file in case anyone later asks why a carrier was recommended.
Client money, accounting and bordereaux
Brokers often hold premium for clients before passing it on to carriers, which makes them custodians of other people’s money. Regulators set rules for that money. Rules differ by country, so ask which regimes the software has been used under and check the answer with your compliance adviser.
Look for separate ledgers. Ask how a client receipt is matched to an invoice and then to a payment to the carrier, and whether a part-payment splits cleanly.
Ask about instalments and credit notes. A broker who bills fees as well as taking commission needs both handled cleanly, plus bordereaux reports that agree with the ledger at month end.
- Separate client money and office ledgers
- Receipt, allocation and carrier payment in one trail
- Commission and fee income recorded by policy
- Bordereaux and aged debtor reports
- Export to your accounting package
Audit trails, access and getting out
Ask who can open a client file. Ask who can change a premium after binding. Every edit should show the user, the time and the old value, and nobody, including the owner, should be able to switch that log off.
Ask about backups, how quickly a lost file can be restored and where the data is stored, for example whether a copy leaves the building every night. Request the answers in writing.
Exit terms matter as much as features. Request a sample export of policies, clients, documents and ledger entries in a format you can open without the vendor.
Run a trial before you sign
Load fifty of your own policies and one tricky placement, then let two staff members work in it for a week, logging every stumble. Their complaints teach you more than a scripted demo ever will.
Score each vendor against one shared sheet, so the decision is not driven by whoever presents best, or by whoever phones you most often after the demo.
Next step: write down the three workflows that cost you most time today and make every vendor run exactly those in front of you.
Vendor question sheet
A scoring grid on one printed page. Rows list thirty questions grouped under placement slips, quotes, client money, audit trail and exit. Columns give room for each vendor’s answer, a mark between zero and three, the colleague who verified it and a note saying if the vendor demonstrated it live.
Open a blank worksheet to printQuestions owners ask
Do we need different software from an insurance agency?
Often yes. Brokers place risks across carriers, handle client money and negotiate terms, while agencies mostly sell and renew a carrier’s products. The workflow and the accounting both differ.
How long should a trial run?
Long enough for real work to pass through it, usually a week or two, with at least one renewal and one new placement inside the trial. Sample data hides problems.
What should a data export include?
Clients, policies, placement history, documents and ledger entries, in open formats such as CSV and PDF, with attachments linked back to the right record. Ask for a sample before you sign.
Who should sit in the evaluation?
A director, someone from accounts and a person who places risks every day, because each of them tests a different part of the product. Include all three. Give each a vote.