In this guide 6 sections
Build it from the policy end date, not from a diary page. Store one record per policy with carrier, line of business and expiry, then add dated stages: early call, quote request, comparison, client decision and issue. Each stage needs an owner.
Start from the expiry date on every policy
A renewal diary records only what someone remembered to write down, while a calendar records what the policy schedule actually says about every cover you hold. Export your whole book. Every row needs an end date.
Mid-year purchases, short-period covers and endorsements that shift the end date are exactly where paper diaries fail, because nobody rewrites the original entry when the date moves. Fix those first.
Check the data before you build anything else. One typo in a year turns a motor renewal into a phantom that never reaches anyone’s list, and the first you hear of it is a furious client.
- Policy number and insured name as printed on the schedule
- Carrier and line of business, such as motor, fire or group health
- Start date, end date and any endorsement that moved it
- Premium paid last term, kept for comparison at quote time
- Account owner inside your agency
Set the stages and count back from expiry
Pick offsets once. Stages run as an early call, a quote request, a comparison for the client, a decision, then issue and payment, with each date counted back from expiry. Marine cargo needs a longer lead.
Write offsets per line of business. One rule for every policy is a mistake.
Each stage leaves proof. A call leaves a note. A quote request produces a reference from the carrier portal or an email thread that anyone in the office can open without asking you first.
Split the view by carrier and by person
Carriers behave differently. One carrier sends renewal notices sixty days out, another waits for the final fortnight, and a third demands a fresh proposal form whenever the sum insured changes. Filter by carrier and batch your quote requests.
A second view shows who is overloaded. If one person holds forty expiries in a single week, move some of them to a colleague before that week starts, not halfway through it.
Flag the stage that is late. A red item at quote stage with ten days left is a very different problem from a red item at issue stage with two days left.
- Filter by carrier to batch quote requests
- Filter by account owner to balance the week
- Filter by line of business to apply the right lead time
- Show only items past their stage due date
Record outcomes, not only dates
A renewal that closes with the client moving to another broker is data, and so is one that closes at a higher sum insured. Add an outcome field with a short fixed list of values, such as renewed same carrier, renewed new carrier, lapsed, lost and cancelled, so reports stay countable.
Lapsed policies deserve their own list. Many can be revived inside the carrier’s grace period, but only if somebody phones the client before that window closes and the policy is gone.
After a year, the outcome column tells you which carriers you keep losing business to and which covers clients quietly drop when the premium rises.
Run it weekly and retire the diary
Hold a fifteen-minute meeting every Monday. Open the next thirty days, read down the late items and assign each one an owner and a deadline.
Keep the old diary for one cycle. When every entry in it also appears in the calendar, stop writing in the diary and archive the book where nobody reaches for it by habit.
Your first step this week is simple: export the policy list, sort by end date and count the expiries that fall in the next sixty days.
Renewal calendar worksheet
One printable sheet, a row per policy. Columns run left to right: policy number, insured, carrier, line of business, end date, early call date, quote request date, comparison sent, client decision, issue date, outcome and owner. A small table beneath gives the lead time in days for each line of business, so the stage dates fill themselves in once an end date is typed.
Open a blank worksheet to printQuestions owners ask
How far ahead should the first renewal call happen?
It depends on the line of business. Commercial covers with surveys or revised sums insured need a long lead, while a personal motor renewal can start much later. Adjust after one cycle.
Can a spreadsheet do this?
Yes, for a small book. Sort by end date and filter by owner. It strains once several people edit one file at the same time, or you want reminders that go out without anyone having to open it first.
What about policies that renew automatically?
Mark them auto-renewing, but keep the entry in the calendar so someone still checks terms. A carrier may change terms, loadings or the sum insured at renewal, and the client still needs to hear about it from you before the money leaves their account. Check it anyway.
Who should own a renewal?
The person who knows the client. Give each policy one named owner, and let a second person cover only when the owner is away, sick or tied up with a claim.