Closing your books at the end of the month is often a time-consuming and error-prone process for agencies. The sheer volume of policies, different carrier statements, and ways to resolve exceptions can slow down financial reporting and create accounting bottlenecks. Some commonly experienced challenges when tackling carrier commission statement reconciliation include:
- Fetching Statements: Accountants have to log in to multiple portals, check emails, or dig through physical mail to gather their statements and then parse out the necessary information.
- Inconsistencies in Data: Line-by-line scanning to compare information on carrier statements to your agency management system (AMS) is not only time-consuming but also prone to human error.
- Lack of Technology: There haven’t been many existing software solutions for commission reconciliation, so agencies have been relying on human labor and outsourcing their work.
However, automation is transforming the way agencies manage their accounting workflows, enabling them to reduce the amount of time spent on low-value, repetitive tasks. Vertafore’s platform enables agencies to explore AI-driven solutions to take automation to the next level. Today, we see agencies using AI to reconcile their direct bill commissions by:
- Automating Statement Fetching: AI’s flexibility to handle complex but repetitive tasks can automate the entire statement fetching and parsing process without manual intervention, giving time back to accounting teams to focus on higher-value tasks.
- Reducing Manual Entry: Integrations with Vertafore allow AI to detect discrepancies and flag inconsistencies between carrier statements and AMS records, enhancing data integrity, minimizing costly mistakes, and improving overall financial accuracy—all while getting the most out of your AMS.
- Speeding Up Month End Reconciliation: Agencies can close their books in half the time with AI by eliminating the manual line-by-line review and gaining full visibility into cash flow. This can be especially helpful for agencies that are active in the acquisitions space, where accountants are seeing more work on their team as they have larger books to close.
AI-driven automation empowers Vertafore agencies to maximize use of their AMS, accelerating financial close while improving accuracy and operational efficiency. As technology continues to evolve, agencies that embrace AI will not only streamline their accounting workflows but also gain a competitive edge in scalability and profitability.
To learn more about Ascend’s AI automation solutions and Vertafore integrations, please visit useascend.com.