Abstract
Illinois Casualty Company, like all insurers, faces a significant reporting burden. This is particularly evident at the beginning of each year when not only the Annual Statement is due, but also Premium Tax and numerous state-specific filings as well. In this customer story, you’ll learn how Gain streamlined State Page reporting and automated data sharing between Gain’s Annual Statement software and TriTech’s PremiumPro and State Forms solutions.
Key Quote
“Gain’s ‘print batch’ feature pulls together Schedule T and the State Pages data into specific files for upload to TriTech. This has been a life saver.”
Aimee Oetzel, Accounting Manager, Illinois Casualty Company
Before Gain – A Manual Process
Aimee Oetzel, Accounting Manager at Illinois Casualty Company, found the process to populate schedules to be frustrating. Due to the legacy interface and limitations of the prior solution, data entry was a combination of manual (hand-keyed into the appropriate schedules) and semi-automated (using externally-created files for import). This process was repeated for both Annual Statement and Premium Tax reporting.
“When I was compiling our State Pages [for the Annual Statement], I was stuck typing all twelve columns of data for the specific lines of business in the nineteen states we are licensed in,” she explained. “That would take a significant amount of time.”
Separately, Aimee would then build files for upload into their premium tax provider, TriTech. All schedule data had to be entered and validated before her team could begin to create files for import into TriTech. This process – which Aimee described as “waiting to begin” – made it difficult for the team to manage its time efficiently.
Despite obvious opportunities to streamline the process through better-designed software, Illinois Casualty Company’s legacy Annual Statement vendor appeared to be making minimal effort. Aimee put it simply, “It didn’t seem like they were making any enhancements or improvements to that system.”
No More Typing
When Aimee reflected on the impact of the switch to a modern solution, she noted that what once was manual, time-consuming work was now streamlined by the import and export functionality available in Gain.
“The workpapers for Schedule P and Schedule F are very handy for importing data,” Aimee said. Her team also utilizes Gain’s Excel functionality to further remove manual work around data entry into the State Pages as well as other schedules. “We export an Excel file out of Gain to get the correct layout and use formulas linked to data from other sources,” Aimee described. “Since that file is an easy import back into our statement, it’s been a huge time saver.”
The process of exporting data from Gain into specific files for import into TriTech has also been seamless. “Gain’s ‘print batch’ feature pulls together Schedule T and the State Pages data into specific files for upload to TriTech. This has been a life saver.”
Aimee referenced how Gain’s real-time validation dashboard resulted in a much more efficient process “With Gain we don’t have to have the statement completely done to begin building those zips for upload into Premium Pro.”
Not only did Gain’s application remove many manual tasks, the team now has greater flexibility to manage how and when they do their work, including validating sections as they go. “With Gain, I have the validation dashboard open on a separate screen,” Aimee said. “If I see something is off, I can fix it and instantly see it disappear from the dashboard, and that is just so helpful.”
Conclusion
Gain has fundamentally raised expectations around how software for NAIC reporting should work, and that includes how the application works with adjacent reporting systems. By making it easy to bring statement data in and out of Gain, and to better manage how and when teams do their work, our customers are continually finding new ways to add efficiencies to their reporting processes.
Learn more about how Gain has improved outcomes for financial reporting teams for other carriers.