Finalizing Agent Payments

Overview

In this article, you’ll learn how to finalize agent payments, set a minimum payment amount, and carry forward agent balances. This allows you to track agent balances and carry forward agent debt in AMS+. Also, you must finalize payments to lock Agent Statement Dates and make statements available to your Agent Statement Users.

Also, you must finalize agent payments to lock Agent Statement Dates that are 1/1/2022 or after. You need to lock dates if you want to make statements available to your Agent Statement Users.

IN THIS ARTICLE

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How to finalize agent payments

Because this process locks Agent Statement Dates, you must belong to a Security Group with the following permissions to finalize payments:

• Commission > Edit (Full Commission Editing)
• Commission > Lock/Unlock Commission Entries

Also, you must have commission entries in AMS+. You can add entries via import or manually.

Once you have commission entries in AMS+:

Go to the Commission > Finalize Agent Payments page.

Identify an Agent Statement Date to start finalizing payments.

You must finalize payments for unlocked Agent Statement Dates in sequential order, starting with the earliest unlocked date. Dates must be locked in this manner for AMS+ to calculate and forward agent balances. Learn more about locking dates.

Set a minimum payment amount for the agents you want to pay.

Agents with a net amount equal to or above this amount will be paid. Agents with a net amount less than the minimum amount will have their balance carried forward.

Review the agents you want to pay.

You can pay agents that have a positive net amount only. If an agent has a negative net amount, they will not be eligible for payment and their balance will be carried forward to the following Agent Statement Date until the agent repays it. See the Payment details section in this article for more information.

Finalize and lock Agent Statement Date.

When you lock a date, AMS+ will calculate the payments for each agent and carry forward balances.

After the Agent Statement Date has been locked, you can run Agent Statements or repeat the process. Please note, Agent Statement Users can only download statements for locked dates.

Unapplied adjustments

After choosing an Agent Statement Date, you may see a message about unapplied adjustments. This means you have at least one adjustment that has not yet been processed before the current date.

You can either proceed and combine the adjustment(s) with the current date or assign them to a different date. Typically, you will combine the adjustment(s) with the current date.

Payment details

• Commission Earned - The amount of commission that an agent has earned based on the commission entries assigned to the selected Agent Statement Date.
• Adjustments Total - A dollar amount that is not directly related to a Policy but affects an agent’s commission payments. Learn more about adjustments.
  • A negative total will be deducted from the Commission Earned.
  • A positive total will be added to the Commission Earned.
• Balance Forwarded - A dollar amount carried over to the following Agent Statement Date until it is paid. This amount is calculated by: Agent Balance + Commission Earned +/- Adjustments = Balance Forwarded. 
  • If an agent has a negative net amount, their balance will automatically be forwarded to the following Agent Statement Date until the agent repays it.
  • Do not select the agent if you want to forward an agent’s balance to the following Agent Statement Date.
• Net Amount - The dollar amount that will be paid to the agent. Sometimes an agent's balance may be negative due to adjustments. If this happens, the agent will not qualify for payment and their balance will be forwarded to the following Agent Statement Date. The agent's balance will continue to be forwarded until it is no longer negative.

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How to carry forward agent balances

There may be times where you want to defer an agent’s payment. Maybe the agent earned less than it costs to print and mail them a check. Maybe... Your reasons may vary.

Whatever the reason, you have the option to hold and carry forward an agent’s balance until a later Agent Statement Date.

To carry an agent’s balance forward:

In the payments table, select the “Carry Forward” button next to the balance that you want to carry forward.

After you’ve finished reviewing all the other agent balances and you’re ready to finalize payments, select the “Finalize Payments & Lock Agent Statement Date” button.

Done.

The agent’s balance has been carried forward to the following Agent Statement Date. When you finalize payments for the next Agent Statement Date, you will have the option to pay out the forwarded balance or carry it forward again.

Setting a minimum payment amount

By default, the minimum payment amount is $0.00. This means that any agent with a net amount greater than $0.00 will be paid. Any with a balance less than $0.00 will be carried forward.

If you want to pay only agents that have earned a certain amount of commissions, set a minimum payment amount. This separates your agents into Any agent with a balance less than this amount will carry forward to the next Agent Statement Date unless you manually override it.

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Common questions

If I’ve been tracking agent balances in another system, how do I transfer them to AMS+ so I can manage everything in one place?
Add them as agent adjustments. Learn more about adjustments.

If I want to make a correction or add more payments to an Agent Statement Date, what do I do?
We recommend adding an adjustment to an unlocked Agent Statement Date if you need to make a correction on an under or overpayment to an agent. Make sure to add notes to the adjustment. However, if you want to modify a locked Agent Statement Date, you must first unlock the date.

Because altering an agent payment can affect agent balances, you will need to re-lock previously finalized Agent Statement Dates to accurately calculate agent balances.

Please note that unlocking an Agent Statement Date and making changes to the payments or adjustments could impact the commission data of other dates. Learn more about unlocking Agent Statement Dates.