The Commission You Never See: Finding Expected Policies Missing From Carrier Statements

A statement can foot to the penny and still be short. The shortage is the policy that is not on the page.

The check people skip

Every policy you expected should be on the statement. Matching the rows that arrived only proves the carrier's arithmetic on the rows the carrier chose to print.

This is a different question from "does this line match a policy." That question starts at the statement and looks inward. The missing-money question starts at the book and looks at the statement. If the book says forty policies should have paid this month and the statement has thirty-seven, the work is the three that are absent. Their commission is zero on the page, which is why a total-only review never sees them.

CommissionScope can match the lines you upload. It cannot invent a payment the carrier did not send. The expected list is still yours. Export the policies in force for that carrier and term, and compare.

Build the expected list first

Do this before you open the PDF. For one carrier and one month, list the policies that should produce commission. Direct bill and agency bill do not belong on the same list. A renewal that bound on the 2nd belongs on this month's list. A renewal that bound on the 28th may belong on next month's, and you should say so in writing so it does not look missing.

Suppose this is the March direct-bill list for one carrier. The figures are an example.

Read the table as four facts, not as a fifth policy. HO-1008 is expected and absent, which is 108 dollars you cannot deposit. PA-4481 is present and short by 12 dollars. The last row is the same policy entered twice in the agency's own notes. That is how a missing policy and a duplicate get marked resolved and then forgotten.

When the rate is not printed

The rate is often not on the statement. The commission and the premium are. Divide commission by premium. That percent is the rate you were actually paid. Compare it with the schedule.

On PA-4481 the statement paid 48 dollars on 600 dollars of premium. That is 8 percent. The schedule says 10 percent. Nothing on the page says "we cut your rate." The line looks normal because it has a policy number and a positive amount. The drift shows up only when you do the division.

Do that division on a sample of lines every month, not only on lines that look small. A one-point drift on a large commercial premium is more money than a missing homeowners policy, and it is easier to overlook because the policy is present.

Duplicates run in both directions

Duplicates run both ways.

One direction is the statement. The same policy, same premium, same month, paid twice. You are overpaid until the carrier notices, and the reversal often arrives in a later month, aimed at a producer who was paid on both rows. The chargeback guide is how that later line should hit the original month.

The other direction is your own book. The deposit is recorded twice, or the same statement is imported twice. The second copy makes the carrier look short the next month, because you already counted the money. Or it makes a producer look underpaid, because the payable was cleared against the wrong copy.

A useful rule is one statement, one import, one deposit. If a second file arrives labeled "revised," retire the first file in the open-item list. Do not add the revised file on top.

Date the absent policies

This article does not quote a carrier's correction window. Those windows live in the carrier contract, and they differ. What you can do without that contract is date the open item on the day you find it, and work the oldest one first.

The expected-list check is not a quarterly project. It belongs in the same close as the four checks on the lines that did arrive. The policies that are absent are open items with an age, the same way a mismatched rate is an open item.

What to do with a line that is not there

• Export the policies you expected this carrier to pay, for this term.
• Mark each one present, present-but-short, or absent.
• For every present line with no printed rate, divide commission by premium.
• Compare that percent with the schedule, including new business versus renewal.
• Search the statement for the same policy number twice before you pay either row.
• Search your own imports for the same statement twice before you call the carrier short.
• Date the open items. The oldest one gets a phone call now, not a note for next quarter.

A guided pilot is a place to run this on one approved statement and the policy export that should match it. You review the lines that matched, the lines that are short, and the policies that never appeared. Nothing is paid until your team approves the batch.