The collection of insurance premiums is a core business process that spans the whole of a carrier's organization and beyond, with significant impact on financial performance, customer satisfaction and agent loyalty. Bottomline's solutions enable insurance organizations to build closer customer and agent relationships by streamlining slow, costly paper-driven claims processes. Our targeted solutions for Premium Collections include:
- Automated Accounts Receivable Matching
- Consolidated Premium Printing and Distribution
- Automated Premium Collections
- Online Premium Bill Presentment and Payment
Automated Accounts Receivable Matching
One of the most challenging obstacles for insurance companies is the reconciliation of payment receipts with open bills. Typically, companies receive payments through multiple methods: lockbox services, credit card processors or "home-grown" internal systems for direct receipts. Managing multiple, incoming streams of payment data and matching them to outstanding bills is a time-consuming and error-prone manual process. Being able to quickly and accurately match bills and payments not only supports improved financial performance, but also drives a host of benefits downstream, including improved customer and agent relationships, and enhanced call center metrics for call handling volume and problem resolution. WebSeries Accounts Receivable Matching enables insurance organizations to automatically match paid items against outstanding premium billing data using rules-based software. User-defined matching rules specific to the carrier can be configured and applied, including matching values based on invoice number, policy number, account number and more. To accommodate checks that are mailed directly to your organization, payment data can also be entered manually via WebSeries online data entry screens.
Consolidated Premium Printing and Distribution
Insurance companies recognize that electronic bill presentment and payment is a business process that can expedite payment delivery and reconciliation. However, many customers and agents will continue to receive paper bills in the mail. To handle the print and output management of insurance premiums, Bottomline's solution consolidates premium bills into one database - enabling simplified printing, distribution and reporting. For organizations seeking non-paper delivery options, the system can also create an electronic PDF version of the premium bill and send it via email to the recipient.
Automated Premium Collections
For recurring insurance premium invoices, the Automated Premium Collections solution can collect payments using an electronic debit. This process bypasses the need for both paper invoice mailings and paper check remittance matching. An optional courtesy notice can be sent to the customer, offering a reminder that the funds will be withdrawn.
Online Premium Bill Presentment and Payment
Insurance companies are adopting Online Premium Bill Presentment and Payment solutions as a vehicle to lower the high costs of paper-based billing processes. Focused on driving adoption with both sales agents and direct customers, Bottomline's Online Premium Bill Presentment and Payment solution is easy to implement and provides a smooth transition to automated electronic methods.
With online access to critical billing information, independent or indirect agents no longer have to chase channel and finance managers with phone calls and faxes. For document management needs, agents can use the system to search invoices, and download and print copies for local record keeping. The Bottomline solution also uniquely allows agents to view consolidated statement information and drill down to individual premium details. Authorized agents can then dispute items and make bill adjustments online. Once those changes have been reviewed and adjusted by designated system users, the total dollar value of any given bill is recalculated. The agent then has the ability to pay the bill with an authorized, direct electronic debit payment through the same online interface. In addition to agent organizations, Online Premium Bill Presentment and Payment may also be extended to direct customers, supported by WebSeries' extensive security protocols.