What is the Best Software for Tracking Your Commissions?

[sman]

I am so glad I found this forum. Thank you for all the info you all are sharing.

My wife sells medical advantage plans (medicare and medicaid) as independent agent. I don't know anything about it other than trying to help her keep track of her sales, commision and residuals.
I own my own unrelated business but none of the tools I use, except for QB in a convoluted matter are really applicable to what she needs.

As I understand it this is how her business works:
1. She gets a list of leads or goes to community centers, etc.
2. Once she makes contact with a prospect and signs them up, she transmits a form to the company she sells for.
3. Sometime later she gets paid.
4. About a year later and each year thereafter she gets residuals for current clients.

I need to figure out a way to track which policies she got paid for during initial sale and for residuals, so points 3 and 4 from above.

She does not need to keep detailed CMR as she's not allowed to contact clients and especially ex-clients.

She only needs to have basic info like name, birthday and possibly medical card ID so she can cross reference that info with payout statements.

Things got more complicated this year as her company changed payout structure.
I used to be that she would get paid full commision once policy went into effect, be it ~30-45 days after enrolment or after 1st of the year, post open enrollment.
Now she's getting her commission in chunks, and I think it's spread quarterly if memory serves right.

I am going to play around with the Excel sheet that Jerard graciously posted, but wanted to know if anyone knows of any software that may be better suited to my wife's tasks.
Everything I've seen so far has been fairly expensive with monthly fees or yearly 'support/maintenance' schedule. Most software is targeted at multi person/location businesses with multiple providers and way more details about clients, forms, payment methods, etc. than what my wife needs.
Right now she probably has 300 sales so doing it by hand is realistically out of the question.

Thanks in advance for any/all help and guidance.

She's not allowed to contact her clients? Why? How in the world can she service her clients if she can't contact them?

 

[vic120]

She's not allowed to contact her clients? Why? How in the world can she service her clients if she can't contact them?

that was my thought as well

 

[JustinTime]

I recommend checking out Agency Bloc at CRM Insurance Software: Agency Management System for Health/Life Agencies

 

[mariomp]

And ACT database can be purchased online or office stores. It's very good and not expensive.

Thanks for suggestion. I'm looking at it now and it appears to be an awesome CMR but I'm not seeing anything about payments. Does it support commision paid schedule and residual tracking?

 

[Newby]

Thanks for suggestion. I'm looking at it now and it appears to be an awesome CMR but I'm not seeing anything about payments. Does it support commision paid schedule and residual tracking?

Not unless you build it into it. Very customizable though.

 

[mariomp]

She's not allowed to contact her clients? Why? How in the world can she service her clients if she can't contact them?

From what I understand, she can contact her current clients but not ex-clients.
So for example if she signs up a client and said client changes his/her mind about the program (usually because they misunderstood something or the doctor's staff doesn't think something is covered), said client might go back to their old plan.
At this point my wife gets a letter for chargeback, but because the client is no longer current, she can't contact them to find out what happened.
Personally I think that's crazy. I understand that harassment of elderly and disabled should not be tolerated, but a simple call or postcard/letter trying to understand what happened or to straighten things out should be allowed, or so I would think.
I know she gets calls all the time saying that pharmacy X or doctor Y doesn't take this or that and my wife ends up calling that pharmacy/doctor and educates them on how the plan works. Client ends up staying and using her plan and all is good.

 

[vic120]

I recommend checking out Agency Bloc at CRM Insurance Software: Agency Management System for Health/Life Agencies

I don't know why I did not notice agent bloc when I started looking for CRM

Looks good setting up demo

Might be just what I am looking for

 

[mariomp]

And ACT database can be purchased online or office stores. It's very good and not expensive.

I just contacted them and here is the transcript of our chat:

Mario: My wife sells senior health plans and needs a software to track basic client information with one important feature which is commision payment schedule, payout and then residuals. Does your software do that or is it primarily an awesome CMR database?

David: Hi Mario.

David: The details of commission schedule, payouts and residuals would need more of accounting software.

David: We do have an add-on that intergrates with Quickbooks.

Mario: Problem is that in QB, you have to manually schedule commission as an invoice for each client and then post payments against that. There are ways to automate it but it's cumbersome.

Mario: OK, well thanks for checking on it.

David: Sorry for the delay. Unfortunately the commission part of things is not going to work the best for you within Act.

 

[sman]

From what I understand, she can contact her current clients but not ex-clients.
So for example if she signs up a client and said client changes his/her mind about the program (usually because they misunderstood something or the doctor's staff doesn't think something is covered), said client might go back to their old plan.
At this point my wife gets a letter for chargeback, but because the client is no longer current, she can't contact them to find out what happened.
Personally I think that's crazy. I understand that harassment of elderly and disabled should not be tolerated, but a simple call or postcard/letter trying to understand what happened or to straighten things out should be allowed, or so I would think.
I know she gets calls all the time saying that pharmacy X or doctor Y doesn't take this or that and my wife ends up calling that pharmacy/doctor and educates them on how the plan works. Client ends up staying and using her plan and all is good.

I'm well aware of the rules. But you said the following:

she's not allowed to contact clients and especially ex-clients

I took that to mean she wasn't allowed to contact existing clients.

 

[mariomp]

I'm well aware of the rules. But you said the following:

she's not allowed to contact clients and especially ex-clients

I took that to mean she wasn't allowed to contact existing clients.

Oops, sorry for the confusion.

Speaking of contacting current clients, and again, not knowing much about your industry; do you contact your existing clients and if so, what for?

My only exposure to any insurance is my auto/home/business insurance agent.
I never hear from them except when I have to pay for renewal. I did get one or two calls/mailers from my insurance agent but it was for other products like life insurance, which I was not interested in.

So if the client is on your plan, why do you contact them? Is it just a relation build, solicitation for prospects from their circle of family/friends, or something all together different?