What is the Applied Epic accounting module?

The Applied Epic accounting module is the built-in part of Applied Epic that maintains a general ledger and handles the accounting that is specific to an insurance brokerage. Epic is a broker management system first — it runs clients, policies, carriers, and documents — and the accounting module ties financial records to that same data.

What does the accounting module cover?

Applied University’s accounting catalogue includes general-ledger work, premium-payable reconciliation and accounting reports. The following checklist describes the work to review in a brokerage. Screen names, permissions and available features depend on your Epic version and configuration.

What the module covers:

• The general ledger — chart of accounts, journal entries, and financial statements.
• Direct bill and agency bill — two different billing flows, each accounted for differently.
• Premium trust — tracking money held on behalf of clients and insurers separately from operating funds.
• Carrier reconciliation — matching insurer statements to what Epic recorded on the policies.
• Commission accounting — recognizing commission income and tracking what producers are owed.
• Month-end close — pulling reconciliations and adjustments together into a closed period.

Agency bill and direct bill: what your team reconciles

For agency bill, trace the client invoice through the receipt, the amount payable to the insurer and the eventual remittance. Review outstanding client balances and insurer payables together. A bank deposit alone doesn’t establish that the policy transaction and carrier balance agree.

For direct bill, compare the insurer’s commission statement with the expected policy commission and the deposit received. Investigate missing policies, cancellations, rate differences and timing differences before clearing the balance. See the direct-bill reconciliation guide.

For example, suppose your records show $1,500 of commission due and a carrier statement shows $1,350. That $150 difference is an investigation item. Check the policy, endorsement, cancellation and commission rate before deciding whether the expected amount or the carrier statement needs correction. These are illustrative amounts, not typical commission rates.

A monthly review checklist

1. Confirm the reporting period. Use the same cutoff for the ledger, supporting schedules and statements.
2. Reconcile bank balances. Identify deposits in transit, outstanding payments and unexplained entries.
3. Review premium trust separately. A completed bank reconciliation is one input to the trust review; also assess the obligations the brokerage holds funds to settle.
4. Reconcile carriers. Review agency-bill payables and direct-bill commissions with their supporting statements.
5. Review producer balances. Trace amounts owed to the applicable compensation agreements and underlying commission records.
6. Approve adjustments and reporting. Keep supporting documents with corrections and review the financial statements before closing the period.

Use the Applied Epic month-end close checklist to organize the close. This is a review workflow, rather than a sequence of software menu commands.

What needs attention when the numbers don’t agree?

Start with one unreconciled balance and trace it back to its source. Check the transaction date, billing method, carrier, commission rate and any manual adjustment. Record the cause, the correction and who approved it so the next close doesn’t repeat the same investigation.

Configuration and staff procedures need to work together. An integrated ledger still needs someone to investigate differences and review the result. For decisions about using Epic alongside another ledger or an external accountant, see does Applied Epic do accounting?.

For a full walkthrough of how the pieces fit together, see our guide to Applied Epic accounting for Canadian brokerages.

If the module was never configured properly, or the real accounting has already drifted into spreadsheets, that cleanup is what our Applied Epic accounting service handles. See how we work inside Applied Epic for the wider picture.