Billing on Payment screen

You can choose billing information in a submission policy transaction. The Billing heading on the Payment screen contains the following fields:

  • Billing Level – This value is not editable. Values are:
    • Account – Group policies together into a single account bill
    • Policy (Separate Funds by Policy) – Bill each policy individually with cash separation
    • Policy (Separate Funds by Account) – Bill each policy individually without cash separation

    The billing level is retrieved from the account in the billing system. In the integration with BillingCenter, the value comes from the account in BillingCenter. If it is the first submission on a new account, the value comes from the BillingSystemPlugin in PolicyCenter.

  • Billing Method – This drop-down list displays the billing methods retrieved from the billing system. In the default configuration, the choices are Agency Bill, Direct Bill, and List Bill. PolicyCenter sends a message to the billing system to see if the producer code of record for the producer allows agency bill. The billing system also returns a list of payment methods available for this type of policy and account.
  • Alt Billing Account – Select an alternate billing account.
  • Billing Contact – Select a person or company as the billing contact.

Alternate billing account

Use the Alt Billing Account field to select an alternate billing account. There are several reasons to use an alternate billing account:

  • List Bill – For this billing method, you must select an alternate billing account because the policy premium is paid by an account that is not the current account. For example, on some mortgages, the mortgage company is responsible for paying the premium for a homeowners policy. The customer’s mortgage payment includes the cost of the premium.

    Select Alt Billing Account > Search. PolicyCenter displays the Search Billing Accounts screen. If you are connected to a billing system, you can search for list bill accounts on the external system. If you are connected to the StandAloneBillingSystemPlugin, the plugin returns a list of sample billing accounts. If you are integrated with BillingCenter, the plugin returns a list of billing accounts retrieved from BillingCenter.

  • Direct Bill – The alternate billing account is optional. An alternate billing account is useful in the following situation. An agent starts a personal auto submission for a young adult. The policy is in the parent’s account. However, his uncle wants to pay for the policy. Therefore, the agent sets the uncle’s account as the alternate billing account. The uncle’s account is not a subaccount of the parent’s account.

    You can select Search to search for the billing account. The search finds accounts in PolicyCenter. These accounts have a corresponding account in the billing system. Select Alt Billing Account > Billing Subaccounts to select a subaccount of the current account. The subaccount exists in the billing system. By limiting the search to accounts in PolicyCenter, security controls the accounts that the user finds.

  • Agency Bill – The user can select a Payment Plan. Billing is negotiated between the agent and the insurer. Therefore, the screen hides the Alt Billing Account selection.

If you select an alternate billing account, the policy gets the billing level from the alternate account.

Billing contact

The Billing Contact is the person to contact if there are questions about billing. For example, the billing contact can be the account holder, an accounts payable department, or the person in charge of billing at a company. This field appears if the Billing Method is Direct Bill.