Insurance money does not
behave like ordinary money.
Premium is not revenue. Trust funds are not operating funds. A single policy splits into premium, taxes, fees and commission, and the carrier statement never arrives in the same shape you billed it. Premium Accounting is built for that, and it keeps your general ledger in step.
Scroll the diagram sideways to see all of it.
Solid lines are always there. Dashed lines are optional. Premium Accounting does not need either one to do its job.
General accounting software was never told about insurance
QuickBooks, Xero and NetSuite are good at what they do. They were built for invoices and bills, not for premium that arrives in instalments, splits across parties and gets corrected three months later by a carrier statement.
Premium is not revenue
Most of what you collect belongs to the carrier. Your revenue is the commission inside it. Treating the whole receipt as income overstates the business and breaks the reconciliation before it starts.
One policy, many amounts
Premium, surplus lines taxes, policy fees, inspection fees, agency commission, producer commission. Each has a different owner and a different account. A general ledger sees one invoice line.
Trust money is not your money
Fiduciary funds have to be held, tracked and reconciled separately from operating funds. That is a regulatory obligation, not a reporting preference, and a single operating bank account cannot express it.
Agency bill and direct bill are different businesses
In one you collect and remit. In the other the carrier collects and pays you later. Both have to live in the same books without one hiding the other.
The statement never matches
Carrier statements arrive with endorsements, cancellations, audits and commission adjustments that were never on your invoice. Reconciling them by spreadsheet is where controller time goes to die.
Money moves before the paperwork does
A payer settles an invoice today and the endorsement posts next week. The subledger has to hold both truths at once and still close at month end.
Read the full insurance agency accounting guide or see what breaks when you do this in spreadsheets.
One subledger for the whole premium lifecycle
From the transaction that creates the money through to the entry that lands in your general ledger.
Billing and invoicing
Invoice premium with taxes, fees and commission on separate lines. Instalment schedules, endorsements, cancellations and return premium handled as insurance transactions rather than credit notes.
Receivables
Outstanding invoices, customer balances and aging in one view. A payment covering several invoices keeps its allocation at the invoice level, and partial and installment receivables are tracked as they are paid.
Commissions
Agency and producer commissions calculated on the transaction, not bolted on afterwards. Overrides, contingent commissions, commission adjustments and return commissions stay attached to the policy they came from.
Trust accounting
Fiduciary funds tracked apart from operating funds, with the reconciliation and the audit trail a regulator expects to see.
Reconciliation and settlement
Match carrier statements against what you billed, resolve the differences, and produce the carrier payable. Premium reconciliation, trust reconciliation and company payable in one place.
Reporting and the ledger
Insurance financial reporting on the numbers as they actually are, and journal entries that post to your general ledger, or export cleanly if you would rather post them yourself.
Premium Accounting accounts for the money.
CoverPay collects it.
Raise the invoice in Premium Accounting and a CoverPay payment link goes with it. The payer settles by ACH or card, the payment comes back, and the receivable is applied without anyone rekeying it. Two products, one loop.
Scroll the diagram sideways to see all of it.
What CoverPay does
- Issues the payment link against the invoice
- Takes ACH and credit card from the agent or the insured
- Handles the hosted payment page and the receipt
- Returns the payment result so it can be applied
What Premium Accounting does
- Decides what is payable, and to whom
- Applies the payment to the right invoices and accounts
- Keeps premium, tax, fee and commission apart
- Reconciles, settles with the carrier and posts the entries
The same subledger, at six different scales
An independent agency uses a fraction of it. A program administrator uses all of it. Nobody pays in complexity for what they do not run.
Insurance agencies
Bill premium, collect it, chase the receivable and close the month. No AMS needed, no accounting integration needed.
Growing agencies
Add QuickBooks or Xero, automated journal entries, more users and real financial reporting as the book gets bigger.
MGAs
Multiple programs and carriers, delegated authority, trust accounting, commission structures and carrier settlement.
Wholesale brokers
Agency bill at volume, retail agency receivables, surplus lines taxes, policy and inspection fees, and the carrier payable behind them.
Program administrators
Multi-company and multi-program accounting, trust accounting, trust reconciliation, audit trails and financial controls.
Insurance carriers
Premium accounting and financial operations across programs, with the settlement side of the relationship in view.
Connect what you already run, or connect nothing at all
Premium Accounting works on its own. When you do want it connected, it connects in three directions.
AMS and policy systems
Policy and transaction data arrives by API from Applied Epic, AMS360, EZLynx, NowCerts, HawkSoft, Expert Insured, MGA platforms and other API-enabled systems.
Applied Epic · AMS360 · EZLynx
Accounting, GL and ERP
Journal entries post to QuickBooks Online, Xero, Sage, NetSuite, Workday, Microsoft Dynamics and custom enterprise systems. Or export the subledger and post it yourself.
QuickBooks · Xero · NetSuite
CoverPay
Premium collection by ACH and credit card, with the payment applied back automatically. Premium Accounting stays provider agnostic, so other payment providers and manual receipts work too.
The reference material our customers actually use
Insurance agency accounting
The long-form guide to how the books actually work.
Agency bill vs direct bill
Two models, two sets of entries, one set of books.
Insurance chart of accounts
What belongs where, and why trust sits on its own.
Month end close checklist
The controller's list, in order.
Questions we get asked
Do I need an AMS to use Premium Accounting?
Do I need to integrate my general ledger?
Does Premium Accounting replace QuickBooks or NetSuite?
How do customers pay premium?
What is the difference between CoverPay and Premium Accounting?
Does it handle trust accounting?
Who is it built for?
See it against your own book
Bring a carrier statement and a month of premium. We will show you what the close looks like when the subledger already knows what insurance money is.