Welcome to our list of commonly used terms in the Appulate system.
Admin – A company user with special rights. Admin users can add or deactivate users, as well as change the company settings.
Appointment – An agreement that formalizes business relations between an agency or MGA and a market. Per the official procedure, the agency needs to provide the market with all the necessary documents to get appointed. If there is no Appointment Agreement between a market and an agency, the market can refuse the agency's requests at any stage, from requesting the policy premium to requesting to bind the policy after the arrangement has already been confirmed with the potential insured. For more information, see Appointment.
Assignee – A market's employee (an Underwriter or a CSR) responsible for working with a specific agency. They are automatically assigned to all of this agency's quote requests.
Billing type – A quote's parameter that determines who will charge the insured for the policy. There are two billing types: "Agency bill" (the agency charges the payment) and "Direct bill" (the carrier charges the payment and distributes it between other parties involved).
Captive agency – In Appulate, a captive agency is an agency that works under a market's URL. This means that the agency is a partner of a particular market that already uses Appulate.
Class codes – Numeric codes used for classifying an insured's business activity. This information determines whether a policy will be provided, as well as what the premium will be. The availability of different class codes depends on the state, insurance line, and market.
Designation – A user's position (title) within their company (Producer, Underwriter, or CSR), which implies particular responsibilities.
Effective Date – The date on which a policy comes into effect. For more information, see How to change Effective and Expiration dates.
Expiration Date – The date on which a policy expires (usually a year after the Effective Date). For more information, see How to change Effective and Expiration dates.
Indication – A non-binding rate that contains preliminary information on the premium. To get a bindable quote, the agent needs to provide additional information.
Insured user – A person who is specified as an insured contact and joins Appulate by invitation from an agency user responsible for handling this insured's quote requests or policies. Insured users join Appulate to fill out forms, check or edit the entered data, or simply track the status of their quote requests and policies. For more information, see Insured Portal.
Market – A common term for MGAs and carriers.
Master form – A blank form containing all the questions from ACORD and/or Supplemental forms. It is presented as a simplified questionnaire generated in Appulate depending on the insurance line and state.
Master XML – A set of answers to the questions from an ACORD or market's form presented in the XML (XmlDocument) format. It is generally stored in the cache, but can be saved as an XML file and then converted to a PDF file if needed.
Open brokerage market – A market that an agency or MGA can submit to without an Appointment. For more information, see Managing your agencies in Appulate and Open brokerage markets in Appulate.
PEO – a Professional Employer Organization. In Appulate, a PEO is one of the available market types, along with MGA/Wholesalers and Carriers. In terms of workflow, PEOs are similar to MGA/Wholesalers.
Policy status – A policy's main status that reflects its current state: "Active Policy", "Expired Policy", or "Cancelled Policy". For more information, see Statuses in Appulate.
ProducerConnect – An Appulate product for retail agencies. It is available in two versions: ProducerConnect Standard, which provides basic features free of charge, and ProducerConnect Premium, which gives access to more advanced features (such as downloading ACORD forms and submitting to Weblink and Email markets) for a price.
Quote – A document that is issued by the carrier to the insured and stipulates the terms and conditions on which a policy will be provided, as well as its premium, limits, and other relevant information. A quote is just an offer and not a policy. The agent can compare different quotes and Request to Bind the most suitable one, after which it becomes a policy. For more information, see Quotes.
Quote Details dialog – The dialog that is available via the Quote request page and contains the parameters that influence the premium. It may include the "Coverage", "Limits & Deductibles", "Payment Plan", "Terms & Conditions", and "Rating" tabs (or sections), which are shown only if this data is available.
Quote request page – The main interface for adding markets and performing actions upon them (e.g. requesting a quote). See New Quote request page.
Quote request status – The status associated with a market’s offer (Quote) for a policy, which can be accepted or declined. The market uploads or generates the quote, which is then sent to the agent in response to their Request for Quote. For more information, see Statuses in Appulate.
Record – The generic name for a Request for Quote or a policy, used in a general way or when both of these terms are implied (e.g. Record status).
Record status – The main status of a Request for Quote or policy that shows its current state: "Request in Progress", "Quote Declined by Insured", "Active Policy", etc. For more information, see Statuses in Appulate.
Request to Bind (RtB) – The final stage of the insurance workflow, initiated after a market provides a Quote and the insured agrees to its terms and conditions. The agent then sends the market a Request to Bind the policy, providing any associated documents such as signed ACORD forms, Loss Runs, and others. See Policy binding
Request for Quote (RFQ) – A set of documents (the insured's questionnaire, ACORD, and Supplemental forms, Loss Runs, and others), which an agent or MGA submits to a market on behalf of an insured and based on which the market decides whether to provide a policy and at which premium. If the decision is positive, the market issues a Quote indicating the premium.
Insured tab – The page containing a key set of questions based on which markets estimates whether to provide a policy to an insured. For agents, the questions vary depending on the insurance line. The Insured tab is a part of the Quote request interface.
Supplemental (Supplemental form) – An additional form the market requires to determine whether to provide a policy. These forms are developed by specific markets and may vary depending on the insurance line and state. For more information, see ACORD and Supplemental forms on the Forms tab. Appulate also supports fillable Supplemental forms.
Submarket – A market (usually a carrier) that an MGA works with. To add a submarket, an MGA user needs to select it on the Markets > Available page. For more information, see Availability of submarkets to your agencies.
Submission status – The status associated with a market that has received a Request for Quote or bound a policy. For more information, see Statuses in Appulate.
Submission type – The way an insured's data is sent to a market so that it could provide a Quote (Indication). Appulate has four submission types: "Appulate", "eSubmission", "Weblink", and "Email". For more information, see Submission types.
Uplink – A technology that makes it possible to import filled-out ACORD forms to Appulate. It makes creating Requests for Quotes faster, eliminating the need to repeatedly fill out the data. For more information, see Uplink.
User (role) – A regular company user. Unlike Admins, they do not have any special rights. For more information, see Users.
Viewer (role) - An agency or market user with limited rights. Agency viewers are added during the Producer or CSR assignment for a RFQ or Policy, after which they will receive an email notification. Market viewers are added in submissions to markets that have Email, eSubmission, and Weblink submission types. When an agency submits a quote request to a new market user Appulate, they will receive an email notification that an account in Appulate has been set up for the user to manage submissions in Appulate. For more information, see Viewers.
Webinars – Training sessions held by Appulate team to explain how the system works. Two types are available: Appulate webinars for agents and Appulate webinars for carriers and MGAs. Some are available on-demand, while others you can register for and join on a specific date.
Weblink – A Chrome and Edge browser plugin tool that facilitates submission to the markets operating outside Appulate. Weblink is a part of the ProducerConnect Premium package. For more information, see Weblink.