Bamboo Insurance · Project Management Office · Guidewire commission configuration
BillingCenter assigns commission on a renewal when the renewal is issued, 90 days before it takes effect. Requests arriving after that point (Commission Reserve Date) require manual work in one or both systems.
Recommendation
Every broker of record problem traces to renewal premium arriving inside the 90 day window and earning commission to the outgoing agency before anyone knows a transfer is coming. Holding that premium in unapplied funds until the renewal effective date removes the problem rather than managing it. The insured's payment is collected normally and their experience does not change.
The reserve books to whichever agency is agency of record at that moment. Normal behaviour, unchanged.
Funds are collected and held in unapplied funds. No distribution to renewal invoice items, so no commission earns and the reserve stays whole.
A retroactive transfer scoped to the renewal period moves the entire reserve to the new agency. A manual rate override is still required on the transferred charges.
Held funds apply to the renewal invoice items and commission earns to whoever is agency of record at that point, which is now the new agency. The money is owed from this moment.
Earning and payment are separate events. Commission earns on the effective date, then pays on the next Producer Payment run, which is monthly for every agency today. The hold does not add to that gap. The outgoing agency was never paid on this term, so nothing has to be recovered.
Plain language
Guidewire names several things in ways that do not match ordinary usage. These are the ones that carry the argument below.
| Term | What it means |
|---|---|
| Policy Change | PolicyCenter's mid-term endorsement transaction. Modifies an in-force policy without changing its effective date. Can move the servicing agency. Cannot move the agency of record. |
| Rewrite | Cancels the policy and reissues it. The only mid-term way to change the agency of record, and far heavier than an endorsement. |
| Producer of record | The agency that earns commission on a policy term. This is the code BillingCenter uses to book and pay commission. |
| Producer of service | The agency actually servicing the policy. Maintained in PolicyCenter, and becomes producer of record when the policy renews. |
| Policy period, or term | One contract year. Each has its own producer of record and its own commission. |
| Commission reserve | Money set aside when a term is issued, representing commission expected to be paid. Not yet owed to the agency. |
| Commission Reserve Date | 90 days before the renewal effective date. BillingCenter receives the policy period and books the reserve. Producer of record and commission rate are both fixed here. |
| Earned commission | Reserve that has converted into money owed. Under this configuration that happens as premium is received. |
| Commission subplan | The rule deciding which rate applies and when commission earns. Selected once, at the Commission Reserve Date, when BillingCenter receives the policy period. |
| Producer of record transfers (BillingCenter) | |
| Point-in-time | Moves the commission reserved at -90 days to the new agency. Leaves any earned commission with the old agency. |
| Retroactive | Moves everything on the periods it is scoped to, including commission already earned or paid. Scoped to the renewal, nothing exists before the Commission Reserve Date, so day -90 is its earliest reach. Left unscoped, it reaches back through the current term to that term's effective date. |
| Future | Moves nothing on the current term. Only future charges and future terms. |
Root cause
PolicyCenter issues the renewal. At the Commission Reserve Date, 90 days before the renewal effective date, BillingCenter receives the policy period, selects the commission subplan, and books the reserve against the current producer of record. Producer and rate are both fixed at that point. The effective date is not a factor.
Scope