Set-up, Products

On the Products List screen you will be presented with a scrolling list of insurance products or schemes…

• Click the “Glasses” button or press F12 to switch to the flat view of the highlighted product
• Click the “Starburst” button or press F3 to start a new product
• Click the “Binoculars” button or press F9 to find a product or reset the order in which the products are listed

Entering A New Product

• On the scrolling list of products, optionally highlight a product similar to the one you wish to create
• Click the Starburst button or press the F3 key

• If you’ve come from a similar product you may optionally save time by just clearing and entering the plan name (see above)
• If you haven’t come from a similar product you should clear “All fields”
• Select the overall Type, or product group, using the drop-down (e.g. Pensions, see below)
• Select the specific Product type using the drop-down (e.g. Pension, Personal)
• Select the Address Set for the insurance company using the drop-down (e.g. Companies, Life & Investment)
• Select the Company set using the drop-down (e.g. Axa Sun Life – see “Set-up Insurers On-The-Fly”, paragraph below)
• Type in the product’s Plan Name (e.g. “Retirement Plan”)
• Click the “=” button next to the Product code field to generate a code
• Click the “Save” button

Don’t Allow Policies to be Created

Only tick the box called “Don’t allow policies to be created for this product” if the product is discontinued (e.g. Mini ISAs) and you no longer wish to be offered it when creating new policies.

Amending A Product

• On the scrolling list of products double-click the product to change
• Click the “Edit” button
• Make the changes (e.g. change the plan name)
• Click the “Save” button
• An “Update Product” pop-up will appear, below, on which you should click “Yes” to also update all existing policies based on this product

Deleting A Product

• On the scrolling list of products highlight the product to be deleted
• Click the yellow “Bin” or “Delete” button
• Click “OK” to proceed with the delete, as shown below

If there are any policies on your system that are based on this product you’ll be presented with the following pop-up…

• Click “No” if you’d like to cancel the deletion process
• Click “Yes” if you’d like to continue deleting the selected product AND re-allocate the affected policies to a different product

If you clicked “Yes” you’ll then be presented with a “Change Insurer / Plan” pop-up from which you should select the new product for the affected policies. You are most strongly advised NOT to cancel from this pop-up or the affected policies will become orphaned and almost impossible to access.

General Insurance Products with Standard Premiums

Certain general insurance products always have the same premium, such as for Home Emergencies, or certain types of Pets. In these cases after you’ve saved the product…

• Click the “Edit” button
• Click the “Premium defaults” button

• Enter the standard premium details
• Click “Save”

Set-up Insurers On-The-Fly

When setting-up a new product, if you cannot find the insurer you require in the “Company” drop-down, click the “Setup” button next to “Company”. This will take you to a “Find Address” pop-up, as show below, where you should…

• Click “New” and enter the insurer’s details, including a four character code
• Click “Save
• Click “OK” to exit back to setting-up the product

Product Codes

You’ll notice that every product is given a 14 character code, where the…

• First 4 characters are the insurer’s code
• Next 6 characters are the Type and Product (pre-determined by the system)
• Last 4 characters reflect the Plan Name

It is not necessary to understand or remember product codes, but they do allow experienced users to find products more quickly than by drop-down menus.

Edit Commission Rates

These are not relevant if you have the “Lite” or “Office Manager” versions of Durell. However with all other versions you should enter the commission details…

• General Insurance - enter your commission rates at inception and renewal (N.B. frequently these will be the same)
• Life & Investment - enter the Lautro uplift rate (e.g. 135%) if applicable, or click the “=” button next to it to get the rate already set in the insurer’s record. Also enter the basis for renewal commission (e.g. based on a percentage of the premium) and period of renewal commission (e.g. monthly)

Most insurers will offer the same uplift on all their products. So if you have been receiving 130%, and this has just increased to 140%, you may update all affected products via Set-up Insurers, where you should click the Signpost button and select the option to pass this new uplift rate to all of that insurer’s products. Of course there are always exceptions, so to prevent individual products from being updated in this way, click the tick-box next to the prompt “Don’t update rate from insurer”.

“Signpost” Option To Set-up Life Commission Calculator

Life commission rates can only be edited via the “Signpost” button or by pressing the F2 key. Standard Lautro rates are already included in the system, and should not be changed. You may add rates for insurers whose commission structure is not Lautro based, but you are advised to talk to Durell’s support team first.

Network Members Only

In the “Set-up” for the “Accounts” you can edit your “Posting Defaults” so that all your sales commission is automatically invoiced to the network after taking account of the network’s standard commission deduction. See “Accounts, Set-up Posting Defaults”.