Answer: Statement by statement. We match the carrier’s commission download against the AMS policy record and the deposit that cleared your bank, so the books show commission actually received rather than commission expected. New-business, renewal and contingent commissions are recognised on their own lines, and any chargebacks are captured as they occur rather than surfacing at year-end.

Answer: On an accrual policy tied to carrier statements rather than only when the cheque lands, so a good loss-ratio year doesn’t distort a single quarter and the trend is visible year over year. Where the carrier’s contingent formula is uncertain until settlement, we book conservatively and true up on receipt, and document the estimate policy so it stays consistent.

Answer: They run on separate processes. W-2 producers go through payroll with withholding and employer filings; 1099 producers and sub-producers go through a settlement run with their own draws, splits, chargebacks and reimbursements. Classification itself is a legal question decided under IRS and state tests — we’ll flag the risk if the current classification looks fragile and coordinate with your employment counsel rather than opine on the position ourselves.

Answer: Through two distinct paths. Agency-bill premium is treated as a fiduciary receipt, tracked through the trust or premium account and settled to the carrier net of your commission; direct-bill commission is booked when the carrier statement is reconciled to your operating deposit. Combining them into one revenue account is the single most common cause of a P&L that never quite matches what the owner remembers earning.

Answer: Yes. We reconcile against the AMS rather than replacing it, so policy, commission and producer data continues to live where your team already works. Where the AMS has a native commission-download or reconciliation module, we use it; where a direct connection is not available, we work from the provider’s export on a set schedule.

Answer: Yes on the payroll and registration side. Producers writing or working in multiple states can create withholding and registration obligations beyond your home state, and we keep those filings current in the states you are registered in and flag where a new registration looks required. Producer-licensing and non-resident-appointment renewals themselves stay with your compliance team — we track the population, not the licences.

Answer: Through a capture process that runs during the year rather than at year-end: E&O premiums accrued monthly, licence and CE reimbursements coded as they clear producer expense claims, and home-office and mileage records reviewed each quarter. Reconstructing a year of small deductions in April is where most agency owners lose them.

Answer: Every engagement includes a monthly profit-and-loss and cash-flow statement. Growth and Virtual CFO engagements add agency-specific reporting — revenue per producer, retention ratio and commission mix — and Virtual CFO adds forecasting, book-of-business profitability and valuation-oriented views. Reporting cadence is set to your commission calendar rather than a generic month-end.

Answer: Yes, provided commissions can be attributed to a specific producer and a specific line at the point of entry. We set the chart of accounts up with producer and line-of-business classes and tag commission-download rows to them, which is what makes a real per-producer or per-line figure possible rather than a total revenue number divided by headcount.

Answer: Yes. The Standard engagement is built for independent producers and small agencies — monthly bookkeeping, commission reconciliation, operating and trust-account discipline and clean records for the year-end return, without the controller-level services a larger agency needs.

Answer: It depends on your profit level, how you pay yourself, your state’s treatment and how your producer group is structured — there is no single right answer for agencies. We model the options against your actual numbers and coordinate the filing if a change makes sense. See LLC and S-Corp setup for the mechanics.

Answer: Yes. Catch-up work is scoped separately from ongoing bookkeeping, because the effort depends on how many months are open and how much source data survives — bank feeds, carrier commission statements, AMS commission records and payroll history. See Catch up Bookkeeping.

Answer: Yes. Virtual CFO engagements produce valuation-ready packages — profit and loss, balance sheet, commission mix and retention detail, add-back-adjusted EBITDA and supporting schedules — in the format acquirers, partner-buy-in counsel and lenders typically ask for. Where a formal valuation opinion is required we coordinate with a licensed valuation professional rather than provide one ourselves.

Answer: Onboarding starts by connecting your bank, AMS and commission-download feeds and mapping the chart of accounts to an insurance-agency structure. How long that takes depends mainly on how much of a bookkeeping backlog exists and how accessible your historical carrier statements are. We scope it before you commit.