Inbound inquiry capture
Joel Tessera — referred by Adam Wexler at Wexler Tool & Die (a peer manufacturer Northridge already covers) — fills out the "Request a review" form on northridgeib.com. Interface365 captures the lead with full source attribution to the peer referral. The form gathers entity name, current carrier, premium ballpark, and renewal date so the producer can show up to the BOR meeting prepared.
Source ("Peer referral") is configured under Settings → Sources, so attribution is automatic — and Adam Wexler is tagged on the lead immediately so reciprocity tracking starts on Day 1 (peer referrers get steakhouse dinners after a bind, plus visibility into a quarterly "your referrals" digest). Inquiries route by territory + line-of-business specialty (manufacturing accounts go to Megan automatically).Qualification call & lead enrichment
Megan calls Joel within two hours, scopes the engagement, and enriches the lead record with custom fields. The lead status flows New → Contacted → Qualified.
Lead conversion — one click, three entities
With the lead qualified, Megan clicks Convert. Interface365 creates a Contact (Joel) + Account (Tessera Manufacturing) + Deal (the renewal opportunity) + records the referral source. Multiple decision-team contacts will be added in Step 4.
Deal enrichment — stakeholder team, custom fields, tags
Mid-market commercial accounts always have a small stakeholder team — CEO (signs the BOR letter), CFO (approves premium budget), Ops Manager (claims point person), and the referrer. Megan adds Sandra, Sarah, and Mike to the deal with explicit roles.
Expected bind: Apr 14, 2026 (1 day before x-date)
BOR meeting, exposure analysis, market submission
Over the next 5 weeks (Mar 5 → Apr 14 renewal), Megan, Diane, and Jordan log every interaction. The BOR signing, exposure analysis, loss runs, market submissions, carrier responses, and internal underwriting strategy all live on the deal record — nothing in side-channel emails or random shared drives.
Referrer for reciprocity tracking — 4th referral from Wexler in 3 yrs (3 bound, 1 declined fit). Quarterly referrer digest already includes Adam.Tasks & follow-ups — never let a thread drop
Tasks attach to the deal with priority, due dates, and assignees. Polymorphic — they can also attach to contacts, companies, or projects.
Pipeline progression & renewal-window alerts
As the deal advances, Megan drags it through stages. Renewals are calendar-driven: x-date is sacrosanct. Interface365 flags any deal where the x-date is <30 days away with no quote received yet — and any deal where the proposal sat for 5+ days without follow-up. Missed renewals = the client goes uninsured at midnight on the x-date. There is no second chance.
Coverage menu — lines of insurance, carrier appetite, commission rates
Northridge's coverage catalogue — lines of insurance with appointed carriers (each with appetite + commission rate), specialty wholesalers for hard markets (cyber, D&O), and lifecycle states (Active / Restricted / Sunset). Restricted states keep "no longer competitive" carriers off new submissions; Sunset means we no longer place new business with that market at all.
Renewal proposal — line by line by carrier, with side-by-side
Megan assembles the formal renewal proposal pulling line items + carrier quotes + commission breakdown. Premiums are locked at quote-receipt — carriers commit to honour these numbers until the x-date, after which the quote expires and rates may move.
| # | Coverage line | Limits / deductible | Carrier | Comm % | Annual premium |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | General Liability (GL) $1M each / $2M aggregate · products-completed ops included · ITAR endorsement | $1M / $2M | Hartford | 10% | $28,400 |
| 2 | Property — Schaumburg HQ + Indy office Building $4.2M + BPP $2.8M + BI $1.5M · all-risk · $5K AOP / $25K wind | $8.5M TIV | Hartford | 12% | $54,200 |
| 3 | Workers' Compensation (IL + IN) Statutory · MOD 0.94 (better than industry avg 1.0) · 65 EE · multi-state class-codes | Statutory | Hartford | 8% | $78,600 |
| 4 | Cyber liability + breach response $2M limit · $25K retention (raised post-2023) · MFA + EDR controls verified | $2M / $25K | Beazley (WS) | 15% | $22,800 |
| 5 | D&O / EPLI Private-co D&O $2M · EPLI $1M · Side-A · ITAR-flagged work covered | $3M combined | Chubb | 14% | $18,400 |
| 6 | Commercial Auto — fleet (8 vehicles) $1M CSL · 8 trucks + 2 sedans · hired/non-owned · 1 minor 2025 claim disclosed | $1M CSL | Progressive | 11% | $24,200 |
| 7 | Commercial Umbrella $5M limit over GL + Auto + Employer's Liability | $5M | Hartford | 10% | $19,400 |
Renewal lifecycle — the carrier squeeze that saves the deal
Hartford came back with a +28% renewal ($292K). Most brokerages lose the account here — client either swallows the increase reluctantly or jumps to a competitor on price alone. Northridge ran 5 carriers to market, used the competitive quotes to negotiate Hartford down to +8% ($246K), and saved Tessera $46K vs walk-away. This is the renewal conversation.
Policy Bound — Closed Won 🏆
Bind instructions issued + carrier confirms coverage active triggers the deal to move to Closed Won. Probability flips to 100%. Producer commission unlocks (paid on first installment from carrier — typically 30 days post-bind). Forecast updates. Step 13 picks up the active-policy management — endorsements, certificates, claims handling, prep for next year's renewal.
Webhooks fire — Slack, AMS, COI workflow, accounting
The instant the deal flips to Won, Interface365 fires deal.won webhooks to every subscribed endpoint. Slack celebrates. The AMS (Applied EPIC) is updated with the bound policy details. The COI (certificate of insurance) workflow auto-fires — Boeing + Lockheed get their certs within 48 hrs. Accounting books the receivable.
// POST https://hooks.zapier.com/... // X-I365-Signature: sha256=... { "event": "deal.won", "timestamp": "2026-04-14T13:00:42Z", "data": { "deal_id": "d_tm26r0184", "name": "Tessera — FY26 Renewal", "annual_premium": 246000, "prior_premium": 228000, "brokerage_commission": 26230, "producer_split": 13115, "carrier": "Hartford", "ams_account_id": "EPIC-AC-26-0184", "currency": "USD", "referral_source": "Wexler Tool & Die", "primary_contact": "Joel Tessera", "producer": "Megan Walsh", "effective_date": "2026-04-15", "x_date": "2027-04-15", "closed_at": "2026-04-14T13:00:42Z" } }
Megan Walsh just bound Tessera — FY26 Renewal at $246,000 annual premium with Hartford (retained, 12th yr).
Producer commission: $13,115 (paid May 15) · AM: Jordan Khalil · Effective Apr 15.
Negotiated $46K out from Hartford's +28% opener using Travelers + Chubb quotes as leverage. New account on the books, retention still 100% on the year. AMS sync queued; COIs to Boeing + Lockheed scheduled for tomorrow.
X-I365-Signature: sha256=... header so receivers can verify authenticity. Failed deliveries auto-retry with exponential backoff. The Settings → Webhooks → Delivery logs page shows every fire with status code, response, and retry count.Active policy + the mid-term endorsement conversation
Insurance deals don't end at "Bound" — that's where the policy year really begins. The active book lives in its own view (claims watch · COI requests · endorsements · pre-renewal). Auto-tasks fire on policy milestones (90-day pre-renewal, 60-day market shop, 30-day proposal). And mid-policy, the inevitable conversation: "We just hired 8 employees and opened a new location — what does that mean for our coverage?" Endorsements are where mid-term commission lives.
Jul 14, month 4 of the policy year. Sandra Tessera calls Megan: "We just signed a lease on a 12,000 sq-ft satellite facility in Indianapolis — we're moving 8 employees there for a Lockheed F-35 sub-program. We need coverage in place before they start Aug 1. What do we do?" Jordan opens an endorsement workflow, Megan loops Diane in for the carrier-side request. Diane writes the endorsement request to Hartford for Property ($2.5M building + BPP + BI) + WC for Indiana class codes (8 EE) + GL territory expansion. Hartford issues the endorsement 6 business days later: +$18,400 pro-rated for the remaining 8 months of the policy year (i.e., Aug 1 → Apr 15).
Endorsement END-2026-0184-01 bound + dec page issued to Tessera Jul 22. Annual premium runs from $246,000 → $264,400 on a policy-year basis (the additional $18,400 is the pro-rated portion). FY27 base premium will reset to ~$278K to reflect the new full-year exposure for Indianapolis. Brokerage commission +$1,840 (also pro-rated), producer split +$920 paid Aug 30. Tagged ● Billable endorsement.
Without the endorsement workflow + active-book record: this would have been a verbal "yeah we'll cover it" that gets buried in email, the new facility opens uninsured for 3 weeks, the additional WC for IN never gets to the carrier, and a workplace injury at the new site becomes broker E&O exposure instead of a covered claim. Instead: scope captured Jul 14, carrier endorsement requested same day, bound + dec page issued in 8 calendar days, commission booked, AMS updated. Endorsements typically generate 5–8% of annual commission revenue at zero acquisition cost — and properly handled, they're the highest-trust touchpoint of the policy year (clients remember the broker who said "yes, we'll handle it" and got a clean dec page back the next week).
Book of business — month 4 of the policy year
It's the second Monday in August. Tessera's Indianapolis endorsement landed last month and is now booked. Northridge has ~340 active accounts, $13.8M in annual premium, 22 renewals due in the next 60 days, and a 92% retention rate. Tessera's renewal + endorsement land on the same dashboard as the rest of the book.
What Northridge set up before any of this worked
Rewind to last summer's CRM rollout. Every screen you just walked through — the source dropdown on the inquiry form, the stakeholder-team roles, the 8-stage renewal pipeline, the 7-phase service cycle, the carrier-appetite catalogue, the endorsement template — was configured once by Northridge's office manager + IT in Settings. Then it reused itself through ~340 active accounts and 280+ renewals.
Entity relationship map
How every entity in this walkthrough connects
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