How do you read a carrier commission statement?
Last reviewed 2026-08-31
A carrier commission statement lists the policies the carrier paid you on, the premium each was based on, the commission rate applied, and the amount paid. To read it for errors, match each line to a policy in your book, check the rate against your contract, and look for policies that are missing entirely.
- Key columns: policy or account, premium base, commission rate, amount paid, and transaction type.
- Direct-bill and agency-bill commissions appear differently and are easy to double-count or miss.
- Chargebacks show as negative lines; confirm they apply to cancelled policies only.
- The statement will not tell you what is missing; only your book of business will.
What does each column on a commission statement mean?
You will typically see a policy or account identifier, the premium the commission was calculated on, the rate or tier applied, the amount paid, and a transaction type (new business, renewal, endorsement, or chargeback). Gross and net columns can differ when fees are withheld. The premium base matters most: commission is a percentage of it, so a wrong base quietly scales the error across every line it touches.
How do you read a commission statement for errors?
Match each line to a policy in your book, recompute rate times premium to check the math, and flag any rate that sits below your contracted schedule. Treat every negative or chargeback line as a question: does it map to a real cancellation? Work the statement line by line rather than checking that the total looks close to last month, because a total can look normal while individual policies inside it are wrong.
How do you check a commission rate against your contract?
Commission schedules are rarely a single number. Rates vary by product line, by new business versus renewal, and often by a volume tier that steps up once you cross a threshold. Splits with a producer or sub-agent change what you should net. One caveat worth stating plainly: none of this is standardised across the industry. Schedules are contract terms negotiated between your agency and each carrier, they are not published anywhere, and no general description including this one overrides what your own appointment agreement says. Check the rate on the statement against the schedule for that specific product and transaction type, and confirm any tier you have qualified for is actually being applied, since a tier that never steps up is a durable underpayment.
What causes a commission to be underpaid?
These are the patterns worth checking rather than a list of things known to be wrong on your statements. An endorsement that raised the premium but never triggered a recalculation. A volume tier reached but not applied. A policy written under one product code and paid at another product's rate. Splits allocated to the wrong party. Renewals paid at new-business rates or the reverse. Each is small on one policy and systematic across a book, which is why it is worth checking the pattern rather than the individual line.
What does the statement not show you?
The statement can only show what the carrier paid. Policies you bound that never appear, and renewals that should have earned commission but did not, are invisible until you compare the statement to your AMS. This is the asymmetry that matters: errors in what was paid are visible on the document, but the money never paid at all is only findable from your own book.
How do you match a statement to your book of business?
Export the policies in force for the period from your AMS and match them against the statement on a stable key, usually the policy number. Every policy in your book with no matching commission line is a candidate for missing commission. Every statement line with no matching policy is a candidate for a misapplied payment. Both directions matter, and only running the match in both directions surfaces the full picture.
Common questions
Why do direct-bill and agency-bill commissions look different?
Direct bill means the carrier collects premium and pays you commission on a statement; agency bill means you collect premium and net your commission. Mixing them up is a common source of double-counting or missed commission.
What is a commission chargeback?
A reversal of commission when a policy cancels or is endorsed down. It is legitimate for real cancellations, but chargebacks sometimes hit policies still in force, which is recoverable.
How do I know if a commission is missing?
You cannot tell from the statement alone. Compare it to the policies you actually bound in your AMS. Anything bound with no matching commission line is a flag.
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