Proposals - How To documentation?

[Jan Regnier]

I emailed AS to see if there were any docs available.  Just got a 34 page HOW TO.....so, after I figure it out - I will make a WIKI for anyone else that is as clueless as I am currently.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


We have never used proposals.  I have never attended a meeting (I don't think we ever had one locally) on creating proposals.  I tried to find HOW TO documentation yesterday but didn't come up with anything other than the generic where to find the starting point - which I already know that location.  I need a step-by-step process.   Is it create Setup then Create Document or is it create Document then create Setup?....etc..  (if I ever learn how to do this - a WIKI will be done!)

This has come about because the Employee Benefit module does not function in Summary of Ins. (request has been made to AS to fix that) - so if we want to present any info about this area of coverage it is going to have to be set up as a proposal.

[Jeff Zylstra]

I think that Graham Blundell's agency does a lot with proposals and he knows some of the tricks and idiosyncrasies of Applied's word integration.  When I've done proposals, I've created the proposal first, then come back and fleshed out the bones of the documents afterward.  There are also some tricks where you can pull a limited amount of information from different applications into one document.  I believe that it has some limitations, however. 

[Jan Regnier]

I don't really want to do a whole lot with it...I am only using it because of no integration with the Summary!  I want some way to extract the info from these apps (until AS gets it into the Summary)

I figure if I can get the basics and draw out the info I want - then I am done.  The fancy stuff will only come about if I have create something else that requires it.  We have used a spreadsheet analysis for years with our renewals and include the Summary info.  We continue to use them as they are simple, easy to view andnd continue to use them as they are simple, easy to view and understand and easy to compare year to year.

Thanks for the lead - I will contact Ian if I cannot make it to the point I want to be at.

[brinkerdana]

I took a great class on customizing proposals from Jennifer Godwin several years ago.  I then spent quite a bit of time customizing the AB Solutions freebies.  I also used the proposal format to set up a policy with basic coverage pages and available endorsements for an in-house program.  Problem is, I'm not very good with WORD and when I think I know what I'm doing, it changes.

I have some good notes from those old classes hanging around at home.  If you can't find anything else, let me know and I'll dig them out and dust them off.  Graham is the the MAN on these things!

[Jan Regnier]

I took a great class on customizing proposals from Jennifer Godwin several years ago.  I then spent quite a bit of time customizing the AB Solutions freebies.  I also used the proposal format to set up a policy with basic coverage pages and available endorsements for an in-house program.  Problem is, I'm not very good with WORD and when I think I know what I'm doing, it changes.

I have some good notes from those old classes hanging around at home.  If you can't find anything else, let me know and I'll dig them out and dust them off.  Graham is the the MAN on these things!

Dana - Thanks!  Right now I have AS working on my issue!  Quite frankly, I don't think there is going to be a way to extract the info from these "apps" - I got the proposal doc set up and it pulled in info from the 1st screen and only from the "In Network" column.  AS dialed in and tried to do a "replicate"  for the other screens and got an error - which indicated formatting incorrect - when it was as basic as it could be..  So they are experimenting with it to see what can be done.  They could have made it simple by just setting it up so it integrated with the Summary of Ins.

Guess they didn't think that far ahead on this module....  They should have ASKED us what we needed before putting this all together (wonder if there was any Beta on this module!) - actually they did ask - but I don't think they incorporated much of the info that was gathered!