DO YOU pay attention to the transaction activity notes in your agency management system? You should. If you use your system correctly-as the core location for all transaction activity with your clients-the notes could be your best friend in the event of an E&O claim, providing proof of good agency practices. If your activity notes record errors and evidence of other unsound practices, they could be your worst enemy if a claimant's attorney requests to see them.

Your agency management system's report functions allow you to print a comprehensive transaction/activity log for the entire agency or for any one client. You can design a report to sort information by date, CSR, line of business and transaction type. When a producer prepares to visit a client for a coverage review, such a report can identify pending activity on the client's account and the service the client has received.

Our agency has run this report daily since 1983, and we continue to do so even after going paperless three years ago. If I am out of the office for several days, the report is printed to a PDF document and e-mailed to me for review. I recommend such reviews for every agency. A large agency may want to break up the report by department, line of business and CSR so that one person is not reviewing the activities of more than seven people-which we have found to be a reasonable load.