NowCerts data after an acquisition: carrier downloads and certificates

Abe Harbid, 26 October 2026

NowCerts is an agency management system from NowCerts, LLC, titled on its own site as software for insurance agents [1]. Its pages are short on export detail, so an acquirer should not expect a documented standard file. What the vendor does say is that policy records can be updated automatically from carrier databases, which affects how much of the file the agency actually keyed [1].

What is distinctive about NowCerts data

Three features set the NowCerts pages apart. The first is carrier downloads: the site describes "automated updates of your policy information from carrier databases," with policy data pulled without manual entry [1]. The second is certificates. The site says customers can issue their own certificates and that certificates sent through the system go out from the agency’s own email server [1]. The third is commission tracking for agency and agent commissions, with agency fees, carrier fees and interest rates on payment plans [1].

The pricing page shows plans that scale by number of users, at 1, 2, 5 and more than 50 [2]. It does not state who NowCerts is for beyond the title, so we do not describe its typical agency. What the pages let us say is that a NowCerts agency may have a mix of keyed records and carrier-downloaded records in the same database, and that those two kinds age differently.

What the agency can export

The pricing page lists a Data Export to Excel feature, together with Interactive Reports, Commission Reconciliations, Custom and Scheduled Reports and a Data Import Facility [2]. The text we could read did not show which plans include each feature, so ask the agency whether Excel export is on its plan before you count on it [2]. The home page says the system ships with more than 40 commonly used reports [1].

We found no vendor page describing a full-database export, field names or file layouts, and we will not guess at them. The vendor’s own import story is the other direction: it describes "a set of procedures and scripts" to move a database from another system into NowCerts, and says some data can arrive through carrier downloads [1]. Both points should shape the request you make: ask for the Excel exports of clients, policies, and commissions, and ask which records came from a carrier download.

Because the exact export depends on how the agency set up its reports, the generic list an acquirer needs still applies. That is clients with their addresses and any client numbers, policies with number, carrier, line, effective and expiration dates, premium, commission rate and producer, the producer roster, and carrier statements for several months. If the Excel export lacks any of those columns, say so in writing and ask for another report.

What breaks when you map it to your standard

• Carrier-sourced values. A policy updated from a carrier download [1] may carry the carrier’s wording for the line, coverage and insured name, while a client keyed by an agent carries the agent’s spelling. If both appear in the same export, the engine flags near-duplicates for a decision.
• Certificate holders. Because certificates are a core feature [1], a NowCerts agency may have certificate holders recorded as contacts, and they are not clients. A mapping that imports every contact inflates the book.
• Fees alongside commissions. The commission tracking covers agency fees and carrier fees as well as commissions [1]. Revenue that your standard counts as commission may be partly fee, and the line between them is the agency’s.
• Payment plan interest. The site says interest rates on payment plans are tracked [1]. Premium figures in the export may or may not include financing charges. Ask, and the engine flags premiums that do not match a policy’s own terms.
• Plan-dependent exports. If a smaller plan lacks scheduled or custom reports [2], the agency may only be able to send what it can run on its tier.

Commission statements next to the export

NowCerts’ pricing page names Commission Reconciliations as a feature [2], and its home page describes a system for tracking agency and agent commissions [1]. We found no vendor page describing how a carrier statement is imported or what the reconciliation screen holds, so we do not describe it.

What an acquirer can do without those details is ask for what the agency has: the carrier statements as they arrive, the commission report it runs, and a note of how it pays agents. Then the comparison is made outside the system. The statement lines go against the policy list from the export, and the agent payments go against the roster.

What our engine builds for a NowCerts agency

The engine reads whichever Excel or CSV files the agency sends and stores a mapping for each layout, since no fixed layout is documented. For this kind of mixed record it adds a check for rows where the client name differs by spelling or punctuation but the policy numbers match, and a check for contacts that carry no policy. It matches producers and carrier codes to your roster and code list and reports the unmatched ones with the premium behind them.

Carrier statements go through the same matching as every other agency’s. Lines the book does not contain, policies whose rate differs from the rate paid and carriers with no statement for a month are listed. The agency then appears on the dashboard by producer. Your team receives an import file in your layout and an error report and runs the import. The statement side is described on commission reconciliation.

Questions

Next to this, compare HawkSoft, or return to the systems list. A diagnostic on a sample file shows what the engine finds.

NowCerts is a trademark of NowCerts, LLC. Loadbearing Software is not affiliated with, endorsed by or a partner of NowCerts or any other company named here.