Agency Configuration Overview
Before your agency can begin using HawkSoft, you will need to enter basic agency information, configure your HawkSoft users, and make important configuration decisions. It is important to take the time to set up your agency to be successful and leverage the features HawkSoft has to offer. The following articles will help you set up HawkSoft to successfully meet your agency’s needs.
Before you begin, see Best Practices for Clean Data to help you with some important configuration decisions for setting defaults and required data.
Agency Information Setup
The first step in setting up your agency is to enter your basic agency information. Use the Agency tab on the Agency Setup dialog to configure your agency's contact and license information and configure Default Agent Information for single-office agencies.
It is important to insert agency information exactly as you want it to appear on any correspondence generated from HawkSoft. Items such as ACORD forms, HawkSoft form letters, receipts, invoices, email, text, and proposal templates use this information to prefill your agency's contact and license information.
Multiple Office Setup
For agencies with multiple offices, you can add each agency office to your HawkSoft database through Office Setup. Once you've added your agency's offices, you can:
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Determine which offices users log into by default. You can select a default office for each user, or make them a roaming user
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Set Default Agent Information on clients and policies for the relevant office.
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Edit, archive, and un-archive existing offices in your agency
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Enter the office name and information that will be printed on agency documents
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With User Permissions by Office Enabled: Set specific office permissions for each user
If your agency only has a single office, you do not need to do anything under Office Setup. Complete your agency's contact information and Default Agent Information under the Agency Information tab of Agency Setup.
In this article, we will go over how to enable Multi-Office mode, add offices to Office Setup, how to edit, archive, and un-archive existing Offices, as well as how to assign Default Agent Information for each Office, and assign users to specific offices.
Manage Agency Users
Each agency employee who uses HawkSoft must have a user profile that includes their name, login credentials, email, and permissions set to accommodate their job functions. The User Profile is also where you can set this user's contact information for placement on forms and correspondence.HawkSoft User Profiles can be added and configured through the User Setup tab in Agency Setup.The following articles are intended to help an agency administrator or manager add new users, edit existing users, and assign permissions.
Install HawkSoft on Each Computer/device
This article is intended for new users who wish to install HawkSoft on their local device, and for existing users who wish to install the HawkSoft desktop app on a new device.
While the HawkSoft web app runs in your browser, and gives you access to many features, such as Agency Setup and Reporting, the HawkSoft desktop app runs on your local device, and is required to perform some tasks, such as viewing and managing your Clients and Policies or to perform Trust Accounting.
Installing the HawkSoft Desktop Application
Carrier Setup
The information entered in Carrier Setup defines the lines of business and default coverages available when creating new active or prospect policies in HawkSoft. It also serves as the central location for maintaining carrier details, ensuring accurate policy entry, and configuring carrier website information for integration with tools like HawkLink, enabling streamlined quoting and policy access.Carrier Download Setup
HawkSoft can be configured to accept electronic downloads from participating carriers. HawkSoft attaches downloads received from these carriers to existing clients and policies and can automatically update policy information according to your Download Rules.
Most carriers download using the IVANS platform. After some initial set-up, HawkSoft can automatically access your IVANS mailbox(es) and process these downloads into HawkSoft, with no manual input needed. However, some carriers may require other third-party download software to be installed to take advantage of electronic downloads.
Carrier Download Setup Overview
Correspondence Setup
HawkSoft provides a variety of ways in which users can correspond with customers, prospects, and other contacts entered into the HawkSoft database. Your staff can create emails, letters, memos, proposals, the Policy Overview, and text messages from within HawkSoft.
These topics provide instructions to help you create templates to standardize each type of correspondence generated by your agency and how to insert merge fields into the templates to pull relevant information from clients and policies.
Customization Options
HawkSoft offers a variety of ways to customize your management system to suit your agency's workflows.
The following articles are intended to help you customize lists and menu options throughout your HawkSoft, the main toolbar, agency announcements on the start page, import your agency logo, and more.
Agency Task Configuration
Your agency can create tasks to serve as reminders to complete or follow up on an action for a client and policy. Tasks can be created manually, but you can also configure default tasks and download tasks. The following articles will help you get your agency set up to use tasks effectively.
Best practices for standardizing Tasks for your agency
This article is intended to teach agency administrators/managers about the best practices to ensure a consistent use of tasks for your agency. Understanding how your staff will use tasks in their daily workflows and how you will track the progress of tasks for your agency will help you standardize tasks, train your agency on your preferred workflows, and ensure proper E&O documentation with required log notes on client-related tasks.
Best Practices for Managing Tasks for your Agency
Task Settings
Task Settings enable you to create categories and standardized task templates, automate task creation based on downloads or policy actions, and organize tasks in your agency. They help you efficiently streamline task management and ensure consistency for your agency.
Agency Wide Settings
This article is intended to help you configure settings for a wide range of HawkSoft workflows that your agency performs daily. Taking the time to make sure these settings support your workflow can increase efficiency, accuracy, and usability.
HawkSoft Integrations and Product Add-Ons
HawkSoft offers additional features and integrations with a variety of third-party software applications.
This article provides information for enabling or integrating with additional features and third-party software applications.
Trust Accounting Settings
For agencies that manage their trust accounting through HawkSoft, these articles will help you update your Trust Accounting settings and configuration.
Trust Accounting Setup Overview
Database Tools
Access Management
IP Access Management, also known as the IP Allow List, provides administrators the ability to restrict login access to HawkSoft from specific IP addresses. Domain Access Management provides administrators the ability to restrict login to workstations inside of the agency's Azure domain, network domain, or to users who have VPN access to that domain. These restrictions can be applied to all admins, to all non-admins, or to individual users.
This feature is inactive by default. If your agency does not need to restrict access, simply leave the feature disabled. When enabled, IP and Domain access management applies to HawkSoft Desktop. IP Access Management also applies to HawkSoft in the Web and HawkSoft Agent Portal.
Merging Data from Another HawkSoft 6 Database
When your agency acquires another HawkSoft agency, HawkSoft can merge the acquired database into your existing system. This guide explains what to complete before and after the merge and outlines which data is included.
Data Export
HawkSoft 6 enables agency administrators to export several different categories of data from HawkSoft for purposes such as evaluating the data with outside tools, testing with or migrating to other software, or providing a book of business to another agency. Agency admins may request "snapshots" of these categories of data. Snapshots are copies of the data as of the moment the data was requested. After the system processes the request, the snapshot can be downloaded. Exporting data does not remove any data from your HawkSoft system.
This article explains how to locate Data Export and Book of Business Export settings, perform a data export, and review past data exports and downloads of data.
Client Locks
Client locks prevent other users from changing a client's data while another user is performing an action on a client. Once the user editing the client finishes their action, the changes to the client are saved, and then the lock releases, enabling another user to take action on the client.
In some cases, an agency administrator may need to manually release locks on a client. This could happen if a user forgets to finish their action before leaving for the day, and a different user needs to access the client. This could also happen if a technical issue causes the client lock to remain active despite the user not having the client open anymore. In these cases, a client lock can be manually released from the Agency Setup screen.
The following article is intended to help an agency administrator or manager view and release active client locks.
System Logs
The HawkSoft Log Files enable you to track specific events in HawkSoft, including File Maintenance, Backups, and errors. Log entries always start with the date and time.