Reference · Definitions and formulas
Insurance agency metrics, explained.
One definition for each measure, used on every page of this site and in the product. Find the one that fits your question, with its source and period.
PUBLISHED BY KEELRIDGE SOFTWARE · UPDATED NOVEMBER 12, 2026
The short answer
Start with the question. Keep the measure, source and period together.
Retention asks how much of last year's book renewed. Movement asks how the whole book changed between two dates. Posted financial results and the book's annual commission answer different questions. Each account manager's figures add who serviced what. Read the relevant measures together, check the records behind them and use judgment about what should happen next.
01 · Retention
Clients retained, and last year's book renewed.
Two agencies can both say “premium retention” and mean different things. Keelridge uses the Best Practices Study's convention: renewal business over last year's book, with rate and exposure changes included. Client retention stays a count.
Client retention
Did last year's clients stay? Each client counts once, whatever their size. A client who still holds any policy is retained.
clients still here ÷ clients a year earlier
Calculate client retentionPremium retention
How much of last year's premium renewed, at this year's price? Take away lost clients and dropped lines, then add rate and exposure changes and the price change on rewrites. It can pass 100% when prices rise.
renewal business ÷ premium a year earlier
Compare it with client retentionCommission retention
The same bridge in annual recurring commission, with consistent annualization and accepted direct-bill assumptions. It is not booked commission income in the ledger.
renewal business ÷ annual commission a year earlier
Calculate commission retentionRetained
What stayed, before any price change: the opening book less lost clients and lines dropped, at last year's value. Set beside client retention, it shows whether the clients who left were larger or smaller than average.
opening − lost clients − lines dropped
Read about retained premium in the retention tourPremium lost
What left? Premium on lost clients and lines dropped by clients who stayed, in dollars, at last year's value. It is not a rate, and price increases do not net against it.
lost clients + lines dropped
Build the bridge02 · Book movement
What changed between the opening and closing book?
One bridge takes last year's book to this year's: what left, what the rest renewed at, and what arrived. Use annual in-force coverage premium at two dates and the same scope. A policy rewritten to the same coverage, or moved to another carrier, is retained, so a rewrite or carrier move never becomes a false loss and gain.
What left
Lost clients: every policy of a client who holds none at the closing date. Lines dropped: policies a staying client no longer holds. Both at last year's premium. What remains is Retained.
What the rest renewed at
Rate and exposure: closing minus opening premium on policies held at both dates. It also takes in coverage and mix changes unless more detail separates them. Rewrites: the new-minus-old premium on rewritten or carrier-moved policies.
What arrived
New business: new clients and new lines for clients already on the book. A client who left and came back is new business. Acquired books are counted separately, and a rewrite is never new business. Returning is different: the same policy back after a gap in the records, counted neither as lost nor as new.
03 · Growth
Did new business replace what left, and is the agency growing?
Keelridge's Growth page puts three figures above the bridge. In the fictional demo, for the twelve months to September 30, 2026: new vs lost of 122.7%, a new business rate of 13.2% and organic growth of 4.2%.
New vs lost
Did new business replace what left? Above 100% means it more than replaced it. Bought books and returning coverage are left out. Demo: $831k new against $677k lost.
(new clients + new lines) ÷ (lost clients + lines dropped)
New business rate
How much new business arrived, as a share of the book you started with? A rewrite is retained, not new.
(new clients + new lines) ÷ opening book
Organic growth
The industry's agency growth figure: growth in net commissions and fees against the prior 12 months, on a full-year basis, with each bought book left out for its first 12 months. It still moves with rates and exposure.
net commissions and fees ÷ prior 12 months − 1
Growth or rate increases?Rule of 20
Reagan Consulting's measure of growth balanced with profit: a score of 20 or more marks a top-performing agency. Keelridge shows it in Benchmarks, under Planning.
organic growth % + ½ × EBITDA margin %
04 · Book and ledger
Do the book and booked commission tell the same story?
Compare a year of booked P&C commission with the book's annual commission over the same months. In Keelridge this is Book vs GL, under Financials, an executive view; the two figures have different reporting bases.
Compare the same period and scope.
The window is twelve calendar months ending at the last closed GL month, no later than the selected book snapshot. All twelve months are required. Direct-bill modeling and annualization stay disclosed inside annual commission; contingency and other income stay outside the comparison.
P&C commission in your P&L vs average annual commission, same months
Walk the comparisonLeave the unresolved difference visible.
Growth from that average to annual commission at the selected snapshot is separate. Timing & unexplained can be positive or negative; no cause is assigned without records that support it. This is a directional comparison, not a controlled ledger reconciliation.
Timing & unexplained = P&C commission in your P&L − average annual commission, same months
Put the comparison in the financial review05 · Account-team review
Read each account manager's book in context.
Are clients staying, is new business arriving and are clients adding lines? Read the measures together, with hand-overs, workload and service quality. The figures support a management conversation; they do not show what one person caused.
Managers review their teams; account managers review their own book. Department managers and account managers see premium within their scope, not commission or payout figures. Compare the same periods.
| Measure | What it shows | Read it with |
|---|---|---|
| Client retention and Premium renewed | Last year's clients still here, counted once; and the person's renewal business over the book they serviced: what they held a year earlier, plus or less clients handed over, at last year's value. A client lost after a hand-over counts for the person who received it; one lost before it, for the person who handed it over. | The period and the hand-overs in it. |
| Lost business | Lost clients and dropped lines between the two dates, at last year's premium. | The agency's explanation of departures; a client's absence alone does not show why they left. |
| New business | New clients and new lines for clients already on the book, with their premium. | Rewrites, bought books and hand-overs, which are not new business. |
| Organic and total premium growth | Organic premium growth leaves out clients handed over and bought policies in their first 12 months; total premium growth leaves them in. | The gap between the two, which was moved or bought, not sold. |
| Rate and exposure | Premium change on the book's policies that renewed; it is inside premium renewed. | Rate, exposure, coverage and mix; the combined change is not all sales or all pricing. |
| Rounding | Accounts rounded: clients who hold more policies with the agency than a year earlier. Policies per client: policies divided by clients. Net cross-sell: new lines less lines dropped. | Lines dropped, which sit in retention; a policy count alone does not show a sales action. |
| The book's commission (executive view) | Annual recurring agency commission on the book the person looks after. | The attribution rule, annualization and modeled basis. It is not booked accounting income. |
06 · Every definition
One line for each measure.
The same words are used across the notes, tours and calculators on this site. Opportunities and renewals have their own measures too: close rate and last renewal change.
| Measure | Definition |
|---|---|
| Client retention | Clients on the book a year earlier who still hold at least one policy at the closing date, divided by those clients. |
| Premium retention | Renewal business divided by the annual in-force premium a year earlier. Keelridge follows the Best Practices Study's convention: rate and exposure changes count, so it can pass 100%. |
| Renewal business | Last year's annual premium less lost clients and lines dropped, plus rate and exposure changes on renewed policies, plus the price change on rewrites: last year's book as it renewed, at this year's value. |
| Commission retention | The same calculation in annual recurring commission: renewal business divided by commission a year earlier, with annualization and accepted direct-bill assumptions kept consistent. |
| Retained | The opening book less lost clients and lines dropped, every line at its opening value. A policy rewritten to the same coverage, or moved to another carrier, is retained. |
| Lost clients | Every policy of a client who holds no policy at the closing date, valued at the opening date. |
| Lines dropped | Policies a staying client held at the opening date and no longer holds, valued at the opening date. A policy rewritten to the same coverage, or moved to another carrier, is retained, not dropped. |
| Rate and exposure | Closing minus opening annual premium on policies held at both dates. It combines carrier rate and exposure with coverage and mix changes, which are not separated; it is never a rate on its own. |
| Rewrites | On policies a staying client rewrote to the same coverage under a new line code within 45 days of expiry, or moved to another carrier on the same line of business, this year's premium less last year's. The policies themselves are retained. |
| New business | Annual premium on new clients and on new lines for clients already on the book. A client who left and came back counts as new. Rewrites, bought books in their first 12 months and returning coverage are left out. |
| Returning | The same policy back on the book within 14 months of a gap in the records: coverage that never actually stopped. It is counted neither as lost nor as new. |
| New vs lost | New business divided by what was lost: (new clients + new lines) ÷ (lost clients + lines dropped). Above 100% means new business more than replaced what left. |
| New business rate | New business as a share of the opening book: (new clients + new lines) ÷ opening book. |
| Organic growth | Growth in net commissions and fees (revenue less brokerage, without contingency and other income) against the prior 12 months, on a full-year basis, with each bought book left out for its first 12 months. |
| Premium renewed | One person's renewal business divided by the book they serviced: what they held a year earlier, plus clients handed to them and less clients handed away, at last year's value. It can pass 100%. |
| Net cross-sell | New lines added for clients already on the book, less lines staying clients dropped. It can be negative. |
| Accounts rounded | Retained clients whose policy count with the whole agency rose over the window, by any amount. Clients who dropped a line are not netted off; that shows in retention. |
| Policies per client | Active policies divided by active clients, compared with the same ratio a year earlier. |
| Close rate | Opportunities bound divided by those bound or lost in the period. Open opportunities are left out; with nothing resolved, the rate is unavailable, not zero. |
| Last renewal change | (This term's premium − the same policy's premium a term earlier) ÷ the earlier premium. It is the change the client already met, not a forecast. |
| Rule of 20 | Organic growth % plus half the EBITDA margin %, both on net revenue. A score of 20 or more marks a top-performing agency. |
| Timing & unexplained | Twelve months of booked P&C commission minus the book's annual commission averaged over those same months; no cause is assigned without records that support it. |
Where the definitions fit
One management review across financial, book and team performance.
These formulas support a broader review: see what changed, check the figures behind it and decide where attention belongs. Each role gets the view its responsibilities need.
The Monthly brief
How did the month go? The owner's first page gives the month's verdict, a ranked list of issues for the meeting to settle, each with the profit, plan or book story behind it, and last month's follow-ups.
Agency P&L and EBITDA
Is revenue turning into profit? Read booked results against the comparison period and open the accounting rows behind the change.
Budget, Benchmarks and Acquired books
Are results landing where you planned? Compare actuals with the plan and the projected year-end, your ratios with the Big "I" / Reagan Consulting Best Practices Study's figures for the agency's revenue band, and each bought book's payback with whether its clients are staying.
Retention, growth and movement
Did clients stay, and what changed in the book? Read client, premium and commission retention with the book movement behind them: lost clients, dropped lines, retained premium, rate and exposure, and new business.
Opportunities that came in, were bound or were lost
Review opportunity activity separately from what later appears in the book. People record outcomes; matching an opportunity to the AMS is not automatic.
Each account manager's book
How is each book doing? Review client retention, premium renewed, growth, net cross-sell and new business alongside hand-overs and context.
Renewals and rounding for the account manager
Renewals by month, each renewal's last premium change, its review state and the single-policy clients to round, within the account manager's own book. Service work stays in the AMS.
07 · Source basis
The reports may already exist. The review still needs assembling.
Book snapshots, posted financials and agency definitions have different jobs, even when one system stores them. Agree the periods, mappings and reporting basis before comparing the figures.
AMS book-of-business reports
Dated client and policy records, annual in-force premium, recurring commission, renewal dates, carrier and line information, and who looks after each account.
Income statements or approved accounting reports
Booked income, operating expenses and the accounting periods needed for financial, plan-versus-actual and Book vs GL review. Accounting can live in the AMS or a separate system.
Agency definitions
Mappings, exclusions, staff assignments, annualization, accepted direct-bill assumptions and plan structure make the comparison repeatable.
Free tools and recurring review
Keep the definitions. Reuse the management review.
Work through one calculation.
Enter figures you already have to calculate retention or organic growth, or to build a book premium bridge. The arithmetic runs in the browser; entered figures are not sent or stored by Keelridge. These tools do not find or rebuild the inputs.
Return to the same figures when the question comes back.
The management picture should not have to be assembled by hand each time. After setup, supported agency sources are refreshed and checked, so Keelridge keeps dated figures ready for the recurring review and for Assistant questions within each role.
- Financial, book and team figures in one review
- Monthly, year-to-date and year-over-year views, by measure
- Owner, team and own-book permissions
- Sources, periods and definitions attached to the figures
Reference questions
How the measures are used.
What insurance agency performance metrics should be reviewed monthly?
Start with the management question: profit against last year and the plan, client retention and last year's book renewed, new business, how each account manager's book is doing, and the renewals coming due. Read client retention beside premium and commission retention, which Keelridge reports as renewal business over last year's book. Keep each figure's source, period and definition attached before deciding what needs a closer look.
Read the note →What files does Keelridge use to calculate these metrics?
The recurring review uses supported dated AMS book exports and income statements or approved accounting reports. Accounting may live in the AMS or a separate system. Setup records the mappings, definitions and role scope; the owner, or someone the owner authorizes, reviews the checks and confirms each supported update. The snapshots and accounting months must cover the comparison being made.
Do agency owners have to calculate these figures by hand in Keelridge?
No. The public reference and calculators show how selected measures work. In Keelridge, supported source reports are mapped and checked so the same measures can be reused in recurring reviews rather than recalculated from scratch.
Can one number measure an insurance account manager's performance?
No. Read client retention, premium renewed, new business and rounding together, then bring hand-overs, workload and service quality into the conversation. The figures alone do not show what one person caused or decide compensation. Managers review their team; account managers review their own book. Department managers and account managers see premium within their scope, not commission or payout figures.
Why can AMS commission differ from the insurance agency general ledger?
The book describes annual recurring commission; the ledger records posted income. Keelridge compares twelve complete months of booked P&C commission with the book's annual commission averaged over the same months. Growth to the selected snapshot is separate, and Timing & unexplained stays signed and unallocated until the records support an explanation. This is a directional comparison, not a controlled ledger reconciliation.
Read the note →Can I ask the Keelridge Assistant about these measures in the public demo?
Yes, a few questions on the fictional agency. The Product page shows a recorded fictional-agency answer with its source. Questions about your own agency's numbers belong in a fit call; the Assistant answers only from figures the reader's role can see.
The recurring management review
Carry the definitions into the next review.
See how supported agency reports become a recurring management review, with sources, periods and a view for each role. Design partner terms are available before commitment.