How to Switch Agency Management Systems: A Checklist

1. Get the exports first

Before you commit to anything, find out what your current system can export: clients, policies, notes, documents, open leads and commission history. The export is the ceiling on what can move. Ask for sample files and review them.

2. Decide what must move

List what you can't operate without: active clients and in-force policies, expiration dates, producer assignments, open leads, and key notes. Everything else is a nice-to-have.

3. Map the fields

Every system names things differently: line-of-business names, carrier names, policy statuses and producer names rarely match one for one. A good migration builds an explicit mapping and flags anything that doesn't match rather than guessing.

4. Reconcile the counts

After a trial import, compare totals: clients in versus clients out, policies in versus policies out, open leads in versus open leads out. If the numbers don't match, find out why before go-live. When we moved a live agency off AgencyZoom, reconciling counts is what caught the edge cases such as duplicate policy numbers and renewals that had to be linked rather than duplicated.

5. Plan carrier downloads and integrations

Re-establish carrier download connections (IVANS), email, phone integrations and your quoting tools in the new system early, so documents keep flowing on day one.

6. Carry over commission history

If producers are paid on history, make sure the new system's reports tie to the old ones for at least one full cycle.

7. Run in parallel for a short window

Keep the old system read-only while your team works in the new one for a week or two. Then switch the old one off.

What we do

You don't need to hand us an export: in most cases we pull your data straight from your current system, tell you exactly what comes across, and handle the import. Read how switching to DarkHorse AMS works, or schedule a one-on-one with the developer.

How to switch agency management systems without losing your book