Florida Surplus Lines Service Office - www.fslso.com

Agent Batch Filing Format v5.1

Note: As of 7/1/2011, the v5.10 Agent .slx format will no longer be valid. Version 6.00 Agent .slx format will be required for all single state and multi state filings. Files submitted using the version 5.10 or earlier format after 7/1/2011 will be rejected.

INTRODUCTION

This document is intended to describe the format for submissions to the Florida Surplus Lines Service Office. This format is intended to be as flexible as possible while still allowing for maximum data integrity.

A listing of insurance coverage codes is available here, and a sample Agent FSLSO Batch File (SLX) is also available.


DIFFERENCES FROM VERSION 5.05


The changes from the v5.05 to v5.10 .slx Agent format are:
  1. The "Version" field in the [FSLSO] section should be 5.10
  2. The addition of the required "Issue Date" field in the [TRANSACTION] section
  3. The addition of the "Late Reason" field in the [TRANSACTION] section
  4. The addition of the "UMR" field in the [TRANSACTION] section

DIFFERENCES FROM VERSION 5.0


The changes from the v5.0 to v5.05 .slx Agent format are:
  1. The "Version" field in the [FSLSO] section should be 5.05
  2. The General Lines Agent (GL Agent) fields at the policy level are now optional. Any GL Agent fields included in your filing will not be imported.
  3. The addition of transaction level comments. This field may be used for commentary, or you may feed your own internal identifiers (i.e. invoicing, unique ids).

DIFFERENCES FROM VERSION 3.0


The changes from the v3.0 to v5.0 .slx Agent format are:
  1. The "Version" field in the [FSLSO] section should be 5.0
  2. NAIC number field is now used in lieu of FEIN for insurers at the [TRANSACTION] level. This field was previously listed as optional, but is required as of 1/22/2009. If an insurer is not an eligible Florida surplus lines insurer, you must use 'FSLSONAIC' in this field. Note: Up to 12.5% of a policy transaction's premium amount may be written through an insurer not on the Florida eligible surplus lines insurer list.
  3. The insurer name and address fields have been eliminated entirely

GENERAL RULES

  1. The data is to be presented for import in a format which is similar to a Microsoft Windows™ INI file.
  2. This file must be an ASCII text file. Binary, EBCIDIC or other format files will be rejected.
  3. This file may be given any Windows™ 9x/NT compatible file name. This name must end in '.slx'.
  4. The submission file will be processed from top to bottom.
  5. Fields must be in the listed order within a section. Section headers are distinguished by the use of brackets [ ].
  6. All field names must be followed by an equal sign (=). All characters between the equal sign and the end-of-line character will be considered data.
  7. Data should NOT be in fixed-length format (right-justified).
  8. Optional Fields with no data should be removed completely. Do not put the Field Name and equal sign followed immediately by a return.
  9. EOS (end of section) is indicated by the beginning of a new section or EOF (end of file). If, at EOS, any data is invalid or any required data is missing, the entire section will be considered invalid. A [Policy] section without at least one [Transaction] section will also be considered invalid.
  10. All submission files generated not using the FSLSO Agent Software must be submitted via the FSLSO FTP Submit software. The submission file may be sent to FSLSO using one of two methods:
    1. The submission file must be transferred to the FSLSO FTP site using the FSLSO FTP Submit tool v5.0 (available 12/31/2008).
    2. Using the FSLSO FTP Submit Software v5.0, the submission file may be exported to a 3.5"HD (1.44MB) diskette, which has been formatted to be compatible with the Windows™ operating system. Each diskette must contain one and only one submission file. Please use unused, pre-formatted diskettes.

REJECTION OF A SUBMISSION

The submission will be rejected if...
  1. ...the [Contact] section is invalid. The entire submission will be rejected and you will NOT be notified!
  2. ...the first section is not the [FSLSO] section.
  3. ...a [Policy] or [Transaction] section appears before any of the following, or there are more than one of any of the following:
    • [FSLSO] section
    • [Agency] section
    • [Contact] section
    • [Billing Contact] section
    • [Surplus Lines Agent] section
For 2 and 3 above, we will do our best to notify you of the rejection, based on the Contact information provided.

TRANSACTIONS IN QUESTION

If a [Transaction] section or its related [Policy] section is deemed invalid, or if there is a missing or ineligible surplus lines insurer associated with a transaction, the section is considered a Transaction in Question (TIQ). TIQs will be processed manually by FSLSO. This may require contact with the Surplus Lines Agent or the Contact listed in the file.


THE FSLSO SECTION

The [FSLSO] section must be listed first in the export file. There may be only one [FSLSO] section per file. It contains information which indicates how this file is to be processed by the FSLSO data import system. It must contain the following fields:

Field Name Description Value
Version The specification version to which this file complies. Files complying to the specifications outlined in this document should indicate a value of 5.10 5.10
Type The type of data being submitted. For submissions of Surplus Lines Agent transactions, this field must be the word Agent. Agent
CSV * If you prefer your submission response as a csv (commas separated value) attachment, use this field. Otherwise, it is not necessary to include it. Y/N
* Optional.

THE AGENCY SECTION

The [Agency] section must be the second section of the file. It contains the following Agency related fields:

Field Name Description Data Length/Type
FEIN The agency's Federal Employer Identification Number (Tax ID) 9 characters
License The agency's license number 7 characters
Name The name of the agency. 75 characters
Address1 The agency's mailing address. 50 characters
Address2* The agency's mailing address. 50 characters
City The agency's city. 20 characters
State The agency's state or province. 30 characters
Country* The agency's country (can be omitted if U.S.). 30 character
Zip The agency's ZIP or Postal Code 20 character
* Optional.

THE CONTACT SECTION

The [Contact] section lists information about the person who did or will do the ACTUAL submission of this file. It must be the third section in the file. It contains the following Contact related fields:

Field Name Description Data Length/Type
First Name The contact's first name. 20 characters
MI* The contact's middle initial. 1 characters
Last Name The contact's last name. 20 characters
Suffix* The contact's name suffix (Jr., III, Ph.D., etc.) 5 characters
Address1 The contact's mailing address. 50 characters
Address2* The contact's mailing address. 50 characters
City The contact's city. 20 characters
State The contact's state. 2 characters
Zip The contact's ZIP code. 5-9 digits
Phone The contact's phone number (including area code). 10 digits
Ext* The contact's phone extension 5 digits
Fax The contact's fax number (including area code). 10 digits
Email The contact's email address. 75 characters
required
* Optional.

THE BILLING CONTACT SECTION

The [Billing Contact] section lists information about the person who is responsible for receiving monthly/quarterly invoices and documentation pertaining to such items. It must be the fourth section in the file. It contains the following Billing Contact related fields:

Field Name Description Data Length/Type
First Name The contact's first name. 20 characters
MI* The contact's middle initial. 1 characters
Last Name The contact's last name. 20 characters
Suffix* The contact's name suffix (Jr., III, Ph.D., etc.) 5 characters
Address1 The contact's mailing address. 50 characters
Address2* The contact's mailing address. 50 characters
City The contact's city. 20 characters
State The contact's state. 2 characters
Zip The contact's ZIP code. 5-9 digits
Phone The contact's phone number (including area code). 10 digits
Ext* The contact's phone extension 5 digits
Fax The contact's fax number (including area code). 10 digits
Email The billing contact's email address. 75 characters
* Optional.


THE SURPLUS LINES AGENT SECTION

The [Surplus Lines Agent] section lists information about the person who will be submitting these policies. It must be the fifth section of the file and contain the following fields:

Field Name Description Data Length/Type
License The agent's license number. 7 characters
First Name The agent's first name. 20 characters
MI* The agent's middle initial. 1 characters
Last Name The agent's last name. 20 characters
Suffix* The agent's name suffix (Jr., III, Ph.D., etc.) 5 characters
Address1 The agent's physical address. 50 characters
Address2* The agent's physical address. 50 characters
City The agent's city. 20 characters
State The agent's state. 2 characters
ZIP The agent's ZIP code. 5-9 digits
Mailing Address1* The agent's mailing address. 50 characters
Mailing Address2* The agent's mailing address. 50 characters
Mailing City* The agent's mailing city. 20 characters
Mailing State* The agent's mailing state. 2 characters
Mailing ZIP* The agent's mailing ZIP code. 5-9 digits
Phone The agent's phone number (including area code). 10 digits
Ext* The agent's phone extension 5 digits
Fax The agent's fax number (including area code). 10 digits
Email The agent's email address. 75 characters
required
*Optional. If omitted, mailing address information will be assumed to be the same as the physical address information. All mailing address fields must be included or omitted together.

THE POLICY SECTION(S)

There must be a [Policy] section for EACH policy being submitted. Each policy section should have the following fields:

Field Name Description Data Length/Type
GL License* The license number of the General Lines Agent who produced the business. 7 characters
GL First Name* The first name of the General Lines Agent. 20 characters
GL MI* The middle initial of the General Lines Agent. 1 characters
GL Last Name* The last name of the General Lines Agent. 20 characters
GL Suffix* The name suffix of the General Lines Agent. (Jr., III, etc.) 5 characters
Policy Number The policy number. 50 characters
Expiration The term expiration date of the policy. MM/DD/YYYY
ZIP The primary ZIP Code of risk for the policy. 5 or 9 digits
County The name of the county of risk for the policy, or the words MULTIPLE COUNTIES if the policy is a multi-county risk. A list of valid county names is available here. 20 characters
Company‡‡ The name of the insured (if it is a company). 75 characters
First Name‡‡ The first name of the insured. 20 characters
MI*‡‡ The middle initial of the insured. 1 characters
Last Name‡‡ The last name of the insured. 20 characters
Suffix*‡‡ The name suffix of the insured. (Jr., III, Ph.D., etc.) 5 characters
Comment * Comments regarding your policy (i.e. internal reference number, invoice number, etc) 255 characters max
* Optional.
‡‡ If the insured is a company, omit First Name, MI, Last Name and Suffix. If the insured is an individual, omit Company.

THE TRANSACTION SECTION(S)

This section lists a single transaction for a given policy. There must be at least one [Transaction] section following each [Policy] section. There may be more than one [Transaction] section per [Policy] section. Each Transaction will be assumed to apply to the previously listed Policy. Each Transaction section should contain the following fields:

Field Name Description Data Length/Type
Coverage Code The type of coverage being provided (list). 4 digits
Tax Status 0 = taxable
1 = non-taxable airport liability, aircraft hull liability
2 = non-taxable governmental
3 = non-taxable motor truck cargo, ocean marine, and ocean cargo		 1 digit
NAIC* The NAIC of the Insurer. 5 or 9 characters
UMR ‡ The policy's Unique Market Reference number if it is a Lloyd's 17 Characters
Transaction Type‡‡ 1 = New business
2 = Additional premium
3 = Returned premium
4 = Cancellation
5 = Renewal
6 = Reinstatement
11 = Backout of New business
12 = Backout of Additional premium
13 = Backout of Returned premium
14 = Backout of Cancellation
15 = Backout of Renewal
16 = Backout of Reinstatement 		1 - 2 digits
Effective Date The effective date of the transaction. MM/DD/YYYY
Issue Date*** The date an insurance company issues a policy or endorsement. This date may be different from the date the insurance becomes effective. MM/DD/YYYY
Net Premium The amount charged/returned to the insured minus any fees. -999999999.99-999999999.99
Policy Fees Any fees charged/returned to the insured. -999999999.99-999999999.99
Late Exempt** This field is used to declare a late exemption for a transaction being submitted greater than the required deadline. Y/N
Late Reason** This field is required if the Late Exempt field is set to "Y"
B = Binder Replacement
R = Retroactive Effective Date
A = Audit Policy
F = Flat Cancel Rewrite
C = Correction
I = Company Issue Date
O = Other
View an FAQ for descriptions of these values 		1 character
Comment** Comments regarding your transaction (i.e. internal reference number, invoice number, etc) 255 characters max
* If a transaction's insurer is not an eligible Florida surplus lines insurer, you must use "FSLSONAIC" as this field value. If this value is used, the transaction will automatically be questioned.
** Optional
***Optional, unless one of the following values is used for the 'Late Reason' field: B, R, A, F, I, O
‡ The UMR will always begin with the letter 'B' followed immediately by 4 digits (signifying the Lloyd's broker), and contain up to 12 alphanumeric characters for a maximum of 17 characters. Separate transactions should be created in cases of multiple UMRs. For further information and examples, see this FAQ.
‡‡ For Transaction Type 1, 2, 5, and 6 these values must be positive. For Transaction Type 3, these values must be negative. For Transaction Type 4, these values must be negative or zero, and the policy's expiration date field must match the Cancellation's effective date.

Backout transactions are used ONLY to negate transactions that have already been submitted. For a backout transaction to be considered valid, it must be submitted with the EXACT policy and transaction information that the transaction you are trying to back out contains.

Business Rules for Reinstatement Transaction Type (Type 6)

  • A reinstatement transaction can be submitted for a policy only when the last transaction (by effective date) was an active cancellation with exact same coverage code and Insurer.
  • The effective date of a reinstatement transaction must be greater than the previous cancellation effective date.
  • Note: For submissions prior to 8/1/2009, reinstatements were allowed to have effective dates equal to the prior cancellation's effective date. This is no longer true. If a policy is reinstated with an effective date equal to a previously submitted cancellation, you must use a transaction type 14 (backout of cancellation).
  • No transactions can be submitted between a cancellation and a reinstatement
  • A reinstatement transaction cannot be backed out if there are any subsequent transactions (by effective date)
  • If a reinstatement transaction is backed out, then the policy expiration date must equal the previous cancellations' expiration date.

Fields that must match exactly for a backout to be considered valid are:
[SURPLUS LINES AGENT]
  • License
  • First Name
  • MI (if used)
  • Last Name
  • Suffix (if used)
[POLICY]
  • Policy Number
[TRANSACTION]
  • Coverage Code
  • Tax Status
  • Transaction Type must be the proper backout (i.e. 14 backs out 4, 11 backs out 1)
  • Effective Date
  • Net Premium must be of the opposite sign of the original
  • Policy Fees must be the opposite sign of the original

When using Transaction Type 14 (backout of a Cancellation), the [POLICY] section's 'Expiration Date' field must reflect the expiration date of the policy prior to submitting the original Cancellation (4). EXCEPTION: if a Transaction Type 4 (Cancellation) is submitted in the same [POLICY] section directly after a Transaction Type 14, correcting the originally submitted Transaction Type 4, the [POLICY] section's 'Expiration Date' must reflect the Cancellation's 'Effective Date' field.

If you submit an invalid Backout transaction, your entire file will be rejected.

Additionally, if this transaction is on a 200 type coverage code or Coverage Codes 1003 & 1006 (except 2013, 2014, or 2015), the following fields must be present:

‡‡

Field Name Description Data Length/Type
Primary Amount Use coverage A (or Coverage C if Coverage Codes
2003 or 2005 are being used).		 1.00-999999999.99
AOP Deduction All Other Perils Deductible (deductible for damage from any peril named in the policy, other than hurricane). 1.00-999999999.99
WSP Eligible Eligible for Windstorm Pool? Y/N
WS Coverage Windstorm Coverage provided? Y/N
Hurricane Deductible Required if Windstorm Coverage is provided (Must be converted to a dollar amount). 1.00-999999999.99