Go-Insur PAS from Pancentric: Broken Bordereaux, Broken Trust: The MGA Problem We Can’t Ignore

By: Simon Fenn

Bordereaux reports shouldn’t be a monthly battle. Yet for many MGAs, it is. Despite years of digitisation, operational reform, and new data standards, too many bordereau reports are still late, inconsistent, queried, or corrected long after the fact—and insurers notice.

It’s time to call it what it is: a systemic problem that erodes confidence, slows growth, and undermines capacity relationships.

And the root cause is brutally simple: Garbage in, garbage out.

If data is shaky at the source, a bordereau is already compromised—no amount of formatting or spreadsheet wizardry will save it.

Most MGAs don’t fail at the reporting stage—they fail at the collection stage. Missing fields, inconsistent definitions, free-text chaos, rekeying from PDFs, low quality data feeds from 3rd party platforms, with manual patches that create layers of complexity that multiplies every month.

Fixing issues at month-end is firefighting, not governance. And firefighting leaves scars.

The MGAs who get this right don’t rely on heroic last-minute cleanses. They build reliable, structured, insurer-aligned data capture at the front door.

*** Put the effort in early, and the output takes care of itself ***

This is the first step to moving bordereau reporting from “thank goodness it’s done” to “this is solid, consistent, defensible data.”

If every insurer wanted the same thing, bordereaux would be easy. But they don’t.

Some insurers want everything—every field, every attribute, every justification. They read a bordereau line by line, and the queries never stop.

Others barely engage. Requirements are vague, templates are loosely defined, and expectations shift without warning.

And even when MGAs work with a “standard” like Lloyd’s V5, supplementary data requests nearly always appear.

The truth is: every insurer is different, and MGAs must be flexible enough to serve them all without reinventing the wheel.

It’s not just what you report—it’s when.

Real-Time & Daily Reporting: No Hiding Place

Daily or real-time reporting exposes every weakness instantly. There’s no window to adjust formulas, clean mid-month errors, or sweep inconsistencies under the carpet.

Yes, it can dent confidence quickly.

But it also allows MGAs to identify and fix issues before they snowball.

Fast feedback, fast improvement.

Monthly Reporting: More Comfortable, More Dangerous

Monthly retains its place as the industry norm—but it’s also where problems multiply.

• Month 1: Error enters the data
• Month 2: Insurer or MGA spots it
• Month 3 (or later, annual audit even): MGA fixes it

The later the spot and the more complex the dataset, the more intense the fog of reconciliation, causing highly distracting, time-consuming corrective action.

The longer the reporting gap, the more damage a single issue can do.

One of the biggest breakthroughs in delegated authority operations is AI-powered ingestion of proposal forms and broker submissions.

For decades, MGAs have relied on humans rekeying data from PDFs, emails, spreadsheets, and bespoke broker templates. This is slow, inconsistent, and error-prone and exactly the sort of activities that fuel the data contamination issue.

AI ingestion changes the game by:

• Converting almost any document submission into clean structured data
• Auto-filling policy admin fields
• Flagging missing or contradictory entries
• Reducing rekeying to near zero
• Accelerating onboarding
• Improving accuracy at the point of origin
• Slashing operational bottlenecks

This is not about replacing underwriting judgment. It’s about eliminating the repetitive, mechanical work that distracts from it—and pollutes data downstream.

When proposal-form data enters clean, bordereaux follow suit.

Winning MGAs do five things consistently:

1. Clarify requirements early with insurers—don’t assume.
2. Test the bordereau before going live – in depth, line by line.
3. Validate feasibility of every requested field.
4. Document the definitions so there’s a single source of truth.
5. Let systems—not spreadsheets—govern data quality.

And increasingly:

6. Use AI ingestion to eliminate manual rekeying and early-stage errors.

This is the foundation of reliable delegated authority operations, alongside robust testing and auditing processes.

Bordereau reporting has long been messy, manual, and misunderstood. But it doesn’t have to stay that way.

With cleaner front-end data capture, AI-powered document ingestion, flexible PAS technology and collaborative vendor relationships – like that offered at Go-Insur from Pancentric – MGAs can finally escape the cycle of errors, queries, and corrections.

In delegated authority, trust is currency.

And nothing builds trust faster than data that’s right first time.

Find out more here: https://mgaa.co.uk/members/go-insur-super-agile-policy-admin-solution-for-mgas/