Property Insurance
Insurance periods and settings
Purpose Purpose
Insurance settings control how the Insurance board behaves. Because values and COPE data are period-specific, settings usually begin with period setup and then expand into access, sites, statuses, GRC, automations, responsibilities, and activity.
Periods Periods
An Insurance period is a reporting period, usually a renewal year. Values and COPE data are tied to a period so you can compare current data with previous submissions and keep historical renewals intact.
Use periods when you need to:
- Collect updated values for a renewal cycle.
- Compare TIV, PD, BI, and other fields against a prior period.
- Keep previous submissions available for audit and reporting.
- Separate test imports from live annual reporting if your process requires it.
Inception date Inception date
Each Insurance period has an inception date, the day it starts. A period ends when the next one starts, so periods never overlap or leave gaps. If your renewal date moves, the period before the move is simply shorter or longer than a year. The periods list under Settings shows when each period starts, when it ends and how long it lasts.
The Renewal Date under Settings is the month and day your insurance program renews each year. A new period starts on that day in the year after the latest period starts. You can pick another date when you create the period, or change it later on the period's settings page. A period's inception date must fall at least 7 days after the inception date of the period before it and at least 7 days before that of the period after it, so every period lasts at least a week.
Because a period ends when the next one starts, changing a period's inception date also moves the end of the period before it. For example, if period 2025 starts on 1 January 2025 and you move period 2026 to start on 1 April 2026, period 2025 now runs for 15 months.
Periods created before inception dates existed start on 1 January of the year in their name, for example 1 January 2025 for a period named 2025. If your renewal falls on another day, correct the date on each period's settings page.
Value columns Value columns
A period's settings page lists the values sites are asked for in one table, with each column's group and whether it is built-in or custom. The built-in columns, such as Buildings and Business Interruption, are always there. Click a column's name, or Edit in its row menu, to change its description, and for the Business Interruption Period the indemnity periods sites can choose from. Next to them you can add columns of your own, in three groups:
- Property damage columns add to Total PD and TIV.
- Business interruption columns add to Total BI and TIV.
- Other values are collected from every site but never add to TIV.
Each group holds up to 20 columns. Add column asks for the new column's group, name and description, and clicking its name changes them. Columns appear in the order they were added, on the values form and in the Values table. Every change is saved straight away. A column cannot share its name with another column in the period or with a built-in value, because bulk import matches columns by name. A column keeps its group: to move a figure from property damage to other values, add a new column instead.
Names and descriptions belong to the period. Renaming a column in 2025 leaves the name it had in 2024, while values, change history and saved table views follow the column across periods. A new period starts with the previous period's columns, and their values are carried forward with everything else.
Remove in a custom column's row menu asks you to confirm by typing i understand, then takes the column out of that period and deletes the values sites entered for it there. Files attached to those values are unlinked from the values form. Removing a property damage or business interruption column lowers the period's TIV by those amounts. Other periods keep the column and their values.
Business interruption base values Business interruption base values
Some insurance programmes collect business interruption as a yearly figure and let each site's indemnity period decide what it is insured for. The built-in Business Interruption field can work that way: click Business Interruption in the value columns table and choose A 12-month base value under Sites enter.
Sites then enter what twelve months of business interruption are worth, and their BI period scales it:
| BI period | Amount entered | Counts toward Total BI and TIV |
|---|---|---|
| 6 months | 200,000 | 100,000 |
| 12 months | 200,000 | 200,000 |
| 24 months | 200,000 | 400,000 |
A site without a BI period counts the amount as entered. On the values form the field works the figure out under the amount, for example 200,000 × 24/12 = 400,000, and updates as soon as the BI period changes. In the Values table, Business Interruption keeps the amount as entered, and a Scaled Business Interruption column next to it shows what it counts toward the totals, with its change from last period. The scaled column only appears in periods that take Business Interruption as a base value. Analytics and exports carry both figures.
Business Interruption has a default description for each choice. With a base value, it asks sites for what twelve months of business interruption are worth. If the description is still the default text when you switch, it switches too; a description you wrote yourself stays as it is, and Restore default brings back the default for the current choice.
The choice belongs to the period, and a new period starts with the previous period's choice. Changing it changes Total BI and TIV for every site in the period at once, so the dialog warns you before you save, and the change is recorded in the activity log. The amounts sites entered never change. Your own business interruption columns always count as entered.
Switching a period that already has values Switching a period that already has values
A new period starts with the values carried over from the previous one. When you switch it to a base value, those carried-over Business Interruption amounts count as twelve-month base values from then on. A site with a 24-month BI period that carried over 200,000 now counts 400,000 toward Total BI and TIV.
- If the old amounts already were twelve-month figures, the higher total is the correct one: the previous period counted them too low.
- If the old amounts were the full amount insured, ask the sites to enter what twelve months are worth instead. Until they do, their Business Interruption counts too high.
Every period keeps its own setting, so the period you switch is compared with a previous period that counted Business Interruption as entered, and the switch shows up as a change:
| Figure | Compares | The site above shows |
|---|---|---|
| Business Interruption | The amounts as entered | No change |
| Scaled Business Interruption, Total BI and TIV | What each period counted | An increase of 200,000 |
| Period comparison | What each period counted, as Scaled Business Interruption | An increase of 200,000 |
| Inflation | The amounts as entered | No change |
To compare like with like, you can switch the previous period as well. That changes the TIV it reported, so only do it when that is what you want; a locked period can't be switched.
Locked columns Locked columns
Lock a column when sites should see a value but not change it, for example a business interruption period your insurance team decides for every site. The lock switch in each row of the value columns table locks that column for the period, and works for built-in and custom columns alike.
Only insurance administrators, people with Manage Settings on the Insurance board, can change a locked value, on the values form or by bulk import. Everyone else sees the value with its input disabled and a note saying it is locked. They can still add information about it, attach files and confirm it as unchanged. A bulk import by someone else is refused when it fills a locked column; leave that column blank and its values stay as they are.
Locks belong to the period. A new period starts with the previous period's locks, and unlocking a column in one period leaves the other periods as they are. Locking and unlocking a column is recorded in the activity log.
A locked column is not the same as a locked period, described below: a locked column still changes for insurance administrators, while a locked period changes for nobody.
Locked periods Locked periods
A locked period cannot change until an administrator unlocks it: not its name, inception date, currency date or columns, and not its values, whether entered on the values form or by bulk import. It cannot be deleted either. Its insurance policies can still be uploaded and changed, as policy documents usually arrive after the renewal.
Currency date and exchange rates Currency date and exchange rates
Each Insurance period has a currency date. This is the date used to look up the exchange rates that convert values entered in local currencies into your base currency, so you can compare figures across sites on a like-for-like basis.
When you save a new currency date, 21RISK fetches the historical exchange rates for that date and stores them on the period. The amounts you originally entered in their local currency are kept exactly as typed — only the converted base-currency figures are recalculated.
When you create a new period, every value, COPE answer and off-site arrangement from the previous period is copied into it, so sites only need to update what changed. Its insurance policies are copied too, without their documents. Copied amounts keep the currency they were entered in and are converted at the new period's exchange rates: a building valued at €10,000 in both periods is 70,000 kr. in a period where the rate is 7.00 and 75,000 kr. in a period where it is 7.50, so each period's TIV reflects its own rates. Copied values are marked as carried forward, not as updated, until someone confirms or changes them. A correction made to an earlier period after the new one was created stays in the earlier period.
Changing the currency date recalculates the base-currency value of every figure already entered in the period using the rates for the new date. The original local-currency amounts are not changed, but their converted totals (such as TIV in your base currency) will update on save. Adjust the currency date with this in mind, especially after values have been reported.
Settings pages Settings pages
Insurance settings include:
| Page | Use it for |
|---|---|
| Settings | Manage Insurance periods and core configuration. |
| User Access | Grant, update, or revoke board access. |
| Site Access | Add site groups or individual sites to the Insurance board. |
| Status | Configure statuses used for risk improvement workflows. |
| GRC | Configure GRC synchronization and reconciliation where enabled. |
| Automations | Configure automated Insurance workflow rules. |
| Responsibilities | Configure named site responsibilities. |
| Activity | Review Insurance board activity and subscriptions. |
Statuses Statuses
Insurance statuses are used mainly for risk improvements. They define the workflow language your team uses, such as To do, In progress, Completed, or any other terms that match your process.
Status rules can restrict who can use a status. For example, most users may be able to move a risk improvement to In progress, while only approvers can mark it Completed. A rule can also require evidence with the Files attached condition, for example at least one photo on the risk improvement before it can be marked Completed.
Statuses are listed in the board order, both in the settings list and in the status picker on a risk improvement. To change the order, use the arrows in front of a status under Settings → Status to move it up or down. The order applies to everyone on the board; a status added later joins the end of the list.
Responsibilities Responsibilities
Insurance responsibilities are named roles assigned per site. Examples include Insurance Coordinator, Property Manager, Local Contact, or Risk Engineer.
Read Site responsibilities for the general responsibility model, and Bulk import responsibilities for importing assignments across many sites.
Activity Activity
Insurance activity is available from the Insurance settings area. Board owners and group owners can review board-scoped activity and subscribe to relevant activity notifications.