A practical conversation about financial close best practice for insurers and MGA.

Watch and learn what leading insurance finance teams are doing differently to build confidence in their numbers, scale efficiently and make year-end more predictable. 

In this 45-minute conversation, Ben Ko, Director of Finance & Operations at Ag Guard, joins Grappler Co-Founders Colleen MacCarthy and Alistair Harold to talk about what it takes to build an insurance finance operation that can keep pace as the business grows.

The conversation moves beyond reconciliation and technology to something more fundamental: the processes, controls and most importantly, the insurance expertise that sit behind a finance function.

Highlights from the conversation:

• Technology is only part of the answer
  The importance of domain expertise was a strong theme across the conversations. Colleen talked about what Grappler has learnt from more than a decade working exclusively in insurance finance, while Ben shared his experience that software is only as useful as the people and insurance knowledge behind it.

• Growth doesn't have to mean a bigger finance team
  Ag Guard's business has grown disproportionately compared to the size of its team. Ben talked about the role automation has played in allowing the business to scale without finance headcount growing at the same rate.

• The best year-end is an uneventful one
  A key moment was when Ben described a conversation with his Financial Controller after year-end. When he asked about revenue, the response was: “That's all just in Grappler.” It was already reconciled and trusted. There was nothing left to investigate.

• Sometimes you only realise what matters when it's gone
  Ben shared the story of Ag Guard leaving Grappler for another finance platform, spending six months trying to implement it, and ultimately returning. What he'd underestimated was more than the technology solution - it was the insurance expertise that came with Grappler.

Watch the full conversation

If you're responsible for finance or operations within an insurer, MGA or underwriting agency, the full discussion is well worth 45 minutes.

Talk to the Grappler team if you'd like to explore what this could look like in your business.