What is an AL3 file? Carrier downloads, and what they do and don’t tell you about commissions

TL;DR

• An AL3 file is data in ACORD’s AL3 format, which ACORD describes as a one-way, batch method for policy and commission data. ACORD’s XML standard is the real-time counterpart.
• A download service carries carrier data into your agency management system. Policy download and commission statement download are separate, and each depends on what the carrier provides.
• A download contains only what the carrier sent. A cancellation that never came through, a carrier with no download, or a statement that arrives only as a PDF leaves a gap that nothing flags.
• The download itself doesn’t check the amounts. Whether you were paid what you’re owed is a comparison against your own book and commission schedule, and whether your system makes it depends on the system and how it is set up.

We’re building Lapidar, a service meant to check carrier commission statements against an agency’s book. It isn’t ready yet. This guide is for the agency staff who handle downloads. On AL3 and Ivans we keep to what ACORD and Ivans say on their own pages, listed under Sources at the end.

What ACORD’s AL3 standards say

ACORD publishes its property and casualty data standards in two formats, AL3 and XML. On its P&C data standards page, it calls AL3 “a one-way, batch communication method for policy and commission data”. XML, the other format, is built for real-time business transactions, exchanged as request and response messages.

Two entries in ACORD’s list of AL3 documents bear directly on commissions: a Direct Bill Commission Statement Download Standard, which has an implementation guide of its own, and a Renewal and Cancellation Transaction Standard. So the standard has a place for commission statements and for cancellations. Whether a given carrier sends them, and how a given system takes them in, is a separate matter. The detail sits in ACORD’s documentation, and we won’t guess at it here.

How a download reaches your agency, and what Ivans Download is

In an agency, “download” means carrier data arriving in your agency management system electronically, instead of being typed in from paper or a carrier portal. Typically the path has three stops: the carrier, a download service, and your system.

Ivans offers that middle step as a product called Ivans Download. Its product page describes it as automating the exchange of policy and claims information between an agency and its carrier and MGA partners, and keeping that information in sync with your management system. Among its capabilities it lists commercial and personal lines policy data, direct bill commission statements, documents and messages, and claims, and it talks about running “multiple carrier download connections” through one workflow. The page doesn’t mention AL3 or ACORD, so we don’t say which format the product uses.

So if you searched for what an Ivans download means: it is the data a carrier sent through that product into your system. The name refers to the route the data takes, not to a file format.

Policy download and commission download are different things

Both ACORD and Ivans treat commission statements separately from policy data. ACORD gives direct bill commission statement download a standard of its own, beside the standards for policy transactions; Ivans lists direct bill commission statements as a capability of their own, next to commercial and personal lines policy data. A carrier that sends your policies by download isn’t necessarily sending your commission statement the same way, and the reverse.

Both kinds also depend on the carrier. IA Magazine’s 2015 profile of an agency recognized for its high download volume describes an agency-wide plan to prioritize which carriers to approach about providing download, and what type of information it should include. For anyone reconciling commissions, that means download is arranged carrier by carrier rather than switched on once, and what arrives depends on what each carrier provides.

What a download can’t tell you

A download can only be as complete as what the carrier sent, and nothing in it marks what is absent. Three gaps matter most for commissions.

• Anything the carrier didn’t send. The standard covers cancellations, but a cancellation still has to be sent. When a carrier’s cancellation doesn’t come through, your system keeps showing the policy as in force, and it still looks like it is earning commission. Anyone checking statements against your system will then look for commission the carrier has no reason to pay, and, if commission was already paid, won’t see the chargeback coming.
• Carriers and lines with no download. Download exists where a carrier provides it. And where a carrier does offer it, agencies don’t always take it up: in a 2021 post, Agency Performance Partners noted that a lot of account managers don’t want commercial download in their books of business. Whatever isn’t downloaded has to reach your system some other way, through someone.
• Statements that arrive only as PDFs. A carrier that sends no commission download still sends a statement, as a PDF, a CSV file or a page in its agent portal. Those never pass through the download, so the download can’t vouch for them either way.

A download that didn’t arrive looks the same as a quiet month. That is the difficulty: the gaps don’t announce themselves, and finding them means starting from your book and asking, policy by policy, where the transaction or the payment is.

Why opening an AL3 file by hand rarely helps

When a download looks wrong, it is tempting to open the file itself. It rarely helps. AL3 is a structured format defined by ACORD’s standard, and ACORD publishes what each part means in its own documentation: its page describes the AL3 standards as an Access database with a data dictionary and supporting documentation, and offers users of the standard an online application that draws hierarchy diagrams of AL3 transactions. A file in that format is meant to be read by software built against that documentation, which for an agency is the import in its management system.

And a file read correctly still shows only what the carrier sent; the question that costs money is what it should have sent. Look instead at the transaction the download produced in your system, and take questions to your system’s support team or your download provider.

Download is not reconciliation

The case for download is real. The agency in the IA Magazine profile credits electronic download with avoiding the errors that creep in when staff key data off declarations pages, and reports that its policy-processing department shrank over five years while revenue grew. Ivans presents its commission statement capability as a way to automate the commission process “to ensure commissions are properly reconciled each month”, and to cut manual statement processing “from days to hours”.

It helps to keep two jobs apart. The download carries the carrier’s statement into your system: the carrier’s account of what it paid, delivered as data. Reconciling it means setting that beside what you expected to be paid, from your own book and your commission schedule, and deciding what each difference means: timing, an installment, a renewal rate, an endorsement nobody entered, or money you’re owed. Whether your system does that comparison once the data has arrived, and against what, depends on the system and how it is set up; our page on whether your AMS reconciles commissions lists the questions to ask.

If a downloaded statement and a PDF of the same statement agree, that proves the transfer worked, not the amount. The ordinary causes of differences are in why statements don’t match your agency management system, and the month-end steps around them in our guide to direct bill reconciliation.

Even its advocates don’t treat download as hands-off. In the same post, Agency Performance Partners tells agencies exploring commercial lines download to keep an 80/20 rule in mind: automate 80% of it, and expect 20% to still need working through. That is about policy data in commercial lines, not commissions, but the point carries: download takes work off the desk, and some of it stays there.

Why this is hard at scale

Each piece is understandable on its own. The difficulty is that every carrier is its own arrangement:

• which policy data it sends by download, and for which lines;
• whether its commission statement comes as a download, a CSV file or a PDF;
• whether its cancellations and endorsements come through, which you tend to learn only when one doesn’t;
• how its policy numbers and transaction codes line up with the ones in your system.

Any of these can change, and you may not hear when a download stops carrying something. The comparison itself, expected against paid, still has to happen for every line on every statement, whichever way the statement arrived. Doing all of this for every carrier, every month, is where the hours go.

A short audit of your own carriers

To see where your own gaps sit, start with a list. Take every carrier you’re appointed with and put each in one of three groups: carriers that send policy download, carriers that also send their commission statement by download, and carriers whose statements come only as a PDF or a CSV file. Some carriers will belong in more than one group, for example when one line comes by download and another doesn’t.

Then ask a different question of each group. For policy download carriers: do cancellations and endorsements arrive by download, or does someone still find them in the carrier’s portal? For commission download carriers: who, or what, compares the downloaded amounts with your schedule, and how often? For PDF and CSV carriers: who gets the statement into your system, and does anyone check it line by line before it is posted? The answers may sit with different people in the office, and for some of them the honest answer may be “nobody, regularly”. That says more about the volume of the work, across many carriers every month, than about the people doing it.

Where Lapidar fits

Lapidar is being built for the part of this that download doesn’t cover: the PDF and CSV statements that arrive outside download, and the comparison of each line against your book. It is meant to read the statement, match each line to a policy, and report what is missing, underpaid, paid twice or not in your book. It’s in development, it isn’t live, and it has no customers yet; we’ll say so until that changes. Reading carrier PDFs reliably is slow, unglamorous work, and it is the part we are building for. If you’d like to try it when it’s ready, the early-access list is below.

Frequently asked questions

Is Ivans the same as AL3?

No. AL3 is a data standard: ACORD describes it as a one-way, batch method for sending policy and commission data. Ivans Download is a product: its page describes a service that moves policy, claims and commission statement data between carriers and MGAs and your management system. That page doesn’t say which format the product uses, so if it matters to you, ask your provider.

Can I open an AL3 file in Excel?

Not usefully. AL3 is a standardized, structured format, and ACORD publishes what each part means in its standard and data dictionary. It is meant to be imported by your agency management system, not read by a person. If you need to know what a download said, look at the transactions it created in your system, and take anything that looks wrong to your system’s support team or your download provider.

Does commission download mean my commissions are checked?

Not by itself. The download itself doesn’t check the amounts: it brings the carrier’s statement into your system as data, so nobody has to key it in, and what it carries is the carrier’s own account of what it paid. Checking it needs what you expected to be paid, from your book and your commission schedule, compared line by line, and a decision on each difference. Some providers present commission download as part of automating that process. Whether your system actually makes the comparison depends on the system and how it is set up, so ask what it compares, against what, and who decides each difference.

Sources

1. ACORD, Property & Casualty Data Standards, acord.org.
2. Ivans, Ivans Download, product page for agents, ivans.com.
3. IA Magazine, Agency Profile: The Case for Download, January 5, 2015.
4. Agency Performance Partners, Commercial Insurance Download Policies: The Debate on The Download, February 22, 2021.

All four pages were retrieved on October 7, 2026.

Lapidar is commission reconciliation software for independent insurance agencies, in development. Related: does your AMS reconcile commissions? and commission reconciliation in the glossary.