Billing engine automation

Root’s billing engine is the backbone of our insurance platform, enabling vital financial and policy management operations for our clients. Its core logic ensures:

• Accurate billing: Policyholders are charged the correct amount at the right time.
• Policy management: It powers key behaviors such as activating policies upon initial premium payment, lapsing policies due to non-payment, and sending timely customer notifications.
• Operational insights: Insurers gain critical data for collections, cash flow management, and reconciliations.

However, the engine’s existing state posed substantial risks:

1. Business and customer impact: Billing errors or delays had far-reaching consequences, from lapsing active policies to undermining customer trust and insurer confidence.
2. Operational inefficiency: Human oversight was required to manage collections and payouts, creating bottlenecks and consuming valuable resources.
3. Churn risk: Inconsistent billing experiences led to policyholder dissatisfaction and elevated churn.
4. Scalability limitations: The system struggled to handle increasing transaction volumes, threatening business growth.

Given its critical role in our clients' insurance operations, a failure in the billing engine could disrupt policyholder experiences, insurer operations, and Root’s reputation for reliability.

To address these challenges, we reimagined the billing engine through automation, creating a robust and scalable system. Our solution included:

1. End-to-end automation: Replacing manual reviews and checks with automated workflows to manage premium collections and payouts.
2. Proactive error management: Implementing predictive checks and real-time alerts to identify and resolve anomalies before they escalated.
3. Scalability-focused architecture: Ensuring the system could handle exponential growth in transaction volumes without additional human intervention.

This comprehensive approach addressed the root causes of billing challenges, delivering a system that met both operational and customer experience goals.