Understanding Net Gain/Loss
Published · Updated
Net Gain/Loss is arguably the single most important metric for agency health. It tells you whether your book of business is growing or shrinking — the ultimate measure of sustainability.
What It Means
Net Gain/Loss = new policies added minus policies lost (cancellations, non-renewals, carrier moves). A positive number means your agency is growing. A negative number means you're shrinking.
Positive Net Gain
Your agency is growing — you're adding more policies than you're losing. This is where you want to be. The higher the positive number, the faster your book is expanding. A net gain of +15 means you added 15 more policies than you lost during that period.
Negative Net Gain (Net Loss)
You're shrinking. Even if the team is writing new business every day, more policies are leaving on the back end through cancellations and non-renewals. This requires immediate attention — you can't out-sell a retention problem.
Critical. A high sales count doesn't help if net gain is negative. Retention is often more profitable than new business — it costs less to keep a customer than to acquire one. If you see negative net gain, prioritize retention conversations before increasing sales activity.
The Relationship to Sales
A team can write 50 new policies in a month, but if 60 policies cancel or don't renew, the net result is −10. The sales effort is essentially wasted without good retention. Think of it like filling a bathtub with the drain open — you need to plug the drain (retention) while also running the faucet (new sales).
Tracking in Agency Edge
Agency Edge does not work net gain/loss out from your sales. You type it each month, in Data on the Office tab, as Auto Gain and Fire Gain. Those are the only two lines with a gain field. See Record the office's monthly numbers.
The numbers then show in two places. Press Goals on Home and switch to the annual view: each product card has a NET GAIN/LOSS figure, the total typed so far this year, with a Projected figure for the full year. Set a goal above zero in the Gain / Loss (#) column of Settings › Goals and the card adds On Pace or Behind. The goal is for the office only, and it can be negative. The Life and Health cards stay at zero, because no gain is typed for those lines.
On Book, the Net policy gains factor of the Book Health score adds the year's auto and fire gains together and, once you have an earlier year on file, compares them with your typical year. Monthly breakdown on the same page lists each month's entries.