Changing a dropdown question is a deceptively simple change, but it can have significant knock-on effects if it isn't handled correctly. Any change to the available answer options can impact rating, renewals and mid-term adjustments (MTAs), so it is important to understand how SchemeServe behaves.

Changing a Dropdown Question

When you update a question set, the changes apply to:

• First Premiums (FPs) - the new question set is used.
• Renewals (RNLs) - the new question set is used.
• Mid-Term Adjustments (MTAs) - these continue to use the original question set that the policy was first quoted on.

This means that old answer values can continue to exist on MTAs even after you've updated the dropdown options.

Updating the Dropdown Options

There are two ways a dropdown question may be populated:

Standard dropdown

Open the question in the Builder and either:

• Amend an existing answer option.
• Add a new answer option.

File Lookup dropdown

If the dropdown is populated from a File Lookup:

1. Go to Admin.
2. Download the File Lookup.
3. Add or amend the required option.
4. Upload the updated file.

If You Rename an Existing Answer

Renaming an existing answer option requires changes to your rating file.

For example, suppose the original answer was:

Bells-Only

and you change it to:

Bells-only

Although this looks like a minor change, SchemeServe treats these as two completely different values.

Policies created using the new question set will contain:

Bells-only

Existing MTAs, however, will still contain:

Bells-Only

If your rating file only checks for the new value, all MTAs using the old question set may fail to rate correctly.

Map the Old Value to the New Value

At the very top of your rating file, before any rating logic runs, convert the old answer into the new one.

For example:

Answer:AlarmType          SetCover:AlarmType
Bells-Only                Bells-only

(Use the appropriate syntax for your rating file if different.)

This ensures that every policy uses the same value before the rest of the rating calculations begin.

Why This Must Be Done First

This conversion must happen before any rating calculations.

After the conversion:

• First Premiums already contain the new answer.
• Renewals already contain the new answer.
• MTAs automatically have their old answer converted to the new answer.

From this point onwards, your rating file only has to deal with one value.

Continue Rating Using the New Value

Once you've mapped the old value to the new one, all subsequent rating logic should use only the new answer.

For example:

Answer:AlarmType    SetRate:AlarmTypeCal
Bells-only			5

Do not continue checking for both the old and new spellings throughout the rating file. Converting the answer once at the beginning keeps the rating file much cleaner, easier to maintain and less prone to errors.

Check for Further Knock-On Effects

Changing a dropdown answer can affect more than just your rating file. Before publishing your changes, review any areas of your scheme that reference the old answer value.

Be sure to check:

• Rules - Any rules that check the dropdown value may need updating.
• Endorsements - Endorsement conditions or actions may reference the old answer.
• Documents - Document formulas and conditional sections may display different content based on the answer selected.
• Reports - Columns and formula fields may reference the old value and will need updating.