Yet accidents still happen. And you sometimes feel you see a pattern.

Sound familiar?
Often it seems that no matter what your design or intent is – accidents happen from mischance, misfortune, and misadventure. Even with contingency plans, strong preparedness, and excellent claims management review – you can face disaster.

Has it frequently seemed to you that there may be a way to find the incidents that are “more than coincidence?” There may be. The answer to avoiding the next injury may be as close by as using the correct claims management system.

What are two ways a claims management system can help discover safety issues before they happen? What are the most important challenges you can have ahead of you when wanting to improve safety ratings and prevent further avoidable accidents?

1. Being able to organize your facts about what has been taking place over time – so that a pattern starts to surface.
2. Being able to explain to the people who finalize changes – or arrange the necessary budgets – that there is a problem and that time, money, and energy are needed to repair the situation.

Reports, charts, graphs, and tabulations, are generally needed to monitor safety compliance among claims systems.

A system should allow you to report on accidents with a multitude of scenarios, such as, claim percentage, by accident type, day of the week, employee gender, employee age, employee length of employment, and even body part. A good claims management system allows you to run ad hoc reports, in case standard reports are not providing you the information you are searching for.

How your claims management system provides you with the information you are reporting is a significant factor in how useful it really is.

The primary objective of all occupational safety programs is to maintain a safe work environment. In order to ensure it, you need to capture the correct information related to the accidents. And you need a system that can pull the information into reportable charts and graphs. Having to incorporate arcane codes to filter through columns of data will not help you influence the decision makers you rely on.

A good claims system can help you control and learn from claims and incidents recorded throughout your program.

These incidents should be tracked to improve your safety and prevent further accidents similar to past occurrences. A good system should allow you to capture accidents and incidents so as to be able to track them. It should also provide the summary of its findings in clear and easy to decipher end products like simple graphs.

Addressing the underlying casual factors that are causing accidents is the only way you can prevent the accidents. This is not easily attainable if you are not capturing the necessary information to analyze your data. The foundation of a good loss safety program is a claims system, which allows you to capture the necessary information and then allows you the ability to pull this information into an analytical format to prevent further incidents.

What should you look for in a claims management system?
In summary, make sure your claims system is doing the work you need it to doing. What you need done is a two tier process, claim recording from the claims system and claim analysis from the projection factors.

You should be able to rely on your system to provide you with all the facts you need – even if you don’t know what those will be all the time. Ad hoc reporting is a must and should be doable with a good system. You also need a claims system that will give you those useful reports in a way that can easily and clearly be shared with people who may not be as close to the facts as you are.

In order to prevent the accidents, you need to identify, capture and analyze the underlying casual factors that are causing them. Claims management software helps you look for patterns in accidents. So, employing one will be your first step towards making a safe work environment.

JDi Data Corporation has provided insurance claims software since 1992. JDi Data offers web based workers compensation software and also claims systems for insurance claims departments, third party administrators and risk managers to administer property, casualty and general liability claims. JDi Data has built a reputation in quality claims management software with special emphasis on specialty lines and complex litigation.

A comprehensive construction insurance policy covers all the expenses that may occur due to property damage or personal injuries at the construction site. This insurance not only includes the organization owner, but also workers, employees, tenants, sub-contractors, sole proprietors and business partners.

Importance of construction insurance
As discussed above, construction involves usage of heavy equipment, materials, labour, etc. and is more prone to accidents. Since the business stands liable for any accident on the construction site, it is the business owner or the contractor that should pay for the medical treatment charges of the injured or compensation to the families, in case of death of the worker.

Material costs associated with construction are very high. Any damage to the structure or the materials leads to huge financial loss. Insured with the construction insurance, one can seek financial assistance from the insurance company.

The buyers of the flats or the constructed property will have all rights to sue the construction company, in case of faulty construction. In such cases the construction company has to pay for the remodelling or repairing the constructed site. Construction insurance protects the builders from those claims, by providing financial assistance.

Apart from the above circumstances, construction insurance provides wide coverage, providing security to the business in case of unpredicted events.

Four main areas it covers
Construction insurance is very significant in terms of its coverage. It is very comprehensive and is specifically designed to cover every aspect of construction process, to make the business process flexible. Construction insurance covers four major areas of business insurance. They are:

Public liability insurance
Public liability insurance is a general insurance to be possessed by any business which involves interaction with the customers or people in general. Public liability insurance as part of construction insurance helps the businesses in case any damage to third party property or individuals is caused by employees or the tools used in construction.

Employers liability insurance
As the construction industry involves lot of risks, any worker can get injured or die at any point of time, due to the faulty equipment or negligence of supervisors or co-workers. Employers are responsible for the health and safety of their employees at construction site. Moreover, the employees will have every right to sue the owner and claim for compensation. In case of such unexpected events, the employer or the owner can benefit from the construction liability insurance, as the insurance company pays the medical costs or the compensation associated with the claims.

Contractors all risks insurance
Contractors all risks insurance is customised for construction businesses. It provides assistance for contract works of new houses, theft of materials or tools, damage to the materials or tools due to unexpected events, sudden stoppage of on-going works of new houses, owned or hired plants, etc. This insurance acts as a perfect help for the most commonly incurred accidents in the construction process.

Personal accident insurance
This insurance is specifically designed for managers, sole proprietors or business partners. This is useful in the cases, where the person injured can’t blame any other person for the injury caused to him. This is helpful in providing assistance during the period for which the injured person cannot get income.

Construction insurance is very important for construction businesses as the damage or the financial loss occurred is very hard to be recovered. Businesses should realise that the cost of premiums for insurance is less when compared to the compensation costs. Therefore, it can be concluded that, construction insurance is very valuable in making the business sustain for long run.

Keystone Insurance Group is Ireland’s premier supplier of public liability insurance and business insurance solutions to Irish industry. We offer a broad range of builders insurance, construction insurance, and business liability insurance products. Our public liability insurance Ireland and business insurance Ireland products offer great value to contractors and general business customers. Our experienced and professional team quickly arranges quotes for all classes of business insurance.

‘Builder’s Risk Insurance’, also called as ‘Course of Construction Insurance’ covers a building which is presently being constructed or renovated. It can also cover damages to the materials, which are to be installed or used at the construction site.

It is the building owner who is supposed to buy builder’s risk insurance. Sometimes, depending on the contract, a construction contractor may need to buy it. As a building owner, builder or a construction contractor, you should know what it covers, its extensions and exclusions to make sure that your construction project is secure.

What does it cover?
A builder’s risk insurance policy can cover both residential as well as commercial sites of construction. Most of the builder’s risk insurance policies usually provide the coverage for the losses to the insured structured from a wide variety of events such as fire, wind, vandalism, lightning, wind, theft, hail, explosion, etc. The typical coverage of this insurance will be during the construction period.

Extensions of the coverage
A building or any structure, which is being constructed or renovated, is protected by a standard builder’s risk insurance policy from losses resulting due to fire, wind or acts of vandalism as discussed above. You can add some other types of losses to the policy, if needed. Some of the common builder’s risk insurance coverage extensions include:

Exclusions of the coverage
Some of the standard exclusions of builder’s risk insurance policy include losses due to earthquakes (may be purchased in some regions), employee theft, war, intentional acts of the owner, government action, mechanical breakdown, damage due to water, etc. It excludes coverage for damages resulting due to errors and omissions such as faulty design, planning, workmanship or materials used.

It is very important to choose the right policy as it not only offers better coverage, but also makes you pay low premiums. The policy should be prepared carefully to get appropriate type and level of protection. So, it is advised to approach a specialist insurance brokerage, which can provide accurate estimate of the costs of materials, labour and the complete value of the project to get the right level of coverage.

Keystone Insurance Group is Ireland’s premier supplier of public liability insurance and business insurance solutions to Irish industry. We offer a broad range of builders insurance, construction insurance, and business liability insurance products. Our public liability insurance Ireland and business insurance Ireland products offer great value to contractors and general business customers. Our experienced and professional team quickly arranges quotes for all classes of business insurance.

There is help. A good web based claims system can help you learn from claims and incidents recorded throughout your program.

Do you know that with the right system technology, incidents can be tracked to improve your safety and prevent further accidents similar to past occurrences? A good web based insurance claims management system will allow you to capture accidents and incidents so as to be able to track them.

What should you look for in a claims management system?
A goal of all occupational safety programs should be to instill a safe work environment. This means you need to capture the right information associated with incidents.

A claims management system should include these three abilities:
1. Collection of all the incidents/accidents, locations, causes, parties involved, times, body parts and a full description. Being able to do this is primary in being able to define and impose programs of prevention in the future.
2. The ability to break down the hierarchy of your organization and the incidents that happen throughout. A claims management system that can do this will successfully monitor your program specific to individual departments and will assist in establishing measurable goals and objectives.
3. Allowing you to run ad hoc reports, in case standard reports are not providing you the information you are searching for.

You can only prevent accidents when you address the underlying causal factors causing accidents. You need to capture the necessary information to analyze your data.

Why would you need to relook at and resort data you’ve already systematized?
You may, over time, have events that are only occurring in one area of your business. Could there be incidents that seem disconnected, but always seem to involve someone’s hand. For example, it may not be the location, or so much what they are doing, but which staff are doing it. The larger the organization the less likely that someone would notice a pattern. Depending on “who” accidents are reported to or “how” they are reported there is a chance that the most likely person to see a pattern isn’t even aware accidents are happening.

You may find that your part time staff needs more training on equipment they infrequently use. It may come out that certain equipment is responsible for certain accidents that you have not been watching for. Being able to log all the information and sort it into meaningful groups is a job for a good claims management system.

Being able to run a new “ad hoc” report will allow you to consider connections between your data you may not have been set up to look for previously.

Want to be safer?
Then it’s important that you know there are claims management systems that can help you look for patterns in accidents because employing one will be your first step to making safety improvements.

JDi Data Corporation has provided insurance claims software since 1992. JDi Data offers web based workers compensation software and also claims systems for insurance claims departments, third party administrators and risk managers to administer property, casualty and general liability claims. JDi Data has built a reputation in quality claims management software with special emphasis on specialty lines and complex litigation.

A comprehensive package of insurance essential for all small businesses as it ensures protection and security. It can be a powerful tool in financial security for a small business. The main purpose of insurance is to cover a risk that a small business cannot afford (at the cost of small premiums, which they can afford easily). Small businesses can save hundreds, sometimes even thousands of dollars if their owners spend some time to look at some small auxiliary things like insurance policies.

Types of insurance coverage:
Although, insurance needs vary widely from one business to another, here are some important policies that a small business owner would want to consider in order to protect his/her business.

Business property insurance
Business property insurance is a broad form of coverage that protects a small business from a wide variety of losses including damage to building that houses business, tables, desks, chairs, equipment etc. due to natural disasters such as earthquakes or floods. A well-structured all risk policy can cover all the equipment (both software and hardware), valuable records and even loss of income.

There can be many things that a small business can lose and that too in seconds. None of the small business owners running a restaurant, lodging, retail outlet, etc. will ever forget the destruction caused by 2009 Great Britain and Ireland floods. Many small business owners learnt that in a blink of an eye, everything of their business can get destroyed.

Liability insurance
Liability insurance is an important form of coverage in today’s litigation-looped world. Typically, there are four types of liability insurance, which include:

General liability insurance: It is the most common form of liability insurance. This type of insurance covers damage to property or injuries suffered by third party (customers, vendors or visitors) as a result of negligence of the employees.

Somebody, be it a customer or a vendor could trip and fall due to torn or folded carpet and suffer a serious injury. The person may need a surgery which might cost the business owners some hundreds or thousands of dollars. It may not be a major issue for a large business, but for a small business, arranging huge amounts on the spot may risk the normal functioning of the business.

Errors and omissions insurance: Also called as professional liability insurance, errors and omissions insurance is essential for service based businesses. It protects professionals from personal claims against them for causing harm while performing their duties. Professionals, who require high degree of standards or care such as doctors, financial advisors, attorneys, accountants, engineering consultants, realtors, dentists and others, require this type of insurance.

Product liability insurance: This type of insurance is very important for small businesses involved in manufacturing. It protects the business if an item manufactured is responsible for harming (accident, injury, or death) the user.

Employment practices liability insurance: Sometimes dissatisfied employees bring inappropriate claims asserting discrimination (age, sex, race, disability, etc.), sexual harassment, wrongful termination and other employment-related issues. Employment practices liability insurance provides protection to a small business against these claims made by employees, former employees and even potential employees.

Excess liability
Excess liability insurance, also known as Umbrella liability insurance, provides additional coverage beyond that of an underlying policy. It provides coverage for medical costs or other claim payments that can exceed the amount of liability insurance.

Workers compensation
Generally, employer is responsible for the injuries that occur to employees at work, so he/she should take care of the employees. Even a small business employing just one person should have a workers compensation insurance coverage. It provides coverage for medical expenses and reimburses the lost wages when employees get injured at work.

Business income insurance
Business income insurance is disability coverage for small businesses. Business interruption ensures that all the employees get paid when the business cannot operate temporarily as a result of a covered loss. It also covers business operation expenses and profits that would have been earned until the business get back to its pre-loss state.

Automobiles insurance
Automobile insurance is compulsory for a small business if it uses automobiles such as cars or trucks. It provides coverage for damage or theft and also covers third party bodily injury or property damage claims.

Life insurance
Life insurance is important for small businesses which have two or more owners. In the event of the death of a business partner, the life insurance policy funds the buy-sell agreement.

Other insurances
There are some other types of insurance policies, which can assist small business owners such as health insurance for employees, certificate of insurance to the landlord (for rented or leased office spaces) to ensure that the business will not be closed overnight.

The list of insurance policies mentioned above may look hefty, but it is not necessary for a small business to have all of them. As a smart business owner, one has to approach one of the frontline insurance brokerage houses to evaluate the requirements and prepare a comprehensive insurance policy that best suits his/her business.

Keystone Insurance Group is UK and Ireland’s premier supplier of Public Liability Insurance Northern Ireland & business insurance solutions to various businesses. As a provider of Construction Insurance Northern Ireland area, we offer broad range of builders insurance, public liability insurance and other construction insurance to contractors. Our experienced and professional team quickly arranges quotes for all classes of Commercial Insurance Northern Ireland.

As a business owner, you are responsible for the health and safety of your employees, while they are on the job. However safe your business environment is, there is always a chance of your employees becoming ill or injured at work. If your employees believe that you are responsible for workplace accidents, they might claim compensation. Therefore, it is very much necessary for you to know about the employers liability insurance and what it covers in order to protect your business from employees’ claims.

Sometimes, these claims could result in thousands of pounds in workplace compensation. Your business could go bankrupt if you don’t have Employers’ Liability Insurance to cover such claims.

Who requires employers liability insurance
In some countries like the United Kingdom, employers liability insurance is a legal requirement – not an option. Generally speaking, all businessmen or professionals who have employed staff should have employers’ liability cover.

It is compulsory in case of limited companies or if you deduct National Insurance (NI) contributions and income tax from the salary of your employees. Even if you occasionally hire staff, use temporary or seasonal workers, trainees or sub-contractors, you should opt this insurance.

You need to take employers liability insurance policy when you decide where, when and how someone works. Also when you supply work materials and equipment for them to work.

You need this insurance even if you work from home. It is better to take a combination of Employers’ and Public Liability Insurance policy cover if your customers or partners visit your business.

Your business will be exempted from the employers liability insurance if yours is a family business, your business is not a limited company and you are the only employee – or if you employ only close family members, yours is a limited company with just one employee – where that employee also owns 50% or more of the issued share capital in the business.

What does employers liability insurance cover
Employers liability insurance provides you valuable protection against claims of employees who are injured or made ill at work. It meets the cost of compensation for injuries caused to your employees on or off site. It provides financial back up to meet the legal costs of defending a claim made by an employee. Another important benefit of Employers’ Liability Insurance is that your employees will be more secure knowing that in the event of injury or harm, their injuries or losses will be covered by the business.

When can an employee file it against you
Some situations when your employee has the right to file a liability claim against you include discrepancy in the calculation of wages, miscalculation in the number of working hours, occurrence of any work related accident that results in injury or death, illness due to negligence on working environment.

As a smart business owner, you need to take practical steps to make sure that your employees are safe at work. However, you should carry out risk assessment, and be ready with employers liability insurance to protect your business against the risks that might arise from employing people. While choosing employers’ liability insurance, make sure that the policy covers all of your business activities.

Keystone Insurance Group is Ireland’s premier supplier of public liability insurance and business insurance solutions to Irish industry. We offer a broad range of builders insurance, construction insurance, and business liability insurance products. Our public liability insurance Ireland and business insurance Ireland products offer great value to contractors and general business customers. Our experienced and professional team quickly arranges quotes for all classes of business insurance.

If you are new to the concept of forex trading, the content below will help you gain an understanding of the forex market, how it works and common myths that are wide spread in the forex market.

What is forex trading
Foreign exchange or forex trading is exchange of one country’s currency with another one. Simply put, as a forex trader, you will be trading money. For example, you could be selling US Dollars and buying Euros, or buying US Dollars and selling Swiss Francs. In many respects, the price of a country’s currency is dependant on the relationship between the two economies and their prospective futures. Its exchange rate depends, among other things, on the country’s economy compared to other economies. Purchasing a country’s currency is like buying a share of that particular country’s economy. If the country’s economy does well, the value of your currency will increase which you can profit from.

Unlike other traditional equity and futures markets, there is no central trading location in foreign exchange. Generally, trading is done using telephones or Internet. The primary market for currencies is an ‘interbank market’ which includes a network of banks, insurance companies, large corporations and other large financial institutions.

Commonly traded currency pairs
Some of the major currencies traded are the United States Dollar (USD), Euro (EUR), Japanese Yen (JPY), British Pound (GBP), Swiss franc (CHF), Australia Dollar (AUD) and New Zealand Dollar (NZD). They are called as ‘majors’ because they are most widely traded currencies. Here is a short list to get you started: USD/JPY, USD/CHF, GBP/USD, EUR/USD

In order to have value in anything it needs to have a relation to something else. Think of a share of Microsoft in relation to the US Dollar, its symbol would be MSFT/USD, whereas you’d be buying MSFT and selling your USD. Currencies are traded in pairs as well, where you are buying one currency and selling another. For example, you would buy the euro and sell the U.S. dollar (EUR/USD).

Benefits of Forex Trading
There are many benefits of retail forex trading. Many people choose it because it may not involve commissions, or middlemen, or is a 24 hour market with high liquidity and very low barriers of entry. Along with these benefits the forex market is surrounded by many myths. Some of the common myths are:

Myth #1 – Make you rich with no risk
Many people think that forex trading makes them rich in no time. But you need to understand that forex trading is just like any other speculative market, huge gains can occur but that is always accompanied with a lot of risk as well. And with any speculative market, long term success does not come easy, rather a lot of hard work and dedication is involved.

Myth #2 Market is predictable
It is a very common myth that forex market is predictable. Many companies on the Internet and other media claim that they have found a scientific method, system, or indicator to predict the market. While it is true that some systems do show great returns for limited period, the market is quick to dispose of these, usually within 6 months. Conventional wisdom alone would suggest the guy selling you a system on the Internet isn’t using it himself – or why would he sell it?

Myth #3 Listen to the experts
One of the most enduring myths about the forex market is that experts can guide the traders to untold riches. Again, experts can be a wealth of information, but seldom would any expert give away the golden goose unless it is not laying eggs anymore. And remember “experts” is a loose term where someone in a position of authority is usually placed on TV to decimate information with a hidden agenda. Just remember to second guess everything and do your own homework.

To conclude
As a smart retail forex trader you need to stay away from these stereotypical myths. Don’t use shortcuts or look for easy money you’ll get burned. Remember, there are no secret formulas or scientific methods that can guarantee your success, rather hard work and asking a lot of questions. It is however advised to seek a professional help with the basics, such as understanding technical and fundamental analysis, proper money management, and most importantly – your trading psychology (emotional intelligence).

TradingWheels is a US (Forex only) and UK (Forex and CFD’s) patent-pending trading psychology software for the spot FX and CFD markets where traders can gain Forex education and address their emotional intelligence (E.I.) in a live trading environment.

Insurance, considered as a critical part of the risk management system is the only way for small businesses to protect themselves. Today, there are many types of insurance policies, of which Liability Insurance is considered to be the best one for small businesses as it provides compensation for the fines associated with liability cases.

It covers following risks:
Liability insurance protects a small business from loss or damage to the maximum extent. Business liability insurance options are very useful for small businesses as they cover the business property, claims for injuries by employees and visitors, employee compensation and many more. Some of the common types of liability insurance for small businesses and their coverage are explained below in detail.

Business property insurance
Business Property Insurance, as the name itself indicates covers the business property of the small business. Its coverage includes the building or buildings in which you do business, carpeting, curtains, outdoor signs, property of others etc. If you choose a right business insurance property, it covers all the important equipment such as computers, machinery, supplies, stock etc.

Professional indemnity insurance
Professional Indemnity Insurance, also called as Professional Liability Insurance or Errors and Omissions’ liability insurance, is an extremely important consideration for small professional businesses that are in service industry. They are exposed to a wide range of claims that may include areas such as errors, omissions, professional neglect, falsehood, breach of confidentiality etc. This insurance protects businesses from the claims made by clients against the delivery of poor service. This type of insurance is generally purchased by professionals such as a doctors, lawyers, engineers, architects, brokers, financial advisers, accountants, consultants, building contractors, and attorneys etc. who run their own business.

Product insurance
Product insurance or Product Liability Insurance protects the business owners from the lawsuits filed against them for manufacturing or producing defective products. This type of insurance is very useful for small scale manufacturers or importers. This liability insurance protects small businesses in case a person is injured or died using a product manufactured or developed by the business.

Employment practices liability coverage
Employment Practices Liability Insurance covers small businesses against claims by employees or business associates when their legal rights are violated. This insurance policy protects employers against breach of employment contract, deprivation of career opportunity, discrimination, mismanagement of employee benefit plans, negligent evaluation, sexual harassment, wrongful discipline or termination etc.

Excess liability coverage
Excess Liability Insurance, also called as Umbrella Liability Insurance or Commercial umbrella insurance provides additional protection to any of several other policies that a small business might hold. It protects businesses when an accident or similar claim exceeds the amount of their existing liability coverage, which may include medical costs or other claim payments.

Workers’ compensation insurance
When an employee gets injured at the workplace, it is the employer who is responsible for the payment of medical bills. Sometimes these medical bills may run into thousands of dollars, which can be very burdensome for the small business owners to pay. The workers’ compensation insurance kicks in during these kinds of situations. The workers’ compensation policy provides wage replacement, medical, and rehabilitation benefits to the employees who get injured on the job.

Other insurance
Apart from the above mentioned insurance policies, there are many other insurance policies that help small businesses such as:
• Auto Insurance – to cover the company vehicles,
• Health Insurance – to protect employees when they are sick,
• Crime Insurance – to protect business against employee fraud,
• Key Employee Insurance – to protect small business against the loss of their key employee etc.

All businesses may not need the same type of insurance. In order to determine a perfect liability coverage for your business, you need to carefully consider all your needs and risks involved in your business. With a good insurance policy, small business owners can have peace of mind and focus on their business knowing that their business is well protected.

Keystone Insurance Group is Ireland’s premier supplier of public liability insurance and business insurance solutions to Irish industry. We offer a broad range of builders insurance, construction insurance, and business liability insurance products. Our public liability insurance Ireland and business insurance Ireland products offer great value to contractors and general business customers. Our experienced and professional team quickly arranges quotes for all classes of business insurance.

Business insurance will protect the assets of the companies. The insurance is protected from the financial losses by the insurance company. The business insurance is suitable for all commercial trades which include contractors, property owners, contract works, removers, ground workers, scaffolders, welders etc.

There are many types of business insurance policies available in the market. It is important to know what type of business insurance is suitable for you. It depends on the type of business you are running.

Business property insurance
This is the most essential type of business insurance. A business property insurance provides compensation for the damages due to fire, hail, peril, loss, vandalism and theft. It also covers the losses which result because of natural calamities like wind, floods, earthquakes etc. Your stock, inventory, exterior buildings and company vehicles are generally covered under the property insurance. There are various types of business property insurance. Some of them are:

Equipment damage insurance
Equipment damage insurance is also known as broiler and machinery insurance. It covers furniture, product inventories, money, computers and many other materials which are not covered in property damage insurance. Property insurance just protects you from external damages but not internal such as damages due to electric short circuit.

• Crime insurance
Crime insurance covers the insured during losses like theft, forgery, computer fraud, counterfeiting, general crime, dishonesty etc. This insurance generally helps for filing a claim against the employee theft or other offenses, which would lead to financial ruin.

Business liability insurance
If you have a business liability insurance, you will be protected from the events of lawsuit for personal injury or property damages filed by third parties. This insurance covers damages which result from a lawsuit along with the legal costs. There are different forms of business liability insurance. They are:

• Errors and omission insurance
The errors and omission insurance protects an individual, professional or a company from paying the full cost of defense for lawsuits related to an accidental error or omission while providing covered professional services. Insurance agents, brokers, real estate agents, architects, third party administrators etc. generally go for the errors and omission insurance.

• Employment practices liability insurance
This insurance provides protection for an employer against the claims of the former employees, employees or potential employees. The employment practices liability insurance also covers discrimination of age, race, sex, disability etc., sexual harassment, wrongful termination of employment and also other employment related allegations. Both your firm including directors and officers are covered by this insurance.

• Umbrella liability or supplemental liability insurance
‘Umbrella’ is a term referred to as to how the policy shields the assets of the person who is insured to a higher extent than just the primary coverage. This insurance also protects the insured against the slander, invasion of privacy, vandalism and libel. This is useful for the individuals who are the owners of very expensive assets and also who are at a high risk of being sued.

• Motor insurance
This insurance is also known as auto insurance, vehicle insurance or car insurance. This insurance is generally chosen for truck, cars and other vehicles used for commercial purposes. The primary cause of this policy is to provide protection against the losses incurred as a result of traffic accidents and against liability which can be incurred in an accident.

Package policies
This is an insurance policy which combines coverage of two or more types of insurance into one policy. One can opt for business property insurance and business liability insurance into one policy which would be very much beneficial. This policy gives greater flexibility for designing a policy which is more specific for the needs of your company.

Workers’ compensation insurance
This insurance provides compensation medical care for employees who suffer from injury, illness or death during the course of employment due to the negligence, carelessness or poor training in any workplace. It covers the insured against the claims of the employee’s right to sue the employer.

Other insurances
Many other commercial insurance policies are also available like crime insurance, professional liability insurance, life and disability insurance, business interruption insurance, product liability insurance, home-based business insurance, money insurance, key person insurance etc. These policies generally compensate the loss of income which might occur because of the business inability to conduct normal trade.

It is important for you to make sure that you take a business insurance in order to secure your financial welfare in the course of some unforeseen event. There is no doubt that the business insurance provides coverage for business, but the important thing is that you have to choose the suitable one as per your requirement.

Keystone Insurance Group is UK and Ireland’s premier supplier of Public Liability Insurance Northern Ireland & business insurance solutions to various businesses. As a provider of Construction Insurance Northern Ireland area, we offer broad range of builders insurance, public liability insurance and other construction insurance to contractors. Our experienced and professional team quickly arranges quotes for all classes of Commercial Insurance Northern Ireland.

So, it is very important for hospitality operations to take reasonable steps to protect their property, employees and financial circumstances. Many businesses in this industry are aware of such widespread losses and would never consider opening a business without buying property and liability insurance policies. But many of them, particularly small businesses, fail to think about how they would manage if any interruption occurs to their business for many days.

Importance of business interruption insurance
Let us consider this example to better understand the importance of business interruption insurance. Suppose an unforeseen event such as fire or floods makes your business place temporarily unusable, relocate your business or shut it down for a while. What would be the impact on the business? A regular commercial property insurance policy covers only the physical damage to your business. What about the profits which could have been earned during this period? How to pay rent, employees’ salaries and other important payments while your business is being rebuilt? This would definitely result in substantial financial loss.

Business interruption insurance (also known as business income coverage) helps businesses in situations like this. Many businesses without the business income coverage, shut down their business operations after their business is completely shuttered due to some unforeseen event. It covers the loss of income and helps a business return to the financial position as it was in prior to the disaster. Hence, a business in hospitality industry should understand the importance of business interruption insurance and should go for this insurance.

Critical aspects of business interruption insurance
Business owners from hospitality industry should be aware of some of the critical aspects of business interruption insurance. Here, we will take a look at some critical aspects of hotel business interruption coverage and understand why it is very useful for businesses in hospitality sector.

Business interruption period
The business interruption period is the length of period for which the benefits are payable under an insurance policy. This period is the most critical part of quantifying the business interruption loss. It covers a business from loss of income for a specified period till the damaged business property is repaired or reopened. Some hotels being aware of the losses that may persist even after repairs are done; opt for “extended period of indemnity”. As it may take some time for the hotel to regain bookings and rebuild market share.

Loss of rooms revenues
The business in the hospitality or the lodging industry may suffer financial performance as two of its main functions, occupancy percentage and average daily rate (ADR) may get affected. In simpler terms, a hotel damaged by a hurricane or fire or stuck in a deep local recession will not be able to generate any revenues because of closed rooms, especially in hotels and lodges. Business interruption insurance compensates you for lost income due to loss of rooms. It covers the profits you would have earned, based on your financial records.

Other lost revenues
Revenues from food and beverage, conferences, golf, spa, etc., can constitute a significant portion of a hotel’s income. When a business is interrupted, not only revenues through rooms are affected, some or all of these sources of income are typically interrupted. The business interruption insurance covers all the profits that would have been earned.

Ordinary payroll
Even if the business activities are temporarily stalled, operating expenses, and other costs such as rent, electricity bill, taxes, interest payable on bank loans, payroll costs etc., cannot be ignored. The business still needs to retain some employees such as accountants, front office executives etc. The business owner needs to pay salaries to them. In this kind of situations business interruption insurance is very helpful as ordinary payroll coverage is a common endorsement in many policies.

Extra expenses
Business interruption policies generally allow an insured hotel to claim extra expenses incurred during the period of indemnity. It reimburses for reasonable expenses that allow the business to continue operation while the property is being rebuilt. Some policies also cover the extra costs required for moving the business to a different (temporary) location.

Business interruption insurance is one of the most important insurance policies that help in minimizing the adverse consequences of some unwanted events for the businesses in the hospitality industry. A well-thought out risk strategy by hotel owners or operators can make a significant difference at the most crucial times.

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