Skip to main contentKey Concepts
Understanding these concepts will help you get the most out of Kantilever.
Desks
A desk is a workspace for managing submissions. Typically, you create one desk per line of business or underwriting team.
Each desk has its own:
- Submissions queue
- Data extraction schema (fields)
- Intake rules (email routing)
- Desk rules (workflow automation)
Submissions
A submission represents an insurance submission request moving through your workflow. Submissions have:
Status
- Intake - Newly received, awaiting initial review
- Extracting - AI is extracting data from documents
- Review - Ready for underwriter review
- Needs Info - Waiting for additional information
- Quoted - Quote has been issued
- Bound - Policy bound
- Declined - Submission declined
Priority
- Low, Normal, High, Urgent
Source
- Email (ingested via intake rules)
- Upload (manually uploaded)
- API (programmatic creation)
Intake Rules
Intake rules determine how incoming emails are routed to desks. When an email arrives, Kantilever:
- Checks if it matches any intake rule conditions
- Uses AI to classify the email (new submission, reply to existing, or irrelevant)
- Creates a new submission or links to an existing one
Data Fields
Data fields define what information to extract from submission documents. Field types include:
- Text, Number, Currency, Date, Boolean
- Enum (predefined options)
- Computed (calculated from other fields)
The AI extraction uses your field definitions to pull structured data from emails and attachments.
Desk Rules
Desk rules automate actions based on submission data. When conditions match, rules can:
- Change submission status
- Set priority
- Draft response emails
Rules are evaluated whenever submission data changes.
Action Items
Action items are tasks requiring your attention:
- New Submission - Review a newly created submission
- Review Draft - Approve or edit an auto-generated email
- Triage Review - Manually classify an ambiguous email
