Tarmika Setup Guide for Multi-Carrier Quoting

The switch away from the previous rater was easy to justify. It could not handle BOP and workers comp together, the carrier list was thin for the mid-size commercial classes you are writing more of, and the interface had not meaningfully changed in five years. Tarmika looked right in the demo: clean, carrier options were present, the BOP workflow was fast. The problem came during setup. Activating each carrier took longer than expected — two weeks of credential submissions, verification emails, and waiting. The quoting was ready before the carriers were.

This guide is written to shorten that gap. It covers what Tarmika is and who it is for, how to get carrier connections live efficiently, and how to run your first BOP and workers comp quote once the system is ready.

What Tarmika Is and Which Market It Serves

Tarmika is a multi-carrier commercial quoting platform built for independent agents who hold direct carrier appointments for admitted small commercial lines. The core lines it handles are BOP, General Liability, Workers Comp, and related commercial coverages. It is not an E&S market access tool, and it is not a comparative rater for personal lines.

The distinction from tools like Bold Penguin is important. Bold Penguin's Exchange routes agents to wholesale and MGA markets, particularly for risks where the agent does not have direct appointments. Tarmika is designed for agents who already have direct appointments with admitted carriers and want to rate those carriers simultaneously rather than logging into each carrier portal individually. If you do not have a direct appointment with a carrier in Tarmika's network, that carrier will not appear in your quote results — the platform quotes through your existing appointments, it does not create new market access.

This means Tarmika works best for agencies with active admitted commercial appointments and a meaningful volume of BOP and workers comp business. For agencies where most small commercial goes to E&S markets, or where direct appointments are limited, Tarmika's value is more constrained. See our Tarmika review and the Bold Penguin vs. Tarmika comparison for a full picture.

Account Setup: Connecting Your Carrier Appointments

This is where the time goes, and where setting expectations upfront matters.

When you create your Tarmika account, you will go through an agency verification step: license numbers, state appointments, E&O coverage confirmation. This is standard and typically resolves in one to two business days.

Carrier connection is the time-intensive step. For each carrier you want to quote through Tarmika:

1. Navigate to Carrier Settings or My Carriers in your Tarmika account (label varies by interface version).
2. Find the carrier in the list of available integrations.
3. Click to initiate the connection. Tarmika will prompt you to enter your carrier-specific credentials — typically your producer code and, for carriers using their own portal authentication, your portal username and password.
4. Some carriers require a separate authorization step: Tarmika sends a request to the carrier on your behalf, and the carrier's contracting or technology team must approve the connection. This approval step is carrier-dependent and is where the delays accumulate. Some carriers approve within 24 hours; others take a week.
5. After connection is confirmed, Tarmika will show the carrier as active in your settings.

Practical advice to shorten setup time:

• Prioritize your top three or four carriers first. Get those live before spending time on carriers you quote less frequently.
• Gather all your producer codes before starting. Having to look up credentials mid-setup adds unnecessary delays.
• If a carrier approval is taking more than five business days, contact your carrier rep directly. Tarmika's support can sometimes expedite, but your carrier rep has a shorter path to whoever approves the connection on the carrier side.
• Check each activated carrier connection by running a test quote before relying on it for real submissions. Authentication failures sometimes go unnoticed until the first real submission.

For more on carrier appointment management, see our carrier appointment glossary entry.

Running Your First BOP Quote

Once at least one carrier is active, the BOP quoting workflow in Tarmika follows this sequence:

1. Click New Quote or Start Quote from the main dashboard.
2. Select BOP as the line of business.
3. Enter the named insured information: legal business name, address, phone, email, and FEIN if applicable.
4. Select the class of business. Tarmika provides a searchable class code selection. For BOP, this is the SIC code or ISO class code for the type of business. Enter descriptive terms and select from the dropdown. Class selection significantly affects which carriers display appetite and what the premium range looks like — if your first selection returns thin results, review whether an adjacent class code better describes the operation.
5. Enter the BOP-specific risk data: building ownership (owned vs. leased), building type, year built, square footage, protection class, number of employees, annual revenue, and requested limits.
6. Add any relevant risk characteristics: prior losses, alarm systems, whether the risk involves any excluded operations for BOP.
7. Select the carriers you want to quote. Your view shows only carriers for which you have active connections in Tarmika.
8. Click Rate or Get Quotes. Tarmika submits the risk data to each selected carrier's rating engine and returns results, typically within one to two minutes for most carriers.
9. Review results: compare quoted premiums alongside the coverage details. Carriers may quote different deductibles or liability limits as defaults. Confirm you are comparing equivalent coverage across carriers.

As of our last review, Tarmika's BOP rating workflow is one of its stronger functional areas. The class code selection and data entry flow well for standard risks. Complex or specialty classes may not have robust admitted market appetite through the platform — those belong in a wholesale workflow.

Workers Comp Quoting Workflow

Workers comp quoting in Tarmika requires a different set of inputs than BOP, and new users sometimes underestimate the data preparation this requires.

1. Start a new quote and select Workers Comp as the line.
2. Enter the named insured information as in the BOP workflow.
3. Enter class codes and payroll: this is the most critical step in workers comp. Every workers comp quote requires the correct NCCI (or state-specific) class codes for each type of employee, along with the annual payroll for each class. If the business has multiple operations — for example, a landscaping company with field workers, equipment operators, and office staff — each employee category gets its own class code and payroll figure.
4. Enter the experience modification factor if the account has one. Accounts with 3+ years of payroll above a state-specific threshold are assigned an experience mod through their state's rating bureau. If the account is new or below the threshold, the mod is 1.0. Entering the wrong mod produces an inaccurate quote.
5. Enter claims history: frequency and severity of past workers comp losses, if any.
6. Select carriers and click Rate.

Workers comp quoting is more data-intensive than BOP, and errors in class codes or payroll figures produce quotes that do not hold at audit. Verify the class codes against the account's current policy or NCCI classification before entering them. For background on workers comp underwriting factors, see our ratemaking glossary entry.

Managing and Storing Quotes in Tarmika

Tarmika stores quotes within the platform, but this creates a data management question that agencies handle differently: the quote exists in Tarmika, and the policy will exist in your AMS. These are not automatically the same record.

Within Tarmika:

• Saved quotes are accessible from your Quotes or Submissions dashboard view.
• You can return to a quote, modify inputs, and re-rate.
• Tarmika typically allows you to download quote documents as PDFs for client presentation.

The dual-system reality means you need a process for ensuring that what is quoted in Tarmika is accurately reflected in your AMS when the account binds. If your AMS integration with Tarmika is configured (see the next section), this handoff can be automated. If not, manual re-entry or document attachment is required.

For more on how rating and AMS systems interact, see our policy administration system glossary entry and our EZLynx review.

AMS Integration: How Tarmika Data Flows to Your AMS

Tarmika has integration capabilities with several major AMS platforms. As of our last review, integrations exist with EZLynx, Applied Epic, and HawkSoft, among others. The depth and direction of data flow varies by AMS:

EZLynx: Tarmika can push quote data to EZLynx applicant records. The setup requires configuration in both platforms — typically an API key or authentication token that you enter in Tarmika's integration settings. Once active, a bound or quoted account in Tarmika can push the policy data to the corresponding EZLynx applicant without manual re-entry.

Applied Epic: Integration with Applied Epic is available but requires more configuration steps, particularly around the Epic client ID mapping. Your Applied Epic administrator will need to be involved. See our Applied Epic review for context on how Applied Epic handles third-party integrations generally.

HawkSoft: Tarmika has a HawkSoft integration. The HawkSoft setup is typically managed in Tarmika's carrier/integration settings panel.

For any AMS integration:

1. Navigate to Settings > Integrations or equivalent in your Tarmika account.
2. Select your AMS from the available list.
3. Enter the required credentials or API keys.
4. Test the integration with a sample quote before relying on it for real submissions.
5. Confirm with your AMS administrator that incoming data from Tarmika is appearing correctly in the AMS record.

If the integration is not working as expected, the most common culprits are: mismatched account identifiers, AMS user permissions that block incoming API data, or API credentials that have expired and need to be regenerated.

When Tarmika Works Well and When to Supplement

Tarmika works well when: you have active admitted market appointments for BOP and workers comp, the risk is a standard small commercial class, and you want to rate multiple admitted carriers in one interface rather than logging into each portal separately.

Tarmika is not the right tool when: the risk is E&S or non-admitted, you need market access beyond your direct appointments, the class is unusual enough that admitted markets have limited appetite, or you are working a large or complex commercial account that requires an underwriter conversation.

For the gaps — E&S placements, wholesale market access, risks that admitted carriers decline — Bold Penguin's Exchange or direct wholesale contacts are the supplement. See our best commercial lines quoting platforms guide for a broader view of how these tools fit together.

For comparison with adjacent platforms, see our Semsee vs. Tarmika comparison and the EZLynx vs. PL Rating comparison.

Transparency

InsurAItools has no commercial relationship with Tarmika. This guide is based on independent review of the platform as of June 2026. Carrier availability, interface design, and integration capabilities may have changed. For corrections or updates, contact editors@insuraitools.com.

Editorial verdict:

Tarmika is a practical tool for independent agents with active admitted commercial appointments who want to rate multiple carriers in one workflow. Its limitations are real — the admitted-market focus means E&S risks need a parallel process — but within its intended use case it does what it says. The setup friction is front-loaded: once carrier connections are active and the AMS integration is configured, the day-to-day quoting workflow is straightforward.

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Priya Nair covers claims and underwriting technology. She spent eight years as a claims supervisor at a regional P&C carrier before moving to independent analysis.

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Frequently Asked Questions

How many carriers does Tarmika connect to?

Tarmika does not publish a fixed carrier count, as the network varies by state and product line. As of our last review, the platform has relationships with dozens of admitted small commercial carriers and MGAs, with the active list varying by geography. The practical number available for a given risk type and state is best verified by logging in and reviewing the carrier selection for your primary lines and market. Carrier participation can change — do not assume the list you saw during a demo reflects your current access.

Does Tarmika work for personal lines?

No. Tarmika is built specifically for small commercial — BOP, General Liability, Workers Comp, and related commercial products. It is not designed for personal auto, homeowners, renters, or other personal lines. For personal lines comparative rater functionality, EZLynx and PL Rating are the more widely used options in the independent agent market. See our EZLynx review and our best comparative raters for personal lines guide for that segment.

Is Tarmika better than Bold Penguin for commercial quoting?

They address overlapping but distinct problems. Tarmika is designed for agents who hold direct carrier appointments for admitted small commercial lines and want to rate those carriers simultaneously. Bold Penguin's Exchange connects retail agents to wholesale and MGA markets — it is particularly useful when direct admitted appointments are limited or when the risk falls outside standard appetite. For an agent with strong admitted market appointments in BOP and workers comp, Tarmika typically provides a more direct quoting path. For an agent who needs market access beyond their current appointments, Bold Penguin addresses a different need. Many agencies use both, in different parts of their commercial workflow. See our Bold Penguin vs. Tarmika comparison for a detailed side-by-side.