Certificates of insurance (COI) are critical aspects of insurance tracking. COIs help confirm the insurance coverage of the named insured. The process necessitates a keen eye for details and insurance-specific expertise. Achieving accuracy can take time. Missing the mark can cost your company time and money.
A certificate of insurance compliance app like myCOI can allow your company to collect COIs and confirm compliance, reducing data entry mistakes and the time spent physically handling paperwork. Without practical software, tracking COIs can become a burden depending on how many third parties your company has hired.
What Happens If You Don’t Track Your COIs?
Certificates of insurance should be taken seriously. Verifying them can help you decrease your company’s liability risk and create shorter cycles of approvals – both of which can prove beneficial to your company’s success.
If you do not track your COIs, you endanger your company’s health. An example of improperly tracking COIs involves the city of Hartford, Connecticut. The city lost $700,000 because they did not verify that a firm they employed was properly insured. The firm allegedly issued a fake certificate to the city. Hartford officials believed the firm was covered and business could continue as usual.
Assuming insurance coverage is active can be an expensive lesson. Can your company stand to lose $700,000 because you didn’t properly track your COIs?
What Happens If You Have Too Many COIs To Track?
Managing a large number of COIs can be an overwhelming undertaking. You must have a COI on file for each third party your company hires. If your company hires twenty vendors, then you will need to track, verify, and store twenty COIs. You will also need to certify that each COI accurately shows the appropriate coverage.
If you aren’t able to keep up with the workload, your company’s liability risk can increase. Your employment can also be at stake if your company experiences a crushing financial setback.
Another possible result of having too many COIs to track is that since the job can be overwhelming, you might not do it at all. This is extremely dangerous.
COI Compliance Apps Can Save You
Collecting COIs simply to confirm they were received isn’t an effective method to manage them. You should guarantee that your company is compliant with current standards and regulations. COI compliance apps like myCOI can help you where manual methods fail. They can save your company:
- Time: Manual insurance tracking involves physically inspecting each COI. It also entails requesting missing and expired certificates from each third party and their insurance agents. Any oversights or errors can draw the process out longer. COI compliance software can automate all of these actions and more, making the processing of certificates simpler, faster, and more accurate.
- Money: Maintaining sufficient coverage can save your company from having to pay damages should a lawsuit arise. COI software can make sure you remain protected with suitable coverage.
- From lawsuits: Time and money aside, litigation can negatively affect your company’s reputation. Some people won’t do business with a company that has been known to be sued for any reason. COI software can make sure your insurance requirements are constantly met.
How to Choose the Best Certificate of Insurance Tracking Software
Choosing the best certificate of insurance tracking software can be challenging. However, certificate of insurance tracking software can be worth the time and financial investment. At its core, obtaining the right tool that improves your existing processes is like shopping for any other product.
You can use free certificate of insurance tracking software, but a paid option might be better supported by its developer, ensuring you get premium service. Because insurance compliance apps are so critical, we suggest a paid option for that very support reason.
Regardless of the option you choose, there are a few things you should keep in mind before selecting a solution:
- Know what you can afford: Although COI software can save you money in the long run, you might not want to bankrupt your company by buying an expensive service.
- Research: You can look online to find available software that fits your needs. Some platforms like myCOI have comprehensive websites to explain the features they offer.
- Read as many reviews as you can: Learning how users react and feel about specific software can help influence your purchasing decision. These can be found on several websites.
If you have certificates of insurance issues and answers are difficult to come by, myCOI can be the certificate of insurance compliance app that can solve your problems. COI tracking software that follows certificates of insurance best practices can:
- Automate certificate renewal requests: You no longer have to type a sample letter requesting certificate of insurance from vendors. myCOI can automatically contact them.
- Automate non-compliant notices: myCOI can inform you, vendors, and their insurance agents if coverage has lapsed.
- Update you with email alerts: myCOI users can also easily use an online dashboard to monitor the statuses of their COIs.
COI solutions can automate the occasionally tedious process of tracking certificates of insurance. You don’t have to worry about how to organize certificates of insurance. You also don’t have to worry about having to manage a large volume of COIs. You want a certificate of insurance compliance app because you want to worry less and protect your company more.