Certificate Of Insurance Tracking App

Certificate of insurance compliance is a critical business role for any general contracting, commercial real estate, or property management company due to the sheer number of vendors, tenants, and subcontractors they must employ on their various projects. At myCOI we hear so many stories of companies waiting until it was too late to correct inefficient processes, practices like just trusting a certificate of insurance reminder would come, not knowing that there’s no law that says COI reminders need be sent. This is just one reason why a certificate of insurance tracking app is so critical.

One of the tools that help make all of this easier is some form of automated certificate management system, for example, myCOI Central. We use purpose-built technology, ingrained communication systems, quarterly verification and a team of full-time insurance experts to speed up confirming and validating certificates of insurance compliance. 

COI compliance and risk management go hand in hand. COIs are the primary method by which you ensure subcontractors, vendors, and other third parties are assuming responsibility for all the risk they generate as part of their employment. If you accept COIs that are noncompliant, knowingly or unknowingly, your company assumes that risk by default, which can have impactful effects on your company’s bottom line.

Certificate Tracking

Knowing how to track certificates of insurance compliance is the work a risk manager or compliance admin does to collect, verify and maintain the certificates of insurance provided to that company by its third parties. Almost anyone a business hires to do work on its behalf can be asked to provide some form of proof of insurance. And on the face of it, that sounds like a pretty easy ask. But insurance tracking isn’t always that easy.

Collect a piece of paper? A standardized form? And store it? Simple. 

Except each certificate of insurance has to be checked, first and foremost to ensure that it claims all the necessary coverages, amounts, limits, and exclusions that your company requires of its contractors. Sure, there is general liability insurance mentioned, but does it protect to the same amount that you require?

Also, what assurances do you have that the contractor didn’t let the policy lapse the day after they handed you the COI? Are you verifying with insurance agents that these contractors still hold the policies and protections that their COI claims? Are there exclusions to the contractor’s protection that will mean you’re held responsible for risk that should properly rest with the contractor?

If you have any questions as you’re reviewing, contact the vendor or their insurance broker and have the certificate of insurance explained to you. Certificates of insurance issues and answers can be complicated because insurance is complicated, but being able to ensure compliance with your vendors is well worth the effort.

What Does A Certificate Of Insurance Look Like

If you’re a contractor, you need to have a certificate of insurance for business for the insurance policies your business has. There are probably lots of insurance policies you carry at your company. These include:

• General liability insurance, which covers the potential liability you take on with each project, such as construction projects
• Commercial auto insurance, which covers your vehicles and drivers during the job
• Commercial property insurance, which protects any real estate you might have or lease for your business
• Workers compensation and Employers Liability

When it comes to certificates of insurance 101, you need to make sure you have accurate certificates to represent all of your policies. Don’t just trust a certificate of insurance PDF. Know what you’re looking for.  A few critical elements include:

• The limits of your protection
• The effective and expiration dates, which define when that  policy is active
• Your insurers or carriers, which are your insurance companies

You should not be creating your own COIs. Even though you should review your certificates, it is essential to rely on a specialized third party like your insurance agent to produce them. This is one of the services that your policy premiums pay for. That way, you know you have the proper protection for your company the next time you start a project.

And remember that certificate of insurance requirements by state can be very different. Let’s imagine you’re headquartered in Cincinnati, which puts you within working distance of both Indiana and Kentucky. All three of those states could have differing regulatory requirements around insurance and compliance, and its your responsibility to be compliant.

How To Organize Certificates Of Insurance

Knowing how to organize certificates of insurance for tracking is a necessity for any company that hires third parties such as contractors or vendors. A certificate of insurance tracking solution allows businesses to track certificate of insurance compliance. It’s more than a free expiration date tracking software. And it’s a complicated practice that requires more nuance than “I have a stack of certificates now what?”

One of the most common mistakes that businesses make is not keeping accurate records of certificates of insurance. This puts them at risk for fines and penalties if they do not have up-to-date documentation on hand when requested by a third party, such as an attorney, sometimes even when they think they’re in compliance because they don’t check certificate of insurance requirements by state, which vary. In addition to having legal consequences, failing to keep track of your company’s certificates could lead to financial losses. It also increases the likelihood of liability lawsuits filed against your business. Knowing who needs to provide a certificate of insurance is one of the core components of risk management.

It’s not just those who hire contractors and vendors that need to track certificates of insurance. Property managers who host commercial tenants also need to ensure those tenants are carrying the proper insurance. We often see the duty of securing and verifying these COIs fall on property managers, instead of dedicated risk teams, so we strongly suggest having on hand a sample letter requesting certificate of insurance from commercial tenants, so you can quickly request the COIs you need to manage your property’s risk.

Remember. If you find yourself asking which vendors need a certificate of insurance, the answer is usually “all of them.” The next step, knowing how to request a certificate of insurance from a vendor, is something your risk management team probably already has a process for. Insurance tracking is so critical it’s usually already there.

COI Tracking Spreadsheet

If you’re looking for a simple and manual way to track the certificates of insurance in your business, then finding a COI tracking spreadsheet template is an option worth considering. Many companies begin by having their staff track insurance policies on Excel spreadsheets. And for smaller companies just starting out, that system works. For basic certificate of insurance tracking spreadsheets are not a bad solution, certainly better than just a basic expiration date tracker.

Many companies find spreadsheets a good training tool; for a certificate of insurance tracking template Excel has several basic templates that can be customized to what you need, but most companies scale past this very quickly.

The drawbacks of using an Excel insurance tracker are that they can be time-consuming to maintain and often require constant updating. What began as a simple project one person could track and easily snowball into a time-intensive process that’s impossible to scale as a company grows. Instead, companies might add more people and more spreadsheets, which leads to paperwork being lost or misplaced, which leads to increased chances for errors in the data.

That is exactly the worry that myCOI erases. Our systems are industry-leading. Our insurance professionals are top-notch. If you’re tracking hundreds of certificates of insurance, we’d love the chance to show you just how much time and effort we can save you.

Certificate Of Insurance Management

The competition for the best certificate of insurance management software is fierce, and we’d be being dishonest if we didn’t say you need to choose the right solution for your company. Obviously, at myCOI we believe we are the right solution nine times out of ten, but we don’t fit every company, and that’s okay. Certificate tracking online could be a critical part of your business no matter what solution you use, whether that’s a fully managed partner solution, myCOI competitors, or something else. In the end, the right insurance tracking app for you is the right choice.

You’ll need to define what “best” means for your business. Is it the least expensive? That depends on how you measure cost. In pure dollars, a free COI tracking software may work, but is it reliable? Do its developers offer support? Are there regular product updates coming out? If not, check it carefully to make sure it isn’t out of date.

Is “best” the least of your precious person-hours consumed by tracking certificates of insurance? Then a managed solution like myCOI offers may be best. Our team of insurance professionals know what they’re looking at, and they’re experts in making sure your certificates are promising what they say they do, that they meet your business requirements for coverage, and our quarterly verification makes sure the coverage stays in effect.

The best certificate of insurance tracking software will be the one that serves your company’s needs the fullest.