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Certificate Of Insurance Compliance App

There is a lot of confusion about certificate of insurance compliance apps. What do they do? How much do they cost? Which one should I choose? These are all valid questions, and we’ll try to help answer them. We will also talk about the different types of certificate of insurance tracking apps on the market so you can make an educated decision when choosing which one to use for your business.

The first step is to identify the needs of your company. What need are you trying to solve by finding a way to track certificates of insurance tomorrow than you track certificates now? Are you hoping to save hours of your staff’s time? Do you need a solution that’s less expensive than the large compliance staff your current, manual process requires you to have? Writing down the answers to questions like these will give you a solid basis of comparison for the next step.

The next step is to compare different apps and read through reviews of them to see which might fit your needs. Pay careful attention to what other users say about them. You’re almost certainly looking for statements like “it saved us so much time,” or “we were able to reinvest so much money and effort into things that really mattered to our business,” and watching out for “It’s hard to use,” or “it didn’t end up saving us any time.”

Finally, make sure any app you consider has a robust and functional customer service and customer support function. Technology sometimes breaks—if or when that happens, you want to know that your COIs are safely recorded and that verification is ongoing!

At myCOI, we’ve made it our mission to erase the worry you might have about insurance compliance. Our tools, technology, and professional insurance staff can help you manage your COIs to save you time, money, and effort just like we have so many other companies.

Certificate of Insurance Tracking

Certificate of insurance (COI) tracking is the term for the process a business’ employee, often a risk manager or compliance admin, uses 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.

Collect a piece of paper? A standardized form? And store it? Easy-peasy. 

Except that’s just the easy part. 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? Does the contractor carry a per-occurrence policy for $1M and does the general aggregate amount apply per project?

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?

A certificate tracking tool like myCOI handles a lot of this for you. 

Insurance Tracking Number

Every certificate of insurance should include a unique insurance tracking number.

Certificates of insurance are a type of insurance document that is required by a contract or agreement in place, to evidence that insurance exists. They represent that an insurer has agreed to provide coverage for a specific risk at a certain price and under specific terms and conditions. 

Typically, certificates contain information about the insured’s policies, coverage limits, and potential risks excluded from coverage, and other important details such as whether it contains riders or endorsements.

Insurance Certificate Issuance Software

Insurance certificate issuance software is not something non-insurance companies typically have to worry about. The insurance company is responsible for issuing certificates of insurance to the company. If you’re an owner or manager, it’s crucial that you know what your responsibilities are and how those differ from someone in this role at another firm. Whether it comes down to handling employee-related matters or discussing business strategy with clients, a basic understanding of these roles will go a long way when forging relationships within your industry.

Sometimes people mention certificates of issuance, but that’s a different certificate. These testify to the issuance of certificates for things like bar codes or identification numbers. As they sound, they are certificates of issuance meaning they’re certifying that something was issued.

Instead of wasting time asking “what is certificate of issuance,” focus on tracking your own certificates of insurance. With a COI tracking application, you’ll never need to worry about tedious paperwork again. You can also make sure that your records are always up-to-date thanks to automated updates from vendors.

Certificate Tracking

Certificate tracking is a necessity for any company that hires third parties such as contractors or vendors. A certificate of insurance tracking app is a type of software program that allows businesses to track certificates of insurance in their company. These apps are often less expensive than other types of solutions on the market because they don’t have recurring fees associated with them.

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 or law enforcement officer. 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. Choosing a solid COI tracking solution that moves you past using certificate of insurance tracking access templates or some other certification tracking spreadsheet is just smart business.

There are many benefits associated with using certificate tracking software that can help you avoid all these pitfalls: saving time, decreasing errors due to paperwork being misplaced or lost, saving money from avoiding fees tied into other solutions…the list goes on.

Insurance Tracking Services

Insurance tracking services are electronic solutions that automate the process of complying with certificates of insurance usage. The pros and cons of using insurance tracking software are as follows. 

In the pro column, you can save time, money, and effort on paperwork by automating processes in one place instead of across multiple COI spreadsheets or paper files. COI trackers streamline workflows for employees who need access to certificates from different companies without requiring constant data input, and they allow you to track (or have tracked, in a managed service environment) all your documents in one location so you never have to worry about misplaced paperwork again. 

The cons are, software and services can seem expensive and intimidating if your budget is tight or your business lacks capital reserves. At myCOI we often deal with potential clients who actually haven’t sat down and done the math to see what their current method of managing COIs is costing them, both in direct costs and the amount of risk they absorb through non-compliance.   

What those clients often find out, is that the reduction in risk and working hours by their staff when they adopt a solution like myCOI often saves them quite a lot of money.

COI Tracking Software

You should determine if your company needs COI tracking software by asking yourself questions like those that follow. We’ve already said how some companies discover significant savings when they do this exercise. Your company may be able to, as well. Insurance compliance apps really do make a difference.

Do you need to comply with regulatory compliance for maintaining certificates of insurance? Regulatory compliance is often not needed until it is; and when that need comes, you want to be ready. Certificate of insurance tracking software like myCOI makes COI tracking so much easier to monitor, report on, and audit. 

Also, ask yourself: is it difficult for employees in your business to keep track of how many certificates are needed at any given time? Are they sure of which ones are compliant with your business’ standard coverage requirements? Have they checked to confirm the third party’s coverage doesn’t contain exclusions or limitations that mean your company will have to assume risk it doesn’t wish to?

If the answer is yes, it’s quite difficult, this could mean that they don’t know where everything is and have difficulty finding things quickly when they’re needed most. A certificate tracking solution like myCOI will help solve these problems. 

COI Tracking Spreadsheet 

If you’re looking for a simple and manual way to track certificate of insurance compliance in your business, then using a COI tracking spreadsheet is an option worth considering. Many companies begin with solutions like 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 excel is not a bad solution.

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.