Get the Best Construction Insurance Certificate Tracking Platform

Construction Insurance Certificate Tracking Platform

There are few more complicated examples of modern logistical planning than a construction site. Consider the sheer amount of materials that must be assembled and delivered, the slew of skilled professionals that must be gathered and scheduled, the reports and inspections that must be generated, and add in the simple complicating factor of weather. 

Now add in that all that stuff has to happen in a specific order, on a precise schedule, a schedule that is often decided months or even years in advance. You can’t have the concrete framers arrive to lay the foundation, for example, before the site is graded and prepared. Electricians can’t install wiring in walls that don’t exist. Roofers can’t install the roof if the shingles haven’t arrived yet.

It seems like a lot, right? Now add in tracking the construction insurance coverage of all those people and companies involved. This is the need that makes construction insurance certificate tracking platforms so critical to the safe operation of large construction companies. It’s more than knowing how to organize construction insurance certificates of insurance. It’s knowing how to track, confirm and verify them that protects your company from risk generated by those contractors.

Let’s take a look at what’s involved in that kind of certificate tracking.

How To Track Certificates Of Insurance

Certificate tracking is a necessity for any company that hires third parties such as contractors or vendors, and knowing how to track certificates of insurance for your construction company is a critical skill for any risk management team member, whether you use an app or not. A certificate of insurance tracking app is a type of software program that allows businesses to track certificates of insurance for 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 a certificate of insurance tracking template 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. Many of these solutions often allow you to request a certificate of insurance online. In almost every case, an insurance certificate tracking platform is a huge time saver.

COI Tracking Spreadsheet

If you’re looking for a simple and manual way to track the certificates of insurance 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 with our certificate tracking platform. 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.

It’s not that as an insurance tracker Excel is a bad choice: it’s just that it doesn’t scale. As the number of COIs your business has to deal with grows, so does the need for a more robust, usually automated solution.

Certificate Of Insurance Compliance

Certificate 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.

Collect a piece of paper? A standardized form? And store it? That’s a snap. 

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?

If you use some form of insurance compliance software, such as a certificate of insurance tracking tool like myCOI, and you chose a good one, it will help you by reminding you about a lot of these, or accepting your insurance requirements as minimum acceptable values for any COI. 

If you’re new on the job, and you’re not sure which vendors need a certificate of insurance, the answer is pretty easy: any of them that do work on your behalf. Which is probably all of them. But don’t worry, there will almost certainly be some form of institutional knowledge at your company to help you learn how to request a certificate of insurance from a vendor.

Free COI Tracking Software

Running a business is expensive, and sometimes the last thing you want to add is another expense, even when you have a need. We can’t tell you how many times we’ve heard companies tell us that they were doing their best: they knew about COI tracking software, but the budget was just too tight, so they did it with a certificate of insurance tracking spreadsheet or a free COI tracking software. For a while, they did okay.

But their compliance percentage slipped down a little every month, as their business grew and more and more certificates were received. Each of those certificates had to be tracked and verified. Each month, more certificates than the last.

At a certain point, the amount of unnecessary risk they were assuming got to be too much, and they had to look for a more professional solution. Sometimes it’s because their risk management team or general counsel audits and realizes the exposure. Sometimes a new hire discovers a distressing reality that had gone unnoticed.

Unfortunately, sometimes it’s because the company just had to pay a damaging claim that they should have been covered for.

Free COI tracking software is not inherently bad, and almost no one sets out to make bad software. Sometimes they’re little more than insurance expiration trackers, and that’s never enough. It takes a dedication to customer service, a mission to erase worry, and a team of insurance professionals like the one we’ve assembled at myCOI to make sure your company is doing all it needs to with its certificates of insurance.

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 a certificate of issuance is, 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.

Certificates Of Insurance Issues And Answers

We know this can be a complicated topic because we get asked about certificate of insurance issues and answers all the time. Insurance is a complicated field with nuances around every corner, and almost every situation has some kind of unique aspect. Understanding coverage, understanding what the certificates of insurance actually say—and what they don’t say—can be, and often is, a full-time job, and it often takes more than glancing at a certificate of insurance template.

There are two parties you want to check within almost any instance of questions around certificates of insurance. First, for questions like which vendors need a certificate of insurance, check with your company’s risk management department, or when that doesn’t exist, your company’s general counsel about what your vendor insurance requirements are. In many cases, these departments or people can give you a certificate of insurance review checklist to help you ensure that the COIs you review have all the necessary coverage. 

The other party will be the agent or broker who issued the certificate of insurance. When you have questions about the coverage, exclusions, or limitations shown on a certificate of insurance you receive, the only safe source of information is the agent or broker itself. Don’t ask the third party who provided you with the certificate; not only does this give them the opportunity to be dishonest, it also sets you up to be taken advantage of out of ignorance or a mistaken belief about coverage. Go to the source. Ask the agent or broker. Certificate of insurance compliance is complicated enough without adding more chances for mistakes.

Finally, be intentional in what you ask of a certificate of insurance sample you might find online. They’re great for reference, but don’t depend on them to tell you what coverage you might want. That’s a conversation you need to have with your insurance provider, so you can decide what coverages you need and what fees you can accept.