For a property manager with five to fifty vendors, COI tracking starts with a simple question: who owns the next follow-up? Saving a certificate in an inbox does not assign that work or remind anyone when the dates change.
Use this workflow to collect documents, schedule renewal follow-ups, and record what you checked. It works with a spreadsheet and calendar or with a dedicated tracker.
What a certificate tells you
A certificate summarizes insurance information at the time it is issued. It does not itself change the underlying policy. Being named as certificate holder does not by itself establish additional insured coverage; review the applicable policy wording and endorsements with your broker. Washington's certificate-of-insurance rule explains that a certificate does not confer new rights beyond the policy.
An expired certificate in your file means your evidence needs updating. It does not establish that the vendor is uninsured: the policy may have renewed while the new certificate is still outstanding. Equally, a future expiry date alone cannot establish that a policy remains in force.
Set requirements, exceptions, and decisions about work with your broker and the person responsible for your contracts. These steps organize document tracking; they do not decide whether coverage is adequate.
Cycle 1 — Vendor onboarding
- Identify the vendor and work. Record the correct legal entity, contact, property, and work category. Different trades may need different requirements.
- Send the agreed requirements. Use the limits, entities, and endorsements approved for that contract. Avoid copying a generic dollar limit from a blog.
- Review the documents. Check names, relevant policy dates, coverage types, and required endorsements against those requirements. Ask the broker to clarify discrepancies.
- Save and assign. Keep the PDF with the vendor record, record relevant expiry dates, and name the person responsible for follow-up.
Keep different policy expiry dates separately. General liability and workers' compensation may renew on different days; one vendor-level date can hide the earlier renewal.
Cycle 2 — Monthly review
Compare your tracker with the list of vendors doing work or recently paid. Look for missing vendors, missing documents, dates that have passed, and upcoming renewals. Check that the responsible person can still receive reminder emails.
Keep a separate record of vendors no longer working with you and follow your organization's retention policy. Do not assume deleting a vendor preserves its certificates: in COI Tracker, deleting a vendor also deletes its certificate records.
For multiple properties, maintain the property-to-vendor relationships and the requirements for each property. A certificate for one engagement should not be assumed to satisfy every property's requirements. VendorReady by COI Tracker adds property and requirement workflows; the basic COI Tracker dashboard focuses on vendors, certificates, and expiry reminders.
Cycle 3 — Vendor COI renewal reminders
The following 30/14/7-day schedule is an example you can adapt to your contracts and workload. Set an internal owner as well as a vendor contact.
30 days before expiry: request the renewal
Subject: Updated insurance certificate for [vendor name]
Hi [name], our certificate on file for [coverage type] shows an expiry date of [date]. Please send the renewal certificate when it is available, together with the endorsements required for [property or contract]. If your broker is handling this, please let us know who should receive the request. Thank you, [name].
Record when you sent the request and the expected response date. A renewal may not yet be issued; a useful reply can still give you a contact and next step.
14 days before expiry: follow up on the missing document
Subject: Follow-up: insurance renewal for [vendor name]
Hi [name], we're following up on the renewal certificate for [coverage type], dated to expire on [date]. We haven't received the updated document yet. Could you share it, or confirm when your broker expects to issue it? Please reply by [internal review date] so we can update our records.
Use the same email thread where possible. Check for bounced requests before assuming the vendor has ignored them.
7 days before expiry: escalate internally
Notify your designated manager of the outstanding evidence, planned work, and follow-up attempts. Apply your agreed exception process. A verbal assurance or a reminder email does not extend coverage or change the contract.
At expiry: flag the missing evidence
Mark the record as needing review and request confirmation from the vendor or broker. Have the responsible person decide what happens to scheduled work under your contract and risk policy. Do not invent an automatic grace period.
When the renewal arrives: review and close the follow-up
Check the new dates and requirements, retain the prior document according to your policy, and update the tracked record. Confirm that the next reminder uses the new expiry date. Close the outstanding request only after the document has been reviewed.
How reminders work in COI Tracker
COI Tracker emails you at the default 30-, 14-, and 7-day reminder windows, and once more if a certificate lapses. These scheduled reminders prompt you to act. The vendor renewal request is a separate action that you initiate from the dashboard; the templates above also work in your own mailbox.
You can track up to 10 vendors free. Pricing lists the paid vendor limits and optional reminder settings. The COI checker can help you locate fields in a supported PDF, but you review the result and remain responsible for checking the documents.
Cycle 4 — Keep a review record
Periodically review a sample of vendor files. Can you find the certificate, applicable requirements, the person who checked it, outstanding questions, and the last follow-up? Keep those review notes in your designated records system.
If you need a historical report of coverage at a particular date, confirm that your process retains the necessary documents and decisions. Do not assume an expiry dashboard is a complete historical coverage report.
Frequently asked questions
When should we move beyond a spreadsheet?
Consider a tracker when follow-ups are being missed, the person maintaining the sheet changes, or several policy dates per vendor make the list difficult to manage. Vendor count alone does not decide this. Start with the free spreadsheet template if your current process is manageable.
Can one certificate cover multiple properties?
Keep the vendor's documents together, but check each property's contractual requirements, entities, locations, and applicable endorsements. Ask your broker about the scope of coverage; do not infer it from the certificate holder box alone.
Should we ask the broker directly?
Ask the vendor for the appropriate broker contact and permission to coordinate. Send the specific document request and required entities so the broker has enough information to respond. Response times vary.
Do one-time vendors need the same process?
Use the requirements for the work and contract. A short engagement still needs a clear decision about required evidence and who checks it. Confirm exceptions with your designated reviewer.
Start with your active vendor list and one named person responsible for renewals. Create a free account, use the request email builder, or see COI tracking for property managers.