Certificate of Insurance (COI) Tracker

Because a vendor's insurance is what pays when their work or products cause a loss — and an expired or inadequate policy leaves that loss potentially on you. Contracts typically require vendors to carry insurance precisely to transfer this risk; tracking COIs verifies they actually do, continuously. The failure mode is silent: a certificate collected at signing lapses unnoticed, and the gap surfaces only when a claim has no policy to respond to. Tracking expiry (and re-collecting renewals) keeps the risk transfer you negotiated actually in force.

Being named as additional insured on the vendor's policy extends their coverage to protect YOU directly for covered claims arising from their work — their insurer defends and indemnifies you, not just the vendor. Without it, if their work injures someone or damages property, you'd have to pursue the vendor and hope their insurance ultimately responds; with it, you have direct access to the coverage. It's one of the most valuable and most overlooked details on a COI — 'they have insurance' protects them; 'we're additional insured on their policy' protects you. Track it, because contracts requiring it are routinely satisfied with certificates that don't actually grant it.

Compare them to your contract requirements and the risk the vendor poses. A contractor doing high-risk work near your operations needs higher limits than a low-risk service vendor; your contract should specify minimums (e.g., $1M/$2M general liability, workers comp per statute, auto liability for vendors who drive). The COI tracker captures the actual limits so you can verify they meet the requirement — 'has a COI' is meaningless if the limits are below what the exposure demands. Under-insured is a quieter version of uninsured: there's coverage until the loss exceeds it, then you're exposed for the excess.

45 days suits most — insurance policies renew annually and the updated certificate takes time to obtain from the vendor's broker, often requiring follow-up. Flagging early lets you chase the renewed COI before the current one expires, avoiding any uninsured gap. For high-risk vendors or critical relationships, a longer window adds margin. The principle is the same as all compliance tracking: flag early enough to close the gap before it opens. A COI that expires while you're still asking for the renewal is exactly the gap the tracker exists to prevent.