Certificate of insurance tracking — without the per-vendor pricing.

A Certificate of Insurance (COI) is a one-page document from a broker or carrier that proves a business has active insurance. It shows the insured business, the carrier, the policy numbers, the start and end dates, and the coverage limits. The COI is not the policy itself. It is a snapshot of what the policy looked like on the day it was issued. The COI you collected in January may already be out of date by April, which is why ongoing tracking matters.

They track COIs because vendor insurance is what keeps risk off the property owner or general contractor. If a contractor gets hurt or damages something and their insurance has lapsed, the lawsuit lands on you instead of them. A 2024 study found that manual COI tracking misses up to 45 percent of compliance issues, and a single uninsured accident can lead to a six-figure lawsuit. Tracking COIs actively keeps that risk on the vendor, where it belongs.

COI tracking software does four jobs. First, it collects certificates from vendors through a portal or email. Second, it reads each cert and stores the key fields: insured business, carrier, limits, dates, and additional insured language. Third, it checks the cert against your rules (for example: $1M general liability minimum, AM Best A- carrier rating, your business named as additional insured). Fourth, it sends reminders to the vendor and your team before each policy runs out. Better platforms also store endorsements, keep an audit trail, and let you set different rules for different properties.

Pricing varies by model. Self-service SaaS platforms range from $99 to $299 per month (Certificial Starter at $99/mo for up to 100 certificates, Pro at $299). Per-vendor models like CertFocus self-service are $6–$8 per vendor per year, with full-service review at $13–$19 per vendor. Enterprise platforms like Avetta charge subscribers $450–$900 per subcontractor per year, while ISNetworld is $875+. ExpiryEdge takes the SaaS approach: a flat monthly subscription with unlimited vendors, scaling on team seats and notifications rather than per-cert fees.

You can, and many small operators do. But spreadsheets stop working once you pass about 20 vendors. They break down for three reasons. First, there is no automatic reminder 30 days before a cert expires - someone has to check manually. Second, there is no way to verify the additional insured language or endorsements; the spreadsheet just shows what was on the cert page. Third, there is no audit trail when a carrier or auditor asks who reviewed which cert and when. A 2024 industry report found spreadsheet-based COI tracking hits 60 to 70 percent compliance, while purpose-built software reaches 90 percent or higher.

A Certificate of Insurance just shows that the vendor has coverage. Additional insured status is what actually extends that coverage to protect your business if something goes wrong. The COI page only confirms what was true the day it was printed. The real protection comes from a policy endorsement - usually CG 20 10 for ongoing work and CG 20 37 for completed work. Good COI tracking captures both the certificate AND the endorsement, so you can prove additional insured status if a claim ever comes up.

COIs should be re-collected at every policy renewal - typically once per year, or whenever the vendor changes carriers. Reviews should happen on a 90/60/30/7 day cadence before the listed expiration. Best practice is to start the renewal request at 60 days out so you have buffer for delays at the broker. ExpiryEdge defaults to 90/60/30/7 day reminder windows for COIs, which can be customized per vendor or per property.

For most operations teams under 500 vendors, yes. ExpiryEdge handles vendor portals, expiration alerts, AI parsing of certificate fields, additional-insured tracking, and audit logs. The places to consider a specialized COI platform are: live sync with broker management systems for real-time policy status (Certificial), full-service expert review of every cert (CertFocus), or insurance-carrier integrations specific to construction OCIP/CCIP programs (Jones). ExpiryEdge often covers 80–90% of the workflow at a fraction of the per-vendor cost, and pairs that with deadline tracking for every other expiry your team manages.

Avetta and ISNetworld are subcontractor prequalification networks - subcontractors pay an annual fee ($450–$900 with Avetta; $875+ with ISN) to be visible to hiring clients on the network. They are well-suited for oil and gas, utilities, and very large industrial buyers. For mid-size GCs and property managers who want their own private compliance program without forcing every sub onto a paid network, ExpiryEdge is the lighter-weight alternative: vendors upload COIs free, the GC pays a flat monthly subscription, and there are no per-vendor charges.

The integrations that matter most: (1) Slack and Microsoft Teams for surfacing alerts where teams already work; (2) email and SMS for vendor-side reminders; (3) document storage (Google Drive, OneDrive, Box) for cert archive; (4) accounting / AP systems (QuickBooks, NetSuite, Sage) so an unpaid AP invoice can be flagged on a non-compliant vendor; (5) project management tools (Procore, Buildertrend) so site teams see compliance status on the project record. ExpiryEdge supports email, SMS, WhatsApp, Slack, and Teams natively, with API access for the rest.