How to track subcontractor insurance (free COI tracking spreadsheet)

Download the subcontractor insurance tracker

Download the subcontractor insurance tracker (Excel, .xlsx). No sign-up and no email. It opens in Excel and in Google Sheets: in Google Drive choose New, then File upload, then open the file with Google Sheets.

One row per sub, with six tabs:

• Summary — how many subs are clear, due to renew, missing paperwork, below your limits or on hold, which policy runs out next, and how many subs are not covered to the end of their work on a job.
• Your Requirements — the limits and endorsements your subcontracts ask for, whether you need a W-9 before the first payment, and how many days’ warning you want before anything expires.
• Sub Tracker — one row per sub: contractor license, general liability, auto, umbrella and workers’ comp, with dates and limits, the endorsements you hold copies of, and when you last checked. Each sub gets a status: Clear, Renew soon, Chase paperwork, Fix limits or Hold.
• Job Check — one row for each sub on each job, with the dates they will be on site. It says whether their cover runs to the end of the work.
• Certificate Checklist — what to look at on every certificate before you file it, and why.
• Start Here — how to use it, and how to clear out the sample.

Blue text is what you type. Black text is a formula. Yellow cells are settings to fill in from your subcontracts before you start. The file comes with six sample subs and four sample jobs, dated relative to the day you open it, so every status shows.

Why a certificate on file is not enough

A certificate of insurance is a one-page summary of a sub’s policies on the day it was printed. It is not the policy, and it cannot add you to one. Texas puts this in statute: a certificate of insurance is not a policy of insurance and does not amend, extend, or alter the coverage afforded by the referenced policy, and it cannot give a certificate holder new or additional rights beyond what the policy or an executed endorsement provides. Tex. Ins. Code ch. 1811

Texas goes further. A certificate may not refer to a legal or insurance requirement in another contract, a construction contract included. And a person has a right to notice of cancellation, nonrenewal or a material change only if they are named in the policy or an endorsement, so being the certificate holder does not mean you will hear when cover stops. Tex. Ins. Code ch. 1811

If a sub turns out to be uninsured, the cost can land on you. In Florida, when a contractor sublets work, the contractor is liable for compensation to all the employees on that work, except the employees of a subcontractor who has secured it, and a contractor must require a subcontractor to provide evidence of workers’ compensation insurance. Fla. Stat. § 440.10

Your own insurer can charge you as well. Great American Insurance’s premium audit guidance says that under most workers’ compensation laws you will be held responsible when an uninsured subcontractor’s employee is injured, and that if evidence of insurance is not available at audit, the sub’s payroll must be added to yours. For general liability, without a certificate showing limits equal to or greater than yours, it classifies subs as employees, and it treats occurrence limits of $500,000 as adequately insured. That is one insurer’s practice, not a rule, but it shows what a missing or thin certificate costs: premium for people who never worked for you. Great American Insurance

How to track subcontractor insurance

Tracking certificates is mostly a dates job with three traps in it: limits, endorsements and job dates. These are the habits the template is built around.

Track every policy, not just the general liability

A sub can be covered for general liability and lapsed on workers’ comp, or the other way round. Keep the expiry date of every policy you require, plus their contractor license where your state licenses the trade, and let the earliest date set the sub’s status. In the template, anything expiring inside your warning window turns the sub to Renew soon, and anything expired turns them to Hold.

Check the limits against your subcontract

Write your minimums down once, from your subcontract, and check every certificate against them rather than against memory. Your own insurer may have a floor of its own, as Great American does at audit, so ask your agent what yours expects. In the template, limits below your minimum turn the sub to Fix limits. Great American Insurance

Collect the endorsements, not the tick boxes

An X in the additional insured box on a certificate is a statement about an endorsement, not the endorsement. Ask for the endorsement page itself and keep it with the certificate. It needs to cover completed work as well as work in progress: Insurance Journal’s guide to additional insured endorsements explains that the most common one for contractors is the CG 20 10, that its editions after 1985 do not cover completed operations, and that the CG 20 37 provides that coverage. Insurance Journal

The same goes for waiver of subrogation and primary and non-contributory wording, if your subcontract asks for them: the endorsement is the evidence. In Texas, wording typed into a certificate cannot do the job, because a certificate may not refer to the requirements of a construction contract at all. Tex. Ins. Code ch. 1811

Check the dates against the job, not against today

A certificate that is good today can run out halfway through the job. Florida’s rule for contractors builds this in: for a certificate to count as evidence of a sub’s workers’ compensation, the dates the sub is working for the contractor must fall within the policy effective and expiration dates on the certificate. The template’s Job Check tab runs that test for every sub on every job. Fla. Admin. Code r. 69L-6.032

Check it at the source

Where your state keeps a coverage database, use it. Florida accepts a screen print from its Division of Workers’ Compensation Proof of Coverage database, confirming that coverage is in effect for the subcontractor, as evidence. Otherwise, call the agent listed as producer on the certificate. The template has a column for the date you last checked. Fla. Admin. Code r. 69L-6.032

Get a W-9 before the first payment

Insurance is not the only paper a sub owes you. The IRS can require backup withholding at 24 percent on payments to an independent contractor reported on Form 1099-NEC when the payee has not provided a correct taxpayer identification number. Collect a W-9 before you pay the first invoice; the template treats a missing one as paperwork to chase. IRS

What to check on every certificate

Run every certificate through this before you file it. The template’s Certificate Checklist tab carries the same list.

1. Is the named insured your sub?

   What right looks like: The name on the certificate matches the legal name on their W-9 and on your subcontract.

2. Do the dates cover the whole job?

   What right looks like: Each policy runs from before they start to after they finish on your job. If one renews partway through, diary the renewal and ask for the new certificate before the old one runs out. Fla. Admin. Code r. 69L-6.032

3. Do the limits meet your minimums?

   What right looks like: Each occurrence, aggregate, auto, umbrella and employer’s liability limits at or above what your subcontract requires. Great American Insurance

4. Do you hold the additional insured endorsement itself?

   What right looks like: A copy of the endorsement page, covering completed work as well as ongoing work, not just an X in the box on the certificate. Insurance Journal

5. Do you hold the other endorsements your subcontract asks for?

   What right looks like: Waiver of subrogation and primary and non-contributory as endorsements, not as wording typed into the certificate’s description box. Tex. Ins. Code ch. 1811

6. Is workers’ comp a policy, or a valid exemption?

   What right looks like: A policy covering their employees, or an exemption your state recognises, with its expiry date on the tracker. Fla. Stat. § 440.10

7. Have you checked it at the source?

   What right looks like: A look-up in your state’s coverage database where there is one, or a call to the agent listed as producer, with the date you checked. Fla. Admin. Code r. 69L-6.032

8. Is every expiry in your diary?

   What right looks like: In Texas you have a right to notice of cancellation only if you are named in the policy or an endorsement, so the expiry dates may be the only warning you get. Tex. Ins. Code ch. 1811

9. Is a W-9 on file before the first payment?

   What right looks like: A signed W-9 with a taxpayer identification number under the sub’s legal name. IRS

Reading the sample

The sample has six subs and four sub-and-job rows, with dates set relative to the day you open the file, so each sub always shows a different status. The subs and figures are made up.

• Bright Line Electric is Clear: every policy runs for months yet, the limits meet the sample minimums, and every endorsement and the W-9 are on file.
• Clearwater Plumbing is Renew soon: its general liability runs out in 18 days. On the Job Check tab it is not covered to the end of its work on the clinic remodel, which has 45 days left.
• Ridgeway Drywall is on Hold: its workers’ comp ran out 12 days ago, and it is due to start on the apartment job in two weeks.
• Summit Roofing is Fix limits: its general liability is $500,000 each occurrence and $1,000,000 aggregate, against sample minimums of $1,000,000 and $2,000,000.
• Northside Concrete is Chase paperwork: its certificate shows additional insured, but no completed-work endorsement has been sent.
• Oak & Iron Framing is Chase paperwork: an owner-operator with a workers’ comp exemption on file and no W-9 yet.

The sample limits are placeholders, not a recommendation. Set your own on the Your Requirements tab before you add your subs.

When a spreadsheet stops being enough

One tracker for the whole company works while one person keeps it up to date. These are the signs it has stopped working:

• Certificates arrive by email to whoever is running the job, and half of them never reach the tracker.
• Nobody opens the file until your insurer’s auditor asks for it.
• A sub got paid, or got on site, while the tracker said Hold, because the person paying them never looked at it.
• You cannot say which subs were covered on which job on a given date without digging through old emails.

At that point the check belongs where subs are set up, put on jobs and given purchase orders, so a lapsed policy shows up in the places people already look.

Where WorkHoist helps, and where it does not

WorkHoist keeps a record for every sub: their contractor license and its expiry; their general liability insurer, policy number and expiry, with each-occurrence and aggregate limits; whether you are named as additional insured; their workers’ comp carrier and expiry; and their bonding limit. Certificates, W-9s, licenses, workers’ comp certificates, contracts, safety certifications and bonds can be filed against each sub.

Anything expiring within 30 days is flagged as a warning, and so is a sub whose policy does not name you as additional insured, on the subcontractor list, on the sub’s own page and on the dashboard. Once a day, admins get an email digest and an in-app notification when a sub’s insurance or workers’ comp crosses 30, 14 or 7 days from expiry, or lapses. Each threshold alerts once rather than every day, and a renewal starts the count again.

It checks cover against the job, too. If a sub’s insurance or workers’ comp runs out before the end date of their work on a live job, the sub is flagged with a coverage gap: the same test as the Job Check tab in this template.

And it acts on it where you commit the money. New purchase orders to a sub whose cover has lapsed, or who has a coverage gap, can’t be approved until insurance and workers’ comp cover is current; an admin can override with a logged reason. A policy that is only expiring soon is still in force, so it warns and blocks nothing.

Questions contractors ask

How do you track subcontractor insurance certificates?

Keep one record per subcontractor with the expiry date and limits of every policy you require, usually general liability, auto, umbrella and workers’ compensation, and check them against the minimums in your subcontract. Collect copies of the additional insured and other endorsements themselves, not just the certificate. Check that each policy runs to the end of the sub’s work on each job, and diary every expiry so you ask for the renewal before it lapses. WorkHoist’s free subcontractor insurance tracker does this in Excel or Google Sheets.

Is there a free COI tracking spreadsheet?

Yes. WorkHoist’s subcontractor insurance tracker is a free Excel file, with no sign-up or email, that also opens in Google Sheets. It tracks each sub’s policies, limits, endorsements, workers’ comp and W-9, gives every sub a status (Clear, Renew soon, Chase paperwork, Fix limits or Hold), and checks whether each sub’s cover lasts to the end of their work on each job.

Does a certificate of insurance make me an additional insured?

No. A certificate summarises a policy; it does not change it. Texas law, for example, says a certificate of insurance is not a policy of insurance and does not amend, extend or alter the coverage, and cannot give the certificate holder rights beyond what the policy or an executed endorsement provides. Ask the subcontractor for a copy of the additional insured endorsement itself, covering completed work as well as ongoing work.

What happens if a subcontractor does not have workers’ comp?

You may end up paying for their employees. Great American Insurance’s premium audit guidance says that under most workers’ compensation laws you will be held responsible when an uninsured subcontractor’s employee is injured, and that the sub’s payroll is added to yours at audit if you have no evidence of their coverage. In Florida, a contractor that sublets work is liable for compensation to the subcontractor’s employees unless the subcontractor has secured it. Get evidence of workers’ comp, or a valid exemption where your state allows one, before the sub starts.

Will I be told if a subcontractor’s insurance is cancelled?

Not necessarily. In Texas, for example, a person has a right to notice of cancellation, nonrenewal or a material change only if they are named in the policy or an endorsement, so being the certificate holder is not enough. Diary every expiry date, ask for a new certificate at every renewal, and where your state has a workers’ comp coverage database, check it.

What should a general contractor collect from a subcontractor before they start?

A current certificate of insurance showing the limits your subcontract requires; copies of the additional insured endorsements for ongoing and completed work; any waiver of subrogation or primary and non-contributory endorsements the subcontract asks for; evidence of workers’ compensation or a valid exemption; a W-9; and their contractor license where your state licenses the trade. Then check that every policy runs to the end of their work on the job.