Why every GC needs a certificate of insurance tracker
If a subcontractor's coverage lapses and someone gets hurt on your job, the claim doesn't politely wait for the renewal certificate. It lands on your policy — and your experience mod, your premium, and your relationship with the owner take the hit. That's why every general contractor collects a certificate of insurance (COI) before a sub mobilizes. The hard part isn't collecting the first certificate; it's knowing, six months later, which of your 40 subs just rolled past an expiration date.
A COI tracker solves that. It's one row per subcontractor, supplier, or vendor with each policy's limits and expiration date, the endorsements your contract requires, and a status that tells you what needs attention right now. The free Excel template above does the math for you: it finds the soonest-expiring policy on each certificate, counts the days remaining, and flags the row red, amber, or green.
What's in the free COI tracker template
- COI Tracker tab — company, trade, contact and email, carrier / agent, then General Liability (each occurrence, aggregate, expiration), Auto (combined single limit, expiration), Umbrella / Excess (limit, expiration), and Workers' Comp / Employer's Liability (statutory Y/N, EL each accident, expiration).
- Endorsement checks — additional insured, waiver of subrogation, primary & non-contributory, and certificate holder correct, each with a Y/N dropdown. Any "N" turns red.
- Automatic status — Soonest Expiration, Days to Exp, and a Status column that reads EXPIRED, EXPIRING ≤30 DAYS, or OK with conditional formatting.
- Limits check — compares every entered limit to your project requirements and spells out the gap (for example, "SHORT: Umbrella EL").
- Required Limits tab — an editable table of the limits and endorsements your subcontract requires. Change one number and every row re-checks.
- Instructions tab — how to use the tracker and a field-by-field checklist for reviewing an ACORD 25.
Six example subcontractors are pre-loaded so you can see every status in action — one fully compliant, one expiring this month, one with lapsed workers' comp, and a few with limit or endorsement problems. Overwrite them with your own.
Typical subcontractor insurance requirements
Every contract is different, but most commercial GCs start from something close to this, which is what the template ships with:
| Coverage | Typical minimum |
|---|---|
| Commercial General Liability | $1,000,000 each occurrence / $2,000,000 general aggregate (per-project aggregate preferred) |
| Automobile Liability | $1,000,000 combined single limit — any auto, or owned + hired + non-owned |
| Umbrella / Excess | $1M–$5M+ depending on trade risk and contract value, following form over GL, auto, and EL |
| Workers' Compensation | Statutory limits for the state where work is performed |
| Employer's Liability | $1,000,000 each accident / $1,000,000 disease–each employee / $1,000,000 disease–policy limit |
High-hazard trades — steel erection, roofing, demolition, crane work, excavation — often carry higher umbrella requirements, and some projects add professional liability (design-build), pollution liability (abatement, environmental), or installation floater / builder's risk requirements. Add columns for those if you need them.
How to read an ACORD 25 certificate
The ACORD 25 is the standard one-page certificate of liability insurance in the US. It's easy to glance at and hard to review well. Here's what to check before you mark a certificate "received":
- Insured name. It must match the legal entity on your subcontract — including "LLC" or "Inc." A parent company, DBA, or owner's personal name means the certificate may not cover the company you contracted with.
- Insurers and policy numbers. Each coverage line should point to an insurer letter (A–F) with a policy number and real effective and expiration dates.
- General liability details. Occurrence vs claims-made, each-occurrence and aggregate limits, products-completed operations aggregate, and whether the aggregate applies per project.
- Auto. Look for "any auto" or owned + hired + non-owned autos. A sub whose employees drive personal trucks to your site with no hired / non-owned coverage is a gap.
- Umbrella / excess. Limit, and whether it sits over GL, auto, and employer's liability.
- Workers' comp. The statutory box, the three employer's liability limits, and any excluded officers or states. A sub with no employees may carry a WC exemption instead — your contract should say whether that's acceptable.
- Description of operations. Should reference your project and state that additional insured, waiver of subrogation, and primary & non-contributory apply as required by written contract.
- Certificate holder. Your company's exact name and address as the contract requires.
Additional insured, waiver of subrogation, and primary & non-contributory
These three endorsements are where most COI problems hide, because a checkbox on the certificate isn't the same as an endorsement on the policy.
- Additional insured (AI) extends the sub's liability coverage to you (and usually the owner) for claims arising from the sub's work. Ask for both ongoing and completed operations — common ISO forms are CG 20 10 and CG 20 37 or their equivalents.
- Waiver of subrogation stops the sub's insurer from paying a claim and then suing you to recover it. It's typically required on GL, auto, and workers' comp.
- Primary & non-contributory means the sub's policy pays first and doesn't ask your policy to share the loss.
The tracker's Endorsements Check column flags any row missing a required endorsement. If a certificate claims an endorsement applies, request the endorsement page itself and keep it with the certificate.
A simple COI management workflow
- Set requirements once. Copy the insurance exhibit from your subcontract template into the Required Limits tab.
- No certificate, no mobilization. Log the COI before the sub's first day on site and make compliance a condition of the notice to proceed.
- Review weekly. Filter the Status column for amber and red. Email the sub and their agent for renewals 30 days before expiration — not the day after.
- Tie it to payment. Many GCs hold pay applications from subs with expired or deficient coverage. It gets renewals in fast.
- Keep it through closeout. Completed-operations coverage matters after you leave the site. Keep certificates in the project file with your closeout package — see the project closeout checklist.
When a spreadsheet stops being enough
A COI spreadsheet works well for one project or a few dozen subs. It gets harder when the same subcontractor works on five jobs, certificates arrive by email to three different people, and nobody remembers who asked for the renewal. That's usually when teams move subcontractor compliance, documents, and daily reporting into one system. Field PM keeps subcontractor records, project documents, and field reports together so the whole team works from the same information. Start a free 30-day trial — no credit card required.
Related construction templates
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- Submittal log — track submittals through GC and architect review
- Schedule of values — set up billing before the first pay app
- Project closeout checklist — turnover documents, final waivers, and warranty log
- Punch list template — the list that gets you to final payment
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