How to Track Certificates of Insurance and Expiration Dates
TL;DR: Tracking certificates of insurance (COIs) comes down to three jobs: collecting one from every vendor, checking the fields that matter (coverage types, limits, policy expiration dates, additional insured), and knowing which expire next. A shared folder plus a spreadsheet works for a dozen vendors. Past that, collect COIs through an upload link, file each one by vendor, and pull the expiration dates out of the PDFs into a list you can sort, rather than typing them in.
If you manage property, run construction projects, or hire contractors to work on someone else's site, you've been told to "get a COI." Most teams end up with a folder of PDFs and a spreadsheet nobody trusts.
The problem isn't collecting the first certificate. It's that policies expire every year, vendors change, and nothing tells you when coverage lapses.
What is a certificate of insurance?
A certificate of insurance is a one-page summary of a business's insurance coverage, issued by its insurance agent or broker. In the US, liability coverage is usually summarized on the ACORD 25 form, now in its 2025/12 edition. (NY DFS, ACORD 25)
It's important to know what a COI is not. The form says so in capitals at the top: it "is issued as a matter of information only and confers no rights upon the certificate holder," and it "does not affirmatively or negatively amend, extend or alter the coverage afforded by the policies below." A COI is evidence that a policy existed on the day it was issued. It isn't the policy.
Which fields on a COI should you check?
Most problems hide in five places:
| Field | What to check |
|---|---|
| Insured | The legal name matches the vendor on your contract, not a parent or a different entity |
| Coverage types | Commercial general liability, auto, umbrella or excess, workers' compensation, as your contract requires |
| Limits | Each limit meets your contract's minimum. The form warns limits "may have been reduced by paid claims" |
| Policy effective and expiration dates | Coverage covers the whole period of the work, not just the day it starts |
| Additional insured | If your contract requires it, the ADDL INSD box is marked and there's an endorsement behind it |
The additional insured point catches people out. The ACORD 25 says that if the certificate holder is an additional insured, "the policy(ies) must have ADDITIONAL INSURED provisions or be endorsed," and that a statement on the certificate doesn't grant those rights on its own. If being an additional insured matters to you, ask for the endorsement as well as the certificate.
Why track COI expiration dates yourself?
Because nobody else is obliged to tell you. The certificate's cancellation box says notice "will be delivered in accordance with the policy provisions," and policy provisions often don't promise the certificate holder anything. In practice, the first sign a vendor's coverage lapsed is often a claim.
Policies renew annually, usually on different dates for each vendor and each coverage type. With 40 vendors, that's a renewal somewhere almost every week.
How do you collect COIs from vendors?
Make it one standard request rather than a dozen email threads:
- Write the requirement down once. Coverage types, minimum limits, additional insured wording, and who the certificate holder should be. Put it in your vendor agreement and in every request.
- Send one upload link instead of asking for email attachments. Attachments end up in personal inboxes and get saved in three places.
- Name files the same way:
COI - Vendor - Coverage - Expires YYYY-MM-DD.pdf. The expiry date in the name means a folder sorted by name doubles as a renewal list. - File one folder per vendor, with the current certificate on top and older ones in an Archive subfolder.
- Ask for the renewal 30 days before expiry, not on the day.
How do you know which certificates expire next?
This is where spreadsheets fail. Someone has to type every expiration date in, and keep doing it for every renewal.
The alternative is to read the dates out of the certificates themselves. The Drive AI can read every COI in a folder and build the list for you:
Read every certificate of insurance under /Vendors/COIs and list the vendor, coverage type, limits and policy expiration date. Which expire in the next 60 days?
The agent reads the policy dates from each PDF, including scans, into a table, and answers with the vendors due for renewal. You can sort it, export it to Excel, or ask follow-ups like which general liability limits are under $1,000,000? Ask again next month and it only reads the certificates that changed.
The rest of the job fits around that:
- Collect. A file request sends vendors one upload link, no account needed, and you can ask the agent to remind anyone who hasn't uploaded. Uploads land in the folder you choose.
- File and rename. A workflow on that folder reads each new certificate, renames it to your pattern with the expiration date, and files it under the vendor.
- Check. Add an approval step so someone reviews certificates that don't name you as additional insured.
What it won't do: it doesn't verify coverage with the insurer, and it doesn't send vendors renewal reminders on its own based on expiry dates. A COI is still just a certificate. For high-risk work, confirm coverage with the agent who issued it.
File requests and connected drives come with the Max plan and Team plans.
Running an agency rather than collecting certificates? See how an insurance agency should organize client files.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a certificate of insurance?
A one-page summary of a business's insurance policies, issued by its agent or broker, usually on an ACORD 25 form for liability coverage. It's informational only and doesn't change or extend the coverage.
What should I check on a certificate of insurance?
The insured's legal name, the coverage types, each limit against your contract's minimums, the policy effective and expiration dates, and whether you're listed as additional insured with an endorsement behind it.
Does a certificate of insurance prove I'm an additional insured?
Not on its own. The ACORD 25 states that additional insured status requires the policy to have additional insured provisions or an endorsement. Ask for the endorsement.
How often do certificates of insurance need to be renewed?
Each time the underlying policy renews, usually every year. Different coverage types on the same certificate can expire on different dates.
What is the easiest way to track COI expiration dates?
Put the expiration date in each file name, and use a tool that reads the dates from the certificates into a sortable list, so nobody has to retype them at each renewal.
Start with the vendors on site now
You don't need to fix every certificate at once. List the vendors working on your properties or projects this month, collect a current COI from each through one upload link, and build the expiration list from those. Add the rest as they renew.
Related: request files without giving Drive access and how to organize construction documents.
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