COISoftware collects a certificate of insurance from every vendor, subcontractor, rental house and location on your production, reads each ACORD 25 with AI, checks general liability and equipment limits, and confirms the location owner, film office or rental house is named as additional insured or loss payee. Built for US production companies, studios and location managers who onboard new vendors every shoot. Upload a COI above to see it read in seconds.
Last updated July 2026
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A caterer, a rental house and a stunt vendor carry different risk, so productions require different coverage by scope. These are common starting points, not legal or insurance advice.
| Vendor type | Coverage commonly required | Why the production verifies it |
|---|---|---|
| Equipment and camera rental houses | Inland marine or equipment coverage at replacement value, general liability, rental house named loss payee and additional insured | A house releases gear only when its equipment value is covered and it is named loss payee |
| Locations and film offices | General liability of one to two million, additional insured with the exact required wording, sometimes higher limits for public property | A permit or location lockup is only issued when the owner is properly named additional insured |
| Stunt, special effects and pyro | General liability, added coverage for the specific activity, workers compensation, umbrella | These activities carry an injury and property exposure basic general liability does not answer |
| Aerial, drone and picture vehicles | General liability, aviation or non owned aircraft for drones, hired and non owned auto for picture cars | Aerial and vehicle work carries a specific exposure a standard policy excludes |
| Catering, wardrobe and support crews | General liability, workers compensation, auto for delivery, additional insured | Support vendors on set still carry an injury and property exposure to the production |
Set requirements to your own agreements, film office rules and risk tolerance. Coverages shown are common starting points, not legal or insurance advice.
Production is project based and fast moving. A single shoot pulls together grips, gaffers, caterers, stunt and special effects vendors, rental houses and multiple locations, each carrying its own policy, and the entire roster can change from one project to the next. Certificates are needed on tight deadlines, often within a day or two of a location lockup or an equipment pickup, and a missing or wrong COI can stop a shoot.
A production company that ran ten vendors last month may run a completely different twenty this month, so there is no stable list to track. Verifying coverage for a fresh roster every project, on a tight preproduction timeline, is where a spreadsheet falls behind and a certificate slips through unchecked.
Rental houses commonly want a certificate 48 to 72 hours before equipment pickup, and film offices and location owners want one before a permit is issued. When a COI has to be requested, read and verified in a day, manual review becomes the bottleneck that delays a shoot.
A city film office wants specific additional insured language in the description box, a rental house wants to be named loss payee and additional insured for equipment, and a private location owner wants to be additional insured for the day. Confirming the exact holder, endorsement and limit each party requires is fiddly and easy to get wrong under deadline.
A rental house releases a camera package only when the certificate shows an equipment or inland marine limit at or above replacement value and names the house as loss payee. A limit that is fine for general liability can still be far short of the camera and lighting package value, and that mismatch stops the pickup.
Stunt and special effects work, aerial and drone shots, animal handling and picture vehicles each carry an exposure basic general liability does not answer. Holding those vendors to the right added coverage is a check a blanket rule cannot make.
If a vendor certificate lapsed or never named the location correctly, the loss during a claim may be uninsured and the shoot itself can be halted. Without a system that verifies wording and tracks dates, that gap surfaces at the worst possible moment.
The certificate a vendor emails the day before a shoot is a snapshot, and under a tight preproduction clock it is tempting to accept it without checking the limit, the additional insured wording or the expiration date. Confirming that every vendor, rental house and location has the right coverage, the right holder and endorsement, and current dates, on a roster that changes every project, is repetitive, rules based work. That is exactly what software handles well. Certificate of insurance management software reads every certificate, checks it against each requirement, and flags anything short, expired or missing, so your production team is not verifying PDFs by hand the night before a shoot.
COISoftware reads every vendor and rental house certificate, checks it against the limits and endorsements each shoot requires, confirms additional insured and loss payee, and gives you one view of insurance compliance across every project.
Upload a certificate from a crew vendor, rental house, caterer or location and the AI pulls the insurer, policy numbers, coverage types, limits, effective and expiration dates and additional insured status, even from scans and phone photos sent from set.
Stand up a fresh vendor roster for each production and verify every certificate in minutes, so a rental house 48 hour deadline or a film office permit does not wait on manual review.
Confirm the equipment or inland marine limit meets replacement value and the rental house is named loss payee and additional insured, so a camera or lighting package is released without a last minute scramble.
See whether the location owner, film office or studio is named as additional insured with the exact wording that party requires, so a permit or location lockup is not held up by a certificate that names the wrong holder.
Require the added coverage stunt, special effects, aerial, animal and picture vehicle work needs, and each certificate is checked for the coverage that scope actually requires.
When a vendor certificate is about to expire during a long shoot or series, COISoftware chases for a renewed COI automatically, so no vendor stays on set with lapsed coverage.
COISoftware reads the ACORD 25 and the broader certificate of liability insurance, then ties every certificate into full certificate of insurance management software and ongoing vendor insurance compliance tracking. When a certificate looks off, the same checks behind certificate of insurance verification flag it for review. Location and venue teams verify coverage the same way as COI tracking for event venues, and production companies onboarding new crew vendors run it alongside subcontractor COI tracking.
Standing up insurance compliance for a new production follows the same four steps.
Enter the general liability, equipment and added coverage each vendor and location requires for the project, and set the additional insured and loss payee wording each film office, location and rental house wants. Vary the rule so a caterer and a stunt vendor each get the right requirement.
Tip: Copy the insurance requirements straight from the film office or location agreement so the requirement is tracked from day one.
Request a COI from each crew vendor, rental house and location or upload the certificates you receive. The AI reads every one automatically, so onboarding a new project roster does not eat your preproduction schedule.
Each certificate is checked against the requirement for that vendor. A short equipment limit, a missing loss payee, and a wrong or absent additional insured endorsement are flagged before a pickup or a shoot day.
Automated reminders chase any expiring certificate during a long shoot or series, so coverage stays current without your team tracking dates by hand.
Anyone responsible for proving that every vendor, rental house and location on a production carries the coverage the agreement and film office require.
A production onboarding a fresh vendor roster every project needs to know, before a shoot, that every crew vendor, rental house and location carries the right limits and names the correct holder as additional insured or loss payee. COISoftware turns each requirement into a live status, so a line producer sees a clear pass or flag instead of reading certificates the night before a shoot day.
A location or studio clearing productions and vendors verifies coverage matched to each shoot. The same dashboard tracks certificates by project, and location and venue teams verify coverage the same way as COI tracking for event venues.
The coordinator accountable if a shoot is halted over a wrong certificate is the one who needs proof of coverage on every vendor. To collect, verify and monitor every certificate in one place, pair this with vendor insurance compliance software, and if you are comparing platforms, our best COI tracking software roundup walks through the options honestly.
Most film offices and location owners require general liability of at least one million per occurrence, and some public property or higher risk shoots require two million or more. The location owner, city or film office almost always must be named as additional insured with specific wording in the description box, and a certificate that names the wrong holder or shows a short limit will hold up the permit.
A rental house releases a camera or lighting package only when it is protected two ways. Loss payee on the equipment or inland marine coverage means the house is paid directly if the gear is damaged or stolen, and additional insured on general liability protects it if it is sued over the production use. The certificate must show both, plus an equipment limit at or above replacement value.
With AI reading, a certificate can be verified in seconds rather than the hours manual review takes under a deadline. That matters because rental houses commonly want a COI 48 to 72 hours before pickup and film offices want one before a permit issues, so fast, accurate verification keeps a shoot on schedule instead of waiting on a person to read a PDF.
You track by project, not by a fixed vendor list. Each production gets its own set of requirements and vendors, and COI tracking software reads and verifies every certificate for that roster, then archives it. Because the software holds each requirement and every expiration date, a fresh roster every project does not mean rebuilding a tracking spreadsheet from scratch each time.
Each carries an exposure basic general liability does not answer. Stunt and special effects work needs added coverage for that activity, aerial and drone shots often need aviation or non owned aircraft coverage, and picture cars need hired and non owned auto. Holding each specialty vendor to the coverage its scope requires closes gaps a single general liability rule leaves open.
Pricing depends on how many vendors and projects you track and whether you want self serve software or a managed service. COISoftware lists transparent monthly pricing and offers a free tier, so a production company can start reading and verifying vendor certificates without a sales call. You can test it on your own certificates before paying anything.
