COISoftware collects a certificate of insurance from every contractor, professional services firm, permit holder and lessee that does business with your jurisdiction, reads each ACORD 25 with AI, checks coverage and limits against the requirements in your solicitation or contract, and confirms the public entity is named as additional insured. Built for US cities, counties, special districts and other public agencies whose procurement and risk offices have to prove every awarded vendor is covered. Upload a COI above to see it read in seconds.
Last updated June 2026
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Public contracts carry very different risks, so most jurisdictions require different coverage by contract type. These are common starting points, not legal or insurance advice.
| Vendor type | Coverage commonly required | Why the agency requires it |
|---|---|---|
| Public works and construction contractors | General liability, workers compensation, commercial auto, often umbrella, additional insured, waiver of subrogation | Infrastructure work on public property carries injury and property risk the public entity does not want to absorb |
| Professional and design services | Professional liability (errors and omissions) plus general liability | Engineering, architecture and consulting errors create financial and design exposure standard liability does not cover |
| Special-event permit holders | General liability naming the jurisdiction as additional insured, sometimes liquor liability | Parades, festivals and park rentals bring third-party risk onto public property for the event |
| Concessionaires and lessees | General liability and property coverage naming the agency as additional insured | Vendors and tenants operating on public property carry liability tied to that use |
| Fleet and transportation contractors | Commercial auto liability, sometimes high limits for passenger transport | Operating vehicles for or near the public is a high-severity exposure if a crash occurs |
| Service and maintenance vendors | General liability and workers compensation, sometimes auto | Janitorial, landscaping, security and IT work on public sites carries its own liability |
Set requirements to your own contracts, adopted risk policy, ordinances and state law. Insurance and surety bonds are separate instruments. Limits and coverages shown are common starting points, not legal or insurance advice.
Public agencies run almost entirely on outside parties: public works contractors, engineering and design firms, IT and professional services, fleet and equipment vendors, special-event organizers and concessionaires on public property. Each solicitation sets insurance requirements, but the certificate has to be collected, read and verified before award and kept current for the life of the contract. Doing that by hand across every department and every contract is where the exposure builds.
Procurement writes specific coverage types and limits into each RFP, bid and contract, and the limits often scale with contract value and risk. Confirming that the winning vendor actually meets the exact requirements written into its own solicitation, before the contract is awarded, is slow manual work that holds up notice to proceed.
Minimum limits, additional insured language and waiver of subrogation are usually fixed by an adopted risk policy, ordinance or council resolution. The procurement and risk offices are accountable for enforcing that policy on every vendor across every department, even though departments run their own contracts day to day.
Construction and infrastructure contracts require general liability, workers compensation, commercial auto and often umbrella limits, plus additional insured and waiver of subrogation endorsements. These sit alongside performance and payment bonds, which are separate instruments, and checking each certificate against the contract by hand is error prone.
Parades, festivals, races, film shoots and park rentals all require the organizer to name the city or county as additional insured for the event. These certificates arrive in bursts tied to permit dates, not annual renewals, so a process built for ongoing contracts misses them.
Contracts usually require the certificate to name the agency, and often its officials, officers, employees and volunteers, as additional insured on a primary and noncontributory basis. A certificate that lists the entity only as certificate holder does not extend that protection, and that difference is easy to overlook under a deadline.
A tab of vendors with manual expiration dates fails once you account for every contract, permit and lease across every department. Renewals slip, endorsements go unchecked, and proving the agency verified coverage before paying public funds means digging through email when an auditor or council member asks.
The certificate a contractor submits with its bid is a snapshot from the day it was issued, not proof of coverage on the day the work happens or the day a claim is filed. Confirming that every awarded vendor bought the limits its contract requires, carried the right endorsements, named the agency as additional insured, and kept the policy current for the contract term is repetitive, rules-based work across a large and decentralized vendor base, which is exactly what software handles well. Certificate of insurance management software reads every certificate, checks it against the requirements in the matching solicitation or contract, and flags anything short, expired or missing, so a risk analyst is not verifying PDFs by hand for every department and every award.
COISoftware reads every contractor and vendor certificate, checks it against the requirements written into your solicitation or contract, confirms additional insured and waiver of subrogation, and gives procurement and risk one defensible view of who is actually covered across every department and contract.
Upload a certificate from a public works contractor, engineering firm, IT vendor, event organizer or concessionaire and the AI pulls the insurer, policy numbers, coverage types, limits, effective and expiration dates, and additional insured wording, even from scans and phone photos.
Enter the coverages and limits each solicitation or contract requires, and every certificate is checked against the right rule, so a contractor short on general liability or missing a waiver of subrogation is flagged automatically before award and notice to proceed.
Set your adopted minimum limits, additional insured language and endorsement requirements once, and every department contract is held to the same policy, so enforcement does not depend on which buyer is handling the file.
Track vendors under public works, parks, facilities, fleet, IT and professional services side by side, filter by department, contract or status, and give procurement and risk a single compliance picture instead of scattered spreadsheets.
See whether the agency and its officials are named as additional insured, and whether primary and noncontributory and waiver of subrogation endorsements are present, so the status your contracts require is verified rather than assumed from a checked box.
When a vendor certificate is about to expire mid-contract, COISoftware chases for a renewed COI automatically, so a lapsed policy on an active public contract is caught before it becomes a liability.
COISoftware reads the ACORD 25 and the broader certificate of liability insurance, then ties every contractor and vendor 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. Public works and infrastructure contractors are tracked the same way as subcontractor COI tracking for contractors, and special-event permits on public property follow the same playbook as COI tracking for event venues.
Tracking insurance across every public contract follows the same four steps as tracking a handful of vendors.
Enter the coverages and limits your adopted policy requires, and vary them by contract type so public works, professional services, an event permit and a concessionaire each get the right rule. Include the additional insured language, primary and noncontributory and any waiver of subrogation your contracts require.
Tip: Mirror the insurance article in your standard contract and your adopted risk policy, and scale limits to contract value where your policy does.
Request a COI from each bidder or awarded vendor, permit holder and lessee, or upload the certificates departments forward to you. The AI reads every one automatically, so verifying coverage across many awards does not turn into hours of manual data entry.
Each certificate is checked against the requirement for that contract. Short limits, missing endorsements, expired policies and a missing additional insured are flagged before a contractor mobilizes or a permitted event opens to the public.
Automated reminders chase any expiring certificate, so coverage stays current for the full contract term across every department without a risk analyst tracking dates by hand.
Anyone responsible for proving that every contractor, vendor and permit holder doing business with the jurisdiction carries the coverage your contracts and adopted policy require.
A risk or procurement office at a city is accountable for insurance on every contract its departments award, from street and utility work to professional services to park-event permits. COISoftware turns each contract requirement into a live status, so a risk analyst sees a clear pass or flag instead of chasing certificates from every department and reconciling them against each solicitation by hand.
A county or special district awards contracts across public works, health, parks, fleet and facilities, and an adopted risk policy usually sets the required limits and endorsements. The same dashboard tracks every department and contract, and infrastructure contractors are verified the same way as subcontractor COI tracking for contractors.
A transit authority, housing authority, school board or utility district still has to prove every awarded vendor and permitted user carries current coverage, and that the agency is named as additional insured. 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.
Government contracts at the local, state and federal level specify the exact coverage a vendor must carry, written into the solicitation and contract. General liability of at least $1 million per occurrence is standard, with workers compensation, commercial auto, professional liability and umbrella limits added by contract type and value. Most contracts also require the agency to be named as additional insured on a primary and noncontributory basis, and public works contracts often add a waiver of subrogation.
Cities and counties require contractors to carry general liability, workers compensation and commercial auto, with limits and added coverages set by an adopted risk policy and scaled to the contract. Public works and construction contracts carry the heaviest requirements, including umbrella limits, additional insured and waiver of subrogation endorsements. The exact requirements are written into each solicitation, and the certificate has to match them before the contract is awarded.
Municipalities require certificates of insurance to confirm that vendors and contractors can cover claims arising from their work, so a loss does not fall on the public entity and taxpayers. The certificate also proves the agency is named as additional insured, which gives it coverage under the vendor policy. Verifying coverage before paying public funds is part of responsible stewardship and is routinely checked in audits.
Additional insured means the public entity is added to the vendor policy and can be defended and covered under it if a claim arises from the vendor work. Being listed only as certificate holder gives the agency notice but no coverage. Most public contracts require the jurisdiction, and often its officials, officers, employees and volunteers, to be named as additional insured on a primary and noncontributory basis, which the certificate should show.
Yes. Cities and counties almost always require an event organizer to provide a certificate of insurance naming the jurisdiction as additional insured before issuing a permit for a parade, festival, race, film shoot or park rental. The certificate proves the organizer carries general liability that responds first if someone is injured at the event, which protects the public entity from absorbing a third-party claim.
Cities and counties track certificates of insurance by collecting a COI from each contractor, vendor and permit holder, checking the coverages and limits against the contract requirements, confirming additional insured status, and monitoring expiration for the contract term. Doing this by hand across many departments and contracts is slow and hard to audit, so most agencies move to COI tracking software that reads each certificate and flags any that are short or expired.
Pricing depends on how many vendors and contracts 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 small town or a large county can start reading and verifying certificates without a sales call. You can test it on your own contractor certificates before paying anything.
Collect, verify and track every public contractor and vendor COI in one place.
Verify public works and infrastructure contractors the same way.
Track special-event permits on public property tied to a date.
