COISoftware collects a certificate of insurance from every supplier, repair contractor and service vendor your locations use, reads each ACORD 25 with AI, checks the limits against what you require, and confirms each restaurant entity is named as additional insured. Built for US restaurant groups, hospitality operators and multi-location retailers tracking vendor COIs across dozens or hundreds of sites. Upload a COI above to see it read in seconds.
Last updated June 2026
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Different vendors carry different risks, so most operators require different coverage by type. These are common starting points, not legal or insurance advice.
| Vendor type | Coverage commonly required | Why the operator requires it |
|---|---|---|
| Food and beverage suppliers | General liability plus product liability, often $1M / $2M | A contamination or foodborne illness claim traces back to the supplier product |
| Bars and alcohol vendors | Liquor liability plus general liability, commonly $1M to $2M | Serving alcohol is among the highest-stakes exposures a location faces |
| Hood, exhaust and grease cleaners | General liability and workers compensation, sometimes pollution | Kitchen fire and injury risk from hot, grease-heavy work |
| Refrigeration and HVAC techs | General liability, workers compensation and commercial auto | Equipment failure, water damage and on-site injury risk |
| Janitorial and cleaning crews | General liability and workers compensation | Slip-and-fall and property damage from after-hours work |
| Pest control and waste haulers | General liability, commercial auto, sometimes pollution | Chemical, vehicle and environmental exposure on your property |
| Repair and maintenance contractors | General liability, workers compensation, umbrella, additional insured | Build, plumbing and electrical work carries injury and property risk |
Set requirements to your own vendor agreements, lease terms, risk policy and state law. Limits and coverages shown are common starting points, not legal or insurance advice.
A single restaurant has a long list of vendors. A 40-unit group has that list multiplied by 40, with each general manager signing up their own local food distributor, repair tech and cleaner. Certificates arrive at store level, expire on their own schedules, and no one at corporate has a single view of who is actually covered.
Food and beverage distributors, hood and exhaust cleaners, refrigeration techs, pest control, grease and waste haulers, janitorial crews, linen service and equipment repair all differ by site. Multiply that across every restaurant and you have hundreds of certificates with no central owner.
Store-level managers bring on local vendors to keep service running, but the claim from an uninsured vendor lands on the operating company and its master policy. Decentralized onboarding without centralized COI tracking is where the exposure builds.
A foodborne illness or contamination claim traces back to a supplier or commissary. A certificate that shows general liability but not product liability leaves the restaurant exposed on the highest-stakes claim it can face, and that gap is easy to miss on a busy certificate.
Bars, caterers and any vendor serving alcohol at your locations need liquor liability on top of general liability. A certificate that omits it is a gap that surfaces only after an incident if no one checks for it on collection.
Mall and shopping-center leases require your locations to carry coverage and name the landlord as additional insured, and they request renewed certificates yearly. Producing the right COI for every leased site on demand is its own tracking job.
A tab per location, manual expiration dates and inbox reminders work for two restaurants and quietly fail at twenty. Renewals slip, additional insured wording goes unchecked, and an audit means rebuilding the picture by email.
The certificate a supplier or contractor emails one of your locations is a snapshot from the day it was issued, not proof of coverage today. Confirming that every vendor bought the right coverage, including product or liquor liability where it applies, kept it current through renewal, and named the operating company as additional insured is repetitive, rules-based work across every site, which is exactly what software handles well. Certificate of insurance management software reads every certificate, checks it against your requirements, and flags anything short or missing, so a regional manager is not chasing PDFs across forty inboxes.
COISoftware reads every vendor certificate, checks it against your rules by vendor type, confirms additional insured status, and gives corporate one view of compliance across every location.
Upload a certificate from a food distributor, refrigeration tech, hood cleaner or janitorial crew 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.
Set product liability for food suppliers and liquor liability for any vendor serving alcohol, and every certificate is checked for it, so a food-safety or alcohol gap is flagged before it becomes a claim.
See compliance for all sites in one dashboard, filter by location or region, and let each general manager handle their own vendors while corporate keeps the master picture of who is covered.
See whether the operating company is named as additional insured on each vendor policy, so the endorsement you require in your vendor agreement is verified rather than assumed from a checked box.
Set the general liability, product, liquor, auto and umbrella limits you require by vendor type. Every certificate is checked and flagged the moment a limit is short or a coverage is missing.
When a vendor certificate is about to expire, COISoftware chases the vendor automatically, so a lapsed policy across any of your sites is caught before it is a problem.
COISoftware reads the ACORD 25 and the broader certificate of liability insurance, then ties every 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. Franchised brands managing franchisee coverage should start with COI tracking for franchises.
Rolling out across many locations follows the same four steps as a single site.
Enter the coverages and limits your vendor agreements and leases require, and vary them by vendor type so a food supplier, an alcohol vendor and a repair contractor each get the right rule. Include the additional insured wording that names your operating company.
Tip: Require product liability from food and beverage suppliers and liquor liability from any vendor serving alcohol, and match landlord-required limits for leased sites.
Request a COI from each vendor or upload the certificates your managers receive. The AI reads every certificate automatically, so onboarding vendors across dozens of sites does not turn into hours of manual data entry.
Each certificate is checked against the requirement for that vendor type. Short limits, missing product or liquor liability and an absent additional insured endorsement are flagged before the vendor is cleared.
Automated reminders chase any expiring certificate at any location, so coverage stays current across the whole group without a manager tracking dates by hand.
Anyone responsible for proving that every vendor at every location carries the coverage your agreements and leases require.
A corporate team running dozens of restaurants needs to know, at any moment, which locations have a vendor about to lapse and which suppliers are short on product or liquor liability. COISoftware turns each vendor requirement into a live status by location, so a regional risk lead sees the whole portfolio in one dashboard instead of polling general managers by email.
Retail chains and operators with many leased storefronts collect COIs from cleaning, maintenance, security and delivery vendors at every site, plus the certificates their landlords require them to carry. The same dashboard tracks vendor coverage and the operator own proof of insurance per location. Brands that operate as franchisors should pair this with COI tracking for franchises to manage franchisee coverage.
The team that approves vendors and pays invoices is often the one holding the compliance risk. 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 restaurants require commercial general liability of at least $1 million per occurrence from every vendor, plus product liability from food and beverage suppliers and liquor liability from any vendor serving alcohol. Workers compensation and commercial auto are common for repair, delivery and maintenance vendors. Each vendor should also name the restaurant as additional insured.
Yes. Food and beverage suppliers should carry product liability coverage, which is often part of a general liability policy, because a contamination, allergen or foodborne illness claim traces back to the product they supplied. A certificate showing only general liability without product coverage leaves the restaurant exposed on its highest-stakes claim, so operators should confirm product liability on every supplier COI.
Most groups move from spreadsheets to COI tracking software once they pass a handful of sites. The software reads each vendor certificate, checks limits and required coverages by vendor type, confirms additional insured, and shows compliance by location in one dashboard, so corporate sees every site while general managers still onboard their own local vendors.
A common baseline is $1 million per occurrence and $2 million aggregate of general liability, with product liability included for food suppliers and liquor liability for alcohol vendors. Higher-risk vendors and larger operators often require umbrella coverage on top. Exact limits should match your vendor agreements, lease requirements and risk tolerance.
A mall or shopping-center landlord requires a COI so it has proof the tenant carries the coverage the lease demands and is named as additional insured on the tenant policy. This shifts the cost of a covered claim on the leased space to the tenant insurer rather than the landlord. Landlords typically request a renewed certificate every year.
Most commercial policies and the certificates that prove them run for one year, so a vendor COI usually expires twelve months after its effective date. Because every vendor renews on its own schedule, a multi-location operator faces certificates expiring all year, which is why automated renewal tracking matters more as the number of vendors and sites grows.
Pricing depends on how many vendors and locations 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 single restaurant or a multi-state group can start reading and verifying certificates without a sales call. You can test it on your own vendor certificates before paying anything.
