COISoftware collects a certificate of insurance from every vendor, subcontractor and tenant a small business works with, reads each ACORD 25 with AI, checks the limits against what you require, and confirms your business is named as additional insured. Built for US small businesses that need real COI tracking without an enterprise contract or a per-vendor managed-service fee. Upload a COI above to see it read in seconds.
Last updated July 2026
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Small businesses usually pick one of three approaches. This is an honest look at where each fits, not legal or insurance advice.
| Approach | Best for | Where it falls short |
|---|---|---|
| Spreadsheet and a folder of PDFs | A handful of vendors and a single person who remembers to check | Does not read the certificate, does not know additional insured status, and misses the renewal you forget |
| Managed COI service | Large companies tracking thousands of certificates with a setup budget | Setup fees and per-vendor annual pricing rarely fit a small business tracking a few dozen |
| Self-serve COI tracking software | Small businesses that want the certificate read and checked automatically at a fair price | You set the requirements yourself rather than handing it to a managed team |
Most small businesses outgrow the spreadsheet before they can justify a managed service, which is the gap self-serve software fills. Coverages and limits you require should follow your own contracts and state law.
A small business carries the same liability as a large one when a vendor or subcontractor causes a loss, but rarely has a risk department to manage it. The certificates pile up in an inbox, the renewal dates live in one person head, and the enterprise platforms built for this quote you a contract sized for a company ten times larger. The result is real exposure managed on hope.
If a cleaning crew, a subcontractor or a delivery vendor injures someone or damages property, the claim can reach your business whether you have two employees or two hundred. A small business faces that risk without a full-time person to collect certificates, read the coverage and chase renewals, so it usually gets done in spare minutes or not at all.
Most managed COI services quote a setup fee and a per-vendor annual charge built for companies tracking thousands of certificates. For a business tracking twenty or fifty, that pricing does not fit, so many small businesses give up and go back to a folder of PDFs and a reminder in a calendar.
A tab of vendors with hand-typed expiration dates works until the one date you forget is the vendor who has a claim. A spreadsheet does not read the certificate, does not know whether you are named as additional insured, and does not chase a renewal, so the gaps stay invisible until they are expensive.
Knowing whether a certificate actually meets your requirement means checking limits, completed operations, additional insured endorsements and expiration dates. A small business owner is not an insurance professional, and a certificate that looks fine at a glance can be missing exactly the coverage that protects you.
If a claim, a landlord or an insurer ever asks whether you verified a vendor coverage, a small business needs to show it did. Reconstructing that from email months later is painful, and without a record it looks like the check never happened.
The certificate a vendor emails is a snapshot from the day it was issued, not proof of coverage today. Confirming that each vendor and subcontractor bought the right coverage, kept it current through renewal, and named your business as additional insured is repetitive, rules-based work, which is exactly what software handles well, even at small volume. Certificate of insurance management software reads every certificate, checks it against your requirements, and flags anything short, expired or missing, so the owner or office manager is not the system of record.
COISoftware reads every vendor and subcontractor certificate, checks it against your rules, confirms your business is named as additional insured, and keeps one clear record, at a price and a scale that fit a small business.
Upload a certificate from any vendor, subcontractor or tenant and the AI pulls the insurer, policy numbers, coverage types, limits, effective and expiration dates, and additional insured status, so you do not need to read an ACORD 25 line by line.
Set the limits and coverages you require once, and every certificate is checked against them automatically, so a short limit or a missing additional insured endorsement is flagged instead of slipping through.
See whether your business is named as additional insured on each vendor policy, so the protection your agreements call for is verified rather than assumed from a checked box on the form.
Start free and pay transparent monthly pricing with no setup fee, no per-vendor managed-service charge and no sales call, whether you track twenty certificates or a few hundred.
When a certificate is about to expire, COISoftware chases the vendor for a renewed COI automatically, so a lapsed policy is caught before it becomes your problem.
Every certificate, requirement and reminder lives in one place, so if a claim, a landlord or an insurer asks whether you verified a vendor, you can show it in seconds.
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. If you are still on a spreadsheet today, our certificate of insurance tracking spreadsheet guide shows where the manual approach breaks and when to move up.
Getting set up takes minutes, not a rollout project.
Enter the coverages and limits you require from vendors and subcontractors, including the additional insured wording that names your business. You set this one time and it applies to every certificate you check after.
Tip: Not sure what to require? Start from our guide on vendor insurance requirements and adjust to your own contracts.
Request a COI from each vendor or upload the certificates you already have. The AI reads every one automatically, so building your list does not turn into an afternoon of typing policy numbers.
Each certificate is checked against your requirement. A short limit, a missing additional insured endorsement or an expired policy is flagged, so you know exactly which vendors are compliant and which are not.
Automated reminders chase any expiring certificate, so coverage stays current without you tracking dates in a calendar or a spreadsheet.
Any small business that hires vendors, subcontractors or tenants and needs to prove they carry the coverage your agreements require.
A small general contractor or specialty trade hires subs and still owns the risk if one shows up underinsured. COISoftware reads each subcontractor certificate and flags anything short, so a two-person office gets the same protection a large builder gets from a full risk team. The same checks scale up through subcontractor COI tracking for contractors as you grow.
An owner renting to tenants or hiring maintenance vendors needs each one to name the owner as additional insured and keep coverage current. Tracking that for a small portfolio is exactly where a spreadsheet fails, and where the checks behind vendor insurance compliance software pay off without an enterprise contract.
Cleaning companies, event businesses, clinics and shops all hire vendors that need current coverage naming the business as additional insured. If you are weighing tools, our best COI tracking software roundup compares the options honestly, and our guide to how much COI tracking software costs breaks down what small businesses actually pay.
A small business that hires vendors, subcontractors or tenants carries real liability if one causes a loss without proper coverage. COI tracking software is worth it once you have more certificates than you can reliably read and renew by hand, usually somewhere past a dozen, because it reads each certificate, checks the coverage, and reminds you before anything lapses.
Self-serve COI tracking software for a small business typically runs a modest flat monthly fee rather than the setup fee and per-vendor annual pricing that managed services charge. COISoftware offers a free tier and transparent monthly pricing with no sales call, so a small business can start reading and verifying certificates and only pay as its volume grows.
You can, and many small businesses start there, but a spreadsheet does not read the certificate, does not know whether you are named as additional insured, and does not chase renewals. It works for a handful of vendors and quietly fails as the list grows, which is usually when a business moves to software that reads and checks each certificate automatically.
Most small businesses require commercial general liability of at least $1 million per occurrence, workers compensation where the vendor has employees, and commercial auto where the vendor drives for the work, with the business named as additional insured. The exact limits should follow your own contracts, your landlord requirements and state law rather than a single fixed number.
Additional insured status is created by an endorsement to the vendor policy, not by a checkbox on the certificate. To confirm it, check that the certificate lists your business as additional insured and, ideally, that the endorsement is attached. COISoftware flags a certificate that shows you only as certificate holder, so you catch the gap before it matters.
COISoftware offers a free tier so a small business can start reading and verifying certificates without paying upfront, then move to transparent monthly pricing as its volume grows. That is different from a spreadsheet, because the free tier still reads each certificate with AI and checks it against your requirements rather than leaving the work to you.
