Description of Operations on a Certificate of Insurance: What the ACORD 25 Box Can and Cannot Say

The description of operations box is the free-text field near the bottom of the ACORD 25, labeled DESCRIPTION OF OPERATIONS / LOCATIONS / VEHICLES. It is the only part of a certificate of insurance that a person types by hand, which makes it the most useful field on the form and the most abused. Industry guidance is narrow: name the job, the location or the vehicles, and disclose attached endorsements by form number and exact title only. Anything that reads like a promise of coverage does not create coverage. Upload a certificate above and see the box text, the endorsement forms and the checkbox flags read out in seconds.

Last updated August 2026

Quoted from the ACORD 25 (2016/03) form

IIAT Task Force rules cited verbatim

Endorsement forms read, not just checkboxes

Reviewed August 2026

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What the Description of Operations Box May and May Not Say

The left column is what certificate holders routinely demand in the box. The rest is what an agent following published industry guidance will actually type, and where the real proof lives if it exists at all.

What the holder asks for in the box	Can the agent type it?	What a correctly issued certificate says	Where the real proof lives
Certificate holder is an additional insured	Only when an endorsement naming the holder is attached	The ADDL INSD box is checked and the endorsement is attached	The CG 20 10, CG 20 37 or CG 20 33 endorsement page itself
Additional insured status under a blanket endorsement	Yes, as a disclosure, and the ADDL INSD box stays unchecked	A statement that the policy carries a blanket automatic additional insured endorsement that applies only where a written contract requires it	The blanket endorsement plus your signed contract
Coverage is primary and non-contributory	No. That is a declaratory statement about coverage	Either nothing, or a disclosure that a P and NC endorsement is attached, by form number	CG 20 01 for general liability, CA 04 49 for auto. There is no P and NC checkbox on the ACORD 25
Waiver of subrogation in favor of the holder	Yes when a scheduled waiver is attached. On a blanket waiver, disclose it and leave SUBR WVD unchecked	A statement naming the blanket waiver endorsement and its written-contract condition	CG 24 04, CG 24 53, CA 04 44 or WC 00 03 13
30 days notice of cancellation to the holder	No, unless an endorsement actually provides it	The 2016/03 legend: notice will be delivered in accordance with the policy provisions	A notice-of-cancellation endorsement, which is a separate purchase
Coverage applies per the contract dated March 3	No. Several states prohibit referencing a contract other than the insurance policy	A neutral job or location description	Your contract, which the certificate cannot and does not amend
A summary of what the endorsement covers	No. Guidance is form number and exact title only	CG 20 37 04 13 Additional Insured - Owners, Lessees Or Contractors - Completed Operations	The endorsement wording, which you should demand as an attachment
Contractual liability confirmation	Published guidance says enter nothing in the box about contractual liability	Silence, with any limiting endorsement disclosed separately	The policy, and any CG 24 26 amendment of the insured contract definition

Sources: the ACORD 25 (2016/03) form and the Independent Insurance Agents of Texas publication Best Practices for Certificates of Insurance, April 2013 revision.

Why Reviewing Checkboxes Instead of the Box Gets It Backwards

Most certificate review is a checkbox exercise: is ADDL INSD ticked, is SUBR WVD ticked, are the limits big enough. Published agent guidance says that on a large share of certificates those checkboxes are supposed to be blank, and the disclosure that matters is typed into the description of operations box instead. Reviewers who work from the checkboxes reject good certificates and accept bad ones.

A blank additional insured box does not mean no additional insured

The IIAT Task Force recommendation is explicit: do not check the Additional Insured box when the policy carries a blanket automatic endorsement that grants status only where a written contract requires it. The agent is told to disclose the blanket endorsement in the box instead. A reviewer who bounces that certificate is bouncing a correctly issued one.

A checked waiver box on a blanket form is the error, not the proof

The same publication tells agents to use the blanket wording and, in its words, to not check the SUBR WVD box when the policy includes a blanket automatic waiver of subrogation endorsement. So a ticked box on a blanket waiver is a certificate issued against guidance. It is a reason to ask for the endorsement page, not a reason to relax.

Declaratory wording in the box proves nothing at all

IIAT states it plainly: an additional insured is not added to the policy just because the certificate says the certificate holder is an additional insured. The certificate is evidence, not a contract. The ACORD 25 header says the same thing in capital letters, and the IMPORTANT block underneath tells you a statement on the certificate does not confer rights in lieu of an endorsement.

The wording your contract demands may be illegal in the agent state

Texas Senate Bill 425, effective January 1, 2012, with Texas Department of Insurance rules from 2013, prohibits an agent from issuing a certificate that alters, amends or extends policy coverage, or that references a legal or insurance requirement contained in a contract other than the underlying contract of insurance. Several states run comparable laws. When an agent refuses your wording, that refusal is often the law talking, and holding up a payment over it will not change the answer.

A friendly coverage summary in the box is a warning sign

Guidance is to disclose endorsements using the form number and exact title only, and to not add words or phrases that reflect or imply coverages or conditions not explicitly granted by the policies. Prose in the box that explains how generous the coverage is tells you the agent went past what the policy supports.

Blanket is a word the industry has been told to stop using

A Big I panel published in Independent Agent magazine in March 2024 said the word blanket should not be used, comparing it to all risks, and recommended wording along the lines of an additional insured as per the attached endorsement. If the box leans on the word blanket with nothing attached, you have a description of a filing habit, not evidence of coverage.

None of this makes the box worthless. It makes the box the index. Read correctly, the description of operations field tells you exactly which endorsement pages to demand, and that request is the entire compliance job.

Read the Box, the Checkboxes and the Endorsement Pages Together

COISoftware reads the whole certificate packet, not the front page. It extracts the description of operations text, the ADDL INSD and SUBR WVD flags, the policy numbers and dates, and any endorsement forms attached behind the ACORD 25, then compares all of it against the requirements you set for that vendor tier.

Description of operations text captured in full

The box is free text and often overflows onto an ACORD 101 Additional Remarks Schedule. Both are read and stored as searchable text against the vendor record, so you can find every certificate that mentions a specific project, location or endorsement form.

Endorsement forms matched by number and edition

CG 20 10 04 13 is not CG 20 10 11 85, and CG 20 37 is not optional if you care about completed operations. Form numbers found in the box or on attached endorsement pages are matched against the forms your contract requires, including edition dates.

Checkbox and box-text conflicts flagged

When the box discloses a blanket endorsement and the checkbox is also ticked, or when the box promises primary and non-contributory coverage that no attached form supports, the certificate is flagged for a human rather than silently passed.

Missing attachments chased automatically

If the box names an endorsement form and no endorsement page is attached, the vendor gets a specific request for that form by number, not a vague ask for more documents. Specific requests get answered faster.

Every date tracked from the same packet

Policy effective and expiration dates come off the same upload, so the certificate that satisfies your requirements today is the one that gets a renewal reminder before it lapses.

One record per vendor, not one folder per email

Certificates, endorsement pages, ACORD 101 attachments and the review history sit on a single vendor record your whole team can see, which is the difference between an audit you can answer and one you cannot.

General contractors reading subcontractor packets, property managers reviewing tenant and vendor certificates, and risk teams that have to prove at audit time which endorsement forms were actually on file.

How to Review a Description of Operations Box in Four Passes

A repeatable review that catches the failures a checkbox scan cannot.

Read the box before the checkboxes

Start at the bottom of the ACORD 25 and read the description of operations text, plus any attached ACORD 101. Note every form number, every named entity and every project or location reference.

Tip: The box label on the 2016/03 edition reads DESCRIPTION OF OPERATIONS / LOCATIONS / VEHICLES (ACORD 101, Additional Remarks Schedule, may be attached if more space is required). If more text was needed, the ACORD 101 exists and you should have it.

Convert every named form into a document request

A form number in the box is a claim that an endorsement exists. Treat it as a request list. Ask for the endorsement page for each form, with its edition date, and refuse to close the review on the certificate alone.

Tip: Ask for the page, not a restatement. IIAT tells agents to attach copies of additional insured and waiver endorsements to the certificate, so the request is normal, not aggressive.

Reconcile the box against the two checkboxes

The ACORD 25 has exactly two endorsement columns, ADDL INSD and SUBR WVD. If the box discloses blanket endorsements, expect those columns to be blank. If the box is silent and the columns are ticked, expect scheduled endorsements naming you, and ask for them.

Tip: There is no primary and non-contributory column on the ACORD 25 at all, so P and NC can never be verified by checkbox review. It has to come from a CG 20 01 or CA 04 49 endorsement page.

Check what the box does not say

Silence is the most common failure. No CG 20 37 or CG 20 39 or CG 20 40 reference and no attached completed-operations form means your additional insured status may end the day the vendor finishes the job. No waiver form named means no waiver, whatever the contract says.

Tip: After the December 2019 revision, CG 20 39 and CG 20 40 give automatic completed operations status, so a packet with no CG 20 37 is no longer automatically a gap. Check the edition dates before you reject.

Who Needs to Read This Box Properly

The description of operations field matters most to the person who will be sued if the coverage turns out not to exist.

Common Search Terms

description of operations certificate of insurance description of operations insurance acord 25 description of operations certificate of insurance endorsement page coi endorsement page what goes in description of operations additional insured wording in description of operations blanket endorsement disclosure on a certificate

General contractors are the heaviest users, because the box is where a subcontractor packet either names CG 20 10 and CG 20 37 or quietly does not. Property managers and commercial landlords read it to confirm that the entity list in a lease, which often runs to owners, managers and lenders, is actually reflected somewhere other than a typed sentence. Facilities and procurement teams use it to tell a real endorsement disclosure from a comfortable paragraph. Risk managers care because at audit or at claim time the question is never what the certificate said, it is which endorsement forms were attached and whether a written contract existed on the loss date. Everyone in that list is doing the same job: turning a free-text field into a short, specific list of documents to demand.

Built for the Certificate Reviewer, Not the Certificate Issuer

endorsement checkboxes on the ACORD 25

primary and non-contributory columns on the form

2016/03

current ACORD 25 edition quoted here

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Description of Operations Questions, Answered

It is the free-text box near the bottom of the ACORD 25, labeled DESCRIPTION OF OPERATIONS / LOCATIONS / VEHICLES. The agent uses it to identify the job, location or vehicles the certificate relates to, to name additional insureds where an endorsement supports it, and to disclose attached endorsements by form number and exact title. It is the only hand-typed field on the form.

Industry guidance keeps it narrow. Describe the operations, locations or vehicles as the label says. Disclose specific coverage or exclusion endorsements attached to the policy using the form number and exact title only. Add factual explanations and disclosures. Do not add words or phrases that reflect or imply coverages or conditions the policies do not explicitly grant.

An agent can disclose that an additional insured endorsement is attached, and can name the endorsement form. What an agent should not do is write a sentence that grants status the policy does not grant. IIAT puts it directly: an additional insured is not added to the policy just because the certificate says the certificate holder is an additional insured.

Often because the policy carries a blanket automatic additional insured endorsement rather than one naming you. Published agent guidance tells the agent not to check that box in this situation and to disclose the blanket endorsement in the description of operations box instead. The certificate is correct. Your next step is to ask for the endorsement page and confirm a signed contract exists.

No. The ACORD 25 header states the certificate is issued as a matter of information only and confers no rights upon the certificate holder, and that it does not amend, extend or alter the coverage afforded by the policies. Wording in the box is a description of the policy, not an amendment to it. Coverage lives in the policy and its endorsements.

Endorsements are the forms attached to the underlying policy that change what it covers. On the certificate side, the ones that matter are additional insured forms in the CG 20 series, waiver of subrogation forms such as CG 24 04 and CG 24 53, and primary and non-contributory forms such as CG 20 01 and CA 04 49. The certificate only reports them. The endorsement pages prove them.

An endorsement page is a separate ISO form sheet carrying a form number and edition date in the bottom corner, for example CG 20 10 04 13, a schedule listing the named person or organization, and the wording that amends the policy. It is not a checkbox and not a sentence on the certificate. If you were sent only the ACORD 25, you were not sent the endorsement.

Because in a growing number of states it is illegal. Texas Senate Bill 425 prohibits issuing a certificate that alters, amends or extends coverage, or that references a legal or insurance requirement contained in a contract other than the underlying contract of insurance. Agents in those states are required to refuse. Ask for the endorsement instead of the sentence.

The ACORD 101 Additional Remarks Schedule is the overflow sheet used when the description of operations box runs out of room, and the box label on the ACORD 25 says so. If a certificate references long entity lists or several endorsement forms and no ACORD 101 came with it, text is probably missing. Ask for it.

No, not as a declaration. IIAT tells agents not to add primary and non-contributory wording to a certificate and warns that the policy may not be primary and non-contributory and that you cannot make it so by saying so. The ACORD 25 has no P and NC column either, so this can only be verified from a CG 20 01 or CA 04 49 endorsement page.

It usually should, and for some endorsements it must. Scheduled additional insured forms such as CG 20 10 and CG 20 37 grant status at the location designated in the schedule, so a certificate tied to a specific project should say which one. A per project aggregate endorsement such as CG 25 03 also depends on a designated construction project.

Yes. COISoftware extracts the box text and any attached ACORD 101, pulls out form numbers and named entities, reads the ADDL INSD and SUBR WVD flags, and compares all of it against the requirements you set for that vendor. Conflicts between the box text and the checkboxes are flagged for a person to review rather than passed silently.

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