Certificate of Insurance (COI) Tracking Software for Construction Contractors.
Built for general contractors running 20 to 500+ active subcontractors on public-works projects. Automated ACORD 25 and ACORD 28 intake, endorsement validation, and a 90 / 60 / 45 / 30 / 15 / 0-day expiration cascade across every sub, every policy, every project.
A Certificate of Insurance is the proof your subcontractor's coverage meets the contract.
A Certificate of Insurance (COI) is a standardized form, most commonly the ACORD 25 (Certificate of Liability Insurance) and the ACORD 28 (Evidence of Commercial Property Insurance), that summarizes the policies a subcontractor carries. On a typical construction project, the prime collects evidence of commercial general liability, automobile liability, workers compensation, umbrella or excess liability, and where the scope requires it, contractors pollution liability.
The certificate itself is not the policy. It is a snapshot. The binding language lives in the underlying endorsements. On public-works projects the two endorsements that get scrutinized most often are the Additional Insured endorsement (extending the sub's coverage to the prime and the owner) and the Waiver of Subrogation (preventing the sub's carrier from coming back against the prime after paying a loss). If those endorsements are not on the actual policy, the certificate is a piece of paper that does not hold up at the claim stage.
One expired COI on one sub can void the prime's coverage on the entire project.
The prime contractor sits on top of a master insurance program that was priced and underwritten on the assumption that every subcontractor below it carries current coverage, with the right endorsements, at limits that meet or exceed the owner's contract requirements. That assumption is the cascade. When the cascade is intact, the prime's policy responds. When one link breaks, the carrier has grounds to question whether it should respond at all.
A lapsed COI on a single subcontractor can trigger an owner stop-work order, push the sub off the prevailing-wage payroll, and shift loss exposure to the prime if a claim hits during the lapse window. On a project with a hundred active subs and renewal dates scattered across twelve months, the cascade is not something a coordinator can hold in a spreadsheet without losing ground.
The standard process fails in seven predictable places.
The master spreadsheet
A workbook with one tab per project and one row per sub does not survive contact with a portfolio of 200+ subs across active projects. Sort order changes, filters break, conditional formatting expires.
Email-based renewal reminders
A calendar reminder set 30 days before expiration assumes the sub responds, the broker reissues correctly, and the certificate lands in the right inbox. Any one of those failing means the lapse is invisible until a claim or audit.
Missing additional-insured endorsements
The certificate says additional insured status was added, but the actual CG 20 10 / CG 20 37 endorsement pages are not attached. The prime accepts the cert at face value, then has no policy-level evidence at claim time.
Wrong endorsement language
The broker reissues with the wrong owner entity, the wrong project description, or completed-operations coverage missing. The cert looks current but the protection does not match the prime contract.
Forwarded but not received
The sub emails the cert to the project manager. The PM forwards it without the endorsement pages. Risk management never sees the renewal. The file shows the sub as expired even though a current cert technically exists.
Expired waivers of subrogation
The waiver was on the prior policy term. The new term reverted to default subrogation rights. Loss happens. The sub's carrier pays then comes after the prime's policy.
Policy gap between expiration and renewal
The sub's old policy expires on the 1st. The new policy binds on the 4th. Three uninsured days. Any loss reported in that window has no carrier behind the sub at all.
COI cascade tracking, wired into the project data model.
Automated intake from sub or broker
The sub or the sub's broker uploads the certificate directly through a project link or the broker portal. No email handoff, no missing inbox, no forwarded PDFs without endorsement pages.
OCR and structured-data extraction
ACORD 25 and ACORD 28 forms are parsed into structured fields: carrier, policy number, effective date, expiration date, per-occurrence and aggregate limits, named insured, and additional-insured status.
Validation against the project insurance schedule
Each subcontract carries its own insurance schedule. Every uploaded cert is validated against the schedule for that sub on that project. Limit shortfalls, missing coverage lines, and wrong named insureds surface immediately.
Endorsement-language verification
Additional Insured endorsements (CG 20 10 ongoing, CG 20 37 completed operations), Waiver of Subrogation, and Primary & Non-Contributory language are checked against the contract requirement, not assumed from the cert face.
90 / 60 / 45 / 30 / 15 / 0-day cascade alerts
Expiration cascade alerts fire at 90, 60, 45, 30, 15, and 0 days. Sub gets nudged, broker gets nudged, project manager and risk management get visibility. The cascade is the same on every project.
Broker-portal upload access
The sub's broker uploads renewal certificates and endorsements directly into the project record. The prime sees the status without playing email tennis.
Audit trail of every certificate version
Every version of every cert is preserved with timestamp, uploader, and the schedule it was validated against. At claim time the question "what coverage was in force on the date of loss" has a one-click answer.
Stop-work automation on lapse
When a cert lapses without renewal evidence, Clerxi can flag the sub as non-compliant on the project, freeze pay applications, and notify the PM that work needs to stop until the certificate is current.
Clerxi's COI module is a feature of a construction operating system, not an Excel-import bolt-on.
Most COI tools live in their own database. You import a sub list, you import a project list, you maintain it. The data does not flow anywhere else.
Clerxi's COI status is one field on the project data model that also holds the certified payroll, the prevailing-wage determination, the DAS 140 / 142 status, the change-order register, the claim file, and the pay-application history. That matters in four specific places:
- Prevailing-wage compliance. A sub off-compliance on insurance is also off-compliance on the payroll. The two trigger together.
- Workers comp X-Mod calculation. Lapsed waivers of subrogation flow into the prime's loss history if a claim hits in the gap. Clerxi surfaces the exposure before the loss runs hit the renewal.
- Claim documentation. When a loss is reported, the claim file pulls the certificate that was in force on the date of loss, the endorsements that were attached, and the validation against the prime contract on that date. The coverage proof is built before counsel asks for it.
- Prime-contractor stop-work workflows. A lapsed COI is not just an alert. It freezes the sub on the pay-app cycle and the foreman's daily report, so work physically stops on the project until the cert is current.
Insurance brokers managing contractor portfolios get the same cascade view across every contractor account they serve. See Clerxi for Brokers for the broker-side workflow, and Clerxi for Carriers for the carrier-side data feed.
COI tracking, answered.
What is the difference between an ACORD 25 and an ACORD 28?
ACORD 25 is the standard Certificate of Liability Insurance form. It evidences general liability, automobile liability, workers compensation, and umbrella/excess coverage held by a contractor. ACORD 28 is the Evidence of Commercial Property Insurance form and is used to confirm property coverage on builders risk, installation floater, and similar property exposures. Construction owners and primes usually require both, depending on the scope of work.
What is an Additional Insured endorsement?
An additional insured endorsement extends the subcontractor's liability policy to also cover the general contractor and the project owner for liability arising out of the subcontractor's work. Without the endorsement on the actual policy (not just the certificate), the AI status is not legally binding. Public-works contracts almost always require additional insured status on a CG 20 10 (ongoing operations) and CG 20 37 (completed operations) basis, or equivalent.
What is a Waiver of Subrogation?
A waiver of subrogation prevents the subcontractor's insurer from pursuing recovery against the general contractor or owner after paying a claim. It shifts the cost of certain losses to the subcontractor's carrier and protects the prime's loss history and X-Mod. Public-works projects typically require waivers on general liability, auto, and workers compensation policies.
What coverage limits do public-works projects typically require?
Limits vary by owner and contract, but public-works projects commonly require commercial general liability of $1M per occurrence and $2M aggregate (sometimes $5M+ on larger jobs), automobile liability of $1M, workers compensation at statutory limits with employer's liability of $1M, and an umbrella or excess layer of $5M-$25M depending on project size and risk. Pollution liability is required when the scope involves environmental exposure. Always validate the prime contract and the owner's insurance schedule, not the bid documents alone.
How should a prime handle a subcontractor whose COI expires mid-project?
Stop work authorization on that subcontractor should trigger automatically the moment the COI lapses. The risk-management team should request the renewal certificate and all required endorsements before allowing the sub back on site. If work continued during a lapse, the prime should document the gap, notify its own broker, and review any claims that occurred in that window for coverage implications. Clerxi automates the stop-work trigger and preserves the audit trail so the lapse window is not buried in email.
Can brokers upload COIs directly to Clerxi?
Yes. Clerxi provides a broker portal so that the subcontractor's broker can upload certificates and endorsements directly into the project record, with status visibility back to the prime. This removes the email handoff where certificates are sent to the wrong inbox or forwarded without the endorsement pages attached.
Does Clerxi integrate with broker portals and carrier systems?
Clerxi is designed for direct broker upload through its broker portal and supports document-level intake from carrier systems where the broker provides certificates and endorsement forms. See the Clerxi for Brokers and Clerxi for Carriers pages for the full integration model.
Questions we did not answer here? support@clerxi.com.
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