COI tracking for property managers

What the management office actually collects

Most communities need general liability and workers' compensation from anyone who brings employees on site, plus automobile liability when the vendor's trucks park in the drive. Umbrella coverage shows up on the larger trades, especially roofing and restoration. A W-9 is a tax form, not proof of insurance, and it should not be the only document in the vendor folder. If your ownership group also asks to be listed as certificate holder, that name has to match the entity on the management agreement, not the nickname the superintendent uses on the radio.

The expiration that belongs on the board is the policy expiration printed on the certificate, not the date the broker emailed it and not the date your assistant saved the file. A vendor who finished a turnover in February can still be marked approved in the accounting system when the policy ended in January. The next leak call will reuse that vendor unless someone is looking at the date.

How a lapse shows up before the work order

Appworks Compliance Tracker keeps each vendor as a party and each coverage line as its own document with an expiry. The board sorts valid, inside the reminder window, and already expired. Default reminders go out at 30, 14, and 7 days. That is early enough to ask the broker for a renewal and late enough that you are not chasing a policy that still has a full quarter left.

When the certificate is about to lapse, you send the vendor an update link. They upload the new PDF without creating an account. The file lands in Review. It does not replace the current certificate until someone on your staff accepts it. That review step matters because a vendor will sometimes upload last year's form again, or a certificate that names a different community.

• Separate general liability, workers' compensation, and auto instead of one blob called insurance.
• Record the certificate holder exactly as ownership wants it on the next renewal.
• Leave a vendor on the board after the job ends so the next work order does not start from scratch.
• Use the CSV import when the portfolio already lives in a spreadsheet with a name and an email.

Portfolio reality, not a single building

A supervisor who covers four communities should not keep four inboxes. One workspace can hold every vendor, with the property name in the party notes or the trade field, and every coordinator on a seat. Starter is 25 parties and 3 seats. Pro is 100 parties and 10 seats. Business is 300 parties and 25 seats. The annual price is ten months of the monthly price, labeled two months free, and the limits do not change.

Nothing here files a claim or calls the carrier. The product stores the certificate you were given, the date it ends, and the reminder. If a contract requires additional insured status or a waiver of subrogation, read that endorsement yourself. The checklist for that reading is on the additional insured page. Confirm limits with your own counsel or broker. This page is the filing habit, not a coverage opinion.