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Subcontractors never need a WatchMyCover account. Everything they receive is an ordinary email in your company’s name, and everything they send back goes through a private link or a reply. If a subcontractor asks what the emails are, send them For subcontractors.

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The chase email

An email headed and signed with your organization’s name (and your logo, when you have uploaded one), addressed to the subcontractor’s contact with their insurance agent copied. Everything due for the subcontractor is in one email, each item under its own heading. In plain text, a renewal email reads like this:
A renewal reminder email as shown in WatchMyCover, with its subject and recipient outlined

A reminder as you read it under Reminders: subject, recipient, then the text.

The formatted version says the same, with the link as an Upload the certificate button (Upload the documents when the email asks for more than one kind of thing, or for endorsement forms), and the link written out beneath it in case the button does not work. Gaps and documents needed are listed under their own headings in the same email, exactly as found, using the finding’s own sentence, such as “General Liability aggregate limit of $1,000,000 is below the required $2,000,000.” When a policy has expired, the email says that until a current certificate is on file, the subcontractor cannot be treated as approved for site access. Every email carries its own private upload link, valid for 60 days. You can read the full text of any email, before or after it is sent, under Reminders. The link itself is not stored, so a sent email shows “[a private upload link, sent in the email and not stored]” in its place, and one still queued shows “[a private upload link, created when this is sent]”.

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The upload page

The link opens a single page headed “Send the certificate of insurance for subcontractor”, under your company’s name, and your logo when you have uploaded one. It says when the link stops working, and then tells the subcontractor what they need to know to send the right thing:
  • What you ask for. Every required coverage from the subcontractor’s requirements, with its limits in your currency and each endorsement with the form number to request.
  • What is short today. The open findings on their record, in the same sentences the chase email uses. A finding under an exception is not listed.
  • A section for their insurance agent. Your company’s name and address for the certificate holder box, the requirements, and what is short. It prints on one page (Print this) or opens as a draft in their own mail program (Email this to my agent).
It asks for one file:
  • PDF, PNG or JPEG, up to 10 MB.
  • One file at a time. After sending, the subcontractor can choose Send another certificate, for example when general liability and workers’ compensation come as separate documents.
  • No account, no password, nothing else to fill in.
Subcontractor upload page titled Send the certificate of insurance, with the file chooser and Send certificate button outlined

The upload page a subcontractor sees. No account, no password.

The page shows only what concerns that one subcontractor: your requirements of them and their own open findings. It shows nothing about your other subcontractors, no contact details, and nothing they can browse. The file’s type is checked from its contents, not its name. If the subcontractor prefers, they can reply to the email with the PDF attached. The reply goes to your Replies go to address, and someone on your team records it.

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After they send a file

  1. The page confirms: “Received. Thank you.” and explains that you will read it and check it. After a second file it reads “Received: 2 files. Thank you.”
  2. The page takes a first look at the file and tells the subcontractor what still looks short against your requirements, counting what you already hold. It is worded as a look, never a decision: “A first look suggests this may still be short”, or “A first look found nothing obviously short”, always followed by a line saying you will check it yourselves. Beneath it, after “Could not be read:”, the page lists whatever the reader left for a person, such as a limit box holding two figures; a certificate with no issue date is listed there as “Date issued, so the age of the certificate was not checked”. A scan that cannot be read says so. Nothing is recorded and no verdict changes. Each file is looked at once.
  3. The subcontractor gets a receipt by email: “Received: your certificate for your company”. It says someone will read it, and that reminders are paused while it is reviewed. Replies go to your reply-to address. The receipt is sent whether chasing is on or off, but not to an address that bounced or marked your mail as spam.
  4. You get an email, “subcontractor sent a certificate”, at your reply-to address (or the owner’s). The certificate is attached, and the Review the certificate button opens the subcontractor’s page with that certificate on screen. This is sent even when chasing is off.
  5. Everyone on your team sees it under the bell at the top of the app: “Certificate received from subcontractor”. See Viewing certificates.
  6. The file appears in the Certificates panel and under Documents on file on the subcontractor’s page, marked Not read yet, on the Certificates page, and in Certificates just in on the dashboard.
  7. Chasing for that subcontractor pauses until someone reads it. See Pauses, and when chasing stops.
Upload page after sending a file, showing Received. Thank you.

What the subcontractor sees once the file is sent.

Nothing in the register changes on its own. WatchMyCover stores the document and waits for someone to record what it says. Choose Record it beside the document, or Mark read if it is not a certificate to record.
Documents on file card with a file sent by the subcontractor marked Not read yet, and its Record it and Mark read links

The file waits under Documents on file until someone records it or marks it read.

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The confirmation

When a renewal is recorded and the subcontractor becomes Compliant, a subcontractor who was chased in the last 120 days receives “On file: subcontractor’s certificate meets your company’s requirements”, with their broker copied. It thanks them, gives the date of the next renewal you will ask about, and says nothing else is needed. It is only sent when chasing is on, and it is not sent while an exception is in force for the subcontractor, because a gap you have agreed to wait for is still open. You can also give a subcontractor a link by hand, for example on the phone. On the subcontractor’s page, under Documents on file, choose Get an upload link. The link works for 30 days and needs no account. Like the link in a chase email, it shows only what you ask of that subcontractor and what is short on their record, and takes a file. Copy link, or Email it to open a pre-written email in your own mail program.
Documents on file card showing a new upload link with Copy link and Email it outlined

An upload link issued by hand, ready to copy or email.

A link stops working when it expires, when you withdraw it, when the subcontractor is archived, or if your account is canceled. Restoring an archived subcontractor does not bring its old links back. Each link accepts up to 20 files; after that the page says “This link has been used too many times. Ask for a new one.” If your account has used all of its document storage, the upload page tells the subcontractor to send the certificate to you directly instead. Every chase email carries its own link, so a subcontractor emailed several times holds several. Under Documents on file, the subcontractor’s page lists every link that still works: whether it was issued by hand or in a chase email (and which one), when it was issued, when it expires and how many files it has received. Choose Withdraw beside one to stop it, or Withdraw all links to stop them all without archiving the subcontractor. Anyone on your team who can issue a link can withdraw one. Someone opening a withdrawn link sees exactly what they would see for an expired one: “This upload link is no longer active.” The next chase email carries a new link, and you can issue one by hand at any time.

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References