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This quickstart takes you from sign-up to your first certificate of insurance (COI) verdict and your first automated renewal reminder. This takes most people under an hour, most of it spent on the spreadsheet of subcontractors you already keep.
1

Create your workspace

Go to watchmycover.com/signup and enter Your name, Company, Work email and a Password of at least 8 characters, with a capital letter, a lower-case letter, a number and a symbol, then choose Create workspace. A password that has appeared in a known data breach is refused; choose a different one. If the address already has an account, nothing new is created and you are told to sign in with it instead.Every new workspace starts a 14-day trial. No card is taken. If you picked a plan on the pricing page, the trial is on that plan; otherwise it is on Core. See Plans and billing.
WatchMyCover sign-up form with name, company, work email and password fields

The sign-up form. No card is needed for the 14-day trial.

2

Confirm your email address

Nothing in the app opens until your address is confirmed. You will see Confirm your email address and an email with a link, valid for 24 hours. Open the link, or come back to the tab and choose I have confirmed it. Open the link in a browser where you are signed in to WatchMyCover: opened anywhere else, it signs you out everywhere else, and you choose a new password with Forgot your password? on the sign-in page.No email? Check spam, then choose Send a new link. Signed up with the wrong address? Choose Wrong address? Sign out. More in Email confirmation.
Confirm your email address screen in WatchMyCover with the I have confirmed it and Send a new link buttons outlined

The screen a new account sees until its email address is confirmed.

3

Tell us about your company

Onboarding step 1, Your company: your Company logo (optional), company name, Country, Address line 1 and 2, city, state, ZIP and Time zone. Start typing your address in Address line 1 and pick it from the suggestions to fill in the rest. The time zone matters: it decides which calendar day a policy expires on and when reminders go out. It starts on your browser’s time zone and moves to match when you change the country or pick a suggested address, unless the new country keeps the same clock, so check it. Once you have saved it, it stays as you set it if you come back to this step. Country also sets the currency your amounts are written in (Canada writes C$, the United Kingdom £), and the line under the field names it. Choose it carefully: the country and its currency cannot be changed once setup is finished. Choose Continue.Set-up cannot be skipped: until you choose Finish setup, every page in the app brings you back to it.
Set-up step 1, Your company, with the Country field and the currency it sets, and the Time zone field, outlined

Set-up step 1: your company. The country sets your currency and cannot be changed later; check the time zone too.

4

Set your requirements

Step 2, Your requirements, shows two starting templates, Trade Subcontractor and General Vendor / Supplier, with limits typical of a US construction subcontract. Choose Edit values on each and change them to what your own subcontracts require. Every verdict is measured against these.If they already fit, choose Continue; you can change them later under Requirements. See Requirement templates for the starting values.
Set-up step 2, Your requirements, listing the Trade Subcontractor and General Vendor templates with an Edit values button outlined

Set-up step 2: the two starting templates. Edit values changes the limits to match your contracts.

5

Add your subcontractors

Step 3, Add your subcontractors, is optional:
  1. Download the CSV template, which has every column the importer recognizes and three example rows to replace.
  2. Import your spreadsheet, as a CSV or Excel (.xlsx) file, up to 500 rows a file.
  3. Or add one by hand: name, email and which requirements apply.
Nothing is emailed to a subcontractor at this stage. Details in Importing from CSV or Excel and Adding a subcontractor.
Set-up step 3, Add your subcontractors, with the CSV template, spreadsheet import and add by hand options and the Finish setup button outlined

Set-up step 3: bring your subcontractors in now, or choose Finish setup and do it later.

Choose Finish setup (or Go to my register) to open the dashboard. On steps 2 and 3, the round arrow on the left goes back one step.Once you have at least one subcontractor, the Overview shows Finish setting up, a checklist of what is left: record a certificate, switch on renewal chasing, and optionally invite a colleague and share a report. Each step is checked off as you do it. The count is of the three steps that are needed; the two optional ones do not hold it back. When those three are done the card reads Setup is finished, with any optional step still open, until you hide it. The cross hides it on that browser. Until you have a subcontractor, Overview shows Welcome to WatchMyCover with the two ways to bring them in.
Finish setting up checklist on the WatchMyCover Overview page with the Switch on renewal chasing step outlined

The Finish setting up checklist on Overview shows what is left.

6

Record a certificate

Open a subcontractor under Subcontractors and choose Record certificate. The form lists the coverages their template requires. Choose Upload certificate to fill it in from the PDF, or type what the certificate says: insurer, issue date, and for each coverage the limits, effective and expiry dates, and the endorsement evidence. Check every value, then choose Record and re-check.The verdict and its findings appear on the subcontractor’s page straight away. See Recording a certificate, which includes where each field sits on an ACORD 25.
Subcontractor page in WatchMyCover with the Record certificate button outlined

Record certificate, at the top right of every subcontractor page.

7

Switch chasing on

Go to Settings → Renewal chasing. Check Replies go to: chase emails ask the subcontractor to reply with their certificate attached, and this is where the reply lands. It starts as the account owner’s email address.Then choose Turn on. If reminders are already waiting, WatchMyCover first shows how many emails would go and to whom, and you choose Turn on and send or Leave it off; once you choose to send, everything on that list is sent straight away. From then on, WatchMyCover emails subcontractors 30, 14, 7 and 1 days before a required policy expires (you can change the days), on the day it expires and weekly for four weeks after that, and straight away when a certificate falls short. A subcontractor with no email address on file is not chased until you add one. See How chasing works.
Renewal chasing settings in WatchMyCover with the Chasing is off box and its Turn on button outlined

Settings, Renewal chasing: nothing is emailed until you choose Turn on.

Before turning chasing on, open Reminders. Reminders are generated while chasing is off, so you can read what would go out and cancel any you do not want sent. When they are sent, everything due for one subcontractor goes out as one email, and a reminder that has waited more than a week is replaced by an up-to-date one.

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