Features
What WatchMyCover does today, and nothing it does not.
Everything on this page is built and running. There is no document reading, no OCR and no AI: a person enters what the certificate says, and a fixed set of rules measures it against your requirements the same way every time.
Requirements engine
A requirement template is your subcontract’s insurance article, written down once. Make one per contract type and assign one to each vendor; every certificate that vendor sends is measured against it.
- Coverage is mandatory
- A mandatory line that is missing, short or lapsed fails the vendor. An optional one is still recorded and shown, but never decides the verdict.
- Minimum each occurrence, minimum aggregate
- Two separate dollar minimums per coverage. Leave either blank and it is not checked.
- Additional insured, waiver of subrogation, primary & non-contributory
- Tick the endorsements the contract demands. Each is then recorded against the certificate at one of three levels: not evidenced, stated on the certificate, or endorsement form on file.
Eight coverage types
- General Liability
- Workers' Compensation
- Automobile Liability
- Umbrella / Excess Liability
- Professional Liability
- Pollution Liability
- Cyber Liability
- Builder's Risk
Two templates, set up at signup
Edit them, replace them, or add more — up to 3 on Starter, 10 on Core, unlimited on Pro.
Trade Subcontractor
- General Liability — $1,000,000 each occurrence, $2,000,000 aggregate; additional insured, waiver of subrogation, primary & non-contributory
- Workers' Compensation — $1,000,000; waiver of subrogation
- Automobile Liability — $1,000,000; additional insured
- Umbrella / Excess — $2,000,000 each occurrence, $2,000,000 aggregate
General Vendor / Supplier
- General Liability — $1,000,000 each occurrence, $1,000,000 aggregate; additional insured
- Automobile Liability — $1,000,000
- Workers' Compensation — $500,000
Certificate evaluation
Someone who can see the certificate types in the insurer, policy dates, limits and endorsement evidence, into a form built from the vendor’s template. Each coverage is judged on the policy in force today, across every certificate on file, so general liability and workers’ comp can arrive on separate certificates, and a renewal recorded early takes over when the old policy ends. Then these checks run, every time, in this order of severity:
- No certificate
No certificate on file
The vendor has nothing recorded yet.
- Non-compliant
Required coverage absent
A coverage the template makes mandatory is not on the certificate at all.
- Non-compliant
Limit below the minimum
Each occurrence or aggregate is lower than the template requires, with both figures quoted.
- Non-compliant
Limit not stated
The template sets a minimum and the certificate gives no figure for it.
- Non-compliant
Endorsement not evidenced
The contract requires it and nothing on file shows it.
- Needs review
Endorsement only stated on the certificate
A tick on the certificate is not the endorsement. The finding names the form to ask for (CG 20 10 / CG 20 37 for additional insured).
- Non-compliant
Policy expired
The expiry date has arrived. Policy periods end at 12:01 a.m., so the expiry date itself has no cover.
- Non-compliant
Policy not yet in force
The effective date is in the future, so there is no cover today.
- Expiring soon
Policy expiring soon
Expiry falls inside the warning window, 30 days by default.
- Needs review
Stale certificate
Issued more than a year ago, or dated in the future. It cannot confirm the policy is in force today.
- No effect
Coverage carried but not required
Recorded for information. It never affects the verdict.
The words on the certificate
Your broker knows these. You should not have to, and this page should not use them without saying what they mean.
- Each occurrence, and aggregate
- Two different limits. Each occurrence is the most the policy pays for one incident; the aggregate is the most it pays across the whole policy year. A certificate can meet one and miss the other, and the aggregate is the one that quietly runs out.
- Additional insured
- An endorsement that extends the subcontractor’s policy to cover you as well. Without it, their insurer defends them and not you.
- Waiver of subrogation
- An endorsement stopping their insurer from paying a claim and then coming after you to recover it.
- Primary and non-contributory
- Wording that makes their policy pay first and in full, rather than splitting the loss with yours.
- ACORD 25
- The one-page industry form a broker issues to summarise a policy. It is a summary written by a broker, not the policy itself, which is why a tick in one of its boxes is a statement rather than proof.
Compliance verdicts
Three verdicts and two statuses. Every one comes with its findings: what was required, what the certificate provided, and a sentence saying why — written to be forwarded to a broker as it stands.
- Compliant
- Every required line is present, every limit meets its minimum, every required endorsement is evidenced, and nothing is expiring inside the window.
- Needs review
- Nothing has definitely failed, but the certificate cannot settle a question on its own — an endorsement only stated on it, or a certificate too old to vouch for today.
- Non-compliant
- At least one definite failure: a missing coverage, a short or missing limit, an endorsement not evidenced, a lapsed or not-yet-effective policy.
- Expiring soon
- Compliant today, with a required policy expiring inside the warning window.
- No certificate
- Nothing has been recorded for this vendor yet.
Three verdicts, not two
Illustrative data- CompliantEastgate Steel Erectors
Every limit met. Endorsement forms on file.
- Needs reviewMeridian Masonry Group
Additional insured is stated on the certificate, but a certificate cannot amend a policy. Request CG 20 10.
- Non-compliantCastellano Concrete
General Liability aggregate of $1,000,000 is below the required $2,000,000.
The middle one is the point. Where a certificate cannot settle the question, WatchMyCover says so instead of guessing, and tells you the document to ask for.
Renewal chasing
Chasing is off when an account is created. Nothing is emailed to a subcontractor until you switch it on in Settings.
- The ladder
- Once switched on, each policy expiry gets up to five reminders: 30, 14, 7 and 1 days before, and once it is overdue. A renewed policy starts its own ladder.
- Gaps are chased at once
- A vendor whose certificate fails a requirement today is emailed straight away, rather than waiting for an expiry that may be a year off.
- To the subcontractor, broker copied
- Each email goes to the vendor’s contact with their broker on copy, and names the coverage concerned.
- A login-free upload link
- The email carries a link where the subcontractor uploads the new certificate — PDF, PNG or JPEG, up to 10 MB — with no account. If they reply by email instead, the reply lands in your own inbox and someone on your team records it.
- Chase now, or cancel
- Send a chase by hand from a vendor’s page, or stop a queued one after you have spoken to the sub.
- A log of every reminder
- Each chase can be read in full, with its recipients, its status and when it went.
Compliance register
A dashboard of where every vendor stands, and a vendor list built for a long one: search by name, filter by status, expiry window or project, sort by risk, and page through it. The searching and sorting happen on the server, so it stays quick at any size.
History
- Superseded, never deleted
- A renewal that fully replaces a certificate sets it aside rather than deleting it. The old one is kept for audit.
- Verdict history
- Every verdict is recorded. Each vendor’s page shows the history of its verdicts and who changed what.
- Activity log
- Every change made in the product is written to an audit record, with the person who made it.
Register export
- CSV, on every plan
- One row per vendor: the coverage on file, the verdict, and the reasons behind it. No export tier and no exit fee.
- Ready for an owner or an auditor
- Opens in Excel or Google Sheets and can be sent without editing first.
Around the edges
Projects
Group vendors by job, filter the register by project, and share a report for one project alone. 3 on Starter, 15 on Core, unlimited on Pro.
Team
Invite colleagues by email as an Admin or a Member; the person who created the account is its Owner. 2 users on Starter, 5 on Core, unlimited on Pro.
CSV import
Export your vendor list from Excel or Google Sheets as CSV and import up to 500 rows a file. Rows that cannot be written are listed with the reason.
Monthly digest
Once a month the account owner gets a short email: how many chases went out, how many certificates came back through the upload link, and where the register stands.