Every business has at least one vendor whose insurance certificate lapsed silently — discovered only when a claim was denied or a customer audit found the gap. VendorAuditly tracks every certificate automatically and alerts you 90, 60, 30, and 7 days before anything expires.
These are not theoretical risks. They happen to SMBs every year — most without ever appearing in a press release, because they are quietly absorbed as losses, contract failures, or uninsured liability.
Your facilities vendor’s public liability insurance lapsed 47 days ago. Their contractor damages a client’s property during a site visit. The vendor files a claim. Their insurer declines — the policy had lapsed. Your business absorbs the loss because the contract made you responsible for vendor insurance verification. You had a certificate from last year in your files. It was a year old.
Your largest enterprise customer runs an annual supply chain compliance audit. They ask you to demonstrate that all critical vendors hold current insurance certificates meeting your contractual minimums. Your IT provider’s professional indemnity certificate expired 6 weeks ago. You have been meaning to chase the renewal. The customer receives an incomplete compliance pack and flags this as a critical gap. Renewal is at risk.
Your payroll software provider renewed their public liability insurance at a lower coverage amount — £1m instead of the £5m your contract requires. The certificate was uploaded to your shared drive. Nobody checked the amount, only that a certificate existed. Your contract required £5m. You are now contractually unprotected for four months of payroll processing with no discovered incident, but also no compliance. The gap only surfaced during an internal audit.
All three of these scenarios share one cause: a certificate that expired or changed without anyone being alerted. VendorAuditly alerts you at 90 days, 60 days, 30 days, and 7 days before any document lapses — and extracts coverage amounts automatically so a change in the amount triggers a flag, not just an expiry date. Start tracking free →
Select the vendor types in your supply chain. The tool shows which certificates each vendor type should hold — and highlights the ones most commonly missing. Use it to build your certificate collection checklist before your next vendor review.
Choose all that apply — see required certificates instantly
| Certificate | Applies to | Status | What to check |
|---|
The entire certificate lifecycle managed without manual data entry, calendar reminders, or spreadsheet maintenance. Here is how each stage works.
Upload any certificate PDF — insurance, ISO 27001, SOC 2, contract, or sector accreditation. AI reads the document and extracts: document type, expiry date, coverage amount (for insurance), issuing entity name, scope (for certifications), and any exclusions. No manual data entry. No reading documents yourself. Flags if the coverage amount falls below your configured minimum.
Alerts fire automatically to the internal owner and optionally directly to the vendor. 90 days: time to request renewal without pressure. 60 days: follow up if not yet received. 30 days: escalate — now urgent. 7 days: critical. All alerts include the specific document name, expiry date, and a direct link to the vendor record. Nothing slips through. Nothing requires a manual calendar check.
The most common compliance gap is not a missing certificate — it is a certificate that exists but covers a lower amount than your contract requires. AI extracts the coverage amount from every insurance certificate and flags it if it falls below the minimum you set per vendor. Configure “public liability minimum: £5m” and every new certificate is automatically checked against it.
When a customer asks for your vendor compliance evidence, export the complete certificate status register in one click — PDF, Excel, and ZIP of all documents. Current status per vendor, expiry dates, coverage amounts, flags raised and resolved. The evidence pack that answers any enterprise procurement or audit question in under 60 seconds rather than two weeks of document gathering.
When a certificate approaches expiry, VendorAuditly sends a renewal request directly to the vendor contact on file. Automated chasing at 7 and 14 days if no response. The vendor uploads directly via link — no account required. AI immediately reads the new certificate and updates the expiry date. Your dashboard shows green. You did nothing beyond the initial configuration.
Insurance certificates are one category. VendorAuditly also tracks: ISO 27001 and SOC 2 certifications, Data Processing Agreements, signed contracts with renewal dates, health and safety accreditations, Modern Slavery statements, sector-specific licences. One dashboard for every document type every vendor holds — all with the same expiry alert system.
Insurance certificates are the most urgent compliance document, but they are not the only one that expires. Every category below has an expiry date. All require the same alert system. All live in the same VendorAuditly dashboard.
Dedicated COI tracking platforms (myCOI, TrustLayer, BCS) are excellent — for construction companies managing 500+ incoming certificates from subcontractors. They require a minimum of 200 certificates and start at $500/month. For most SMBs tracking 15–150 vendor certificates, VendorAuditly is the right tool.
| Capability | VendorAuditly ✦ | myCOI / TrustLayer / BCS | Spreadsheet |
|---|---|---|---|
| Primary use case | SMB tracking certs OF vendors they pay | Construction / real estate: collecting inbound certs from subs | Any — with manual maintenance |
| Annual price | From $499/yr | $500–$3,000+/month | Free |
| Minimum certificate volume | No minimum — free on 3 | 200+ certificates required (myCOI explicitly) | Any |
| AI document extraction | ✓ Dates, amounts, scope, entity | ✓ ACORD 25 forms primarily | ✗ Manual data entry |
| Coverage amount verification | ✓ Flags below your minimum | ✓ | ✗ Manual comparison only |
| Automated expiry alerts (90/60/30/7) | ✓ Configured automatically | ✓ | ✗ Calendar reminders only |
| Tracks non-insurance documents | ✓ ISO, SOC 2, DPAs, contracts | Insurance focus only | Manual — if you add them |
| Vendor questionnaire sending | ✓ Full questionnaire suite | ✗ | ✗ |
| Risk scoring per vendor | ✓ Green/Amber/Red | ✗ | ✗ |
| Audit-ready export | ✓ One click | Enterprise feature | ✗ |
| Onboarding checklist | ✓ Interactive, tier-based | ✗ | ✗ |
| When the spreadsheet breaks | N/A — no spreadsheet | N/A | When the owner leaves, or you reach 20+ vendors |
Note: myCOI, TrustLayer, and BCS are excellent platforms for their target market — construction, real estate, and property management companies managing inbound COIs from hundreds of subcontractors. That is a different use case from an SMB ops manager tracking compliance documents for the 40 vendors they pay.
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Certificate tracking is one layer of an ongoing vendor compliance programme. These guides cover every adjacent layer.
VendorAuditly tracks every vendor certificate automatically — insurance, ISO, SOC 2, DPAs, contracts. AI reads dates and amounts. Alerts at 90/60/30/7 days. Free forever on 3 vendors.
Free forever on 3 vendors · No credit card · No security team required