How to Automate a Certificate of Insurance (COI)

With STRATAFOLIO, you can automate your Certificate Of Insurance (COI) and insurance policy management. It is as simple as following the steps below:

• Once your lease is created, Add the Insurance Requirements as stated per your lease
• Add a Certificate Of Insurance for your tenant
• Add the Insurance Policies to the COI
• Get visual and email alerts before your policy will expire

Add The Insurance Requirements

Once your lease is created, you will add one or multiple insurance requirements to a lease. Each lease varies on the specific insurance requirements.

To add an insurance requirement to your lease, follow the steps below:

• Find the Tenant’s Lease you need to add the insurance requirement to by clicking on Operations, Leases, and then select the i to View Lease Details of the desired lease.

• Once In the tenant’s Lease Details, click on the Insurance tab and then on the + Add Lease Insurance button. This will allow you to add an insurance requirement to this lease.

• This form only has one required field: the Insurance Type. We advise you to add as much information as you have available. The more information you have, the easier it becomes for you and your team when looking for answers.

Add the COI to Your Tenant

Now that you added all your insurance requirements to your lease, you can proceed to add the COI you received from your tenant.

NOTE: If the Tenant’s Lease does not have any insurance requirements, you or your tenant will not be able to upload a COI until at least one insurance requirement is added to the Tenant’s lease.

• To add a COI, click on the Tenants tab within your lease and click on the View Tenant Details button to access the Tenant’s details view.

• Once in the Tenant’s detail view, click on the Insurance tab and then click on the + Add COI button to add a new certificate of insurance.

• Once the form is open, you will be able to upload the COI, and add following properties:
  • The Insurance Company Name that supplied the COI (This field is required).
  • The Certificate Date. This is the date the certificate was issued (This field is required).
  • If you would like us to notify your Tenant’s Agent through email before the certificate will expire, please add the Agent’s Name and Email to the form (These fields are optional).
  • Add any notes you would like to include with the certificate (This field is optional).
  • Click Save and the certificate will be saved.

Once the COI is uploaded, to receive alerts for that COI, you will need to add at least one Insurance Policy to that COI.

Add Policies to the COI

• In order to add Insurance Policies to a COI, you will need to display the COI by clicking on the i to View Certificate of Insurance Details.

• Once you are in the COI details, you will be able to add one or more insurance policies.
• To add one or more policies, click on the Policies tab and the + Add Insurance Policy button

• Once the form is open, you will be able to add the Insurance Policy and add the following properties:
  • The Policy Type that is required from the lease insurance requirements (This field is required).
  • Fulfills Lease Insurance Requirements. This is from the lease abstract page. Please choose one. (This field is required).
  • The Policy Number. This is from the certificate of insurance given by the insurance company or tenant. (This field is required).
  • The Policy Amount. This is on the certificate of insurance given by the insurance company or tenant. (This field is required).
  • The Start Date. This is on the certificate of insurance given by the insurance company or tenant. (This field is required).
  • The End Date. This is on the certificate of insurance given by the insurance company or tenant. (This field is required).

• The insurance policy is what STRATAFOLIO will alert your Tenant on.

Getting Visual Alerts

Once you add your insurance requirements to your lease, the COI to the tenant, and the insurance certificate to the COI, you will be able to quickly view the statuses of that policy and the requirements status of the lease or all your insurance policies within your organization once all the policies are added.

• Click on the Operations -> Tenant Insurance on the left navigation bar.

Lease Requirement Statuses

The Tenant Insurance view displays all the insurance requirement statuses previously added to each one of your active leases, as well as all the active leases that do not have any insurance requirements in them. You can access this view by clicking on the left navigation menu on the Operations -> Tenant Insurance menu options.

STRATAFOLIO provides you with the requirement statuses listed below to help you identify which leases or lease insurance policies need further attention by your team. Ultimately, if catastrophe strikes, the insurance policy required by your lease agreement and purchased by your tenant will be the one thing that will be providing the funds needed to repair damages, so we want you to ensure the requirements listed in your lease agreement are met.

Requirement Status	Requirement Status Meaning
No Requirement in Lease	This status is used when an active lease does not have any insurance requirements in place. If your leases do not require your tenants to carry insurance, you can learn more about why your leases should require insurance and What’s the Purpose of Requiring Certificates of Insurance from Tenants.
No COI Attached	This status is used when a lease requirement has been added to a lease. But, a COI containing an insurance policy matching the insurance requirement specified in the lease agreement has not been uploaded for that lease.
Unsatisfied	This requirement status is used when a COI was uploaded containing the information for an active insurance policy where the amounts in the insurance policy are below the minimum limit amounts specified in the lease requirement, or the insurance policy has expired.
Has Active Policy	This requirement status is used when a lease requirement does not specify any minimum coverage amounts. Yet, a COI has been uploaded containing an active insurance policy matching the requirement policy type required by that lease. STRATAFOLIO strongly recommends adding minimum amounts to all the lease requirements in an active lease to provide guidance to your tenants. You want to avoid a tenant taking out a policy with low coverage limits just to satisfy your requirement.
Partially Satisfied	This requirement status is used when a lease contains a lease requirement specifying both a Minimum Each Occurrence Limit amount and a Minimum Aggregate Limit amount. Yet, a COI was uploaded to that lease containing an insurance policy that contains only one of those amounts. The amount listed in the policy matches or exceeds the minimum amount listed in the insurance requirement in order to consider this requirement partially satisfied.
Satisfied	This requirement status is used when the lease requirement specifies one or both a Minimum Each Occurrence Limit amount and a Minimum Aggregate Limit amount, and a COI was uploaded with an insurance policy that matches or exceeds the minimum amounts listed in the lease requirement.

Getting Email Alerts

NOTE: Make sure your tenant Contact has a valid Email Address, so they can receive email alerts when an Insurance Policy is about to expire. The tenant must have access to the portal in order to get the alerts. Administrators, managers and property managers will still get alerts.

If the COI form has the Agent Name and the Agent Email, that Agent will also receive an email alert.

• An expiring insurance policy will generate email alerts until that insurance policy is updated, or the lease is expired.
• If the policy is not updated, STRATAFOLIO will send multiple emails.
  • The first email will trigger 30 days before the Insurance Policy expires
  • The second email will trigger 7 days before the Insurance Policy expires
  • The third email will trigger on the day the Insurance Policy expires.
  • The fourth email will trigger 3 days after the Insurance Policy expires.
  • The fifth and final email will trigger 7 days after the Insurance Policy expires.
• In this email, you will receive information regarding each certificate in reference to the above timeline.

Want to learn more?

Would you like to learn more about what STRATAFOLIO can do to help you manage your commercial real estate properties? You an watch our prerecorded 10-minute demo to learn how we can reduce your time and effort by 80%, or get started now and Schedule a 1:1 demo tailored specifically to your organization’s individual goals and needs.