The tool, in your browser
The certificate log
One row per sub company. You put in the two expiration dates off their certificates — workers’ comp and general liability — and the page counts the days left on each. It flags NO PAPER when a date is missing, EXPIRED when one has gone by, and EXPIRES SOON inside thirty days. Read it the morning you build next week’s schedule: anything flagged is a truck that shouldn’t roll until somebody makes a phone call.
Free, and it asks for nothing. No email, no account, no sign-up. What you type stays in this browser on this device.
The log fills in right here in your browser. If this line stays put, JavaScript is off — the spreadsheet below does the same job.
How it gets used
- One row per sub company you’ve used or plan to use. Not per man — per company. If the name on the paper isn’t the name on his invoice, that’s the first thing to sort out.
- Take the dates off the certificate, not off the phone call. He isn’t lying; he doesn’t know what his agent did in March. Type in what the paper says.
- Leave a date blank if you don’t have that certificate. Blank is the point — it shows up as NO PAPER, which is exactly what it is. Missing paper outranks an expired date on purpose: a crew you have no certificate for is the one you know least about.
- Put a real person in “who’s chasing it”. One name, not “the office” — he calls the sub and the sub’s agent until the renewal certificate is in hand. Put that chase on the promise list so it gets read out loud on Monday.
- Read it the morning you build next week’s schedule. Anything flagged gets a call before it gets a job. Thirty days is just enough warning to get a renewal certificate before the crew is standing in your yard.
Before you act on it
A date tracker, not an insurance opinion
This log tracks what your file says and when it runs out. It does not tell you what your own policy does. A certificate is a snapshot, not a guarantee — it says a policy existed on the day it was issued, and a policy can lapse the week after. Whether you’d hear about that, and what happens on your policy if an uninsured sub gets hurt on your job, is set by your policy language and your state. Ask your own agent before the season, straight out, and write the answer down.
Same for the premium audit: how an uninsured sub’s payroll is treated when your policy is audited is your carrier’s call, not this log’s. The log exists so you find out before the audit does — not so it can predict the bill.
If your crew is 1099, get this line right. Asking another company for proof of insurance before you hire it is normal business — a condition in the contract, like a warranty or a finish date. Using the paper as a handle on his men is different: picking who shows up, setting their hours, running them through your training. That’s directing his crew, and it’s what can cost you his 1099 standing.
One more thing: this play is how we run a shop — it’s not legal advice. Rules change by state and by contract, so before you act on the legal-sounding parts, run them past your own attorney or accountant. It’s your business, and what you do with any of this is your call and your responsibility.
Want it in a spreadsheet?
The same log as a spreadsheet
the-certificate-log.xlsx is this log as a spreadsheet — same columns, same flags, same thirty-day line — for the computer at the office, where the certificates themselves live. Three differences in the page’s favour: there’s no twenty-row ceiling on what gets counted; the example row is placeholder text here, so there’s nothing to delete before you start; and a date box holding something that isn’t a date says so, where the file would show you an error and keep the row in the count. Two the other way: the file is a real file, so it survives a cleared browser and can sit in the folder next to the scanned certificates, and it opens on any computer you send it to. The sheets ask for your email once; this page never does.
The play behind it — M11-05 No Paper, No Roof — is the paperwork gate itself, and the card you tape where the schedule gets built, and the sheet notes spell out every column and formula.