You won the bid. The GC says "send your cert and you can start Monday." What they want is a certificate of insurance (a COI), and how fast you produce it decides whether you're working Monday. Here's what the document actually is, and how contractors keep it from ever being the bottleneck.
A COI is a one-page snapshot, usually on the standard ACORD 25 form, showing that your coverage exists: carrier, policy numbers, limits, effective dates. That's it. It proves coverage but does not create or change it. The fine print on every certificate says so, and it matters: a certificate showing coverage that was canceled last month is worth nothing.
Most job requirements don't stop at proof. They want the GC, the property owner, or the landlord listed as an additional insured, meaning your liability policy extends to protect them for claims arising from your work. It is a standard request, but it has to be endorsed on the policy, not just typed on the certificate. A certificate claiming additional insured status the policy doesn't back is a misrepresentation with your name on it.
Slow certificates usually mean one of three things: the agent is a call center queue, the policy is missing an endorsement that has to be added first, or the request sat in an inbox. The fix is structural: an agent who issues certs directly, policies set up on day one with the endorsements your contracts predictably need, and job requirements sent in writing so nothing is interpreted over the phone. That's how we set it up, so once you're a client we aim to send certificates the same day you ask. See our contractor insurance page.
We set contractor policies up for the certificates your jobs ask for, and we aim to issue them the same day once you're a client.
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