How to automate certificate of insurance requests
Certificates of insurance (COIs) are usually the single most frequent request in a commercial agency's service inbox. They are also very rule-driven, which makes them a sensible first thing to automate. This guide sets out how to do it without creating the E&O exposure you were trying to remove.
The same request, forty times a week
A commercial agency writes contractors, property managers and event companies. Every new job site, lease or venue booking produces a certificate request. Most look alike: a holder name and address, sometimes additional insured, sometimes a waiver, occasionally special wording copied from a contract.
Two people on the service desk spend the first hour of every day just reading the inbox to find which emails are certificate requests. Then each certificate means opening the AMS, finding the master certificate, retyping the holder, checking the policies are in force and sending the PDF back. None of it is hard. All of it is time, and the errors that do happen come from rushing, not from lack of knowledge.
Step 1: Split the work into what is mechanical and what is judgment
Write down every step your desk takes for a certificate, from the email arriving to the activity being logged. Then mark each step as mechanical (the same every time, from data you already hold) or judgment (a person has to decide). Typically the mechanical steps are reading the request, matching the customer and policy, pulling values from the master certificate, taking the holder off the sample, checking dates, naming the file, replying and filing. The judgment steps are deciding whether unusual wording is acceptable, whether a contract's requirements are met, and approving the result.
Automate the first list. Keep the second with your licensed staff, and make the software stop and ask whenever it reaches one.
Step 2: Get your master certificates in order
Automation can only be as good as the record it reads. Before you switch anything on, check that each commercial insured has a current master certificate in your AMS with the right producer, insurers, NAIC numbers, policy numbers, dates and limits. Note which policies have blanket additional insured or waiver endorsements and which need a specific endorsement per holder. This is worth doing anyway; most agencies find a handful of out-of-date masters the first time they look.
Step 3: Decide your rules before the software does
- Which requesters may ask for a certificate without a check: the insured's listed contacts, your account managers, known holders?
- Which certificates need a second person: all of them, or only those with additional insured, waiver or special wording?
- What is the due time for a certificate, and does it change for requests that arrive late in the day?
- What should happen when a policy is not in force or the holder is not recognized: hold for a person, or reply asking for more information?
Step 4: Start in a quiet mode
Run the automation on your real inbox with outbound email switched off. Let it read, sort and draft, and have your team compare its drafts with what they would have sent. After a week or two you will know which request shapes it handles cleanly, which it hands back, and whether your rules need tuning. Only then switch on sending, and keep approval on for the request types you are not yet sure about.
Step 5: Measure it
Those four numbers tell you, from your own requests, whether automation is paying for itself. Nobody else's average can.
- Certificate requests received per day, and how many the software drafted without a person changing a value.
- Time from email to certificate sent, at the median and at the slow end.
- Certificates that had to be reissued or corrected.
- Requests the software handed to a person, and why.
Step 6: Handle the requests that do not fit
Every agency has certificate requests that do not follow the pattern: a holder asking for coverage the insured does not carry, a contract that requires limits above the policy, a project-specific endorsement that has to be requested from the carrier first, or a request from a holder rather than the insured. These are the requests where a person adds the most value, and they should be easy to spot rather than buried among the routine ones.
Set up a clear hand-off: the software flags the request with the reason it stopped, routes it to the account manager for that insured, and starts a due time like any other task. The account manager decides whether to go back to the insured, the carrier or the holder. The point of automating the routine certificates is to give your experienced people the time to deal with these properly.
What Shlix IBS does at each step
Shlix IBS reads the shared service inbox, recognizes certificate requests, matches the insured and the policies and checks the requester is on file. It drafts the certificate from your records, takes the holder and wording off the sample, runs a checklist of checks, and records where every value came from. Work that needs approval waits for an account manager who did not prepare it. Today it connects to Microsoft 365; AMS360 is in build, and for other systems the record is supplied by the agency until a connection exists.
Automating certificate requests: readiness checklist
Map the work
- List every certificate step
- Mark each step mechanical or judgment
- Agree which steps stay with people
Clean the record
- Current master certificate per insured
- Producer, insurers, NAIC numbers checked
- Blanket vs specific endorsements noted
- Holder lists up to date
Set the rules
- Who may request without a check
- Which certificates need a second person
- Due time per request type
- What happens when a check fails
Start safely
- Run with outbound email off
- Compare drafts with what you would send
- Switch on sending type by type
- Track the four numbers weekly
Download this checklist as a PDF (one page, free, no sign-up).
Common mistakes and what they cost
Each of these is a common route to an errors-and-omissions (E&O) problem. None of it is legal advice; follow your carriers' rules and your agency's procedures.
- Automating before the master certificates are current. Software reproduces stale data faster than a person would, and at volume. One wrong master can produce dozens of wrong certificates.
- Letting the software decide additional insured status. Additional insured and waiver come from endorsements; a system that marks them because a sample asks creates coverage misstatements.
- Removing approval on day one. Without a review period you have no evidence the automation matches your standards, and no record that anyone checked.
- Measuring nothing. Without before-and-after numbers you cannot tell whether errors went down or simply moved.
Questions
Can certificates be sent without a person approving?+
Technically yes, and some agencies allow it for straightforward reissues to known holders. Start with approval on and remove it only for request types where the record shows it is safe.
Do we need an AMS integration first?+
It helps, because values then come straight from the system of record. Without one, the software can still read, sort, route and time requests, and draft from a record the agency maintains.
How long does it take to set up?+
Mapping the work and setting rules is usually a short call. Cleaning master certificates depends on your book; the quiet-mode period is typically one to four weeks.
Will clients notice?+
They should notice faster replies in the same thread they wrote in. The certificate itself looks the same as one your team would send.