Every vendor's certificate of insurance — collected, verified, and dated.
Vendors file their certificate of insurance, business license, W-9 and trade credentials. A person at HOAcrew reads the certificate itself, files what the document says rather than what was typed, and records the date it runs out.
Certificate of liability insurance
Harbor Mutual Insurance Co.
Insured: Ridgeline Grounds Co. · filed by the vendor
- Commercial general liabilitygates bidding
- $2,000,000each occurrence
- 14 Mar 2027
- Workers’ compensationgates bidding
- Statutoryemployer’s liability included
- 31 Jan 2027
- CPO certificationgates bidding
- Heldthe pool trade’s own credential
- 02 Nov 2026
- W-9gates payout
- On fileno expiration date on this form
- —
Replaced — kept on file
Your community sets the coverage limits it requires — often the number its own insurer or lender asks for — and a vendor whose recorded cover falls below one of them cannot bid on your work until it is raised.
Example certificate. Every field on it is one HOAcrew holds and checks, and each document keeps its earlier versions — so your board can see what changed and when.
An example certificate as it sits on file. Commercial general liability at $2,000,000 each occurrence expiring 14 March 2027; workers’ compensation, statutory, expiring 31 January 2027; a CPO certification expiring 2 November 2026 — all three gate bidding. A W-9 is on file and gates payout rather than bidding. Once an admin has read a certificate, the limit recorded from it is compared with the limit the community set every time that vendor bids there, and a vendor below a required limit is refused and told by how much. The certificate it replaced is kept: version 1, filed 9 March 2025, superseded 11 March 2026, and it had been verified too.
Four numbers decide whether a vendor can bid.
These are the rules every vendor is held to, the same way at every community, with what each one means underneath it.
- Renewal window on an insurance line
- 30days
- A renewal certificate routinely arrives late; this is how long it has
- Window on a competency certificate
- 0days
- A lapsed CPO, lifeguard or background check closes bidding that day
- Documents before a company can bid
- 3
- The same number for a pool company, a lawn company and a porter
- For a staffing company offering lifeguards
- 4
- The one scope on the platform that carries a fourth
Insurance gets thirty days past expiration. Then bidding closes.
A renewal certificate routinely arrives late, so an insurance line gets a window and a competency certificate gets none. What closes is bidding; a contract already signed is your board's to act on.
An insurance line
general liability · workers’ comp · auto liability
30-day grace period- Filedthe vendor uploads it
- Verifiedan HOAcrew admin checks it
- Covering — the vendor can biduntil the policy’s own expiration date
- 30-day renewal windowstill able to bid; the replacement is expected
- Bidding closeduntil a current certificate is verified
A competency certificate
CPO · lifeguard certification · background check
No grace period- Filedthe vendor uploads it
- Verifiedan HOAcrew admin checks it
- Current — the vendor can biduntil the certificate’s own expiration date
- Bidding closed, the same dayan expired certification is not a certification
What closes is bidding and award — gates holds two values, bidding and payout, and the W-9 is the one on payout.
Two document lifecycles drawn on the same time axis. Both begin the same way: the vendor uploads the document, an HOAcrew admin verifies it, and it covers the vendor — who can bid — until its own expiration date. They differ after that. An insurance line (general liability, workers’ compensation, auto liability) has a 30-day renewal window after expiration during which the vendor can still bid, because a renewal certificate routinely arrives after the old one lapses. Only when that window closes does the vendor stop being able to bid for or be awarded work, until a current certificate is verified. A competency certificate (CPO, lifeguard certification, background check) has no window at all: bidding closes the same day it expires, because an expired certification is not a certification. On both lanes the gate is on bidding and award.
Every certificate, findable in one place, with a date on it.
Same question on every row, two answers.
Where the certificate lives
Who checked it, and when
The date it runs out
What a lapse does
The certificate it replaced
Answering an auditor
The left column is how a board does this today — email, a shared drive, and whoever remembers.
Three documents decide a bid.
Two are the same in every trade. The third is whatever that trade’s own work requires — a CPO card, an auto policy, a background check.
- General liability
Required in every trade before a company can bid. A 30-day renewal window, then bidding closes.
- Workers’ compensation
Required in every trade before a company can bid. A 30-day renewal window, then bidding closes.
- The credential the trade requires
A CPO card for pool, auto liability for landscaping and a background check for porter and amenity staffing. Auto liability carries the 30-day insurance window; a competency certificate carries none, because an expired one is not a certificate.
Also on file, and not a gate
- Business registration
Business registration is collected and verified too, and it sits on file rather than deciding a bid.
- W-9
A W-9 is collected and verified in the same review.
This is where an uninsured claim lands.
When something goes wrong on shared property, the deductible and the legal bill look for whoever was covered.
Bring the vendors you already use.
They enroll, an admin verifies and dates their certificate, and their own invoice arrives in the same view as the rest. Verification is in every plan, the free one included.
Looking to join the HOAcrew vendor network instead? Join for free.