Tracking vendor insurance coverage in QB online

I've got a workaround to share for you to track the dates of your vendor insurance policies, Sarah193. 

Tracking the expiration dates in QuickBooks Online (QBO) for vendor's insurance policies is currently unavailable. Alternatively, you can track it by manually entering the details in the Checks or Expense transaction. And then within the Category details, you'll have to select an expense account.

Here's how: 

1. Go to the +New option located on your upper left-hand. 
2. Under the Vendors column, choose Expense or Check.
3. Fill out the necessary fields such as the Payee, Payment account, Payment Date, and Payment Method. 
4. In the Category field located within the Category details, you'll have to choose an expense account. 
5. After doing this, enter the Amount field. Then press Save and Close. 

Furthermore, you may also want to learn more about how to create a purchase order if you're able to follow the steps above. 

If you have further questions regarding vendor insurance, please enter your concerns below for us to know. 

I was just upgraded to Quickbooks Online Advanced, and I was told the insurance expiration date problem with vendors was fixed.  I cannot find anything in the vendor record that makes me think it has been.  This is a HUGE problem for building contractors.  Failure to keep up with this information and keep it current can result in bankruptcy fast for a construction firm.  What are you guys doing?  I'm beginning to think I need to find some other software solution.

We have the same problem - it is a huge issue for builders. Here's the work-around we came up with:

1. We created an expense account called "COI"

2. We created a new non-inventory "Product & Service" called "COI" and linked it to the "COI" expense account

3. We need to track general liability and worker's comp, so for each vendor who we need to track insurance, we created two "Purchase Orders" - we used the "PO Number" field and labelled one "Gen Liab" and one "Workers Comp". We dated the PO the date of the vendor's policy expiration and linked it to the "COI" Product & Service item and gave it a zero $ value. 

It's not perfect and certainly not as easy as in desktop, but at least now we can run a report for "Open Purchase Order Details" and see when our vendor's policies are expiring - when we get a new COI, we update the PO date to the new expiration date.

Also, we don't use "Terms" for most of our vendors, so we created a "Term" called "On-Site" to use to designate which vendors we need to track insurance (for us, our insurance company requires that we have a COI for any vendors who are on our job sites). In desktop, we were able to use the "Vendor Type" field, but as you know, QBO is terrible for builders and took away so much functionality that was available in desktop.

I hope this helps and please let me know if you need clarification of any steps. I hope you find this helpful too.

Sarah,

Thanks so much, but it seems that I can just keep it on a separate excel spreadsheet just as easily.  I was told that reminders existed in the advanced version, but I haven't found them yet.

I'm thinking of dropping back a level or two and connecting ConstructionOnline to the quickbooks file.  I'm investigating that now.  They do keep up with insurance expiration dates and also offer some other features that are good in the construction industry.

Dennis Tharrington

Innovative Green Builders, Inc.

Hi there, @DennistheBuilder.

Know that the reminder option is active and ready to use even for new users or those who recently upgraded to the QuickBooks Online (QBO) Advanced version. If you wish to send or set reminders for vendors inside the program, you'll want to create a workflow to tell QuickBooks when to send reminders and to whom. We'll gladly write down the steps to get you going:

1. Select the Workflows menu or click the Gear icon and then choose Manage Workflows.
2. Click the Templates tab.
3. Find the template you want to use and select Create. Give the workflow a name or use the default name.
4. In the Conditions section, select the conditions. This determines what activates reminders. Note: You can set multiple conditions for some workflows. To add more, select Add Condition. All conditions need to be met to start the workflow.
5. In the Actions section, select the actions QuickBooks will take when the conditions are met. This determines what happens after the template activates.
6. Select the Send email checkbox to send the reminders as emails. On some workflows, you can also select the Send Mobile Notification checkbox to send a push notification to a user through the QuickBooks Online Mobile App.
7. Edit the message in the Subject and Message body sections as needed.
8. The highlighted fields are variables. The variables populate the reminder message with your company or the customer info. To change the variable, enter #, then select the variable you want to use like vendor, name, due date, or amount. A reminder, erasing or overwriting the highlighted fields will affect all reminders.
9. When you're done, select Save and Enable to turn on your workflow.

For further guidelines, please see this page: Use workflows in QuickBooks Online Advanced to send reminders.

On the other hand, here are some articles to help you keep track of everything you entered inside your company file:

• Run reports in QuickBooks Online.
• Customize reports in QuickBooks Online.

Feel free to visit us so we can provide the details you need to address your queries in case you need assistance managing reminders or handling specific tasks inside QuickBooks. Keep safe!

Kurt!   

I will give this a try.  None of the other folks at Quickbooks have mentioned this.  It doesn't seem as "clean" a solution as the desktop program, but I was using Reminders in Quickbooks desktop before they created the "worker's comp" and "general liability" insurance expiration fields in the desktop program.

Thanks,

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