In This Edition
Clearing a COI for the file and clearing a sub for the work are two different jobs. This month is about the second one.
- Workforce shortages remain the top cause of project delays, and that puts your compliance gate under pressure
- The flawless COI whose policy excluded every project over 25 residential units
- How Manhattan Construction went from four reviewers to one across 3,000 certificates, now a podcast episode
- Paul on the Brazil Summit, plus clearer gap emails for your vendors and subs
Earlier this month, the Jones team wrapped up our annual global summit in Rio, with colleagues from all over the world.
Skilled crews are the hardest thing to find on a job. Your compliance gate can’t be what keeps them off site.
The 2026 AGC/NCCER Workforce Survey, released September 3, found that 42% of contractors had projects delayed by shortages of their own or their subcontractors’ workers, the most commonly cited source of delays in the survey. And 87% have open hourly craft positions.
When crews are this hard to find, every day a sub sits idle is a day you don’t get back. For teams that hold site access and payment on compliance, COI review becomes the gate between a sub being mobilized and a sub being paid. At Manhattan Construction, each correction used to take a week or two, from project team to sub to broker and back.
The answer isn’t a looser gate. It’s a faster one: a compliant sub should never be the one waiting on paperwork, and payment should follow compliance without anyone chasing. That’s the shift Manhattan made across 3,000 certificates.
of contractors had projects delayed by shortages of their own or their subcontractors’ workers (AGC/NCCER, September 2026)
unemployment rate for workers with recent construction experience in August, the lowest in 26 years of data (BLS, via AGC)
The COI was flawless. The policy excluded the whole job.
A policy review in the Jones system started with a flawless COI, every endorsement attached. The policy behind it excluded any project over 25 residential units.
For a multifamily project, that’s not a gap in the coverage. That’s the whole job. An exclusion this wide doesn’t trim a coverage line, it removes entire project types from the policy, and nothing on the ACORD 25 will ever hint at it.
- 01On residential and mixed-use projects, request the exclusion endorsements themselves, not just the schedule of forms
- 02Match what they exclude against your project type and unit count, not the sub’s trade
- 03Does your review clear the sub for the work, or clear the COI for the file?
That last question is the theme of our latest webinar: how Manhattan Construction turned COI review into the gate that actually clears a sub for work. The full recording, the checklist, and the audience Q&A are in the breakdown.
Customer Moment
“Adding the Jones workflow to our Procore system really improved our overall efficiency. Bulley & Andrews now has a streamlined process, when all insurance compliance-related tasks are initiated directly from within our Procore account.”
“I would absolutely recommend Jones to any real estate company. The ease of putting it into play, the ease of the dashboard, and the ease of use provide a path of success for us.”
From the Desk of the CEO
Pictured: Or Kadouri, VP R&D · Paul Szemerenyi, CEO · Pete Rawlinson, CMO · Jessica Lopes Lima, Sr. Director, Risk & Compliance · Bianca Spivak, Chief of Staff · Margaret Christie, Director, Customer Operations
At our Brazil Summit, we focused on two ideas: Evolve and Disrupt. How do we build on what already works at Jones Software while using AI, data and our collective expertise to create something even more valuable?
Our auditors bring the insurance knowledge and judgement required to navigate complex cases. Our data and automation specialists turn that knowledge into repeatable intelligence. Our developers build it into products and systems that can operate at scale.
Our Brazil team isn’t adjacent to the future of Jones. They are helping to create it. I leave Rio energised by the talent, ambition and ownership in this group.
From the Jones Team
The Compliance Engine Checklist
The six steps Jessica Allen walked through in our latest webinar, condensed into a one-page reference: what to build, why it matters, and how to get there. The Manhattan case study covers the numbers behind the story and what changed for payments.
Policy Review
The 25-unit exclusion in this month’s tip never showed up on the COI. Policy Review collects the full policies behind your certificates and flags the exclusions that matter for your projects. Our exclusions guide covers eight of them: what each one does, where it hides in the policy, and the real cases behind them.
Policy Review provides additional visibility into policy terms and exclusions. It does not determine or guarantee whether an insurer will provide coverage for a particular claim.
What’s New at Jones
Gaps Communication
We’re updating the emails that vendors, tenants, subcontractors, and trade partners receive when a policy or requirement is out of compliance. Instead of a single list of outstanding gaps, recipients now see their compliance status and expiration date, each gap categorized by requirement type or line of coverage, formatting consistent with your user view in Jones, and a “How to fix it?” link when additional guidance is available. Nothing changes in your requirements or workflows, and no action is needed on your side. The new emails started rolling out on August 31.
New to Jones?
Insurance compliance for the built world.
The Jones Podcast
The latest episode of Insurance Compliance at Scale | COIs, Risk & the Built World is live on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Amazon Music.
From COI Tracking to a Compliance Engine: The Manhattan Construction Story
Four people used to handle COI compliance at Manhattan Construction. Today it’s one person, an hour or two a day, across 3,000 certificates, eight regions, and about $2.5 billion in annual construction. Pete Rawlinson and Jessica Allen walk the full journey, from the manual days and the renewal floods to compliance that runs connected to payment.
Pete Rawlinson with Jessica Allen, CRIS (Manhattan Construction)
New episodes after every Jones webinar.
