Frequently asked questions

CertVault is the back office for contractors who don't have one. It collects, tracks, and renews your subcontractors' certificates of insurance, tax forms, and lien waivers automatically. It also captures receipts, tracks expenses by job, and builds your year-end package for your accountant.

You get 14 days free with full access to your selected plan. No credit card required to start. Cancel anytime.

No. If you can send an email and take a photo with your phone, you can use CertVault.

No. They receive a link by email and upload directly. No login, no password, no app download required.

CertVault sends automatic reminders on your behalf and flags the sub as non-compliant on your dashboard. You can resend the link anytime with one click.

PDF is recommended. JPG and PNG are also accepted. CertVault's AI reads the document regardless of format.

Starter: certificates of insurance (ACORD forms) and W-9s. Pro adds receipts, expenses, lien waivers, and 1099 prep. Complete adds the accountant portal and one-click year-end export.

When a sub uploads a document or you snap a receipt, CertVault reads it automatically and extracts the key fields — expiration date, coverage amounts, legal name, EIN, vendor, amount, line items. You never have to read fine print again.

CertVault sends automatic reminders to your sub before expiration and alerts you on your dashboard. The sub's status turns red if they don't renew.

Open CertVault on your phone and tap "Add Expense." Your camera opens instantly. Take a photo of the receipt and CertVault reads the vendor, amount, date, and category automatically. Tap the job it belongs to and you're done in 15 seconds.

They're stored securely and organized by job, category, and month. You can view, search, and filter every expense from your dashboard at any time.

Yes. When you add an expense, CertVault's AI suggests whether it's a business or personal purchase. You can override it with one tap. At year end, your business expenses are separated and ready for your accountant.

CertVault will still attempt to read it and show you what it extracted. If confidence is low, it flags the fields it wasn't sure about so you can correct them manually.

CertVault organizes your documents, receipts, and expenses. It's not accounting software — it doesn't process payroll or reconcile bank accounts. Think of it as the organized input your accountant receives, not the accounting itself.

A job is a project or contract you're working on. You create jobs manually — just a name and client. Once created, you can tag expenses, assign subs, and track lien waivers against that specific job.

Every expense you tag to a job appears in the job's cost ledger in real time. At any point you can open a job and see the total spent, broken down by category.

Yes. When creating a job you can set an optional budget. CertVault shows you how much you've spent versus your budget and alerts you when you're running close.

A W-9 collects your sub's legal name, EIN or SSN, and entity type. You need it to file a 1099 for any sub you paid $600 or more in a calendar year. CertVault collects it for you automatically.

CertVault flags any sub whose total payments exceed $600 in the current year with a reminder badge. At year end you can export a complete 1099 prep report for your accountant — alongside your expense data and job cost summaries.

A lien waiver is a document your sub signs confirming they've been paid. It protects you from a sub claiming they were never paid and filing a lien against your property or client's property.

You create a job, assign subs to it, and request conditional waivers before payment and unconditional waivers after. CertVault tracks the status of every waiver for every sub on every job.

Your accountant receives read-only access to a portal showing all your documents organized by year, job, and subcontractor — including expense reports, job cost summaries, and 1099 prep data. They can download a complete year-end package with one click. They cannot edit, delete, or add anything.

From the Year-End section of your dashboard, enter your accountant's email and click Invite. They receive a link and set up their own read-only login. No CertVault subscription required for them.

No. CertVault organizes your documents, expenses, and job costs so your accountant spends less time chasing paperwork and more time on actual accounting. Most accountants love it.

Three plans, all with a 14-day free trial:

• Starter ($79/mo) — COI & W-9 collection, AI parsing, expiration alerts. The fix for the spreadsheet problem.
• Pro ($149/mo) — Everything in Starter, plus receipt capture, expense ledger, job costing, lien waivers, and 1099 prep. Your full back office.
• Complete ($249/mo) — Everything in Pro, plus an accountant portal, job cost reports, and one-click year-end export.

The national average for an administrative assistant is $20.63/hr (Indeed, March 2026). Starter costs $79/month — less than 4 hours of admin time. Yes.

Yes. If CertVault isn't the right fit within the first 14 days, contact us for a full refund. No questions asked.

Yes. Cancel from your account settings. Your access continues until the end of your billing period.

All documents and receipt images are encrypted in transit and at rest. We use Supabase for secure cloud storage with row-level security — your data is never accessible to other users.

Yes. You can download any document or receipt at any time. Complete includes a one-click full export of your complete document and expense history.

Yes. Contact us and we will delete your account and all associated data within 48 hours.