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Setting your requirements
A requirement set is the rule every arriving document is measured against. Here is what each part of it actually does, and the two places it behaves in a way the form does not show you.
What a requirement set is
One set is your default and applies to every subcontractor. It holds three kinds of thing: the coverage limits you require, the endorsements you need on the policy, and the documents you want beyond the certificate — a W-9, a contractor license, safety cards, or a document type you define yourself.
Everything a subcontractor sends is measured against that set from the moment you save it. There is no separate "apply" step, and no re-checking to trigger by hand. That also means changing a limit changes the status of every subcontractor it affects, which is usually what you want and is occasionally a surprise on a Friday.
Limits, and what a blank one means
Leave a limit blank and Sealinn does not check it. That is deliberate — a requirement you have not decided is not a requirement, and a default number invented by a vendor is exactly the sort of figure that ends up in a subcontract nobody can justify. Fill in the ones your prime contract and your own agent tell you to.
Be precise about which number you are setting. A general-liability per-occurrence limit and a general aggregate are different ceilings and a certificate prints both — three limit lines read as three different numbers is worth two minutes if that distinction is not already reflex. The aggregate in particular is shared across every job your sub works unless a per-project endorsement carves yours out.
A missing section blocks, just like a low number
Every limit you fill in is enforced the same way: a certificate below your minimum blocks, and so does one that shows no such coverage at all. Those raise different messages, because they are different facts — one is a limit that was read and came up short, the other is a limit that was never there to read. The full table of what blocks sets out every row.
Endorsements and the documents beyond the certificate
The endorsement toggles — additional insured, waiver of subrogation, primary and non-contributory — check what the certificate CLAIMS. The certificate has a tick box, and a tick box is a report about a form rather than the form. Sealinn fails these closed, so an absent or unreadable answer raises a flag instead of passing quietly, and the flag is your cue to ask the issuing agent for the endorsement page by form number.
The document toggles decide which types a subcontractor must have on file at all: W-9, license, safety certification. A safety card is the odd one — most print no expiry date, so Sealinn applies a validity window you set, defaulting to 5 years from the issue date. That window is your policy rather than a rule from anywhere else, and why that distinction matters is a conversation you will eventually have with a sub who knows their card does not expire.
You can also add a document type of your own — a bond, a mine-safety card, a client-specific form — and require it the same way, and write checks of your own in plain words that the reader evaluates on every arriving document. Custom documents and custom checks covers both, including the one thing about a new check that catches people out.
When a project override earns its keep
A second requirement set can sit over the top of your default for one project. The case for it is specific: an owner whose contract demands higher limits than you normally carry, or a job with an unusual endorsement requirement. Everything not overridden falls through to your default, so an override is a short list rather than a second full set.
The thing to know, because the form does not say it: an override applies to the subcontractors assigned to that project, including the ones assigned before you created it. What a project does with that set covers the other half — assigning crews, the fraction you hand upward, and why a sub can read compliant on your list and short on one job. Adding a stricter override to a running job will move some subs to non-compliant immediately. That is correct behavior and it is still worth doing on a morning rather than at five o'clock.
Reminders and escalation
Reminders are part of the same settings screen because they are the same decision: how early do you want to know. The default cadence is 90, 60, 30 and 7 days before expiry, and you can pick up to 6 points from 90, 60, 30, 14, 7, 3 or 1 days, or type your own.
Escalation is the other half. If a reminder goes out and nothing happens for 3 days, the next message goes to you rather than to the subcontractor — on the assumption that a sub who has ignored two automated emails needs a phone call from a person, and that person should be told. The window is yours to set.
One condition worth knowing, because it explains a silence: the countdown runs on documents that are approved and current. A certificate still sitting in your review queue is not on a clock, which is the right behavior — chasing a renewal for a document nobody has accepted yet would be chasing the wrong thing — but it does mean a full review queue is also a paused set of reminders.
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