Wellrun guide

How to keep track of licence and insurance expiry dates

Keep one list of every licence, registration and insurance policy the business holds, with whose name each one is in, its number and the expiry date read off the document itself. Then put each date where you already look, a calendar or a weekly email, and set the reminder for when the renewal takes work, not for the day it runs out.

By Wellrun. Last updated 15 October 2026.

A licence or a policy rarely lapses because nobody cared. It lapses because the date lived on one piece of paper, in one inbox or in one person's head, and that person was busy the month it mattered.

What goes on a licence and insurance list?

Every licence, registration and insurance policy the business relies on to trade goes on it, one line each, with the same six facts on every line. Those six are what let somebody other than you renew it, claim on it or send it when asked.

• What it is, in plain words: "contractor licence" or "public liability", not a reference code.
• Who issued it: the regulator, the council or the insurer.
• Whose name it is in: the business, or a person.
• The number on it, so a renewal or a claim can be started by somebody other than you.
• The expiry or renewal date, read off the document, not remembered.
• Where the current copy is, so it can be sent the day somebody asks for it.

For most trade and service businesses that means the trade or contractor licences, vehicle registrations, and the policies: public liability, workers compensation, vehicles and equipment, and professional indemnity where the work calls for it. Which licences your trade needs depends on the trade and the state, and the Australian Business Licence and Information Service is the place to check.

What is a certificate of currency?

A certificate of currency is the document an insurer issues as proof that you hold a current policy. It shows who is insured, the policy number and type, the start and end dates and the sum insured. Head contractors, landlords and councils often ask for one before work starts, and the end date printed on it is the date to record.

A certificate is a copy made on the day it was issued. Keep the one for the current period, and replace it at each renewal, because the old one still looks official after the cover it describes has ended.

Whose name is each licence and policy in?

Write it down on every line, because it decides who can renew it and who the renewal notice goes to. Some licences are held by a person rather than the business, and the business trades under them. If that person leaves, the reminder from the regulator leaves with them, and nobody else knows a date is coming.

The same goes for the email address on each account. A policy whose renewal notices go to a former office manager's inbox is a policy nobody is watching.

How far ahead should the reminder fall?

Set it for when the renewal takes work, not for the expiry date. Some renewals are a payment online. Others need a course, a medical, an inspection, a fresh quote from a broker or a document from somebody else, and those take weeks.

Lapsing is often more expensive than renewing. In Queensland, for example, the QBCC says a licence can be renewed for up to three months after it expires, and after that you have to apply for a new one, with extra fees along the way.

A pattern that works for most lines is three reminders: about ninety days out, when there is still time to shop around or book a course; thirty days out, when the paperwork should be moving; and a week out, to confirm it is done.

A spreadsheet, a calendar or software?

Any of them works if somebody looks at it. The difference is who sees the date and where the current copy is.

Whichever you choose, the test is the same: if you were away for a month, would the right person see the date in time, and could they find the current certificate without ringing you? There is more on keeping documents findable in how to organise business records so someone else can find them.