Our “new normal” has caused many businesses to experience unprecedented loss. Those losses may be covered by Business Interruption insurance.
As with all insurance claims, documentation is a vital part of receiving coverage. Here are a few examples of records you should be keeping:
- Timeline of facility closure, supply chain failures, presence of COVID-19, etc.
- Copies of all government orders and closure notices that effect your business
- Correspondence to and from customers and suppliers in regard to closure
- Documentation of any new policies related to the pandemic
- Group cancellations and nearby event cancellations
Along with COVID specific documentation it’s also imperative to compile financial information including:
- All pre-pandemic business forecasts for February, March and April 2020
- This should include both revenue and expense predictions
- Monthly profit and loss statements
- Providing these statements from previous years could provide useful comparison
- Revenue earned in mitigation of your losses
- Additional expenses incurred in connection to COVID-19
- Examples could include the cost of increased sanitation practices or purchasing new equipment to allow your employees to work from home
It could be extremely helpful to create a new accounting code to document all pandemic related costs.
This accounting code can help track:
- Cancelled contracts, orders, and reservations
- Expenses needed to reduce loss
- Discounts or price decreases
- Expediting costs
In order to receive as much coverage as possible for your losses it’s important to be sure that all of your business units including other locations or divisions are also keeping the proper documentation.
Remember, there’s no penalty for filing a claim and consultations with our personal injury attorneys are always free.
