Print shops insurance checklist: what a print shop should carry

The print shop insurance checklist

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Print shops usually carry business owner's policy, workers' compensation and equipment breakdown. Print shops run presses and cutters that take fingers, hold clients' files and mailing lists, reproduce whatever the customer brings in, and depend on equipment whose failure stops every job on the schedule. Your landlord and the lender ask for proof of each. The checklist below says what every item does, who requires it and how to check it on the policies you already have.

Reviewed by Michael LaBarbera, Licensed property & casualty agent, Provident Financial Group · Reviewed Oct 12, 2026 Updated Oct 14, 2026

Who asks a print shop for what

Who	What they usually want to see
Landlords & commercial leases	General liability with the landlord as additional insured, property coverage on tenant improvements and workers' compensation
Banks, lenders & SBA loans	Property or auto physical damage with the lender as loss payee, and liability proof at closing and every renewal
Enterprise clients & vendor onboarding	General liability, professional or cyber liability, workers' compensation and often an umbrella

Each of them wants a certificate, and most want it again at every renewal. A live certificate link from the wallet shows today's coverage to every holder and tells them when it changes.

How to check what you already have

Business owner's policy declarations. Liability limits on the first page, then the property section: building (if you own), business personal property, business income and the named extras such as spoilage, equipment breakdown or employee dishonesty. Confirm the property values are current.
Workers' compensation information page. Item 3.A must list every state you work in, item 4 must carry the right class codes, and the employers' liability limits should meet what contracts ask. Check that the estimated payroll is close to this year's.
Equipment breakdown. The limit, the covered equipment, spoilage and business income under breakdown, and the deductible.
Cyber declarations. The headline limit matters less than the sublimits: social engineering, funds-transfer fraud, ransomware and business interruption, plus the regulatory coverage and the panel of breach vendors.
Employment practices declarations. Limit and retention, third-party coverage for claims by customers, and whether wage-and-hour claims carry any defence sublimit.
Media liability form. Which perils are covered (copyright, trademark, defamation, privacy), whether prior content is covered from the retroactive date, and the exclusions for patent and contract disputes.
Property section. Limits for building, business personal property and tenant improvements against replacement cost, the coinsurance percentage, the deductible, and whether flood and earthquake are excluded (they usually are).
Business income. The limit or actual-loss-sustained wording, the waiting period, the period of restoration and whether extra expense is included.
Products–completed operations. The aggregate, any vendors endorsement naming buyers as additional insureds, and exclusions for specific products or markets.

What usually goes wrong for print shops

Press and cutter injuries, the workers' compensation claims of the trade.
Printing a customer's infringing artwork and being named alongside them.
Tenant improvements insured by nobody, because the lease says one thing and the policy another.
Property values set when the doors opened and never raised.
Products sold into applications the carrier excluded (aircraft, medical, children's goods) without telling the carrier.
Social engineering (wire fraud) sublimited to a small amount on a cyber policy with a large headline limit.

What underwriters will ask a print shop

Equipment values and age, staff and machine safety practice, client data held, and online ordering
Square footage, whether you own or lease, the building's age and sprinklers
Replacement cost of the equipment, fixtures and stock on site
Products made, materials, any components sold to others and export share
Machinery values, maintenance and any pressure vessels
Multi-factor authentication, backups and endpoint protection

Have the answers in the wallet before the renewal and the quote request fills itself in; CoverMatch sends one application to every eligible carrier and lines the quotes up against what you have.

Renewal timing

Workers' compensation is audited on actual payroll and liability on sales, so a busy year ends with a bill unless the estimates were kept honest; pay-as-you-go billing through your payroll company removes most of that. Renewal autopilot starts the comparison sixty days out, prefilled from the wallet.

Questions people actually ask

Can a print shop be sued for what a customer asked it to print?

Yes, as a party to the infringement or defamation, and general liability's advertising-injury coverage usually excludes it for printers. Media liability covers it; a customer warranty on the order form helps the defence.

Is a press breakdown covered?

Under equipment breakdown coverage, which property policies exclude as mechanical failure, with business income under breakdown for the lost production. Both are additions a print shop needs that a retail package omits.

Doesn't my landlord's insurance cover my print shop?

It covers the building. The lease almost always makes you responsible for your own improvements, equipment and stock, for injuries inside your space, and for naming the landlord as additional insured on your liability policy. Read the insurance clause; the contract checker in the wallet will pull it out for you.

What does a buyer mean by a vendors endorsement?

An endorsement on your products liability that makes the retailer or distributor an additional insured for claims from your product. Most large buyers require it in the vendor agreement; CoverMatch issues the live certificate showing it once the endorsement is on the policy.

Does cyber insurance cover a fraudulent wire transfer?

Only under a social-engineering or funds-transfer-fraud insuring agreement, and often at a sublimit well below the policy limit. Ask for the sublimit before you buy; it is the claim small businesses actually have.