For GCs & remodelers who use subcontractors
Before your insurance company sends you a bill for your subcontractors…
Find the paperwork holes and workers’ comp audit surprises worth checking before the auditor does.
Free. 15 minutes. No obligation. No insurance homework required.
Especially useful if you use 1099 subcontractors, collect certificates of insurance, or have a workers’ comp audit or renewal coming up.
You probably don’t want to think about workers’ comp insurance today.
Fair enough.
You’ve got jobs to finish.
Customers calling.
Subs who were supposed to be there at 7:00.
Change orders. Permits. Payroll.
And roughly 47 other things more interesting than an insurance audit.
So most contractors do the normal thing:
They buy the insurance.
They send certificates when somebody asks.
They pay the bill.
And they go back to running the company.
Which works fine…
Until somebody starts asking questions about the subcontractors you paid eight months ago.
A contractor we’ll call Mike
Here’s where it gets annoying fast.
Mike runs a good remodeling company. A few employees, and a revolving cast of electricians, plumbers, painters, and drywall guys depending on the project.
He’s not careless.
Mike thinks everything is handled
- He asks every sub for an insurance certificate.
- His bookkeeper keeps the 1099s.
- The subs invoice him and he pays them.
- His policy renews every year like clockwork.
Then the audit request arrives
Annual premium audit — records request
from: premium.audit@your-carrier · to: you
“Please provide payroll records, subcontractor payments, and certificates of insurance covering all subcontractors used during the policy period.”
Now the questions start
- One certificate expired halfway through the job.
- Another one was never saved anywhere.
- One sub had general liability — workers’ comp, nobody is sure.
- An invoice covers labor and materials with no breakdown.
This is the part everybody forgets until February.
And a boring administrative chore has quietly turned into:
“Wait… does this mean I’m paying workers’ comp premium on that?”
That’s the part contractors hate.
Not paying for insurance. Paying for something you thought was already handled.
Mike is an illustrative example, not a customer testimonial. Actual audit treatment depends on the policy, carrier, state, subcontractor relationship, documentation, and other facts.
Audit problem #1
The worst time to find a paperwork problem is when the auditor finds it first.
A certificate expires.
A new sub starts Monday.
A document never gets saved.
A sub quietly changes coverage.
Nobody sounds an alarm.
The job still gets finished.
Then months pass.
That’s exactly why these are easy to ignore. The consequences show up later — at audit, at renewal, or the day your agent needs records you haven’t opened since last summer.
And now you’re reconstructing what happened after the fact.
How it actually happens
Eight months is a long time to remember one piece of paper.
July
A sub works the job, invoices you, gets paid. The job closes out.
Aug · Sep · Oct · Nov · Dec · Jan — nothing happens. Nobody mentions it.
February
“Do you have his workers’ comp certificate from July?”
July
A sub works the job, invoices you, gets paid. The job closes out.
eight months of nothing
February
“Do you have his workers’ comp certificate from July?”
That’s when an easy paperwork problem becomes an annoying insurance problem.
Easy to fix today. Painful to reconstruct nine months later.
Worth answering before audit time
Six questions that decide how your next audit goes.
Certificates of insurance
Are they current for the dates the sub was actually on the job?
Sub payments
Which payments could raise questions during an audit?
Workers’ comp
Is each sub’s workers’ comp status actually documented?
Labor vs. materials
Can you show the breakdown on an invoice if somebody asks?
Class codes
Are people classified according to the work they actually perform?
Audit readiness
If an auditor asked for everything tomorrow, could you produce it?
Most of these take five minutes to check today. All of them take longer in February.
You don’t need to become an insurance expert. You just want to know where the landmines might be.
This isn’t a 60-minute insurance presentation.
Nobody sits you through a slideshow about “risk management solutions,” and you don’t need to memorize your policy first.
“Is there anything in the way I’m handling subs, payroll, certificates, or workers’ comp paperwork that I should look into before it comes back to bite me?”
The free 15-minute
Audit Ambush Review
In about fifteen minutes, we’ll help you identify:
Where an audit could get messy
The subcontractor, certificate, payroll, or classification issues that look worth a closer look.
What to clean up now
Paperwork and process gaps that are easier to fix today than six months from now.
What to ask before renewal or audit
So you’re not walking into that conversation blind.
Free • About 15 minutes • No obligation
Maybe everything is clean. Great — then you get 15 minutes of reassurance and go back to running your company.
And if something looks questionable, you’ll know where to look before somebody else starts asking about it.
Worth 15 minutes if…
- You’re a GC, remodeler, home improvement contractor, or specialty contractor.
- You use 1099 subcontractors or independent crews.
- Your roster of subs changes throughout the year.
- Collecting COIs is more “email folder and memory” than a perfect system.
- You’ve wondered why a workers’ comp audit asked about people who aren’t your employees.
- You have an audit or a renewal coming up.
- You’d rather find a problem now than argue about it later.
Probably not for you if…
- You don’t use subcontractors.
- Your documentation is already meticulous and reviewed regularly.
- You’re looking for a guaranteed way to eliminate workers’ comp premium.
- You want a promise about how an insurer or auditor will treat a specific subcontractor.
Nobody can honestly make that last promise without looking at the facts first.
You don’t need to “get excited about insurance.”
Frankly, that would be weird.
You want the certificate when somebody asks for it.
You want the policy to respond when something goes wrong.
You don’t want surprise bills.
And you don’t want to spend half a day arguing about a subcontractor you paid nine months ago.
That’s the standard. Insurance should be handled correctly… and then get out of your way.
Bonus
Book the review and we’ll send you the Audit Defense Kit too.
A free account with a sub COI tracker, a renewal calendar, a class code cheat sheet, and an audit day prep checklist — so your subcontractor paperwork is organized before the next request lands in your inbox.
Common Questions
Questions people ask first.
Is this really free?
Yes. The Audit Ambush Review is free and takes about 15 minutes. No credit card, nothing to cancel, no obligation afterward.
Are you going to try to sell me insurance?
Collateral isn’t an insurance company or agency — we connect contractors with licensed independent agents, and the review is a call with one of them. If something turns up that an agent can help with, they can explain your options. But the purpose of the fifteen minutes is to help you find the questions, documentation gaps, and areas worth investigating. There is no obligation to buy anything.
Can you tell me exactly what my audit will cost?
No. Audit outcomes depend on your policy, carrier, state, payroll, subcontractor relationships, documentation, classifications, and other facts. The goal is to spot potential trouble spots while they’re still easy to address.
What should I have ready?
You don’t need to assemble a packet of documents. Basic information about your company, your employees, your subs, and your current insurance is enough to start. If a particular document would be useful afterward, we’ll tell you which one.
What if my audit already happened?
You can still book a review — plenty of contractors call after the bill shows up, either to understand the adjustment or to keep the same thing from happening next year. Nobody can overturn a completed audit on a phone call, and we won’t pretend otherwise.
How long is the call, really?
Fifteen minutes. It’s on the phone, at a time you pick, with a licensed agent who works construction accounts. If you want to keep going past fifteen minutes, that’s your call, not ours.
15 minutes now beats digging through nine months of old emails later.
If you use subcontractors and you’re not 100% sure your workers’ comp paperwork is as clean as you think it is, let’s take a quick look.
Worst case?We don’t find much to worry about.
Best case?You catch something while it’s still easy to fix.
Nobody calls you unless you pick a time right here.
Pick a time. That’s the whole process.
A licensed agent who works construction accounts calls the number you give us. Fifteen minutes, and then it ends.
Information provided during the Audit Ambush Review is general in nature and is not a guarantee of insurance coverage, premium, audit outcome, classification treatment, or savings. Actual treatment varies based on policy terms, carrier rules, applicable law, documentation, and individual circumstances.