How to Survive a Worker’s Comp Audit

If you have employees, you have the distinct honor once per year of being part of a worker’s compensation audit.  You likely receive a form in the mail, an email request, or a phone call that will ask you about your payroll numbers and employees for the prior year. 

Worker’s compensation is an insurance program that covers employees in the case they get hurt on the job.  Each employee receives a classification code that describes the type of work they do, and a rate is figured based on the classification and its risk factors.  

If you’ve hired anyone throughout the year, you might need to get a new classification by contacting your provider. If you have employees working in different locations (especially different states), that matters too.

The audit form will typically ask for gross payroll numbers by employee or by category or location of employee. That’s easy enough, but seldom does the policy run along your fiscal year, so the payroll figure needs to be prorated to match the policy period. 

Your numbers need to tie back to the numbers reported on your quarterly payroll reports for both state and federal. The provider may also want copies of your 941s and your state payroll reports. 

Once you’ve submitted your numbers, the insurance provider will calculate whether they owe you or you owe them additional fees. 

The worker’s compensation audit happens every year (even if you pay worker’s comp premiums each pay period, some companies still request an annual audit).  It’s not difficult, but it is time-consuming. If this is something you’d like our help with, please feel free to reach out.