Insurance premium audit support (workers' comp and general liability)

A workers' comp audit is built on payroll by class code, while a general liability audit can be built on sales, payroll or subcontract cost, so the records differ even though the method is the same: the carrier's auditor checks a primary record of the period against a tax document that verifies it.

Sources, all opened on 2026-10-19: Travelers workers' comp, Travelers payroll-based GL, Travelers sales-based GL, Penn National (policies based on total costs are primarily general liability where subcontractors are used), biBerk and Pinnacol. Travelers also says the way an audit is run depends on premium size, type of operation and state requirements, so your notice controls.

We handle the records and the paperwork around the audit; you, your agent and your counsel keep every decision about coverage, class codes and the dispute itself.

The diagram sends each kind of question to its owner: records to Finbryn, the class code and the final bill to your carrier, coverage to your agent, a rule dispute to the rating bureau or state agency once you have raised it with your carrier, and legal advice to your counsel.

We tie five sources to each other before the audit, because the auditor will compare them. Travelers' audit pages, checked 2026-10-19, describe the pattern: a primary source of payments for the policy period, verified against a tax document such as the Form 941.

1. The payroll register by check date for the policy period, with every employee, terminated staff included, and gross wages for each.
2. Form 941, line 2, for each quarter. The IRS instructions (revised 03/2026) say line 2 holds amounts that would also be in box 1 of your employees' Forms W-2, and the W-2 instructions say box 1 shows total taxable wages and leaves out elective deferrals such as traditional 401(k) contributions, while designated Roth contributions stay in. Register gross pay less pre-tax deductions, such as traditional 401(k) deferrals and pre-tax cafeteria plan deductions, should land on line 2.
3. State quarterly wage reports. If your state's report separates total wages from taxable wages, tie to total wages.
4. The general ledger wage accounts, including owner or officer pay that runs outside the register.
5. Subcontractor payments in the ledger against the 1099 list and the certificate log, with labor and materials split on each invoice.

Every difference gets a one-line explanation on a tie-out sheet: an off-cycle bonus, a deferral, a pay date that lands in the next quarter. Dates can move a little. Travelers says payroll may deviate from the policy period by 30 days, and where tax periods don't line up it wants the four most recent filed quarterly reports. The checklist guide walks through a worked example with numbers.

A free payroll-to-Form 941 tie-out sheet lays this out as a CSV: one row per quarter with the register, the Form 941 line 2 figure, the state wage report and the ledger side by side, and a column for the reason behind each difference. Its example rows are Illustrative, not client data.

The records are the same for every trade; what changes is which gap the auditor finds first.

In every trade, show overtime on its own line. Travelers says overtime can be excluded where separate records are kept, with a note that this does not apply in Delaware and Pennsylvania for workers' comp (checked 2026-10-19). Which class a worker's pay belongs in is for your carrier; what we do is keep the pay and the hours by trade so the answer is in the records.

Advising on insurance for a fee is regulated in some states, so we keep to the books and send coverage questions to the people whose job it is to answer them.

New York Insurance Law 2102(b), read on 2026-10-19, is the example we hold to. Unless a person holds an agent, broker or consultant license, it bars holding out as an insurance advisor, consultant or counselor, and bars taking a fee for examining, reviewing or evaluating an insurance policy or giving advice about one. It exempts attorneys and, on conditions, actuaries and CPAs. Other states have their own rules and we have not read them all, which is one more reason the line sits where it does. The statute text is public.

In practice: your agent or broker answers coverage questions, your carrier assigns classes, and your counsel answers legal ones. On representation, the NCCI dispute page says the policyholder may be represented by its agent and that either side may bring counsel at its own expense. What we bring is the packet of records any of them will want.

Start when the audit notice arrives, or a few months before the policy ends if you already know payroll or subcontractor use ran far from the estimate. Pinnacol says it audits each policy at the end of the policy period, and its field audits can usually be completed in two hours or less, so the work that matters happens before the visit.

The fee is quoted per engagement. We need the policy period, the audit notice, the kind of audit (in person, online, mail or virtual) and how your payroll is run, and we confirm scope and fee in writing before work starts. No price is published on this page.

What you get: a tie-out sheet, a certificate log, a packet organized in the order the notice asks for, and a short list of open items for you to settle with your agent or carrier.