Premium audit field work
Premium audit checks payroll, sales, and class codes so the carrier can true up premium. It is not a loss control survey, and LCA has not published the audit course yet.
Premium auditors visit businesses after a policy term, or at audit time, to check the numbers that drive premium. Workers compensation and general liability audits are the tags you will see on USA, including Premium Auditor - W/C & G/L.
The carrier already wrote the policy. The audit decides whether the premium matched the work the insured actually did. That is a different job from a loss control survey, which describes the building and the operation so underwriting can price or accept the risk in the first place.
Who hires
Inspection firms and audit firms post these roles on Underwriter Services Association . Some listings are full-time employee roles. Some are contractor. Read the position type.
Carriers and managing general agents buy the audit. The firm that hires you sends you the account, the policy period, and the records the insured should have ready. You are not the underwriter and you are not the insured’s bookkeeper. You test the numbers and the classes against the operation you walked.
Employee audit jobs can look like staff accounting fieldwork with a travel territory. Contractor audit jobs pay per completed audit, the same way contractor loss control pays per completed survey. This site does not publish fee tables. Read the listing.
What the visit is
You review payroll, 1099s, class codes, and operations with the insured or bookkeeper. You walk the operation enough to test whether the classes match the work. You write an audit the carrier can bill from. This is closer to accounting fieldwork than to a COPE survey.
Call before you drive. Ask who keeps the payroll and who can walk the floor. A bookkeeper who never leaves the office cannot tell you what the shop does. A shop manager who never sees a payroll register cannot tell you how people were classed.
On site, start with the records the order named. Payroll journals, tax filings, 1099s, and certificates of insurance for contractors are the usual pile. Then walk the operation. If the policy classes people as clerical and you find them on a shop floor, write that. If the sales number on the worksheet does not match the work you saw, write that.
You are looking for the work, the people who did it, and the money that should have been used to price the policy. You are not looking for a hydrant distance or a roof age, unless the order also asked for a loss control survey. Keep the products straight.
Some audits happen at the insured’s office. Some happen at a CPA’s office with a later walk of the location. Follow the firm’s instructions. If records are missing, document what you asked for and what you received.
What gets reported
The audit worksheet is the product. Classes, payroll or sales by class, officers or owners, subcontractors, and the operations you confirmed all have to be supportable. The carrier bills from that file.
Notes have to explain the calls you made. If you moved payroll from one class to another, say why. If you accepted a certificate of insurance for a contractor, say so. If you could not see a location, say so.
This is not a loss control narrative. Do not fill the audit with COPE language and call it done. If the firm sent two orders, write two reports.
Pay and schedule
Employee premium audit roles often have a territory and a due-date queue after policy expiration. Contractor roles fill the same queue one account at a time. Busy seasons follow the book of business, not a school calendar. Year-end and post-expiration months can be heavy. Mid-term can be quiet.
You still drive. You still sit with records. You still write. A clean driving record and a willingness to travel show up on many of these listings. Some are W-2. Some are 1099. The card will say.
How to get ready
Loss Control Academy has not published a premium audit course yet. The programs page is the place to watch. Commercial Risk Control still helps you read an operation. It does not teach audit worksheets.
If you already write commercial surveys, you have a head start on walking a business and talking to a manager. You still have to learn payroll, class codes, and the audit form the firm uses. Ask the hiring firm what they train and what they expect you to already know.
The day is records first, then the floor. A loss control inspector can leave with photos and a conversation. An auditor cannot leave without the numbers that support a bill. If the insured has no payroll register, you document the gap. If the classes on the worksheet do not match the people you saw, you write the difference and you keep the support.
That is why firms treat this as its own product. The talent pool still helps when a firm needs coverage in a territory. The application still happens on the USA listing. The course to watch is still the LCA programs page, because the audit course is not there yet.
See premium audit openings when that occupation has live jobs. When you can finish the work the firm buys, join the inspector talent pool . Firms review that pool for field coverage, including audit territories.
If you are comparing products, start with What a field inspector does on a survey and Commercial loss control surveys . Those pages describe the physical-risk visit. This page is the numbers visit.