The paperwork each person owes you, what expires, and what's still missing — tracked per person rather than in a folder nobody opens.
What Employees Owe
Two are legally required: the I-9 employment verification and the W-4 tax withholding form. Everything else is yours to require or not — direct deposit authorisation, OSHA certifications, trade licences, drug tests, safety orientation, equipment certifications, a driver's licence, a union card.
Two employer duties are tracked here too, because they're yours rather than the worker's: reporting the hire to the state within the statutory window, and the state withholding certificate in states that use their own form.
- Required: I-9 and W-4.
- Optional: direct deposit, OSHA 10 and 30, trade licence, drug test, safety orientation, equipment cert, driver's licence, union card.
- Employer duties: state new-hire report and the state withholding form.
- The state new-hire report and withholding form follow the worker's state.
What Contractors Owe
A W-9 and general liability insurance are the two that matter most — the W-9 because it decides whether you file a 1099, and the GL certificate because without it their accident becomes your problem.
Beyond those: workers' comp insurance or a valid exemption, auto insurance, their contractor licence, and a surety bond where the work calls for one.
- Required: W-9 and general liability insurance.
- Also tracked: workers' comp or exemption, auto insurance, contractor licence, surety bond.
- Insurance items carry policy numbers and coverage amounts.
Pro tip: Never let a sub start without a current GL certificate on file. It's the single cheapest piece of protection in your business, and the day you need it is the day you can't get it.
Expiry
Certificates and licences expire, and an expired certificate is worth exactly as much as no certificate. Items that have an expiry date carry one and are tracked, so a lapse surfaces before it becomes a problem on site.
OSHA cards, trade licences, equipment certifications, driver's licences, and every insurance policy fall into this group.
- Expiring items: OSHA 10 and 30, trade licence, equipment cert, driver's licence.
- All insurance policies carry expiry.
- An expired certificate reads as missing, not as done.