Surety Submission Checklist
This is the package an underwriter needs to open a bond line, and — with a lighter financial section — the package you resend every year at renewal.
Work it top to bottom and send it as one complete submission. A package that arrives in pieces over three weeks reads as disorganized, and the underwriter forms an impression before reaching the numbers.
Print this page. Tick items as you collect them, not as you request them.
Allow two to six weeks for underwriting on a first-time account of any size, and start assembling three months before you need the line. See getting bonded for the first time.
Financial
The heaviest section, and the one that sets your limits.
- CPA financial statements, 5 years — reviewed or audited, percentage-of-completion basis; a compilation or tax return caps your line, sometimes severely
- Most recent interim financial statements — month or quarter end, internally prepared is fine, but they must reconcile to the last year end
- Prior-year interim at the same month — so the underwriter can compare like for like rather than interim against year end
- Aged accounts receivable — current / 30 / 60 / 90+, with anything in dispute flagged and explained; 90+ balances are getting discounted anyway, so get ahead of the question
- Aged accounts payable — same buckets; payables aging faster than receivables is the first thing an underwriter notices
- Bank line letter — on bank letterhead, stating the line amount, rate, expiration and current usage; an undrawn line is worth far more as a signal than a fully drawn one
- Schedule of long-term debt — lender, original amount, balance, rate, maturity, monthly payment, collateral
- Signed subordination agreements for owner loans — on the surety's own form; a verbal understanding that you will not call the loan counts for nothing, and formally subordinated debt is added back to analyzed net worth
- Business tax returns, 3 years — not always requested up front, always eventually
- Schedule of related-party balances — due from and due to officers, owners and affiliates, with an explanation for each; these are usually disallowed in full, so clearing them before year end is worth more than a profitable quarter
- Equipment schedule — description, year, cost, book value, encumbrances
- Explanation memo for any unusual item — a loss year, a change of CPA, a large year-end equipment purchase, a distribution above net income
Item one says reviewed or audited. If you are planning bonded work in the next two years, upgrading your CPA engagement level is the highest-return move on this page — and the slowest, because sureties want to see multiple consecutive years on the same basis.
Run your own numbers before an underwriter does, using the surety readiness scorecard and how sureties read your financials.
Work in progress
The documents a surety trusts most, and the ones most likely to be sloppy.
- Work-in-progress schedule — every open job: contract amount, approved change orders, cost to date, estimated cost to complete, billings to date, over- and underbillings, gross profit; totals must tie to the financial statements
- WIP as of the interim date as well as year end — one WIP is a snapshot, two is a trend
- Completed jobs schedule, last 12 to 24 months — bid gross profit against final gross profit, job by job; this is where fade shows up
- Backlog summary stated as cost to complete — not remaining contract value and not total contract value; the wrong definition makes your ratios look better than they are
- Explanation for any job in a loss position — a foreseeable loss must be recognized in full immediately; showing it and explaining it is far better than having it found
- Explanation for large or growing underbillings — timing is fine, unapproved change orders are not; see WIP reporting
- Notes on any job with no cost activity for several months — stalled jobs left open on the WIP raise questions about the whole schedule
- Concentration note — if one job is more than about 30% of backlog, or one customer is more than about 25% of receivables, address it before you are asked
Ask your producer how your surety treats underbillings from unapproved change orders. The haircut ranges widely, and it can be the difference between two capacity numbers.
Company and organization
- Signed contractor questionnaire — the surety's or your producer's form; ownership, history, trades self-performed, largest jobs completed, geography, union status — start from the contractor questionnaire template
- Surety account profile / company narrative — two pages on who you are and where you are going, using the account profile generator
- Organization chart — who does what, and who backs each of them up
- Resumes for owners and key project people — years in the trade, largest job run, not a job history in bullet form
- Corporate documents — articles, operating agreement or bylaws, ownership percentages, and the same for every affiliated entity
- List of affiliated and related companies — including any that will be asked to sign the indemnity agreement
- Continuity plan — written; what happens to the company if an owner dies or is disabled
- Buy-sell agreement, and evidence it is funded — usually with life insurance; an unfunded buy-sell is a plan without a mechanism
- Key-person life insurance — naming the company as beneficiary
- Largest completed jobs list — five to ten, with owner, size, type and completion date; capacity is judged on what you have actually built
References
Sureties call these. Warn the people on the list first.
- Architects and engineers — 3 — from jobs finished in the last two years, with a live phone number and the right contact name
- Suppliers — 5 — your largest by volume, including the ones you have ever been late with; they will be asked about payment history
- Subcontractors — 5 — if you are a general contractor; for a subcontractor, list the GCs you work for most
- Banker — name, direct line, and how long the relationship has run
- CPA — name, firm, engagement level, and how long they have prepared your statements
- Current or prior surety and producer, if any — including why you are moving; a gap or a change gets asked about either way
A supplier reference who says "they pay eventually" does more damage than a weak ratio. Clear up any live disputes before the list goes in, or disclose them yourself with the explanation attached.
Insurance and licensing
- Certificates of insurance — general liability, auto, workers' compensation, umbrella, with limits legible and dates current
- Experience modification rate (EMR) — current year and the two prior; a rising EMR is read as a management signal, not just a safety one
- OSHA 300 logs — increasingly requested, particularly on public work
- Contractor licenses — every state and municipality where you hold one, with expiration dates
- Existing license and permit bonds — surety, penal sum, expiration
- Safety program documentation — written program, who runs it, and how often crews are trained
Personal — every indemnitor
Every owner and each owner's spouse. This section is why the package needs to be sent securely.
- Personal financial statement for every owner and spouse — signed and dated within 90 days of the company statements; "concurrent" means concurrent, not a statement from three years ago
- Supporting detail on personal real estate — address, market value, mortgage balance, lender
- Personal tax returns, 3 years — frequently requested at the point of a larger line
- Authorization to run personal credit — signed; underwriters run credit on the owners, and a surprise on it is a character issue rather than a numbers issue
- Disclosure of judgments, liens, bankruptcies, or tax problems — yours and the company's; a tax lien you disclose is a condition, a tax lien they discover is a character issue
- Schedule of personal contingent liabilities — guarantees on other entities' debt, and any other indemnity agreements you have signed
Privacy note. Personal financial statements and the contractor questionnaire contain Social Security numbers and dates of birth for you and your spouse. Transmit them through your producer's secure portal or an encrypted file transfer. Never send them as a plain email attachment, and do not leave copies sitting in a shared drive that the whole office can open.
Final step — the General Indemnity Agreement
The GIA comes last, after the surety has reviewed everything and agreed to take the account. If it turns up first, ask why.
- Read the GIA in full — and have your attorney read it; it is the document that makes surety credit rather than insurance
- Confirm who is being asked to sign — operating company, affiliates, each owner individually, each spouse, sometimes trusts
- Understand the joint and several language — the surety can collect the whole amount from whichever indemnitor has money and leave that person to sort it out with the others
- Understand the collateral-on-demand clause — what triggers it and how quickly
- Understand the takeover and books-and-records rights — what the surety can do with your contracts and your accounting system
- Sign, witness and notarize as the form requires — spouse signatures included
- Keep a signed copy where you can find it — you will want it years later, and release requires the surety's written agreement
Full detail before you sign: the General Indemnity Agreement.
Before you send
The QA pass. Ten minutes here saves a week of underwriter questions.
- Send the whole package at once, in one transmission, with a covering index
- Numbers are consistent across documents — WIP totals tie to the balance sheet, AR aging ties to the receivables line, backlog ties to the WIP
- Interims reconcile to the last year end — if they do not, say why on the face of the memo
- Every unusual item has an explanation attached — do not make the underwriter discover it and ask
- Dates are current — personal statements within 90 days, certificates unexpired, bank letter recent
- Files are named so a stranger can identify them — "2025 Reviewed FS.pdf", not "scan0043.pdf"
- Everything that needs a signature has one
- Sensitive documents are going through a secure channel
- One named person owns the response — questions will come, and speed of answer is itself underwriting information
What good looks like, and what slows it down
| Item | What good looks like | What slows it down |
|---|---|---|
| Financial statements | CPA reviewed or audited, percentage of completion, five consecutive years on the same basis | Compilation, tax-basis, completed-contract, or a change of CPA in a weak year |
| Delivery of year end | Within 90 to 120 days of year end | Statements arriving six months late with no explanation |
| Interims | Current within 60 days, reconciling to year end, with a matching prior-year period | Interims that do not tie out and nobody mentions it |
| WIP schedule | Ties to the statements, cost-to-complete estimates that move each period, losses recognized | Stale estimates, open jobs with no activity, totals that disagree with the balance sheet |
| Gross profit fade | Within about 2% across the portfolio, with a fade report you produced yourself | Consistent fade above 5%, or consistent gains, which is the same reliability problem in reverse |
| Related-party balances | None at year end, or one, explained | Officer receivables that reappear every year end |
| Bank line | Letter on letterhead, line largely undrawn | No letter, or a fully drawn line |
| References | Warned in advance, current contacts, no live disputes | Wrong numbers, dead contacts, a supplier with an open complaint |
| Personal statements | Signed, dated within 90 days, real estate detailed | Undated, unsigned, or three years old |
| Disclosure | Problems disclosed by you, with a plan | Problems found by the underwriter |
| Transmission | One complete package, indexed, sent securely | Trickled in over three weeks by three different people |
Using this at renewal
Renewal is the same checklist with a shorter financial section and one addition: what changed.
- Current year-end CPA statements, within 90 to 120 days of year end
- Current WIP, completed jobs schedule and backlog
- Updated AR and AP aging
- Refreshed personal financial statements
- Updated bank line letter
- Updated certificates, licenses and EMR
- A short written summary of what changed this year and what the plan is for next year
- A request, in writing, for the limits you actually want
Then hold the meeting in person. See the annual surety review and the annual surety meeting package.
An underwriter who has heard your plan and then watches you execute it will extend capacity ahead of the numbers. An underwriter who only ever sees statements will always be a year behind.
Not legal or financial advice. Document requirements vary by surety, by program size and by state, and every surety maintains its own credit manual. Work the specifics with your CPA, your surety bond producer and your attorney.
Next: run the surety readiness scorecard before you send, then use the bond issuance checklist for each individual bond once your line is open.