The Surety Document Calendar
Every document in a surety relationship has an expiration date, and nothing in the system reminds you. The surety does not call. Your producer might. Mostly it is on you.
Contractors lose capacity — sometimes overnight — because a letter of authority quietly expired, or a license bond renewal notice went to an old address, or year-end statements slipped past the deadline in the credit agreement.
This is the calendar that prevents that. Set it up once. It takes an hour.
Who owns it: one named person in the office. Not "the team."
What expires
| Document | Typical life | What happens if it lapses |
|---|---|---|
| Letter of authority | 12 months, usually tied to the financial statement cycle | Your producer loses the ability to issue bonds without calling the underwriter. Turnaround goes from hours to days. |
| Year-end CPA financial statements | Due 90–120 days after year end | Late statements are read as a warning sign. Repeated lateness caps your line. |
| Interim financial statements | Monthly or quarterly | Underwriters lose visibility. A big gap invites conservative assumptions. |
| Personal financial statements | Annual, "concurrent" with company statements | Cannot complete a capacity increase without them. |
| Bank line of credit | Annual renewal | Loss of a line the surety was counting on is a material change they must hear about from you. |
| Contractor's license | Varies by state, commonly 2 years | Cannot legally bid or contract. In some states, cannot collect on completed work. |
| License bond | Annual | License suspended. Everything stops. |
| Insurance certificates (GL, auto, WC, umbrella) | Annual | Owners stop paying; sureties notice. |
| ERISA / fidelity bond | Annual, amount recalculated each plan year | Reportable compliance failure on Form 5500. |
| Individual bonds | Until the job is complete and closed out | Aggregate capacity stays consumed for work you finished a year ago. |
| Power of attorney limits | Set by the surety | Your producer cannot execute above the limit on the POA. |
The calendar
Build this in whatever your office already uses — Outlook, Google Calendar, your project management system, a shared spreadsheet. The tool matters far less than the fact that somebody gets a reminder.
Fixed annual dates
| Timing | Task | Reminder lead |
|---|---|---|
| Year end + 15 days | Kick off the CPA engagement. Confirm scope and delivery date in writing. | 30 days |
| Year end + 45 days | Internal draft financials complete; run the readiness scorecard before the CPA finalizes | — |
| Year end + 90 days | Deliver year-end statements to the surety. Target date. | 30, 14, 7 days |
| Year end + 90 days | Update personal financial statements for every indemnitor | 45 days |
| Year end + 120 days | Hold the annual surety review | 60, 30 days |
| Letter of authority expiration − 60 days | Start the renewal conversation | 90, 60, 30 days |
| Bank line maturity − 90 days | Start the renewal conversation | 120, 90, 60 days |
| License renewal − 90 days | Confirm renewal and license bond | 120, 90, 60, 30 days |
| License bond renewal − 45 days | Confirm the carrier has the right address and the payment will clear | 60, 45, 30 days |
| Plan year start | Recalculate the ERISA bond amount at 10% of plan assets | 30 days |
Recurring
| Frequency | Task |
|---|---|
| Monthly | Update the WIP schedule. Update cost to complete on every bonded job. Update the bond register. |
| Monthly | Compare aggregate consumption against the aggregate limit. Flag if above 80%. |
| Quarterly | Send interim financials and the WIP to the surety, unasked. |
| Quarterly | Review bonds on jobs past their projected completion date and chase closeouts. |
| Quarterly | Reconcile premium billed against the surety's execution reports. |
| Annually | Review the surety account profile and update every contact, rate and date on it. |
Per-bond, set at issuance
When a bond is issued, set two reminders immediately:
- At the projected completion date — start the closeout process
- 90 days after the projected completion date — if it is still open, escalate
That second one is what stops finished jobs from silently consuming your aggregate for years. See bond closeout and final premium.
The 80% rule
Set an alert when your aggregate consumption — measured in cost to complete on bonded work, not contract value — crosses 80% of your aggregate limit.
At 80% you still have time to do something useful:
- Chase closeouts on finished jobs and free capacity you already earned
- Ask your producer to start a capacity increase conversation
- Adjust what you pursue for the next 60 days
At 100% you have already lost a bid.
The gap between "we need more capacity" and "we have more capacity" is measured in weeks, and it needs a current financial statement to start. Trigger the conversation at 80%, not at 100%.
Owner and job-side dates
Not surety documents, but they belong on the same calendar because they interact:
| Item | Why it is here |
|---|---|
| Notice / preliminary notice deadlines on each job | Protects your own collection rights — see the existing lien deadline tools |
| Substantial completion dates | Trigger warranty periods and closeout |
| Warranty expiration dates | The maintenance bond obligation ends here; log it |
| Retention release dates | Often requires a consent of surety to final payment |
The one-page tracker
Keep a single sheet with these columns. It is the document you hand to whoever covers the office when the person who owns this is away.
| Item | Provider / contact | Current expiration | Renewal started | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Letter of authority | Single limit / aggregate | |||
| Year-end financials | CPA | Audit / review / compilation | ||
| Personal financial statements | Each indemnitor | |||
| Bank line of credit | Banker | Amount, drawn, available | ||
| Contractor's license | State board | |||
| License bond | Carrier | Amount | ||
| GL insurance | Broker | |||
| Auto insurance | Broker | |||
| Workers' comp | Broker | EMR | ||
| Umbrella | Broker | |||
| ERISA / fidelity bond | Carrier | 10% of plan assets |
The surety account profile template is a fuller version of this with contacts and rate tiers included.
The failure modes worth knowing
The renewal notice went to an old address. The most common cause of a lapsed license bond, and one of the most damaging. Verify the address on file with every carrier annually.
The CPA was engaged late. A firm booked solid in March cannot deliver your statements in March. Engage in January.
Nobody owned it. When a compliance calendar is everyone's job it is nobody's job. Name one person and put a backup behind them.
The letter of authority expired and nobody noticed because no bonds happened to be needed that month. Then a bid comes up and the answer is "we need to re-underwrite you."
Closeouts never happened. Not a lapse, but the same effect: capacity you own and cannot use.
Set it up with: the surety account profile and the bond register.