It's astounding how differently auditors go about their jobs.
We have a business, so we have a worker's compensation insurance policy. Each year, you guess what your payroll will be. The insurance costs so much per $100. Your payments are determined, and then spread out over the year. At the end of the insurance term, an auditor comes to determine if you have underpaid, or overpaid.
Normally you receive a letter requesting payroll information, and certificates of insurance for sub-contractors. They will also look at quarterly reports to the feds to see if the material you are giving them adds up.
Sooooooo.....the last auditor was just a bit different. I'm used to one of the more experienced auditors, who breezes in, enters the bottom line from the four quarterly reports, makes the necessary deductions, hit's enter, slams the lid on her laptop and is out the door in ten or fifteen minutes.
This year we got a junior Big Bird look-alike who was new to the job. I had pulled reports off the computer as requested, but he was not satisfied. He made me kill a tree so that he could have the annual report BY EMPLOYEE! What a jerk. At least he didn't keep me for ages.
Last year....or maybe it was two years ago, we got hit with audits from the union, the state revenue department and insurance I had become the PRO at preparing for audits. The worst was the Revenue auditor. He looked through three years of job folders. It took him all day. I gave him the uncomfortable chair. It was the least I could do to express my opinion about being audited.
I hope next year they send the speedy auditor!