Maintaining SAFE

SAFE and COR Certification require an annual audit by a qualified auditor.  Within the three-year cycle, companies must submit an audit each calendar year on their certification anniversary date to maintain SAFE Certification.

Audits are required EVERY year. Your audit is due on your certification expiry anniversary date. However, there is more flexibility in maintenance years. You can delay until June 30^th or November 30th, whichever comes first, without loss of SAFE Certification.

For example, a company certifying March 10, 2024 is due to submit a maintenance audit March 10, 2025 for the previous 12 months.  The audit will include records from March 2024 to February 2025.

To avoid a lapse in certification, re-certification audits must be submitted before the SAFE certification expiry date.

Re-certification and maintenance audits use the same form as the certification audit.

If your company has grown since the last audit, you may need to upgrade your SAFE Companies registration and program requirements. This may require additional training.

Please contact us before starting your next audit if there has been a change in any of the following: company size, name, ownership, auditor, business activities, WorkSafeBC account or classification(s) or other information affecting your account.

EXAMPLE

Your certificate expires March 10th

- In re-certification years, your audit MUST be submitted by March 10th

- In maintenance years, you can delay until June 30th

- Audit period is previous 12 months (March to February)

Your certificate expires July 21st

- In re-certification years, your audit MUST be submitted by July 21st

- In maintenance years, you can delay until November 30th

- Audit period is previous 12 months (July to June)

Audits should include the most recent information from the previous 12 months. There are two options: 

1. Submit an audit within the month prior to the audit due date.

For example: If your audit due date is November 12, 2025, your audit time period would be November 2024 to October 2025.

2. Submit the audit in the same month of the audit due date.

For example: If your audit due date is November 12, 2025, you could include November 2025 in the audit submission changing the audit period from December 2024 to November 2025.