Template: the annual compliance calendar (every fixed date the law sets, every event-driven clock, and the monthly check that catches the rest)
In one paragraph
One page for the year, in three parts. Fixed dates the law sets for everyone: January 1 statute changes, the January 15 and 31 tax deadlines, the February 1 workplace notice, the quarterly payroll returns, the estimated tax dates, the July 1 code publication in an edition year. Dates that are yours alone: the license expiration with its 60-day and 90-day markers, the bond and workers' compensation renewals, each employee's certification expiration and each trainee's annual renewal, the city business tax renewal, the policy audit. And the event-driven clocks that start when something happens: 90 days to report a change, a judgment, a departed qualifier; 90 days to make a late renewal or a replacement bond retroactive; five years to keep a job file. Beside the blank, Boateng Electric's 2027 calendar, built the month after the case in this phase.
The rule
A license expires two years from the last day of its issuance month (B&P 7140), with the renewal application mailed about 60 days before and a 90-day retroactive window after (CSLB; 7141.5); any change of recorded information, any unsatisfied judgment and any qualifier departure must be reported within 90 days (7083, 7071.17, 7068.2); a replacement bond or workers' compensation certificate reinstates retroactively only if received within 90 days of its effective date (7071.7, 7125.1); electrician certifications expire every three years and trainee registrations annually (DIR ECU; Labor Code 108.4(f)); employees receive the workplace rights notice by February 1 (DIR); quarterly payroll returns are delinquent after April 30, July 31, October 31 and January 31 (EDD); estimated taxes fall on April 15, June 15, September 15 and January 15 (FTB, IRS); triennial code editions publish July 1 and take effect January 1 (BSC); job records are kept five years after completion (7111).
Why it matters
Every lesson in this phase ends with 'put it on the calendar.' This is the calendar. Filled in once a year in January and checked at every monthly close, it turns seven phases of statutes into about thirty dates and a habit, which is the whole difference between a contractor who keeps a license for thirty years and one who learns each rule from the letter that enforces it.