Industry Compliance Requirements Checklist
Three documents and three sheets that screen which sector rules actually apply, then track the exact distance to every threshold not yet crossed.
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Threshold Tracker
[Company] — the real distance to every threshold not yet crossed
Distance is a number, not a yes or no, so a requirement six employees away does not read the same as one crossed years ago.
| Trigger Metric | Threshold | Current Value | Distance | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | — | — | — | — |
| — | — | — | — | — |
| — | — | — | — | — |
What a Yes/No checklist cannot show
| Applies / does not apply | The only two states a checklist has room for, read once and left static |
| Threshold Tracker | The actual number behind each one, crossed 47 employees ago or 6 employees away, recalculated as headcount changes |
A checklist has room for applies or does not apply. It has no room for six employees away, which for a growing business is usually the more useful answer.
Most compliance checklists are written to apply to any small business, which means they read the same whether a reader has 4 employees or 400. That is not how the underlying law works. Title VII and the ADA apply only once an employer has maintained 15 or more employees for 20 or more calendar weeks in the current or prior year. That is a specific numeric test, not a blanket rule, and a business below it is reading requirements that do not yet apply to it at all.
Millrace Facilities Group is a fictional commercial janitorial and grounds-maintenance contractor headquartered in Spokane, Washington. It crossed its federal thresholds one at a time as it grew: 15 employees in 2020, 20 in 2021 when an Oregon site opened, and 50 in 2023 when an Idaho site opened. Its revenue crossed a separate line years earlier, in year one, at $650,000 with only 6 employees on payroll. At 62 employees today, the 100-employee threshold behind the WARN Act's notice requirement sits 38 employees away, not urgent yet, but worth watching rather than ignoring.
The sharper case arrived when Millrace signed its first California contract and assigned six employees to a client site in Sacramento, its fourth state. Federal FMLA eligibility requires 50 employees within 75 miles of the employee's own worksite, and Sacramento sits hundreds of miles from Millrace's nearest other office, so that crew fails the federal test entirely. California's own family leave law applies at five employees anywhere the employer operates, with no distance test at all, so the same six were covered from the day the site opened.
What's in the pack
Applicability Assessment
Screens the universal list of regimes down to what this business's actual activity, headcount, revenue and locations trigger today, state by state rather than federal-only.
Requirement Register
Every regime that actually applies, with its specific numeric or locational trigger and the basis for the call, so a conclusion can be checked again once the numbers change. A specific licence or permit this activity needs, rather than a threshold this business happened to cross, belongs in the licence and permit tracker's own dependency-sequenced register instead.
Threshold Tracker
The real distance to every requirement not yet triggered, in an actual number rather than a static applies or does not apply, recalculated the day headcount, revenue or the location list changes.
Obligation Summary
Every triggered requirement restated in plain language and grouped by what actually has to happen, with any state obligation that attached despite a small local headcount flagged rather than buried in a statute name. A data-handling regime specifically gets its own systems audit rather than a line here.
Evidence Register
What is actually on file for each requirement already in force, checked location by location. A posting met at three of four sites shows as a gap at the missing site rather than a general partial pass, the same discipline proving insurance coverage on demand already requires.
Action Plan
Every open gap in priority order, starting with a requirement already running today with nothing on file to show it, ahead of anything merely overdue for its next scheduled review. Once every item here clears, the recurring filings return to the compliance calendar.
How to use it
- 1
Open in River, or download it
Install the pack so the agent screens your own activity, headcount and locations, or take the blank Word and CSV files away and fill them in yourself.
- 2
Describe the business and every location
Not just where there is a formal office. Every state where even one person works, plus total headcount and last year's revenue.
- 3
See what actually applies, state by state
Company-wide headcount screened against the federal thresholds, then each state's own local presence screened separately against that state's often-lower test.
- 4
Track the distance to what is next
Threshold Tracker carries the real number behind anything not yet triggered, so a requirement six employees away does not stay invisible until the day it isn't.
Frequently asked questions
Is this template free?
Yes. Three documents and three sheets download as Word and CSV files with no signup and no credit card. "Edit with AI" is a separate, optional path for founders who want the agent to screen their own activity and locations. The rest of the packs sit in the template library.
What format are the downloaded files?
Word documents (.docx) for the three narrative and summary documents, and CSV (.csv) for Requirement Register, Threshold Tracker and Evidence Register, zipped together. They open natively in Word, Pages, Google Docs, Excel, Numbers and Sheets, with nothing to convert.
What does 'Edit with AI' actually do?
It creates a free River account and installs this exact pack as a private workspace. The agent asks what the business actually does, where every employee works, and roughly what it earns a year, then screens that against the regimes with a real numeric or locational trigger.
Can a state rule apply to a site too small for the federal version of the same law?
Often, yes. California's family leave law applies at five employees company-wide with no distance test at all, while the federal version needs 50 employees within 75 miles of that specific worksite. A small, geographically isolated site can clear the state test on day one while failing the federal one indefinitely, which is exactly the gap Threshold Tracker is built to catch.
What happens if a regulator sends a notice about something already flagged here?
Read it and answer inside the window it prints, which matters more than which regime it cites. Responding correctly inside that window is separate, focused work from figuring out which regimes apply in the first place, which is what this pack screens for before any notice ever arrives.
Do I still need a lawyer or accountant?
For a newly triggered obligation, especially a first move into a new state, yes, and this is not legal advice. What changes is what you hand them: a register stating the specific trigger and the basis for every call, rather than a generic checklist neither of you has checked against your actual headcount, revenue and locations.
Find out which regimes already apply, and how far you are from the next one
Download the blank pack as Word and CSV files, or open it in River and have your own activity, headcount and locations screened against what actually triggers first.
Edit with AI