Certified payroll is the weekly report a contractor on a covered public project submits showing each worker, their classification, hours, rate including fringe, deductions, and net pay, with a signed Statement of Compliance attached. Form WH-347 from the U.S. Department of Labor is the common format. A reporting system assembles the form from field time and payroll records and retains it. It does not determine compliance; your compliance officer does.
Where a certified payroll comes apart
Classification is chosen by habit, not by the work performed
A crew member spends the morning setting forms and the afternoon operating a machine. The time sheet says laborer for the whole day. Classification, not hours, is a frequent audit finding, and fixing it after submission means amended payrolls.
Hours are not split by job or by classification
A worker splits a day between a public job and a private one. Payroll carries one line for the week. Producing the project-only figure column seven asks for becomes a hand calculation nobody can reproduce later.
The fringe credit is claimed without the arithmetic behind it
The determination lists a base rate and a fringe rate. A contractor paying benefits through a plan claims credit for them, but the hourly credit has to be calculated against all hours worked. When that lives in a spreadsheet, the form’s number cannot be defended.
WH-347 field by field, and the system behind each one
Form WH-347 carries a header, nine numbered columns, and a Statement of Compliance on page two. Each comes from somewhere upstream, and this map names the gap we most often find.
| Form area | Populated from | The gap we usually find |
|---|---|---|
| Contractor name, payroll number, week ending | Company record and the project payroll calendar | No-work weeks skipped rather than filed, leaving holes in the sequence |
| Project and location, contract number | The job record, from the executed contract | Taken from the estimate, so the number does not match the agency’s file |
| Column 1, worker name and identifying number | Payroll master, last four digits only on the submitted copy | Full social security numbers printed on a submitted payroll |
| Column 3, work classification | Field time entry, against the job’s determination | The crew picks a familiar internal title, not the classification for the work performed |
| Columns 4 and 5, daily and total hours | Daily field time, foreman-approved; totals calculated | A lump weekly figure, or split-classification days under one classification |
| Column 6, rate of pay including fringe | The determination for that classification, plus your fringe credit | A superseded determination in use, or a fringe credit with no plan behind it |
| Column 7, gross earned, this project and all projects | The payroll register, carrying both figures | Only one figure available, because payroll holds no job-level detail |
| Column 8, deductions, itemized | The payroll register | An unexplained other deduction with no description |
| Column 9, net wages paid for the week | The payroll register | A net figure that does not tie to the check or direct deposit |
| Statement of Compliance, items 4(a), 4(b), 4(c) | The named signer and the fringe method on the job record | Signed by whoever is at the desk, and 4(c) blank in weeks with exceptions |
| Apprentice entries | The apprenticeship registration on the worker record | An apprentice rate paid with no registration, or the ratio exceeded that day |
Assembling the weekly submission
The wage determination lives on the job
The determination is attached to the job record with its effective date, and the classifications it contains become the only ones selectable on that job. A modification is added as a new dated version rather than replacing the old, so past weeks still report the rate that applied.
Time entry captures classification at the point of work
The crew or foreman selects classification alongside job and cost code, and a worker who changes classification during the day records two lines. This one change does the most for a clean payroll.
Payroll runs once, feeding both the check and the report
Gross, deductions, and net come from the payroll register you already run. The report reads from it rather than recalculating, so the certified payroll and the actual pay cannot disagree.
Fringe credit calculated and shown, not asserted
Where benefits go to a plan, the hourly credit is calculated and stored with its inputs. Where fringe is paid in cash, it is carried in the rate. Either way the arithmetic is visible to whoever signs.
The signer clears an exception list, then output goes out
Before the Statement of Compliance is presented, the system lists unregistered apprentices, classifications not on the determination, ratio issues, and unexplained deductions. After signing, the same data produces a WH-347 PDF or a state portal file, with no-work weeks filed to hold the sequence.
Upstream and downstream of payroll
- electronic signature for the weekly Statement of Compliance — The officer signs each week's statement, with signature, name, title, and date retained.
- field time capture with classification — Daily hours recorded against a job, a cost code, and a classification from that job's determination.
- document generation and retention — The form, the determination in force, and the signed statement stored together for the retention period.
Is this a fit for your business?
A good fit when
- You bid public work and certified payroll is why you hesitate on some
- You run workers across covered and non-covered jobs in the same week
- You submit into more than one agency portal with different formats
- You employ registered apprentices and have to watch ratios
Probably not a fit when
- You do one small public job a year and your payroll service files it
- You need a payroll provider, since we build around yours rather than replace it
- You want a system that certifies compliance, which no software can honestly do
What to have ready
- The wage determination for one active covered job
- Recent certified payrolls you filed, and any that came back with questions
- Whether your payroll system carries job and classification detail
Questions we get asked
Does the system decide whether we are paying the right prevailing wage?
No. It holds the determination attached to the job, restricts classification selection to what that determination contains, and shows the rate at time entry. Choosing the right classification for the work performed is a human judgment. Your compliance officer owns it, and the system records who made each call.
We use a payroll service. Do we have to change it?
Usually not. The report needs gross, deductions, and net at the worker and week level, plus job and classification detail on the hours. Most payroll services supply the first three. The job and classification detail comes from field time, which is where we focus.
What about state prevailing wage programs?
They are common and they differ. Several states run their own portals with their own forms and cadence, and some require additional filings such as apprentice notifications at job start. We build the data model once and produce whichever output the agency requires.
How long do we have to keep certified payrolls?
Under 29 CFR 5.5, payrolls and basic records are preserved for three years after all work on the prime contract is completed, and that is the retention we default to. State programs and your own contracts may require longer, so retention is set per project.
Related
- time tracking and job costing into QuickBooks
- certificate of insurance tracking for subcontractors
- electronic signature workflow automation
- workflow automation for construction companies
Tell us what the process looks like now and we will map what a system would need to do. No obligation, and you keep the map either way.