Certified payroll in QuickBooks Desktop Payroll: the Excel report, its setup, and when to skip it
QuickBooks Desktop Enhanced and Assisted Payroll include a Certified Payroll Report that fills an Excel WH-347 from a weekly payroll run, if the payroll items, job costing and timesheets are set up first. What it needs, where it stalls, and the shortcut.
Checked against QuickBooks Desktop Payroll’s help center September 16, 2026. Menus move; if a step is off, tell us from the Help menu and it is fixed the same week.
The short answer
QuickBooks Desktop Enhanced and Assisted Payroll include a Certified Payroll Report (Reports, then Employees & Payroll, then More Payroll Reports in Excel, then Certified Payroll Report) that fills an Excel WH-347 from a weekly payroll. It needs a full Excel with macros, single-user mode, hourly payroll items named per classification, job costing and weekly timesheets. Set up that way it works; the common stall is fringe and cash-in-lieu items that were never created, and a 2025 form layout that changed the workbook.
What QuickBooks Desktop Payroll gives you
- An Excel WH-347 built from the payroll run, with employer, project, apprentice, fringe and signer prompts on the way.
- Job costing and time tracking (native, timesheets, or QuickBooks Time) that put hours on the right job and classification.
- Payroll items per classification and for fringe or cash in lieu, which the report reads.
What the WH-347 still needs
- A check that the rate paid meets the determination; the report prints what payroll paid.
- Anything when the setup is incomplete: a classification paid through a generic Hourly item prints as that item's name, and fringe paid outside a payroll item does not print at all.
- A record of what was sent to whom, corrections that keep the number, and the LCPtracker file.
The export: Certified Payroll Report (Excel), or the filed form itself
- Sign in as the Primary Administrator in single-user mode. Reports, then Employees & Payroll, then More Payroll Reports in Excel, then Certified Payroll Report. Enable macros when Excel asks.
- Answer the prompts: pay date, employer, project, apprentices, fringe, signer. The workbook fills the form.
- To bring it here: either save the payroll sheet as CSV and import the hours, or file the form and use Start from a payroll you already filed, which reads the PDF and sets up the job and crew.
How each column lands on the form
The import matches columns by meaning, so the exact header can vary. It asks about anything it is unsure of before it fills the grid.
| In QuickBooks Desktop Payroll | On the certified payroll |
|---|---|
| Name, ID | Matched to the crew. |
| Work classification | Matched to the job's trades. |
| Hours by day, ST and OT | Straight time and overtime by day. |
| Rate, fringe, gross, deductions | Columns 6, 7 and 8 as printed. |
Rates and classifications
Create one hourly payroll item per classification, named as the determination names it, and add it to each employee with the rate you pay. A person who works two classifications needs both items and timesheet lines split between them.
Fringe
Fringe paid as cash needs its own Addition payroll item on every paycheck; fringe paid to plans needs a company contribution item. Without them the report's fringe columns are blank and a reviewer asks where the fringe went.
Every week
- Weekly payroll with hours by job and classification from timesheets.
- Run the Excel Certified Payroll Report, or export the payroll details as CSV.
- Import into CertifiedHours if you want the determination checks, the send record and the LCPtracker file; otherwise sign the Excel form and send it.
- Either way, read each rate against the determination before signing.
Questions people ask
- Does QuickBooks Desktop do certified payroll?
- Yes, with Enhanced or Assisted Payroll, through an Excel report under More Payroll Reports in Excel. It needs full Excel with macros, single-user mode, and payroll items, job costing and timesheets set up for prevailing wage.
- The Excel report's fringe columns are blank. Why?
- Fringe has to be paid through a payroll item the report can see: an Addition item for cash in lieu, a company contribution item for plans. Fringe paid any other way does not reach the workbook.
- Can I keep QuickBooks Desktop and still use CertifiedHours?
- Yes. Run payroll where you always have. Export the hours or the filed form, import here, and get the determination check, the correction flow, the send record and the LCPtracker file on top.