eBacon vs CertifiedHours: full-service construction payroll, or just the certified payroll

eBacon is a payroll and HR platform built for construction. It processes your payroll, files payroll taxes, and produces certified payroll reports in federal and state formats as part of the run. It also handles fringe benefit administration, including trust arrangements for placing fringe into bona fide plans, and workforce reporting.

It is sold by quote, on the model of a payroll service: a per-employee or per-run fee plus setup. It replaces whatever you run payroll in now.

Contractors whose work is mostly prevailing wage, with certified payroll due on several projects every week, in more than one state's format.

Contractors who want fringe managed through a trust or plan to reduce payroll tax on the fringe portion, and who have enough hours for that to matter.

Contractors ready to move their entire payroll to a construction-specific provider.

It is a payroll migration. You move employees, tax accounts, and history to a new provider to get the certified payroll feature. For a sub on 2 or 3 public jobs a year, that is a lot of change for a report that is due 20 weeks a year.

Quoted pricing scales with headcount and runs every pay period whether or not you have public work that week.

It is more than most small subs need, and the extra capability has a learning curve.

CertifiedHours does not run payroll. You keep QuickBooks, Gusto, ADP, or the bookkeeper you have. You bring the hours and deductions for the week, and CertifiedHours produces the WH-347 with the math checked. $19 in the months you need it, nothing in the months you do not.

If your business grows into weekly prevailing wage work across several states, a full-service provider like eBacon becomes the right answer, and your CertifiedHours history exports as CSV to bring along.