Certified payroll questions, answered.

Questions contractors ask

What does week 2 look like?

Start the next payroll and last week's crew, classifications, rates, and deductions are already in place with the hours blank. Type the hours; overtime splits itself at 40, FICA is computed, and the form is ready to sign. About 90 seconds for a crew of 6.

Will it remind me when a payroll is due?

Yes. Two days after a week ends with nothing filed on an active project, you get one email with two links: start the payroll, or file a no-work payroll in one click so the numbering stays unbroken. Turn it off per project.

My prime uses LCPtracker. Does this help?

Yes. Every finalized payroll downloads as a file built to LCPtracker's upload template, so the week goes in through Payroll Records > Upload Records instead of being retyped into the portal's forms. If your prime's account uses a customized template, send us the header row and we match it. You set employees up in LCPtracker once; the weekly figures come from here.

Can it send the payroll to my prime?

Yes. After finalizing, click Send to prime. The PDF goes to the prime's compliance contact with a short cover note, replies come to your certifying official, and the payroll keeps a log of when it was sent and to whom.

Do I have to type in the wage determination rates?

No. Upload the wage determination PDF from your contract or SAM.gov and CertifiedHours reads every classification and rate from it. You tick the ones your crew works under and they are added with the names spelled as the determination spells them and the numbers copied rather than typed. You can still add or edit any classification by hand.

Will the prime or agency accept this instead of the DOL's PDF?

Yes. The Department of Labor says use of Form WH-347 itself is optional; what is required is the same payroll information weekly and a signed Statement of Compliance with identical wording. Our output follows the Rev. January 2025 layout column for column and uses the DOL's statement text verbatim. If one is ever rejected for layout or math, we fix it the same business day or refund the month.

How is this different from the free fillable WH-347 on the DOL site?

The DOL form is a blank page every week. It doesn't remember your crew, your rates, or last week's numbers, and it doesn't check anything. CertifiedHours keeps all of that and does the overtime and fringe math, so week two takes minutes instead of an hour. If you file one payroll a month, our free plan gives you that with the checks included.

Do I have to stop using QuickBooks, Gusto, or ADP?

No. Keep running payroll exactly as you do. Export the week's hours and deductions as a CSV and import them into the weekly grid, or type them in, about a minute per worker. We produce the certified payroll from them.

I've been filing certified payroll for years. Do I have to re-enter everything?

No. Upload last week's WH-347, a state form, or the spreadsheet you build it from. We read the crew, their IDs, classifications, rates, fringe, and the project details, show you a review screen, and create it all when you confirm. Full Social Security numbers and home addresses on older forms are discarded during the read and cannot be saved.

Do I have to enter Social Security numbers?

No, and you should not. Since 2009 the form takes an identifying number, and most contractors use an employee ID or the last four digits. We default to an employee ID. If you choose last four, it is encrypted before it is stored. We never ask for home addresses, bank details, or birth dates.

Is this a payroll service?

No. You keep running payroll wherever you do today. This produces the certified payroll report from those numbers. You certify it; we never move money.

A bookkeeper files for several of my contractors. Does that work?

Yes. A bookkeeper account holds several contractor businesses under one login, each with its own projects, workers, and payroll numbering. The annual plan is built for that.

What about California, New York, or LCPtracker?

State portals in California, New York, Washington, and Illinois ask for worker data the federal form does not, so use them directly for state-funded work. Our PDF covers federally funded jobs anywhere, and the CSV export has a documented layout for mapping into LCPtracker or a prime's spreadsheet.

What happens when the job ends?

Cancel or pause. Your projects, workers, and every finalized payroll stay available for the three-year retention window, and the free plan still lets you finalize one payroll a month.

I made a mistake on a payroll I already filed. Can I fix it?

Yes. Reopen the payroll, correct it, and finalize again. The corrected PDF keeps the same payroll number so the prime can match it to the original.