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 filled in, with the hours blank. Type the hours. Overtime splits off at 40, FICA is worked out, and the form is ready to sign.

Will it remind me when a payroll is due?

Yes. If a week ends and nothing is filed on an active project, you get 1 email 2 days later. It has 2 links: start the payroll, or file a no-work payroll in one click so the numbering stays unbroken. You can turn it off for each project.

My prime uses LCPtracker. Does this help?

Yes. Every finalized payroll downloads as a file built to match LCPtracker's upload template as agencies publish it, so you upload the week through Payroll Records > Upload Records and skip retyping it into the portal's forms. If your prime's template differs, send us its header row and we will 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. Tick the ones your crew works under and they're added with the names spelled the way the determination spells them, and the rates copied over, so nobody retypes a number. You can still add or edit any classification by hand.

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

Whether to accept a payroll is the prime's or the agency's decision. 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 a prime or agency rejects a WH-347 we generated because of its layout or math, we fix it the same business day (Monday to Friday, excluding U.S. federal holidays) or refund that month's charge; on an annual plan, one-twelfth of the annual charge. If the prime requires a portal such as LCPtracker, upload our LCPtracker file or enter the figures there.

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

The DOL has a PDF you fill in by hand and an online form that does the wage and overtime math. Neither keeps your crew, your rates, or last week's numbers for you, and the DOL doesn't describe either one checking your rates against the wage determination. CertifiedHours keeps all of that and checks every line against the sheet before you sign, so week 2 takes minutes. If you file 1 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 make the certified payroll from those numbers.

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 shouldn't. Since 2009 the form takes an identifying number, and most contractors use an employee ID or the last 4 digits. We default to an employee ID. If you choose the last 4, they're encrypted before they're stored. We never ask for home addresses, bank details, or birth dates.

Is this a payroll service?

No. You keep running payroll wherever you run it today, and CertifiedHours makes 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 in your account while it's open, paid or not, and the free plan still lets you finalize 1 payroll a month. Keeping payroll records for 3 years after the prime contract is completed is your own legal duty (29 CFR 5.5(a)(3)(i)); download them before you ever delete the account.

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.

I pay more than the rate sheet. What goes on the form?

What you actually paid. The wage determination is a floor, not the number to print. When a job is set up we load each trade's minimum so the check has something to test against, and the rate panel asks for the rate you pay each person; the form shows that rate, and it should match your paystubs. Paying above the base with no separate fringe is fine: $24.00 an hour covers a $14.79 base plus $0.70 fringe. If you want the fringe portion to show in column 6C, split it: $23.30 base and $0.70 cash fringe.

One of my guys worked another job this week. How do I show that?

Only the hours on this job go in column 4, but the 40-hour overtime line counts every hour he worked that week, and columns 7B, 8 and 9 are for his whole paycheck. On the Hours step, open worked another job this week under his row: type the hours elsewhere and his gross for the whole week. We count the other hours toward 40, print this job's gross in 7A and the whole week in 7B, and compute FICA and net on the whole week.

How do apprentices work on a certified payroll?

An apprentice can be paid a percentage of the journeyworker rate only if they are in a program registered with the DOL's Office of Apprenticeship or a state apprenticeship agency. Column 2 prints RA, and page 2 names the program and who registered it. On the crew page, tick apprentice and fill in the percentage, the program name and OA or SAA; the payroll cannot be filed with an RA and no program. Somebody you call an apprentice who is not in a registered program is a journeyworker on this form and gets the full rate. The apprentice must be individually registered in the program; the one exception is the first 90 days of probationary employment, when the registration agency has certified them as eligible (29 CFR 5.5(a)(4)(i)(A)).

My crew started on the job weeks ago. Can I file the earlier weeks?

Yes. When you set up the job, pick the first week your crew worked under First week your crew worked this job, and payroll no. 1 covers that week. File the weeks since in order; each one carries the crew forward with the hours blank. On the free plan the first of those is the month's payroll and the rest need Unlimited, which you can pause once you are caught up.

My trade isn't on the wage determination. What do I do?

Don't file under the nearest name. A classification that is not on the determination needs a conformance request, form SF-1444, which the prime submits to the contracting agency before the first payroll that uses it; the agency sets the rate. Ask your prime. Until it is approved, the usual practice is to pay and report at the rate of the closest listed trade that does similar work, and to note the pending conformance in the remarks. Once approved, the conformed rate is owed from the first day of work in that classification.

I don't have the wage determination number. Where do I get it?

It is in the prime's contract with the owner, usually next to the words General Decision, and your subcontract may only refer to it. Ask the prime's project manager or compliance person for the number and modification. If you'd rather not wait, use Find it by state, county and type of work on the job step: we search SAM.gov for the general decision in force for that county and load its trades. Building covers most indoor work; the prime can confirm the type if your contract does not say.