LCPtracker for subcontractors: getting your certified payroll in, by hand or by upload

Your prime's compliance manager says the project uses LCPtracker and your payroll contact will get a login. From then on, the weekly payroll goes into the portal instead of an email.

How you get access

LCPtracker accounts belong to the agency or prime that bought the system. The prime adds your company as a subcontractor, assigns you to the project, and LCPtracker emails your payroll contact a user ID and a temporary password. If you already have an LCPtracker user ID from another agency's database, give it to the prime before it sets you up; the contractor manuals say the system then links the accounts, and you pick which database to work in after you log in.

LCPtracker's own contractor guide says there is no cost to contractors for the service or for online training. Your login password and your eSignature password are separate; set the eSignature under Set Up before your first certification.

The federal clause lets a prime or agency require an electronic system only if it takes a legally valid electronic signature, keeps the payrolls reachable for at least 3 years after the work is completed, and allows another method for a contractor who cannot use or access it. If you cannot use the portal, say so and ask what the alternative is. Sending payroll to the prime.

What the administrator sets up

The agency or prime (LCPtracker calls it the Administrator) loads the project, its wage rates and fringe rates, and its crafts and classifications. You pick crafts from a drop-down. The administrator also decides which validation rules run against your entries and which documents you must upload under eDocuments, such as apprentice registrations.

If the craft you need is missing from the list, call the prime. That is a wage determination question, and the answer may be a conformance request. Reading a wage determination.

Ways to get the payroll in

LCPtracker's quick-start guide lists 5 methods, all under the Payroll Records tab:

1. Manual entry. One record per worker per week, typed into the portal. Workers have to be set up first under Set Up.
2. Copy previous payroll. After your first certified week, copy it and change the hours. LCPtracker says this is used most by people who enter by hand.
3. Upload a payroll-system export. LCPtracker lists payroll providers it works with, including Paychex, ADP Workforce Now, Paycom, Paylocity, Foundation Software and Jonas Construction. The Accounting Systems button on the upload page shows directions for getting the file from each one.
4. Upload LCPtracker's Excel template. Fill it in by hand or have your payroll system produce it.
5. Direct Payroll Interface. You send 4 sample payroll reports (PDF or CSV) and LCPtracker builds a model of your own payroll file so you can upload it as is. LCPtracker says the build takes 3 to 4 business weeks and asks you to keep reporting another way meanwhile. Pricing is by request to LCPtracker support.

CertifiedHours produces an LCPtracker upload file from each finalized payroll, in the layout of the template's payroll columns, so method 4 is the one it uses.

The Excel upload template

The template is an Excel file, "LCPtracker Upload Template.xls" in the copy LCPtracker shows in its public template video, marked revision 04/2018. It has 4 tabs: Sheet1 (the data), instructions, Misc, and Legend. Download it from your own account rather than reusing a copy from another project.

Row 1 of Sheet1 holds the column headers, and each row under it is one payroll record: one worker, one classification, one week. The payroll columns run, left to right:

• Project and contract fields: payroll_number, project_code, contract_id, work_order.
• The week and the worker: week_end_date, check_num, ssn, employee_ID, class_code.
• Pay: gross_employee_pay (this project), all_projects (gross for all work), wages_paid_in_lieu_of_fringes, total_paid.
• Hours by day: straight time, overtime, and double time for each of the 7 days, then Total_Hours_All_Projects.
• Fringe paid to plans, by type: health and welfare, pension, vacation and holiday, training, all other, plus voluntary contributions.
• Deductions: federal tax, FICA, Medicare, state tax, SDI, dues, savings, other, and the total.
• trav_subs, pay_rate, OT_rate, 2OT_rate, and prnotes for notes.

Columns further right hold employee setup details such as names and addresses. LCPtracker's guide says an upload creates employees you have not entered yet, and that you may still need to complete their setup to meet the administrator's requirements.

The legend color-codes the columns. Red marks the minimum required: in the video, the week end date, check number, SSN, employee ID, class code, the gross pay columns, total paid, the deductions, and the 3 rates. Fringe can be given as hourly amounts or as totals, one or the other. Before the first upload, read these legend notes:

• ssn takes the full number with dashes, or the last 4 as xxx-xx-1234, or nothing if the account uses employee IDs instead. The account owner decides. Identifying numbers.
• week_end_date is the last day of a 7-day payroll week.
• payroll_number is marked "DO NOT USE" in the 04/2018 legend, and you confirm the payroll number when you certify. If an upload is refused for a blank payroll number, put the week's number in it.

Little else about the template is published beyond LCPtracker's video and the legend inside the file. Where your download's legend differs from this page, follow the legend.

Uploading

Go to Payroll Records, then Upload Records. Pick the week end date (leave it blank if the file covers several weeks and carries its own dates), pick the project, browse to the file, and click Upload. A file can hold at most 200 payroll records; split anything larger.

The upload page has 2 checkboxes:

• Calculate fringes automatically applies the default hourly fringes from your Set Up tab. Leave it unchecked if your file carries the fringe amounts.
• Use "NOT AVAILABLE" if crafts is unmatched labels unmatched records NOT AVAILABLE. Unchecked, the craft is left blank.

Craft matching

Your class_code arrives as the "contractor craft." The first time you upload, and any time you upload a new employee, open Payroll Records, then Edit Uncertified Payroll Records, click Craft Match, and choose the project's craft and classification. Once saved, later uploads fill it in. Matches are made per project, because craft names differ between projects. If craft errors keep appearing, the North Dakota DOT manual suggests rematching.

Certifying

The upload loads records. It files nothing. To submit, go to the Certification tab, choose the project, say whether work was performed, confirm the week end date and payroll number (LCPtracker shows the last week end date and payroll number you certified), enter the signer's name and title, read the Statement of Compliance, and sign with the eSignature password. Check the final box only on your last payroll. For an idle week, choose "No work activity to be reported for this week," or the multiple-weeks option for a run of them. No-work weeks.

Common upload and certification problems

The upload refuses some rows. A pop-up names them. Compare those rows to the legend: a blank red column, a date that is not the end of a 7-day week, or an SSN in a format the account does not take.

Craft shows NOT AVAILABLE or blank. Craft match the record.

Certification is blocked by notices. LCPtracker checks each record against the administrator's rules. A notice must be fixed before you can certify; a warning should be read and may point to a real underpayment. Both appear on the Notices tab.

Wrong project or week end date. Delete the records and start again before certifying. After certification, only the administrator can delete a week.

The administrator rejects a certified payroll. You get a Rejection notice. Edit it under Projects, then Certified Payrolls, and certify again. If the edit window has closed, ask the administrator to permit the edit. Correcting a payroll.

LCPtracker support takes calls at 714-669-0052, option 4, and email at support@lcptracker.com. Questions about rates, crafts, or a rejection go to the project's labor compliance administrator, whose contact details are under Show Info on the Projects tab.