Sending certified payroll to the prime contractor: what to send, how to sign it, what to keep

Your crew worked 32 hours on the library job last week. The payroll is done and signed. Getting it to the right person, in a form they accept, is the last step, and it decides whether the prime's compliance reviewer passes it or sends it back.

Where it goes

The contract clause at 29 CFR 5.5(a)(3)(ii)(A) says each contractor submits weekly certified payrolls to the federal agency if it is a party to the contract, or otherwise to the applicant, sponsor, or owner that keeps the records and passes them to the agency. The next sentence decides the workflow: "The prime contractor is responsible for the submission of all certified payrolls by all subcontractors."

So you send yours to the prime, and the prime forwards the package. HUD's contractor guide puts it plainly: all payroll reports for a project go to the contract administrator through the prime contractor. Your subcontract will usually say when the payroll is due and to whom. If it does not, ask before the first week ends. When certified payroll is due.

What to send

Both pages. Page 1 of the WH-347 is the payroll. Page 2 is the Statement of Compliance, which is the signed certification. A payroll without page 2 is incomplete. You may use your own payroll format instead of the WH-347, as long as it carries every required item and a Statement of Compliance with the same language as page 2. HUD notes that one statement covers each weekly payroll however many pages the worker rows take.

The header filled in. Your company, the project and contract number, the payroll number, and the week ending date. Reviewers file by these fields.

Attachments the prime asked for. HUD's guide asks for an apprentice's registration with the first payroll on which the apprentice appears, and a written signature authorization with the first payroll signed by an agent rather than an owner or officer. Many primes ask for the same.

A no-work payroll for idle weeks, if the prime wants one. No-work weeks.

Signatures

The regulation, at 5.5(a)(3)(ii)(E), accepts "an original handwritten signature or a legally valid electronic signature." The Department of Labor's WH-347 instructions add 2 points:

• A legally valid electronic signature "includes any electronic process that indicates acceptance of the certified payroll record and includes an electronic method of verifying the signer's identity." Signing through a service that authenticates you, such as DocuSign, or inside a portal that requires your own signature password, meets that description.
• "Photocopies or scanned copies of signatures do not satisfy this requirement."

That second point matters if you print, sign in ink, scan, and email. The scan is a copy. Some primes accept it for their review and ask for the original by mail; some do not accept it at all. Ask the prime at the start of the job and follow its answer every week. The Statement of Compliance.

Portals

A prime or agency may require you to submit through an electronic system. The regulation allows that only if the system requires a legally valid electronic signature, lets you, the agency and the Department of Labor reach the payrolls for at least 3 years after the work is completed, and the prime or agency allows another method when you cannot use or access the system. If your prime uses LCPtracker, the portal has its own steps. Uploading to LCPtracker.

The cover email

Keep it short and put the identifying details where a reviewer searching an inbox will find them.

Subject line:

Certified payroll 7, week ending 10/04/2026, Riverside Library, Acme Electric

For a correction, add the word REVISED after the number. For the last week, add FINAL.

Body:

Attached is Acme Electric's certified payroll for the Riverside Library project
(contract 24-118).

Payroll number: 7
Week ending: 10/04/2026
Workers on this payroll: 4
Status: original (not a revision), not final

Signed by Dana Ruiz, Office Manager. Questions: 555-201-4410.

If it is a revision, add one line saying what changed, for example "Revised to correct overtime for worker 1234; difference paid 10/09/2026, check 5521."

File names

Name the PDF so it sorts by payroll number and says what it is without opening it:

AcmeElectric_RiversideLibrary_CP07_WE2026-10-04.pdf
AcmeElectric_RiversideLibrary_CP07_WE2026-10-04_REVISED.pdf

Use 2 digits for the number so payroll 10 sorts after payroll 9. Put the date year first for the same reason. Send 1 payroll per file unless the prime asks for a batch.

Keep proof of what you sent

The clause at 5.5(a)(3)(ii)(G) requires you to keep all certified payrolls during the work and for 3 years after all the work on the prime contract is completed. Keep the payroll in the form you sent it, along with the evidence that you sent it:

• The sent email, with its attachment and timestamp, in a folder for the project.
• For mail, the date mailed and the tracking number.
• For a portal, the confirmation screen or the certified report the portal produces after you submit.

When a prime says payroll 5 never arrived, the sent email answers it in 1 minute. Keep your own file even though the prime keeps one; the prime's file belongs to the prime.

What the prime checks before forwarding

The prime is liable for a sub's unpaid wages, so most primes review each payroll before it goes to the agency. HUD's guides list what contract administrators look for, and primes look for the same things:

• The payroll is complete and page 2 is signed.
• Every classification appears on the wage determination.
• Every rate is at least the determination's rate for the classification shown, and the fringe is accounted for (plan contributions, cash, or both).
• Overtime is paid at time and a half for hours over 40.
• The arithmetic holds: hours times rate, deductions, net pay.
• Apprentice registrations and deduction authorizations are on file where needed.
• No payroll number is missing from the sequence.

When the prime rejects one

Read the reason, fix the payroll, and send a revised one under the same payroll number with a new signed Statement of Compliance. If a worker was underpaid, pay the difference first and say so in the remarks. Reply on the same email thread so the prime's reviewer sees the history. Correcting a payroll. Common WH-347 mistakes.