Certified Payroll Software and Form WH-347 for Federal Contractors
Quick answer: Certified payroll software calculates prevailing wages, tracks fringe benefits, and generates Form WH-347 with its Statement of Compliance every week. It consolidates subcontractor reports, applies the right union and overtime rules, and stores three years of records, so a federal contracting officer never holds your payment over a math error.
Federal construction money comes with paperwork. The Davis-Bacon Act covers federally funded and assisted construction contracts over $2,000, and every covered contractor files a certified payroll each week. Miss a week or file bad numbers, and the contracting officer withholds payment.
The exposure goes past a late check. Under 29 CFR 5.12, disregard of Davis-Bacon obligations carries debarment from federal contracts for up to three years. Back wage liability runs up the chain to the prime contractor.
In August 2023 the Department of Labor finalized Updating the Davis-Bacon and Related Acts Regulations, which the agency calls the broadest review of these rules in nearly 40 years. It took effect October 23, 2023. One practical note on the form: use the WH-347 version posted on the Wage and Hour Division site, and read the expiration date in the corner as an OMB paperwork clearance date, not a filing deadline.
| Tool | Best for | Integrates with | Starting price | Watch-outs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| LCPtracker | Large public works with multiple subcontractor tiers | Payroll and accounting exports (ADP, Paychex, Paylocity, Jonas Construction and other listed affiliates) | Not published | Steep learning curve for field administrators |
| eMars | Davis-Bacon auditing on top of existing payroll | Payroll and general ledger exports | Not published | Dated interface |
| Points North | Mid-sized contractors on an outside payroll host | ADP, Paychex, QuickBooks, Paycor, UKG, Workday | Not published | Requires an active payroll subscription elsewhere |
| Foundation Software | All-in-one construction accounting | Procore, field timekeeping apps | Not published | Heavy initial setup |
| Sage 100 Contractor | Established commercial builders | Procore, Sage ecosystem | Not published | Customization gets expensive |
What Does Form WH-347 Actually Require?
The form is a weekly snapshot of what you paid and why. For each covered worker you list the name, an individual identifying number such as the last four digits of the Social Security Number, the work classification, and hours worked by day and in total.
Then come the money fields: the rate paid, gross wages earned, itemized deductions, and net pay for the week. Fringe benefits get separate treatment. You show whether benefits went into an approved plan or went to the worker as “cash in lieu of benefits” on the paycheck.
Every weekly submission carries a signed Statement of Compliance. That signature certifies the rates paid meet or exceed the wage determination for the contract. Keep the records behind it, timecards, rate sheets, and benefit plan details, for three years after the work is complete.
Why Does Prevailing Wage Tracking Get Complicated?
Certified payroll and prevailing wage compliance take more than hours times a rate. A single job carries several classifications, a different fringe rate for each, and overtime math layered on the base rate. Add a dozen subcontractors and the work compounds.
Consolidating Subcontractor Roll-Ups
Prime contractors carry strict back-wage liability for every subcontractor tier below them. You collect weekly reports from each sub, check the classifications and rates, then submit the package. Legacy time-tracking apps sold to the construction industry, built without prevailing wage automation, rarely capture the fields WH-347 needs, so someone re-keys the data by hand.
Allocating Fringe Benefits Across Variable Rates
Fringe math shifts with the workforce. Union plans, non-union plans, and cash payments all land differently on the report. Annualization rules for benefits like health insurance catch contractors who credit the full hourly value against prevailing wage hours. Fix the burden rate during estimating, not after the check is cut.
Do State “Mini Davis-Bacon” Rules Apply at the Same Time?
Many states run their own prevailing wage statutes, often called “mini Davis-Bacon” laws. On a project carrying both federal and state money, both rule sets apply at once, and the stricter requirement governs each classification. State forms rarely match WH-347 field for field, so the same week of hours gets filed twice in two formats. Settle which statutes govern before the first payroll runs, because reclassifying a crew mid-job means recalculating every week already submitted.
Where Do Legacy ERPs Break the Hand-Off?
Prevailing wage compliance software earns its price at the integration layer. An older ERP exports a payroll register and little else: no classification field, no fringe split, no link to the wage determination governing the job. Teams bridge that gap with a spreadsheet, and that is where transcription errors start. A classification typed one character off, a fringe figure pasted into the wrong column, a week of hours entered twice. Each one surfaces later as a discrepancy in an agency review. Judge Davis-Bacon automation on two questions: does it read your payroll export without hand editing, and does it pull current wage determination data instead of asking an administrator to retype rate tables. AIA G702 and G703 progress billing draws on the same labor data, so a tool that reads it once serves both jobs.
Record Retention and Audit Exposure
An audit arrives months after the ribbon cutting. Investigators ask for timecards, rate tables, benefit statements, and the filed forms. Spreadsheets scattered across laptops and email inboxes do not survive that request. Purpose-built systems keep a permanent log of who changed which number and when.
How Does LCPtracker Handle Certified Payroll?
LCPtracker is a labor compliance and workforce reporting platform built around prevailing wage law. It serves prime contractors and the public agencies that oversee them. The vendor states that uploaded payroll data is checked against the wage determination for the project, with errors flagged before the weekly submission goes out.
Subcontractor management is the real draw. Primes require each sub to clear validation inside the system before the prime accepts the report. Error correction stays with the party that made the error.
- Best for: Large public works projects with multiple subcontractor tiers
- Starting price: Not published
- Standout features: Wage determination cross-checks, multi-tier subcontractor validation, ERP connections
Advantages:
- Pushes validation out to subcontractors before the prime accepts a report
- Produces federal, state, and municipal reporting formats
- Handles union and non-union fringe rules in the same project
Disadvantages:
- Steep learning curve for field administrators and subcontractors
- Implementation runs months on large programs
- Pricing puts it out of reach for small residential and light commercial firms
What Makes eMars Useful for Davis-Bacon Audits?
eMars works on one problem: Davis-Bacon and prevailing wage compliance. It ingests payroll data from your accounting system and checks it against current federal and state wage determinations. The vendor positions the product as an audit checkpoint between accounting and the agency receiving the report.
That focus is the trade-off. You keep the payroll platform you already run and add a compliance layer on top, which fits contractors whose accounting stack works fine.
- Best for: Davis-Bacon compliance tracking alongside an existing payroll system
- Starting price: Not published
- Standout features: Discrepancy alerts, current wage determination library, general ledger imports
Advantages:
- Catches underpayments and rate errors before submission
- Narrow scope keeps the compliance engine accurate
- Imports from standard accounting and general ledger platforms
Disadvantages:
- The interface looks dated next to newer cloud tools
- No job costing or project management features
- You still pay for a separate primary payroll system
Where Does Points North Fit for Payroll Reporting?
Points North sells a certified payroll reporting add-on that bridges a standard payroll provider and government reporting. Big payroll processors handle tax filing well and prevailing wage logic poorly. Points North pulls wage data from hosts such as ADP, Paychex, or UKG, then formats it for submission.
It builds the rate tables and calculates the fringe offsets. A mid-sized contractor keeps its corporate payroll provider and still bids municipal and federal work.
- Best for: Mid-sized contractors committed to an outside payroll host
- Starting price: Not published
- Standout features: Payroll host connections, rate table automation, state and local form formats
Advantages:
- No need to replace an enterprise payroll provider
- Automates fringe offset calculations
- Covers a wide library of state and municipal report formats
Disadvantages:
- Depends on an active subscription to a compatible payroll host
- Thin feature set outside report generation
- Wrong choice for a team that wants one platform for accounting and operations
Is Foundation Software the Right Construction Accounting Fit?
Foundation Software is construction accounting with a certified payroll module built in. Job costing, equipment tracking, and prevailing wage calculations share one database, so field hours reach the WH-347 without a manual hand-off.
Union reporting is the strength. Set the project code, and the system applies the matching rates, deductions, and fringe treatment to hours coming in from the field.
- Best for: Contractors who want one platform for accounting and compliance
- Starting price: Not published
- Standout features: Native job costing, union reporting, field-to-office data flow
Advantages:
- Removes duplicate entry between accounting and compliance
- Handles union reporting and multi-state tax rules natively
- Shows actual labor cost against the estimate
Disadvantages:
- Initial setup demands real time from the accounting team
- More platform than a small team filing one form a week needs
- Higher total cost of ownership than a standalone reporting add-on
Can Sage 100 Contractor Manage Certified Payroll?
Sage 100 Contractor is an established accounting and project management system used by commercial builders. Administrators build project profiles that carry the wage and fringe rules for each site.
The appeal is financial control. Labor cost reporting is detailed, and the integration ecosystem for field time tracking is wide. The cost shows up in setup and ongoing administration.
- Best for: Established commercial builders that want tight financial controls
- Starting price: Not published
- Standout features: Job cost reporting, project-level wage profiles, fringe benefit controls
Advantages:
- Deep financial reporting and granular job costing
- Configurable enough to match an established corporate workflow
- Large third-party ecosystem for field time tracking
Disadvantages:
- Configuration usually means paying an outside consultant
- Rate tables need a dedicated administrator
- New hires need training before they are productive
Which Certified Payroll Setup Belongs in Your Next Bid?
Start with where your data already lives. If payroll runs fine on ADP or Paychex, a reporting add-on costs less and ships faster than replacing the stack. If your accounting system cannot carry job costs by classification, fix that layer first.
Then count the tiers. A prime managing twenty subcontractors needs validation pushed out to those subs, plus cloud-based WH-347 reporting so each one files from its own office. A single-crew contractor filing one form a week needs neither, and should not pay for them.
Last, price the seats across three years. Per-user fees on a compliance tool scale with headcount, not with the number of forms you file. Run those three checks against the shortlist above, then settle the question before your next bid goes out.
When None of These Fit: A Custom Build
Some contractors already run operations on a dashboard they own. Putting wage determinations, fringe rules, and WH-347 output inside that system removes per-seat fees and keeps compliance data next to job costs. Brixx Digital builds these systems; that is us. The work starts from a blueprint of your current filing process, not a feature list.
See our compliance solutions for how an owned build handles weekly filings, subcontractor roll-ups, and audit requests. Send us your current filing process and we will tell you what is worth automating first. This article is general information, not legal advice.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What is the best certified payroll software for federal contractors?
There is no single winner, because the right tool follows your structure. A prime running multiple subcontractor tiers on public works gets the most from LCPtracker. A mid-sized contractor staying on ADP or Paychex is better served by a reporting add-on such as Points North. A firm that wants accounting and compliance in one database should look at Foundation Software or Sage 100 Contractor.
What happens if I submit an inaccurate WH-347 form?
The contracting agency withholds payment until the report is corrected. Underpayments mean back wages, and disregard of Davis-Bacon obligations carries debarment from federal contracts for up to three years under 29 CFR 5.12.
How do I calculate fringe benefits on certified payroll?
Convert the benefits you provide into an hourly equivalent per worker, including health insurance, pension, and training contributions. If that hourly value falls short of the fringe rate in the wage determination, pay the difference to the worker in cash on the regular paycheck.
Do subcontractors file their own certified payroll reports?
Yes. Each subcontractor produces weekly certified payrolls for its own workforce. The prime contractor still collects, reviews, and submits those reports to the contracting agency, and carries responsibility for errors a subcontractor makes.
How does automation improve Form WH-347 accuracy?
Automation removes the retyping. The system holds the wage determination for each project, applies the matching classification and fringe rate to hours arriving from the field, calculates the cash-in-lieu difference per worker, and validates the week before anyone signs the Statement of Compliance. It also timestamps every change, which is what an investigator asks for three years later.