What Is a Certified Payroll Report?

May 5, 2026 — WH347.io Team

If you've just won your first federal construction contract, you'll hear the term 'certified payroll' a lot. Here's exactly what it is, who has to file it, what it contains, and what happens if you get it wrong.

A certified payroll report is a weekly payroll record that federal contractors and subcontractors are required to submit to prove they're paying workers the correct prevailing wages on government-funded construction projects. It's not a standard pay stub or a general ledger export — it's a specific legal document that shows, worker by worker, exactly what was paid, what was deducted, and how many hours were worked on the federal job.

The official form is the WH-347, published by the Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division. It's two pages: the payroll table on page one, and the Statement of Compliance on page two. When you sign the Statement of Compliance, you're certifying under penalty of law that the information is accurate and complete.

Who Has to File a Certified Payroll Report?

Any contractor or subcontractor working on a federally funded or federally assisted construction project that is subject to the Davis-Bacon Act must submit certified payroll reports. This includes:

• Prime contractors on federal construction contracts over $2,000.
• Every subcontractor on those same projects, regardless of contract size or tier.
• Contractors on federally assisted projects — including projects funded through HUD, FHWA, FTA, or similar agencies — where Davis-Bacon requirements are written into the contract.
• State and local contractors on projects funded by federal grants, such as highway construction funded by federal transportation dollars.

If your contract documents reference the Davis-Bacon Act, include a wage determination, or require submission of certified payroll — you're covered, and so is every sub you hire.

What Is the Davis-Bacon Act?

The Davis-Bacon Act, passed in 1931, requires that workers on federal construction projects be paid no less than the prevailing wage for their trade and locality. 'Prevailing wage' is determined by the Department of Labor through wage surveys — it's essentially the going rate for a given trade in a given county or metropolitan area. A carpenter in rural Indiana has a different prevailing wage than a carpenter in San Francisco. The DOL publishes these rates in wage determinations, which are incorporated into each federal contract.

Certified payroll reports are the enforcement mechanism for Davis-Bacon. They're how the government verifies, week by week, that the prevailing wage is actually being paid. Without the reporting requirement, there would be no practical way to audit compliance across thousands of active federal job sites.

What Goes on a Certified Payroll Report?

The WH-347 form has a row for each worker who performed work on the federal project during that week. For each worker, you report:

• Name and last four digits of Social Security Number.
• Work classification — the trade or craft category (Carpenter, Laborer, Operating Engineer, etc.) from the wage determination.
• Hours worked each day, broken out by straight time and overtime.
• Hourly rate of pay, including the fringe benefit rate.
• Gross wages earned on the project for the week.
• Deductions — federal income tax, FICA, state income tax, and any others.
• Net wages paid.
• Whether fringe benefits are paid into a bona fide plan or paid as additional cash wages.

The payroll table covers one week per form. If your pay period is biweekly, you still submit one WH-347 per week — two forms per pay cycle.

What Is the Statement of Compliance?

Page two of the WH-347 is the Statement of Compliance — the legal certification that makes the document 'certified.' The person signing it (typically the contractor's owner, officer, or payroll administrator) is affirming that:

• The payroll data is correct and complete.
• Each worker listed was paid no less than the applicable prevailing wage rate.
• Fringe benefits were paid as stated.
• Any deductions made are lawful.

Filing a false certified payroll report is a federal crime under 18 U.S.C. § 1001, carrying potential fines and imprisonment. It's also grounds for debarment — being banned from future federal contracting work. This is not a form to rush through or rubber-stamp.

When Are Certified Payroll Reports Due?

Certified payroll reports are due to the contracting agency within seven days of the regular payday for the work week covered. In practice, most agencies want them submitted weekly, typically by Friday or the following Monday for work performed the prior week. The specific submission schedule and method are spelled out in your contract documents — some agencies accept email submissions, others require an online portal, and some still want paper copies.

Reports must be submitted for every week that work is performed on the project, even if it's just one worker for one day. For weeks where no work is performed, some agencies require a 'no work' or negative payroll certification — check your contract requirements.

How Are Certified Payroll Reports Submitted?

Submission methods vary by agency and project type:

• Federal projects: submitted directly to the contracting agency (Army Corps of Engineers, GSA, VA, etc.) — often by email or an agency-specific portal.
• Federal highway projects: many state DOTs use AASHTOWare Project, an online system that accepts XML uploads.
• California public works projects: submitted electronically through the DIR's eCPR portal, which also accepts XML.
• HUD-funded projects: often submitted through eCPR or directly to the local HUD office, depending on the program.

When in doubt, ask your contracting officer at project kickoff. Getting the submission method wrong is a common reason contractors end up with late or rejected reports.

What Happens If You Don't File — or File Incorrectly?

The consequences of certified payroll non-compliance range from administrative to severe:

• Withheld payments — contracting agencies can withhold progress payments until outstanding certified payrolls are submitted and accepted.
• Back wages — if workers were underpaid relative to the prevailing wage, the contractor owes the difference. The DOL can order back wage payments and require the contracting agency to ensure they're made from contract funds.
• Debarment — willful or repeated violations can result in being barred from federal contracting for up to three years. Debarment effectively ends a company's ability to compete for government work.
• Civil and criminal penalties — knowingly submitting false information on a certified payroll report can result in fines and federal prosecution.
• Contract termination — persistent non-compliance gives the agency grounds to terminate the contract for default.

In practice, first-time administrative errors — a missing signature, a misclassified worker, a transposed deduction amount — are typically resolved through correction and resubmission. Auditors distinguish between honest mistakes and intentional falsification. The key is to respond promptly when issues are flagged, correct the record, and document what happened.

Certified Payroll vs. Regular Payroll: What's Different?

Regular payroll records are internal business documents — kept for tax purposes, managed by your accountant or payroll processor, not shared with outside agencies. Certified payroll reports are public-facing compliance documents submitted to government agencies. The core wage data overlaps, but certified payroll adds the prevailing wage classification, the fringe benefit breakdown, and the legal certification that transforms a payroll summary into an enforceable compliance record.

This is why most contractors can't just export a report from ADP or Gusto and submit it. Payroll processors don't know about prevailing wage classifications, fringe benefit crediting rules, or the WH-347 format. Certified payroll is a separate compliance workflow that happens after your regular payroll runs.

Common Mistakes Contractors Make

• Using the wrong work classification — workers must be classified according to the wage determination in the contract, not internal job titles. A 'site supervisor' who swings a hammer is still a laborer for prevailing wage purposes.
• Forgetting overtime — Davis-Bacon itself doesn't require overtime pay, but the Contract Work Hours and Safety Standards Act does for most federal contracts. Workers get overtime (1.5x) after 40 hours per week.
• Misreporting fringe benefits — if fringe is paid into a plan, you can credit it against the required fringe rate. If it's paid as cash, it must be itemized differently. Getting this wrong understates your effective wage rate.
• Missing weeks — every week of work requires a report, even short weeks with minimal labor.
• Late submission — getting behind on certified payroll submissions is the fastest way to create payment problems on a federal project.
• Not keeping copies — you're required to retain certified payroll records for three years after project completion.

Do Subcontractors File Their Own Reports?

Yes. Every subcontractor on a covered project files their own certified payroll reports for their own workers. The prime contractor is responsible for ensuring that all subs are filing and may be required to collect and submit sub payrolls to the agency on their behalf, depending on the contract. Either way, the prime bears compliance responsibility for the entire project — if a sub fails to pay prevailing wages, the prime can be held liable.

If you're a prime contractor, build certified payroll submission requirements into your subcontract agreements and set up a weekly collection process from day one. Chasing delinquent sub payrolls at the end of a project is a common source of payment delays and headaches.

How WH347.io Simplifies the Process

WH347.io is purpose-built certified payroll software for federal contractors. You enter your workers, projects, and weekly timecard data — and the platform generates the completed WH-347 PDF, California eCPR XML, and AASHTOWare PRL XML automatically. The Statement of Compliance is pre-populated, prevailing wage classifications are tracked per project, and fringe benefit rates are applied per employee. The result is a submission-ready report without manual form-filling.

The paystub import feature takes it further: upload a PDF or photo of a worker's paystub and WH347.io extracts the hours, wages, and deductions directly, pre-filling the timecard for your review. For contractors running payroll through ADP, Gusto, QuickBooks, or any other processor, this eliminates most of the double-entry work that makes certified payroll tedious.

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