Payroll Software · Policy-manual review
Best Payroll Software for Construction Companies in 2026
Construction payroll requires certified payroll reports, prevailing wage compliance, union deductions, and job cost tracking.
At a glance
For construction payroll, demonstrate the required wage determinations, craft rates, fringe treatment, union remittance, certified submission and job-cost transfer. Evaluate construction payroll systems or a reporting partner against that sample project. Procore Workforce Management covers planning and labor tracking; a Procore-connected workflow needs a named payroll destination and reporting service, not an assumed native “Procore Payroll” module.
- Determine if your projects require certified payroll (Davis-Bacon Act applies to federal contracts over $2,000)
- Check your state for its own prevailing wage laws, many states have thresholds lower than federal
- Identify union requirements: union dues, fringe benefit contributions, and reporting to the fund office
- Confirm job cost tracking needs, payroll costs must often be allocated by project/cost code
- Verify Workers' Comp classification codes for each trade and subcontractor type
- Check overtime rules: construction often uses daily overtime in certain states (California, Nevada)
§1Why construction payroll is different
OnPay
Gusto
Patriot PayrollConstruction payroll has five layers of complexity that most industries do not face: (1) Certified payroll, federal contracts subject to the Davis-Bacon Act require weekly certified payroll information and signed compliance certification; WH-347 is an optional format for reports listing each worker's classification, hours, wage rates, and fringe benefit contributions; (2) Prevailing wage, workers on covered projects must be paid the prevailing wage for their classification in the project's geographic area, which varies by county and trade; (3) Multiple pay rates per worker, a carpenter might earn $38/hour on a prevailing wage project and $28/hour on private work in the same week; (4) Union deductions, union dues, health and welfare contributions, pension contributions, and training fund contributions must be tracked separately and remitted to the appropriate union fund office; (5) Job cost tracking, payroll costs must often be allocated to specific projects and cost codes for accurate project accounting.
Do not assume a general payroll subscription covers the entire construction workflow. Give Gusto, Patriot or another provider a representative project and verify classifications, multiple rates, fringe calculations, reporting, fund payments and job-cost output. Identify any required construction module, partner or reviewed export and price that work before committing.
The G2 data reflects this gap: in the construction payroll subcategory, purpose-built tools like Foundation Software and Viewpoint (Vista) dominate. General payroll tools like Gusto rank lower in construction-specific satisfaction scores despite their high overall ratings.
§2Purpose-built construction payroll tools
Foundation Software: the most widely used construction-specific payroll and accounting platform for mid-size contractors. Handles certified payroll reporting (WH-347), prevailing wage by project, union deductions with fund office reporting, and job cost allocation by project and cost code. Pricing is quote-based; expect a $3,000-5,000 setup fee plus roughly $300-600/month in ongoing licensing for a 20-person company, depending on modules. The implementation takes 4-8 weeks.
Sage 300 Construction (formerly Timberline): enterprise-grade construction ERP with integrated payroll. Handles certified payroll, union management, and complex job cost structures. Better for general contractors with 50+ field employees. Higher cost and longer implementation than Foundation.
Viewpoint Vista: similar enterprise positioning to Sage 300. Strong on certified payroll and multi-state construction compliance. Cloud-based option available.
Procore Workforce Management covers workforce planning, scheduling and labor tracking. Its Timesheets documentation describes exporting time data into Payroll in Sage 300 CRE, with matching employee IDs, classifications, pay IDs, projects and cost codes. Require the actual payroll product, connector or export, certified-reporting service and complete quote. A field-time integration does not establish native payroll calculation, fringe remittance or certified submission inside Procore.
§3Mainstream payroll tools for simpler construction needs
OnPay ($49/month + $6/employee) is the best mainstream payroll tool for small construction companies that need multiple pay rates and basic certified payroll support. OnPay handles multi-rate employees (different rates by project type or classification), generates the data needed for certified payroll reports, and has strong support for the manual adjustments that prevailing wage work sometimes requires. It does not generate WH-347 reports automatically, you still need to compile the certified payroll spreadsheet, but the payroll data is accurate and exportable.
Gusto Plus ($80/month + $12/employee) is worth considering for construction companies where QuickBooks is the accounting system. The Gusto-QuickBooks integration is strong, and many construction accountants already use QuickBooks for job costing. Payroll data flows into QuickBooks project records automatically. Like OnPay, Gusto does not generate WH-347 reports natively.
Patriot Full Service Payroll ($37/month + $5/employee) covers basic hourly construction payroll at the lowest cost. One state filing is included in Full Service; additional state filings cost $12 monthly each. The limitation: no native certified payroll reporting and the interface is dated. For a small residential contractor with no prevailing wage exposure, Patriot works. For any government contract work, the compliance gap is too large.
§4Davis-Bacon and certified payroll: what you need to know
On covered Davis-Bacon and Related Acts work, contractors must meet the applicable wage determination and provide weekly certified payroll information with a signed Statement of Compliance. DOL makes WH-347 available as an optional format. Another format must supply the required information and use identical certification wording. Confirm the recipient and any separate state reporting requirements.
State prevailing wage laws (often called "Little Davis-Bacon" acts) exist in 32 states with their own thresholds and wage determinations. California's prevailing wage law applies to state contracts over $1,000, a much lower threshold than federal. New York, Illinois, and Washington have similarly broad prevailing wage coverage.
The compliance risk: certified payroll errors, misclassifying a worker, underpaying prevailing wages, or failing to submit reports on time, can result in project disqualification, back wages, debarment from future government contracts, and in serious cases, criminal penalties. This is the primary reason purpose-built construction payroll software is worth the higher cost for contractors with prevailing wage exposure.
For a covered public project, test the required wage and fringe calculations and recipient reporting format before selecting a system. A construction payroll engine or a reporting add-on may fit; if Procore supplies field records, identify the payroll destination and how those records are validated. Private projects without prevailing-wage exposure still need the ordinary tax, overtime and job-cost workflows to work correctly.
§5Foundation and points North: certified payroll specialists worth a closer look
When certified payroll is the dealbreaker rather than a nice-to-have, two names come up repeatedly among contractors: Foundation Software and Points North. Both built their reputations around the WH-347 form and the union/prevailing-wage edge cases that trip up general-purpose payroll engines.
Foundation Software ships a full construction-specific accounting suite with payroll at its core. It handles unlimited unions, multiple trades per employee on a single timecard, automatic fringe calculations, and certified payroll reports across all 50 states plus many municipal and county wage determinations. Pricing is quote-based and lands on the higher end: most contractors report all-in costs starting around $3,000-$5,000 for setup plus monthly licensing scaled to employee count, which makes it a fit for outfits with 20+ field workers running steady government work. Foundation carries a solid G2 standing among construction accounting tools, with reviewers praising depth and criticizing the learning curve.
Points North Certified Payroll Reporting takes a different approach: instead of replacing your payroll system, it sits on top of it. It integrates with ADP, Paychex, Gusto, QuickBooks, and others, pulling hours and wage data to generate compliant certified payroll, EEO, and fringe benefit reports. That add-on model keeps costs lower (typically a few hundred dollars per month, depending on report volume and integrations) and lets a contractor keep the payroll provider their bookkeeper already knows. It's a smart pick for a 10-30 employee firm that wants compliance reporting without ripping out an existing Gusto or OnPay setup.
Rule of thumb: choose Foundation when you want one system of record for job costing and payroll together, and Points North when your payroll runs fine but the WH-347 paperwork is the only thing keeping you up at night.
§6Union fringe, prevailing wage, and multi-trade rates: where generic payroll breaks
A construction pay run can combine several job-specific craft rates and fringe arrangements for one worker. Test those cases in the proposed Gusto, OnPay or construction payroll setup. Support for multiple pay rates alone does not establish correct prevailing-wage determinations, overtime blending, reporting or union remittance; confirm the complete configuration and review process.
Prevailing wage is the legally mandated base hourly rate for a worker classification on a public works project, set by the Department of Labor (Davis-Bacon) or by state law. Fringe is the additional hourly amount layered on top, covering health insurance, pension, vacation, and training funds. Contractors can either pay fringe in cash on the paycheck or remit it to a union benefit fund, and the certified payroll report has to show exactly how each dollar was handled. Get the cash-versus-fund split wrong and you risk a wage restitution finding.
A worker performing more than one craft needs accurate hours for each classification, the applicable wage and fringe calculations, and the required deductions. Have the proposed payroll engine demonstrate those entries and any union payments. In a Procore-to-Sage workflow, Procore’s documentation requires classification, time-type and union-field mapping; it does not establish that Workforce Management itself owns a prevailing-wage library or automates fund remittance.
For a non-union contractor doing occasional prevailing-wage work, a lighter add-on like Points North bridging to Gusto is often enough. For a union shop with three or more trades, a construction-native engine pays for itself in avoided errors within the first audit cycle.
§7Job costing and WIP integration plus pricing: matching the tool to the firm
Payroll on a construction job isn't just a paycheck. It's the largest variable cost feeding job costing and work-in-progress (WIP) reporting. Every labor hour needs to land against the right job, phase, and cost code so a project manager can see real-time labor burn against the estimate, and so the controller can calculate over/under billings at month-end. A payroll tool that doesn't push labor cost into the job ledger forces double entry and stale numbers.
The strongest setups tie payroll directly to project accounting. Procore connects field timecards to its budget and WIP modules; Sage Intacct Construction and Sage 100 Contractor treat labor as a native cost-code dimension; and QuickBooks Online plus a construction time app (T-sheets/QuickBooks Time, Knowify) gives smaller firms a workable job-cost picture for far less money. The trade-off is depth versus price: the heavier the integration, the higher the cost and the steeper the onboarding.
Pricing varies widely by firm size and how much compliance you need. The table below frames the practical options:
| Solution | Approx. pricing | Certified payroll | Job costing / WIP | Best fit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gusto + Points North | $49/mo base + $6/emp, plus ~$200-400/mo add-on | Via Points North | Basic (sync to QBO) | 5-25 emp, occasional gov't work |
| QuickBooks Online + QB Time | $99/mo base + $5/emp (Time add-on) | Limited / manual | Cost codes, basic WIP | Small GC, light job costing |
| Foundation Software | ~$3k-5k setup + monthly license | Native, all 50 states | Full native | 20+ field workers, steady prevailing wage |
| Sage 100 Contractor | ~$140+/user/mo (quote-based) | Native | Full native | Mid-size contractor, AP/AR + payroll |
| Procore-connected payroll workflow | Quote platform, payroll and connector separately | Confirm report service in the named payroll destination | Validate project and cost-code mapping | Contractor using Procore field-time records |
The honest takeaway: a 10-person remodeler doing one public job a year should not buy Foundation; Gusto plus a certified-payroll add-on covers it for a fraction of the cost. A 40-person union contractor running federal and state jobs weekly will lose more in compliance errors and manual entry than a construction-native system costs. Match the tool to your real job mix, not the most impressive feature list.
See also: best payroll software for cleaning businesses, certified payroll software for small subcontractors, payroll software for farm and ag workers for related options.
§8Frequently asked questions
What information must a WH-347 certified-payroll filing include, and when is one required?
Use the DOL instructions to configure the worker identifier, craft, time worked, amounts paid, deductions and benefit credits. The reporting duty attaches to covered federal construction work. WH-347 can organize those details, but another accepted format may be used with the same required certification text.
How often does WH-347 need to be submitted?
Prepare a wage record covering each week of the covered job, and verify the recipient’s delivery deadline. Someone with knowledge of the payments must sign the accompanying certification. Ask who will transmit it; retain a delivery receipt after the responsible person transmits the signed record.
What counts as prevailing wage?
Read the determination attached to the contract and find the craft category for the actual duties. The obligation combines the specified hourly wage and the applicable benefit amount. Document whether benefits are satisfied through qualifying contributions, cash payments, or a permitted combination.
Has the WH-347 form itself changed recently? Retrieve the current form and annotated instructions from DOL before configuring a report template. The current page lists an OMB expiration date of January 31, 2028. An OMB date is not a universal deadline for every recipient’s reporting system; confirm the fields and format accepted for your project.
How long do I need to keep WH-347 payroll records? Contractors must retain detailed payroll records for a minimum of three years after project completion [DOL, 2025].
Do generic payroll platforms produce a compliant WH-347 automatically? Require a demonstration using your project’s rates, craft changes, overtime and benefits. Confirm whether the proposed package generates the required fields, needs a separate reporting partner, or only exports data for further preparation. Review certification and delivery duties separately from software generation.