Best Certified Payroll Software 2026: WH-347 Guide

What certified payroll is (and is not)

Certified payroll is a weekly compliance report required on construction projects covered by the Davis-Bacon Act (federal funding) or state prevailing wage laws. The standard federal form is the WH-347, which lists each employee's name, classification (carpenter, electrician, etc.), hours worked, gross wages, deductions, and net pay for the week. The contractor signs a statement of compliance certifying that all workers were paid at or above the applicable prevailing wage.

Certified payroll is not the same as payroll processing. Your payroll software runs payroll; certified payroll reporting documents that the payroll met regulatory wage minimums. Many contractors run payroll in one system (Gusto, QuickBooks, ADP) and generate certified payroll reports in a separate tool.

The requirement is per-project and per-week. A contractor with three active prevailing wage projects must submit three separate certified payroll reports each week for each project. The submission destination varies: federal projects go to the contracting agency; state and local projects go to the state department of labor or, increasingly, to a third-party compliance platform like LCPtracker that the GC or public agency has designated.

LCPtracker: the platform most agencies require

LCPtracker is the dominant certified payroll compliance platform on public construction projects. It is not a payroll processor; it is a compliance management and reporting tool. Many public agencies (school districts, transit authorities, municipalities) and general contractors require that their subcontractors submit certified payroll through LCPtracker rather than on paper or by email.

How it works: your payroll data is imported into LCPtracker (via direct integration with QuickBooks, ADP, or Gusto, or via CSV upload), the system checks for compliance against the applicable prevailing wage determination, and you submit the report through LCPtracker's portal. The GC or agency receives an email notification and can review reports in their LCPtracker account.

Pricing for subcontractors on LCPtracker is set by the project owner, not by LCPtracker itself. Public agencies typically pay LCPtracker for the platform; subcontractors either access it for free through the agency license or pay a small per-project fee. Check with your GC or the project owner on how access is provided for a specific project.

LCPtracker also handles fringe benefit tracking, apprentice utilization requirements, OCIP/CCIP insurance tracking, and training fund hours for projects with those requirements. For a subcontractor doing significant public work, having a LCPtracker account and knowing how to import payroll data is a practical requirement.

QuickBooks Payroll: built-in WH-347 for smaller operations

QuickBooks Payroll Premium and Enterprise include a certified payroll report that generates a WH-347-compatible output directly from payroll data. For a small contractor on occasional federal projects who does not have a GC or agency requiring LCPtracker, this is the lowest-friction path: run payroll in QuickBooks, generate the certified payroll report, and submit it to the contracting officer.

Setup requirements: each job must be created in QuickBooks with the correct wage determination codes, each employee must have the right classification assigned per project, and prevailing wage rates must be entered manually. The certified payroll report then pulls from this job and employee configuration.

State-specific formats are where QuickBooks falls short. QuickBooks generates a federal WH-347-compatible report; many states have their own certified payroll forms with different column layouts and data fields. California's DIR A-1-131 form, for example, has different fields than the federal WH-347. For state projects, you may need to use LCPtracker, your state's required submission portal, or a manual process alongside QuickBooks.

Payroll4Construction: for union contractors with both needs

If you have union employees on prevailing wage projects, you need both certified payroll reporting and benefit fund remittance calculations. Payroll4Construction is built to handle both in one system: it tracks hours by trade classification, calculates union fringe benefit contributions, generates certified payroll reports in multiple state formats, and provides remittance reports for union funds.

The purpose-built approach eliminates the double-entry problem that comes from running payroll in QuickBooks and exporting to LCPtracker. Everything is in one system keyed to trade classifications and project codes from day one.

For a union specialty contractor doing significant prevailing wage work, the higher monthly cost of Payroll4Construction typically pays for itself in administrative time saved versus the manual data management required in QuickBooks + LCPtracker.

Frequently asked questions

What is the WH-347 form? The WH-347 is the federal certified payroll form required on Davis-Bacon projects. It is issued by the US Department of Labor and available for download at dol.gov. The form requires the contractor name and address, project name and number, payroll date, and for each employee: name, last four digits of SSN, work classification, hours worked each day, total hours, pay rates, gross wages, deductions (taxes, FICA, union dues), and net pay. A statement of compliance must be signed by an owner or authorized officer.

How often do I submit certified payroll? Weekly. The WH-347 covers one week of payroll for a specific project. For weeks when no work is performed, you typically submit a "no work" or "negative" certified payroll to document the gap. Submission deadlines vary by project, but weekly submission on Monday or Tuesday covering the prior week is standard.

Can I use Gusto or ADP for certified payroll? Gusto and ADP do not natively generate WH-347 reports. For certified payroll, you would export payroll data from Gusto or ADP and import it into LCPtracker or a similar platform, or complete the WH-347 manually from payroll reports. The manual route is feasible for a few employees on one project; it becomes untenable at scale.

What is the penalty for submitting inaccurate certified payroll? Under the Davis-Bacon Act, contractors who knowingly submit false certified payroll can face debarment from federal contracts for up to three years, plus back wage liability for underpaid workers. False certification is a federal offense. Accurate classification and wage tracking is not optional.