Free Certified Payroll Survival Guide for Contractors
Stay compliant, avoid penalties, and simplify certified payroll reporting with our step-by-step guide.
The Certified Payroll Guide for Contractors
Prevailing wage work pays well. The reporting that comes with it is where contractors lose money — usually not to penalties, but to progress payments held while somebody figures out the paperwork.
This is a plain-English walkthrough of what certified payroll actually requires, written for the person who has to file it on Friday. No jargon, no assumption you already know what a wage determination is, and no sales pitch buried in the middle.
What's Inside
- When it applies — the $2,000 federal threshold, federally assisted projects, Texas public works, and how requirements flow down to subs
- How to read a wage determination — base rate versus fringe, classifications, and finding the right one for your county
- WH-347, line by line — including why the form itself is optional but the reporting isn't
- Fringe benefits done correctly — cash in lieu versus bona fide plans, and the hourly-credit math that trips up most contractors
- The Statement of Compliance — what you're actually certifying when you sign it
- Apprentices — registration requirements and the ratio rules
- Six audit findings we see most — and how each one happens to honest contractors
- Record retention — how long, and what counts
- A one-page weekly checklist you can hand to whoever files
Get Your Certified Payroll Guide
The Certified Payroll Guide for Contractors
Prevailing wage work pays well. The reporting that comes with it is where contractors lose money — usually not to penalties, but to progress payments held while somebody figures out the paperwork.
This is a plain-English walkthrough of what certified payroll actually requires, written for the person who has to file it on Friday. No jargon, no assumption you already know what a wage determination is, and no sales pitch buried in the middle.
What's Inside
- When it applies — the $2,000 federal threshold, federally assisted projects, Texas public works, and how requirements flow down to subs
- How to read a wage determination — base rate versus fringe, classifications, and finding the right one for your county
- WH-347, line by line — including why the form itself is optional but the reporting isn't
- Fringe benefits done correctly — cash in lieu versus bona fide plans, and the hourly-credit math that trips up most contractors
- The Statement of Compliance — what you're actually certifying when you sign it
- Apprentices — registration requirements and the ratio rules
- Six audit findings we see most — and how each one happens to honest contractors
- Record retention — how long, and what counts
- A one-page weekly checklist you can hand to whoever files
Written for the Person Who Actually Files It
Not for a compliance department. Most people doing this work have a different job title.
First Prevailing Wage Job
You won public work for the first time and found the reporting requirement buried in the contract documents. Start here — the guide assumes you have never seen a wage determination.
The Office Manager Filing It
You inherited certified payroll because you handle the paperwork, not because anyone trained you on it. The weekly checklist at the back exists specifically for you.
Already Filing, Quietly Unsure
You've been submitting for a while and it's been accepted, which isn't the same as being correct. The fringe and classification sections are worth ten minutes of your time.
Because Almost Nobody Fails at This Dishonestly
We prepare and submit certified payroll every week for contractors, and the errors we find are almost never someone cutting corners. They're the predictable result of a complicated weekly obligation handled by a person whose actual job is something else — and the most common single error, by a wide margin, is a fringe benefit credit calculated from a monthly premium without dividing by the hours actually worked.
That mistake is invisible until an audit, and it creates real back-wage liability. It also takes about two paragraphs to explain properly. So we wrote the two paragraphs down, along with everything else contractors keep asking us.
Every requirement in the guide is cited to the U.S. Department of Labor or the Code of Federal Regulations, so you can verify any of it yourself instead of taking our word for it. If you'd rather hand the whole thing to someone, that's what our certified payroll service is for — but the guide stands on its own, and nothing useful is held back inside it.
On your email address: we send you the guide and, occasionally, something else we think is genuinely useful. We don't sell or share your information, and you can unsubscribe in one click. On scope: Bulverde Business Solutions provides payroll, certified payroll, bookkeeping, and financial operations services. We are not a CPA firm and not a law firm. This guide is general information, not legal or tax advice. Prevailing wage requirements are fact-specific — whether a particular project is covered, and how a particular worker should be classified, are questions for your construction attorney or the contracting agency.
Rather Not Deal With It At All?
We prepare and submit certified payroll every week as part of running payroll — including the portal filings, the rejections, and the corrections.
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