What is certified payroll?
Certified payroll is a United States federal requirement that proves withholdings and gross wages compliance. A federal form (WH-347) has to be submitted weekly to the agency that is overseeing a government contract. Typically Subcontractors that work on Government contracts are required to track all employees, their wages, the benefits they are entitled to, the type of work they did, and the hours they worked. In 2019, we’ll see more and more contractors choosing digital time tracking solutions to ensure the accuracy of the payroll.
A payroll is deemed to be “certified” when it has a signed statement of compliance by an overseeing agency that indicates the payroll forms are accurate and complete. Each employee has been paid for the work performed according to the Davis-Bacon Act (prevailing wage).
When does Davis-Bacon Act apply?
According to the United States Department of Labor, the Davis-Bacon and related Acts, apply to contractors and subcontractors performing on federally funded or assisted contracts in excess of $2,000 for the construction, alteration, or repair of public buildings or works.
This means that contractors and subcontractors who work on federal projects in the construction industry require an easy-to-use system to record laborers’ activities and pay rates that can be associated with specific projects.
“Many of our competitors still use paper timesheets that often get lost on job sites. A few of the GC’s we work for, actually require us to use their time-tracking app. That works, but it gets very cumbersome for our crews when they are working on multiple projects that use different software platforms.”
With Assignar, the crews have 1 app where they can record their activities and times for multiple projects if needed. The guys in the office can easily access process the data to fill out the WH-347 form and easily send the data to our General contractor’s portals. – Jason B.
What is the Davis-Bacon Act?
Under the Davis-Bacon Act, contractors, as well as subcontractors, must pay their laborers and mechanics employed under the awarded federal contract no less than the locally prevailing wages and fringe benefits for corresponding work on similar projects in the area.
Record keeping of payroll
Under the Davis-Bacon Act, General and Subcontractors are required to record the following payroll and basic information for all laborers and mechanics employed on site.
- Full name
- Address
- Full social security number
- Worker classification
- Regular hourly rate of pay, including rates of contributions anticipated for fringe benefits or their cash equivalents.
- Daily and weekly numbers of hours worked
- Deductions
- Actual wage paid
- If applicable, detailed information regarding various fringe benefit plans and programs, including records that show that the plan or program has been communicated in wring to the laborers and mechanics affected’ and
- If applicable, detailed information regarding approved apprenticeships or trainee programs.
“Assignar records all the information we require to process and certify our payroll, it’s made that whole process so much easier.”
– Jason B.
When contractors and subcontractors submit their weekly payroll for certification, they must have a complete and accurate record of the name of each worker, Employee identification number (ie. last 4 digits of social security number), worker classification, hourly rates, daily and weekly numbers worked, deductions made and the actual wage paid to each employee.
Source: https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/construction/contracts/dbra_qa.pdf
Using software for payroll record keeping
When records are maintained via a software solution, contractors are required to follow the same retention procedures as on paper. That means that record systems provided to laborers and mechanics provide integrity, accuracy, authenticity, and reliability.
When looking for software to manage certified payroll, contractors must look for a system that satisfies the following requirements:
- The software has reasonable controls to ensure the integrity, accuracy, authenticity, and reliability of the records kept in electronic format;
- The software is capable of retaining, preserving, retrieving, and reproducing electronic records;
- The software is able to readily convert paper originals stored in electronic format back into legible and readable paper copies; and
- The software has adequate records management practices in place.
How does Assignar help contractors with their (certified) payroll?
Assignar is operations software that helps contractors and construction professionals manage every aspect of their day-to-day field operations. Including project scheduling, workforce and asset management, and compliance processes. The platform has a time tracking feature to manage the entire payroll.
Every employee has an extensive profile within the system. Where all basic information, as well as activities and licenses, are stored. It’s easy to retrieve on which projects laborers have worked and for how long.
During the day, crews can add activities to their timesheets that are linked to different payrates. Laborers that are doing 1 activity a day can have a simple check-in, check-out option in their app as well.
Once, the timesheet has been submitted, Assignar allows payroll processors to export the payroll to their preferred accounting system and lock the data so that it can’t be altered afterward. Laborers have unlimited access to all previous timesheets via the mobile app.
Learn how Assignar helps your operations
Assignar is built for sub and self-perform contractors that operate in a highly-regulated environment. The timesheet functionality is part of an end-to-end platform that is specificly built to manage the entire field operations. Request a demo to learn how Assignar works.
