Certified payroll software
Certified payroll is only as good as the hours underneath it.
Prevailing wage reporting asks a question most time tracking cannot answer: exactly how many hours did this person work on this project, on this day. If your crew splits days across public and private work and reconstructs it on Friday, you are certifying a reconstruction. Punchless attributes every hour to a job site as it happens, then builds the WH-347 from the hours a manager already approved.
What makes certified payroll hard
The form is not the difficult part. The data behind it is.
Per-project attribution
Davis-Bacon reporting is per project. A technician who spends the morning on a school job and the afternoon on a private remodel has to be split correctly. Handwritten timesheets almost never split at the real moment; they split at whatever the person remembers.
Overtime across projects
Overtime is earned across the workweek, not per project, then has to be allocated back. Doing that by hand across five projects and seven days is where most errors enter.
Base and fringe kept separate
The form wants the base rate and the fringe benefit rate as distinct numbers, not a blended one. Payroll systems that only carry a loaded rate cannot produce a compliant row.
The Statement of Compliance
A signed statement accompanies the report. You are personally attesting to the accuracy of numbers that, on a manual system, someone assembled from memory a week later.
Weekly, per contract, on time
It is a recurring obligation for the life of the contract. The cost is rarely one hard week; it is the same three hours every week for eight months.
It has to survive an audit
The question in an audit is not whether the arithmetic adds up. It is whether the hours are real. Records generated at the moment of the event, with an audit trail of edits, answer that better than clean numbers with no provenance.
Reconstructed on Friday
- Technician splits the week across projects from memory
- Overtime allocated by hand, or not at all
- Base and fringe blended into one rate
- Hours land on neat half hours across every project
- You sign a Statement of Compliance for numbers you cannot verify
Attributed as it happened
- Each site visit is its own attributed block
- Overtime reconciled weekly, then allocated across projects
- Base and fringe carried separately
- Times reflect actual arrivals and departures
- You sign for hours you already reviewed and approved
How Punchless produces the report
01
Mark the job as prevailing wage
Flag the public-works jobs and set the base and fringe rates for the classifications on that contract. Everything downstream keys off that flag.
02
Hours attribute themselves
Geofence crossings assign hours to the specific job site where the work happened, as it happens. A day split across a public job and two private calls comes out already split.
03
A manager reviews and approves
The report is built from approved timecards by default. Nothing reaches a compliance filing because a device recorded it; a human signs off first, and every override is logged.
04
Export the WH-347
Pick a week and export. You get a WH-347-style PDF including the Statement of Compliance page, or a CSV if your payroll service wants the data rather than the form. Hours are grouped Monday to Sunday by employee and day, with straight, overtime and double time reconciled across the week, plus base, fringe and gross earned.
Questions worth asking any certified payroll vendor
Where do the per-project hours come from?
If the answer is that a worker selects a project when clocking in, the report inherits every selection error. Ask what happens when someone picks the wrong project or forgets to switch.
Is certified payroll native or a partner integration?
Several tools in this category route certified payroll through a third party who generates the actual forms. That works, but it is another vendor, another cost and another data handoff. Punchless generates it directly.
Which plan includes it?
Compliance features are commonly reserved for top tiers. In Punchless, certified payroll export is available on every plan, including during the trial.
Does it handle overtime allocation across projects?
Weekly overtime allocated back to the projects that earned it is the single most error-prone calculation in this whole process. Ask to see it done on a split week before you buy.
Does it file for me?
Punchless does not, and you should be suspicious of anyone who says they do. We produce the report and the Statement of Compliance. You review it, sign it and submit it to the contracting agency. The signature has to be yours.
Common questions
What is certified payroll software?+
It is software that produces the weekly payroll reports required on public-works contracts subject to Davis-Bacon or a state prevailing-wage law. In the United States the common format is Form WH-347, which lists each worker, their classification, hours worked per day on that project, straight and overtime hours, the base and fringe rates, and gross earnings, accompanied by a signed Statement of Compliance.
Does Punchless generate Form WH-347?+
Yes. You can export a WH-347-style PDF that includes the Statement of Compliance page, or a CSV if your payroll provider prefers raw data. Hours are grouped Monday to Sunday by employee and day, with straight, overtime and double time reconciled across the week and allocated across projects, plus base rate, fringe and gross earned.
Does Punchless submit certified payroll for me?+
No. We generate the report and the Statement of Compliance from your approved timecards. You review it, sign it and submit it to the contracting agency or its portal. The attestation is a personal one and it should stay with the person who can actually vouch for the hours.
Is certified payroll included on every plan?+
Yes, including during the 30-day trial. It is not reserved for a higher tier. Access is limited by role rather than by plan: managers and owners can export it, technicians cannot.
How does GPS help with prevailing wage compliance?+
Prevailing wage reporting is per project, and the hardest part is knowing exactly which hours belong to which project. Because Punchless attributes hours to a job site from the geofence crossing at the moment it happens, a day split between a public job and private work arrives already split, rather than being divided from memory at the end of the week.
What if the automatic hours are wrong?+
Then you correct them before approving, which is the point of the approval step. Certified payroll builds from approved timecards by default, and every manager override is logged with who made it and when. That audit trail is worth more in a review than a set of numbers nobody can trace.
Is this legal advice?+
No. We build software, not legal opinions. Prevailing-wage rules vary between the federal Davis-Bacon Act and individual state statutes, and classification questions in particular can be genuinely difficult. Talk to your own counsel or your contracting agency about how the rules apply to your contract.
Next
Certify hours you can actually stand behind.
30 days free, no credit card. Flag a prevailing-wage job, run a week, and export the WH-347 before you commit to anything.