Certified payroll is a weekly payroll report, signed under a statement of compliance, that shows every worker on a covered job was paid at least the required prevailing wage and fringe benefits. It applies to contractors and subcontractors on federally funded or assisted construction contracts over $2,000 under the Davis-Bacon Act and its Related Acts. Georgia has no state prevailing wage law, so on Georgia work the requirement usually comes from federal money in the project. The Labor Department's Form WH-347 is the standard format, but using it is optional. The weekly reporting isn't.
Certified payroll usually shows up the first time a growing contractor wins a job with federal money in it. A school, a water project, a highway contract, a housing development with federal financing. It's not hard once it's set up. It's very hard to rebuild after six weeks of getting it wrong.
What certified payroll actually is
On covered projects, contractors must pay laborers and mechanics no less than the locally prevailing wages and fringe benefits for that type of work in that area. Certified payroll is how you prove you did.
Every week, you submit a payroll report for the job showing each worker, their labor classification, their hours each day, their rate, their fringe benefits and their pay. Then someone who paid or supervised the payment of those workers signs a Statement of Compliance certifying that the report is accurate and complete and that everyone got at least the required wage and fringes.
That signature carries weight. According to the Department of Labor, the signer is subject to federal false statement penalties, so it should be someone who actually knows the facts, not whoever happens to be in the office on Friday.
When a Georgia contractor needs it
The federal rule is the Davis-Bacon Act. It applies to contractors and subcontractors on federally funded or assisted contracts over $2,000 for the construction, alteration or repair, including painting and decorating, of public buildings or public works.
The "assisted" part is what catches people. Through the Davis-Bacon Related Acts, the same prevailing wage rules reach projects that federal agencies support through grants, loans, loan guarantees and insurance. So a project can be owned by a city, a county, a school district or even a private developer and still carry Davis-Bacon requirements because of where the money came from.
Georgia itself has no state prevailing wage law. That's different from many states, and it means a Georgia public job without federal money normally won't require certified payroll under state law. With federal money in the funding stack, it usually will. The bid documents and the contract are where you confirm it. Look for the wage determination and the Davis-Bacon contract clauses.
What goes on the weekly report
The Labor Department publishes Form WH-347 for this. Using that specific form is optional, but the information isn't. Whatever format your payroll system produces, it needs to cover the same ground:
| Section | What it includes |
|---|---|
| Project and contractor | Your company, the project, the contract and the payroll week. |
| Each worker | An identifier (the last four digits of the Social Security number or another ID, never the full number), and whether they're a journeyworker or a registered apprentice. |
| Classification | The labor classification from the wage determination for the work they actually did. |
| Hours and pay | Daily and weekly hours, rate of pay, fringe benefit credits or cash paid in lieu of fringes, gross pay, deductions and net pay. |
| Statement of Compliance | The signed certification. A real signature or a verified electronic signature. Photocopied or scanned signatures don't count. |
Two details matter for a company with subs. The contract clauses flow down to your subcontractors, so every tier on the job reports. And as the prime, you're the one collecting and submitting their payrolls, which means a sub's late or sloppy report becomes your problem.
Where it goes wrong
The wrong classification. A worker who spends the morning on one type of work and the afternoon on another may need to be split across classifications at different rates. Paying everyone at one blended rate is the most common way to underpay without meaning to.
Fringe benefits that don't add up. You can meet the fringe requirement by paying into bona fide benefit plans, by paying the amount in cash, or a mix. The math has to work per hour, per worker. Benefits that aren't really tied to hours on the covered job are where credits get challenged.
Payroll and job cost that don't match. If certified payroll lives in a spreadsheet separate from your accounting system, sooner or later the two disagree. Then you can't prove the report was accurate, and your job costs for that project are wrong too.
Treating it as paperwork. Contractors who've done private work for years sometimes treat certified payroll as forms to fill out after the fact. It's really a payroll setup question. Get the classifications, rates and fringes into the system before the first week, and the report almost produces itself.
Why it matters to your job costs and your bonding
Prevailing wage work changes your labor rate, and your labor rate drives your bid. If your estimate used your normal wage scale and the wage determination is higher, the margin is gone before the first pour. Build the bid from the wage determination, including fringes and payroll burden, and track it by the same cost codes you estimated with.
Public work is also usually bonded work. A contractor that steps into it with clean certified payroll, accurate job costing and a tidy WIP schedule is building exactly the track record a surety wants to see before raising a bonding limit.
What to set up before your first covered job
One: read the wage determination in the bid package and map every classification your crews will actually work in. Two: set those classifications, rates and fringes up in your payroll system, by job. Three: decide who signs the Statement of Compliance and make sure they understand what they're certifying. Four: put the reporting requirement in every subcontract, with a deadline that gives you time to review their reports before yours are due.
Setting up payroll and job costing for public and prevailing wage work is part of our construction accounting services for growing Georgia contractors.
Not every accounting system handles certified payroll the same way. We compare how QuickBooks, Sage and Foundation do it in construction accounting software compared.