What to look for in a certified payroll generator

On Davis-Bacon and related projects, covered contractors and subcontractors have to submit payroll information every week with a signed Statement of Compliance. The WH-347 itself is optional, but its layout is widely used, so many people look for a "certified payroll generator" to produce it. Here is a practical checklist, followed by an honest look at when you do not need one at all.

1. Where does your payroll data go?

A certified payroll contains names, worker identifiers, pay rates, deductions and net pay. Ask any tool:

• Is the file uploaded to a server, or processed on your own device?
• Do you need an account, and what is stored in it?
• Does it print full SSNs? The DOL instructions say full Social Security numbers must not be included; an identifier such as the last four digits is used instead.

2. Does it check the numbers?

A generator that only copies numbers into boxes will copy mistakes too. Useful checks include daily hours adding to the weekly total, straight time over 40 being flagged, gross matching rate times hours, net matching gross minus deductions, and missing names or classifications. None of this replaces knowing your wage determination, but it catches typos and export problems before someone signs.

3. Does it leave page 2 for a real signature?

Page 2, the Statement of Compliance, is signed by the contractor or its agent who paid or supervised the payment of the workers. Per the DOL instructions, legally valid electronic signatures are acceptable; photocopied or scanned signatures are not. Our advice: be wary of a tool that pastes a stored signature image onto every week's payroll, which looks a lot like the scanned signature the instructions rule out. Let the certifying person review each payroll and sign it. See the Statement of Compliance guide.

4. Does it handle more than one page of workers?

A crew larger than one sheet needs continuation sheets, with the header repeated and the worker numbering carried on. Check this with a realistic file, not a three-person demo.

5. What does it cost, and for how long?

Look at whether pricing is per project, per month or per worker, and whether you can see the output before paying.

When DOL's free option is enough

The Department of Labor links a free online fillable WH-347 and a WH-347 web helper alongside its instructions for Form WH-347. If you have a handful of workers and are comfortable typing hours and amounts each week, start there. It costs nothing.

A generator earns its keep when your payroll already exists as a CSV or Excel export, the crew is large enough that retyping is slow and error-prone, or you want the arithmetic checked every week.

Where the WH-347 Layout Tool fits

The WH-347 Layout Tool by Automation Glass is built for the "I already have an export" case:

• Browser-only. CSV, .xlsx and .xls files are read in your browser tab. The payroll is not uploaded, and there is no account.
• Column mapping. It works with any CSV or Excel export: you map your columns once, save the mapping, and reuse it every week. It has no payroll-provider templates and does not guess column meanings from header names.
• Validation. The checks listed above, plus an optional comparison of rates against a prevailing-wage reference you enter.
• Output. SSN last four only, payroll number auto-incremented per project, continuation sheets past eight workers. Page 2 is filled with the header, certifying official name and title, the boxes you tick and remarks; signature, date, phone and email are left blank. It does not compute fringe or fill the apprenticeship or hourly-credit tables.
• Price. A free watermarked preview ("do not file"). The clean PDF and a normalized CSV are $39 one-time for one project for 31 days, or $29/month for one project, renewing monthly.

It is not legal, payroll or tax advice, and it does not decide classifications or rates. For the import side in detail, see making a WH-347 from Excel or CSV.