Most contractors don't realize how much time and money they spend on manual WH-347 reporting. Use this calculator to find out.
Many contractors don't track how much time and money they spend on certified payroll reporting. Between looking up wage determinations, calculating fringe benefits, filling out WH-347 forms, double-checking math, and submitting to agencies, the hours add up quickly.
The Department of Labor's own Paperwork Reduction Act statement, printed on the WH-347 form itself (Rev. Jan 2025), estimates 55 minutes per response. That figure covers filling in the form. It leaves out finding the right wage determination, working out fringe credits and overtime for each classification, reconciling deductions against your payroll system, and then doing all of it again for every project you have running that week. Add those steps and a single report often takes 1 to 3 hours in practice, which is why the slider above defaults to 2.
For a contractor running 5 projects with weekly payrolls, that's 20+ reports per month and potentially 20 to 60 hours of payroll processing time. If you want the line-by-line version, read the full Excel vs. software cost breakdown. And the time is only half of it. A rejected or corrected report costs more than the hour it took to prepare; see what a single WH-347 error actually costs.
Comparing vendors? Start with our certified payroll software comparison or the LCPtracker alternative breakdown.
CertifiedPayrollPro auto-imports prevailing wage rates from SAM.gov, remembers your workers and their classifications, auto-calculates fringe benefits and overtime, validates every field before submission, and generates print-ready WH-347 PDFs. What used to take 2 hours takes about 15 minutes. If you want to see every step that disappears, compare it against the manual WH-347 checklist you're replacing.
How much does certified payroll cost per report?
With CertifiedPayrollPro the Starter plan is $49 per month plus $5 per report, the Pro plan is $99 per month plus $3 per report, and Enterprise is $249 per month plus $1 per report. Done by hand, the cost is your payroll person's time: at $35 per hour and 2 hours per report, a manual WH-347 costs about $70 in labor before you count wage lookups, corrections, or resubmissions.
How long does a WH-347 take manually?
The Department of Labor's Paperwork Reduction Act estimate printed on the WH-347 form (Rev. Jan 2025) is 55 minutes per response. That figure only covers filling in the form. Once you add looking up the wage determination, working out fringe credits and overtime for each classification, and repeating the process for every active project, most contractors report 1 to 3 hours per report in practice.
Is certified payroll software worth it for a small contractor?
Usually yes once you file more than a handful of reports a month. A contractor filing 12 reports a month at 2 hours each and $35 per hour spends about $840 a month on manual reporting. The same volume on the Starter plan costs $49 plus 12 reports at $5, or $109 a month, and takes about 3 hours instead of 24. If you file only one or two reports a month the savings are much smaller, so run the sliders with your own numbers.
What does this certified payroll cost calculator include and leave out?
It compares your payroll person's time at your hourly rate against CertifiedPayrollPro's monthly plan fee plus the per-report fee, assuming about 15 minutes per report with the software. It does not include the cost of errors, late submissions, agency rework requests, or back-wage findings, which can be far larger than the time cost. It also does not include any payroll provider fees you already pay.
Which CertifiedPayrollPro plan does the calculator assume?
Starter ($49 per month, $5 per report) for up to 5 active projects, Pro ($99 per month, $3 per report) for 6 to 25 projects, and Enterprise ($249 per month, $1 per report) above 25 projects. There is no setup fee, and every plan starts with a 14-day free trial that includes 3 free reports.
Also try:
Base rate, fringe, and overtime for a single worker.
Model labor cost and burden for a whole crew before you bid.
Work out your fringe credit and what still goes on the paycheck.