Effective January 18, 2009 Prime/General contractors and subcontractors who perform work on federally funded construction projects are no longer required to display the home address and social security numbers of employees on the certified payroll report form WH-347 that they submit; instead you are now required to display the employees full name and the last 4-digits of his/her social security number as follows XXX-XX-1234. This revision was established to better protect worker privacy and identity theft.
Given the new reporting requirements it would not be in violation of 29 CFR 5.5 (a)(3)(i) for a prime/general contractor to require a subcontractor to proved employee addresses and social security numbers for the prime/general contractors own records, without including this information in weekly submissions.
The U.S. Department of Labor – Wage and Hour Division in conjunction with the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) released a new Federal WH-347 to be used effective January 18, 2009 through December 31, 2011.
All projects funded by President Obama’s Economic Stimulus Package (the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act) will require the payment of prevailing wages and the submission of certified payroll reports; even weatherization projects which are federally funded which have historically been exempt from prevailing wage laws and certified payroll reports.
The Davis-Bacon Act of 1931 established into law the requirement for paying “prevailing wages”; a specific rate of pay plus fringe benefits for each trade/work classification that has been set by the Department of Labor – Wage and Hour Division, on federal or federally-assisted construction projects exceeding a value of $2,000.00. Construction includes the alteration and/or repair, including painting, decorating, plumbing, electrical, etc., of public buildings or public works – including roads and bridges.
The Copeland Act (Anti-Kickback Act) makes it a crime for any employer to require any employee working on a Federal or Federally-Assisted project to “kickback” any part of his or her wages. It also requires every prime/general and subcontractor to submit weekly certified payroll reports beginning with the first week that a contractor performs work on a project and for every week thereafter, until the work is completed. When there is a temporary break in work, a “No Work Performed” payroll must be submitted.
The weekly WH-347 certified payroll form is a 2 part form, is not a complex form and does not ask for any information that you as a business owner do not already need to keep for wage payment, tax purposes, and information about the project. You’ll need to know:
- Information about your business (your company name and address and are you the prime/general contractor or a subcontractor)
- The project name, its location, and any identifying project numbers (the project location).
- Each employee’s name and the last 4-digits of their social security number (who is working for you).
- Each employee’s Trade or Work Classification (what they do).
- The number of hours worked each day during the week on individual projects by each employee (where they worked during the week and how many hours they worked).
- The employees prevailing rate of pay for the trade/work classification (how much you pay them for the work they perform).
- Gross amount earned for each employee (how much did you pay each employee that week for each job and for all jobs they worked on).
- How much and what was deducted for taxes, etc. from their paycheck.
- The net amount paid to each employee (how much was their paycheck that they actually took home).
Then a company official must sign the second page, or Statement of Compliance. This signature is the “certification” because the person signing the report is guaranteeing that the information being reported is accurate and correct.
The most common certified payroll report form used is the U.S. Department of Labor Form WH-347 and Form WH-348 Statement of Compliance, which is used and followed by 25 of the 50 states. Of the other 25 States, 14 will have a single state agency that will monitor State Prevailing Wage Laws and 11 states have multiple State Agencies that will monitor Agency Specific Prevailing Wage Laws and require electronic filing of certified payroll reports.
The problem that most contractors’ experience, especially contractors using popular accounting software such as QuickBooks, is that while QuickBooks has the ability to track most of the information required; it does not have the ability to track all of the required information and generate the forms in their specific format. This is often the barrier that keeps some contractors from bidding on these types of projects.
Some QuickBooks users and accounting professionals feel that Intuit should include the ability to produce certified payroll reports and statements of compliance in the Premier Contractor Edition, and are very upset that this ability is not already built in. This would be a good idea and a legitimate request IF there was only a single certified payroll format that was used in all states and administered by a single prevailing wage agency, regardless of if the project was funded with federal or state dollars, and if every contractor who purchased the Premier Contractor Edition was required to submit these forms. However, this is not the case and is probably the reason that Intuit does not include this type of functionality.
QuickBooks users, and the accounting professionals who support clients using QuickBooks, should, however, be aware that there are QuickBooks integrated applications available that will utilize existing QuickBooks data to generate not only the certified payroll report and statement of compliance; but other reports as well, all of which are ready for “signature” and submission.
There are four QuickBooks integrated applications that produce certified payroll reports, statement of compliance, “No Work” performed payrolls, EEOC/Workforce/Manning Reports and Union/bona-fide plan fringe benefit reports, two of these add-on programs can be found by visiting the Intuit Marketplace at http://marketplace.intuit.com/v2/i-construction-contractors/f-payroll/software-solutions.aspx
Each of these programs utilizes QuickBooks data differently; some require you enter the same data in both programs, and that’s no good; while others will have you enter just the information that QuickBooks on its own cannot track while reading the rest of the information directly from you QuickBooks company file so that copying or entering the same data multiple times is not required. Each program will have a different pricing structure (remember cheaper isn’t always better) and will offer different capabilities, such as meeting electronic filing requirements, the ability to generate custom Union/bona-fide plan fringe benefit reports, and the ability to generate Federal, State, and Local EEOC/workforce/Manning Reports.
Make sure that you investigate each program thoroughly, take advantage of free trials (if available), and make sure that you understand how you obtain updates when form revisions or reporting mandates change, is there a fee involved, do you need to purchase additional licenses for each user, are their annual fees involved to keep your software up-to-date, can the system handle multiple trade/work classification for each employee, can the system handle multiple pay rates (straight time, overtime, double time, triple time) for each work classification, can the program generate state forms and automate electronic filing in addition to the federal form? Make sure before you buy.
Accounting for payroll is often complex and is always critical to the success of your business. The additional requirement of producing certified payroll reports makes accurate record-keeping essential. If you use QuickBooks, purchasing a QuickBooks integrated application will save you time, improve accuracy, eliminate duplicate data entry, eliminates transposition errors, and quite possibly save you from having to hire someone whose only job is to produce these reports manually. All of these things affect your cash flow and the overall success of your company.
Download a .PDF version of this article for future reference, by clicking here.
Feel free to request our Free Self-Paced Certified Payroll Training Guide, which has been recently updated, at http://www.sunburstsoftwaresolutions.com/component/option,com_performs/formid,5/
With all of the enhancements (new features, forms, functionality) that we’ve made to Certified Payroll Solution in the last 1/2 years – not to mention the release of the new Federal WH-347 Certified payroll report and reporting requirements…..I decided it was time to get off my duff and update some of our training videos.
After nearly 4 days of screen capture, audio recording, and editing I’m happy to announce that two of the video’s (totally a little over 1 hour of viewing time) are now available in the Certified Payroll Solution Training, Support & Resource Center – in the Free Training Category.
The video’s that have been updated are the “Certified Payroll Solution Initial Setup Video” and the “Running Certified Payroll Solution Video“.
Updated videos are available in their original Windows Media Player format – because everybody has Windows Media Player installed on their computer.
New Video Format Available:
Table of Contents
We’ve also added a new format for these videos – Flash based with a Table of Contents on the left, so you can easily replay certain sections of the video. The Table of Contents from the Initial Setup Video is shown to the left.
So what do these video’s cover? I’m glad you asked!
The Certified Payroll Solution Initial Setup Video covers entering your Certified Payroll Solution License, granting permission in QuickBooks for CPS to access and read information from your QuickBooks Company file, setting up certified payroll reporting preferences, that are specific to your company, that QuickBooks has no means of handling as well as setting up “default” employee and job information.
The Running Certified Payroll Solution Video covers running your first set of certified payroll reports (start to finish), offers a review of granting permission in QuickBooks for CPS to access and read information from your QuickBooks company file, walks you through the one-time setup of linked records (back to QuickBooks) for employees, jobs, payroll wage items and deductions – explaining and demonstrating the various pieces of information that QuickBooks has no mechanism of holding. Lastly it covers previewing, printing and troubleshooting your first set of certified payroll reports.
We will be adding Flash videos for the remaining two videos here shortly – those videos are the Certified Payroll Solution Download and Installation Video and the Certified Payroll Solution – QuickBooks Setup Video.
I’d welcome any feedback about the videos that you might have.
Nancy
PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Release
Contact
Nancy Smyth
Sunburst Software Solutions, Inc.
(888) 348-2877 phone
(866) 684-5157 fax
sales@sunburstsoftwaresolutions.com
http://www.sunburstsoftwaresolutions.com
SUNBURST SOFTWARE SOLUTIONS, INC. RELEASES FEDERAL WH-347 COMPLIANCE UPDATE FOR “CERTIFIED PAYROLL SOLUTION” AND CONTRACTORS USING QUICKBOOKS.
“Certified Payroll Solution” Integrates with QuickBooks to Help Contractors Working on Government Funded Construction Projects Comply With Certified Payroll Reporting Requirements, Saving Them Time And Money.
West Charleston, VT – January 16, 2009
Sunburst Software Solutions, Inc., an Intuit Gold Developer, is pleased to announce the release of a compliance update, on January 14, 2009, for their flagship QuickBooks integrated application “Certified Payroll Solution.” This compliance update meets new Federal WH-347 certified payroll reporting requirements which become effective January 18, 2009, as mandated by the U.S. Department of Labor on December 18, 2008.
“Certified Payroll Solution” utilizes QuickBooks Pro, Premier, and Enterprise Solutions timesheet, employee, job, and payroll data to automate the creation of Federal and/or State mandated certified payroll reports, statements of compliance, “No Work” performed payrolls, EEOC Reports and Union/Bona-fide Plan Fringe Benefit Reports. This exchange of critical data helps contractors working on prevailing wage construction projects to manage their compliance reporting more efficiently – saving them valuable time, money and resources.
“Manually creating certified payroll reports is simply a horrendous, time-consuming, error-prone process and if your reports aren’t accurate, you simply don’t get paid in a timely fashion. Before developing ‘Certified Payroll Solution,’ I created my certified payroll reports for years using an Excel spreadsheet and several reports from QuickBooks, and no matter how careful I was, there was always a mistake somewhere,” says Nancy Smyth, Sunburst Software Solutions, Inc. President, also a Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor. ”I knew there had to be a better way and that way involved using data that I had already entered in QuickBooks.” She continues, “Essentially, without having to re-enter data manually into another program, errors were eliminated. Although this left the middleman – me – out of the picture, the savings to the small and mid-size business owner was tremendous!”
There are more than 12 million small businesses currently using computers in the United States (TowerGroup, 2001). Developing a QuickBooks integrated certified payroll program, and later an AIA type billing program, made sense to the husband and wife team, Ben & Nancy Smyth, principals of Sunburst Software Solutions, Inc. Nearly three million small businesses (and almost 200,000 are contractors) use QuickBooks and 80 percent of those users want QuickBooks to integrate with other software and devises (QuickBooks 2000 User Study).
The “Certified Payroll Solution” updates provides compatibility with new WH-347 reporting requirements, which no longer require the reporting of full employee social security numbers and home address; but rather just a unique employee identification number, usually the last 4 digits of the employee social security number. Additionally, Sunburst Software Solutions, Inc. has built in the ability for current users to easily change these reporting requirements on State specific reports and/or electronically filed reports as new requirements are announced.
About Sunburst Software Solutions, Inc.
Sunburst Software Solutions, Inc. has been providing contractors using QuickBooks Financial Software with a fully automated, integrated means to generate certified payroll reports and AIA type billings since October 2000. For more information, visit http://www.sunburstsoftwaresolutions.com
About Intuit Inc.
Intuit, the Intuit logo, Quicken, QuickBooks, QuickBooks Pro, QuickBooks Premier, Turbo Tax, ProSeries, and Lacert, among others, are registered trademarks and/or registered service marks of Intuit Inc. in the United States and other countries. Other parties’ trademarks or service marks are the property of their respective owners and should be treated as such.
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Important Note: As of January 16, 2009 there was no new or revised WH-347 form available from the U.S. Department of Labor, we will continue to monitor the site for the availability of a new form, if applicable.
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View this PRLog.org http://www.prlog.org/10168568-wh-347-compliance-update-for-certified-payroll-solution-and-contractors-using-quickbooks.html
IMPORTANT Revisions to U.S. Department of Labor/Federal WH-347 Reporting Mandates Regarding Protecting the Privacy of Workers.
January 9, 2009
Affected Audience:
All prime/general contractors and subcontractors required to file the Federal WH-347 Certified Payroll form on prevailing wage projects.
Background:
On October 20, 2008 the U.S. Department of Labor published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking in the Federal Register (73 FR 62229) which invited comments until November 19, 2008, on proposed revisions to update current regulatory standards in order to better protect worker privacy for contracts covering federally financed and federally-assisted construction contracts. Specifically the proposed revisions affect the reporting of employee addresses and social security numbers on the Federal WH-347 certified payroll reports.
Effective Date:
According to recent information released in the Federal Register (73 FR 77504) published on 12/19/08, revised reporting requirements ONLY for the U.S. Department of Labor Form WH-347 begin on January 18, 2009.
What are the new reporting requirements and how do they protect worker privacy?
The bottom line, according to the Federal Register (73 FR 77504), is that beginning on January 18, 2009 you are no longer required to report your employees address and social security number on your weekly certified payroll reports when you file the Federal/U.S. Department of Labor WH-347 form.
HOWEVER, as with any government decisions there are always exceptions and “gray areas. ”
* These are the gray areas that we discovered and want to make you aware of:
- On 12/19/08, the Department of Labor published its final rule regarding the requirement of including employee home addresses and social security numbers on certified payrolls that are submitted to federal agencies in compliance with the Copeland “Anti-Kickback” and Davis-Bacon Acts.
- Effective 1/18/09, both contractors and subcontractors who are working on federally financed and/or assisted construction projects will no longer be required to list the home addresses and social security numbers on the certified payrolls. INSTEAD, the payrolls shall only need to include an individually identifiable number for each employee – it is suggested that this be the last four digits of the employee’s social security number.
- Contractors and subcontractors will still be required to submit weekly certified payrolls, along with a signed Statement of Compliance.
- The payrolls submitted shall include the following information:
- Name of each employee
- A unique individually identifiable number for each employee, or as it was suggested, the last 4 digits of the employee social security number
- His/her correct classification
- Hourly rates of pay, including any cash fringe benefits paid
- Daily and weekly number of hours worked
- Deductions made and actual wages paid
- The Prime/General Contractor is still responsible for the submission of copies of any/all payrolls submitted by subcontractors. Both contractors and subcontractors shall maintain the full social security number and current address for each of their covered workers AND shall provide that information, upon request to any applicable agency involved with the project for the purpose of an investigation or compliance audit.
- A Prime/General Contractor may require a subcontractor to provide employee addresses and social security numbers for their own records under separate cover, without submitting that information along with the required weekly certified payroll reports.
* These gray areas will cause this ruling to be open to interpretation by anyone reading them, causing you to be requested to continue to report employee addresses and social security numbers, not required to submit addresses and social security numbers, AND to report no address and the last 4 digits of the employees social security number.
What about state specific and electronic filing requirements?
At this time we have no information regarding any changes to either state specific or electronic filing requirements. We will keep you updated as we find out this information via our On-Line Support Forum at http://www.sunburstsoftwaresolutions.com/certified-payroll-solution-forum/119-u.s.-dol-proposed-rule-hopes-to-protect-worker-privacy.htm
How will Sunburst Software Solutions, Inc. help us handle these changes?
Several months ago, we did release an updated version that would allow you to choose how you report employee social security numbers (see CPS System Setup -> System Preferences -> Settings tab -> SS # Format option initiated in version 5.0.278, August 2008) and we are currently working on a “forward thinking” update that will provide you with the ability to set “Job Defaults” for how you want to display the employee address and SS # on each form that you may be required to submit. You may, then, on a job-by-job (and form-by-form) basis further fine tune the settings for each individual job.
This update will provide you with full control and the means to easily change these printing preferences as any new state reporting mandates become available.
Full details will be provided separately from this notification by Tuesday January 13, 2009 in our Support Area – http://www.sunburstsoftwaresolutions.com/technical-support.htm , watch for updates.
Supporting Documentation:
Feel free to download the following additional documentation from our website for your review:
- Federal Register 73 FR 77504 – download from our website
