Two forms, two systems, two sets of rules, and contractors routinely file the wrong one. Here is how to tell which applies to your project and what has to be on it.
Which one applies to your job
State-funded California public works uses the DIR eCPR system. Federally funded projects fall under Davis-Bacon and use the WH-347. A project can be both, and when it is, you file both. The funding source determines this, not the size of the job or who the awarding body is. A city project built with federal grant money is a Davis-Bacon job.
Some awarding bodies operate their own approved Labor Compliance Program and require submission through a third-party portal instead of, or in addition to, eCPR. Read the contract documents. That requirement is in there.
What goes on the report
Both formats want the same core information for every worker, every week:
- Name and an identifier, with full Social Security numbers not printed on the report
- Work classification, matched to the applicable wage determination
- Hours worked each day, straight time and overtime broken out
- Rate paid, plus fringe payments and how they were made
- Gross pay, itemized deductions, and net pay
- Apprentice status and the program the apprentice is registered with
The WH-347 also carries a statement of compliance that gets signed. Signing it when the numbers are wrong is its own problem, separate from the underpayment.
The mistakes that trigger an audit
Reports that do not tie to payroll. If the certified payroll says 38 hours and the payroll register says 42, that gap is the first thing a compliance officer finds. The certified report must reconcile to what was actually paid.
Fringe shown as paid when it was not. Claiming a plan credit with no plan behind it, or crediting more than the actual contribution per hour, is underpayment dressed up as compliance.
Overtime calculated on the base rate only. Public works overtime follows the determination, and daily overtime applies after eight hours. Getting the base and fringe components backwards is common.
Missing weeks. Skipping a week where no covered work happened, rather than filing it as non-performance, leaves a gap that reads as a missing report.
Owner-operators and working owners left off. If a working owner performed covered craft work on site, those hours belong on the report.
Recordkeeping that survives a review
Keep daily time records tied to the job and the classification, fringe benefit statements showing actual contributions, proof of apprenticeship program dispatch, and copies of every filed report with its confirmation. Labor Code 1776 requires certified payroll records to be available on request, and the penalty for not producing them accrues daily per worker.
Doing it once so it runs itself
Certified payroll is repetitive by design. Once the job is set up with correct classifications, fringe handling, and a payroll system that separates prevailing wage work from private work, each week is a thirty-minute task. Before that setup exists, it is a weekly scramble and mistakes compound quietly for the length of the job.
Forms and thresholds change. Confirm current requirements with DIR and with the U.S. Department of Labor before relying on any single figure here.