Prevailing Wage and Certified Payroll Reports in QuickBooks Desktop
How to set up prevailing wage items, fringe benefits, and time tracking in QuickBooks Desktop Payroll, then run the certified payroll report wizard.
QuickBooks Desktop Payroll includes a certified payroll report, but contractors who go looking for it tend to discover two things quickly: it is not filed with the standard reports, and it produces little of value until prevailing wage rates, fringe items, and time tracking are already in place. The feature works, but it assumes a specific setup. Here is what the wizard needs beforehand and how to get through it end to end.
What a certified payroll report has to cover
Federal public works projects over $2,000 fall under the Davis-Bacon Act of 1931, which requires contractors to pay prevailing wages, also called Davis-Bacon wages, and to account for them on certified payroll reports. The certification is a statement that every worker was paid at least the prevailing wage and benefit rate for the classification of work performed. The report therefore has to show who worked on the project, their labor classifications, hours worked, wage rates, benefits, overtime compensation, total wages paid, and the related payroll deduction detail. The Department of Labor’s WH-347 is the standard form for this, and the department released an updated version of it in 2025, so it is worth confirming that whatever you generate matches the current form.
The setup the wizard expects
Four pieces of groundwork come before the report itself.
Time tracking. Hours by worker and classification are the backbone of the report. Desktop time tracking, printed timesheets, and the QuickBooks Time integration all work, but the paychecks themselves must be created from the time data. If paychecks were entered without time tracking behind them, the wizard has very little to draw on.
Weekly pay frequency. Certified payroll is a weekly obligation, and the feature is built around weekly paychecks.
Prevailing wage items and rates. Each labor classification needs its own hourly wage payroll item carrying the prevailing rate for that work, so the correct rate flows onto paychecks automatically rather than being retyped each run.
Fringe benefit items. The fringe portion needs a payroll item of its own. Contractors who pay cash to workers in place of fringe benefits need a separate item for those payments, and it must be an addition type payroll item; the wizard asks for it by type later in the process.
If you are building these payroll items from scratch, our general QuickBooks Desktop payroll references cover the mechanics of wage and addition items in more depth.
Running the report
The report lives under Reports, then Employees & Payroll, then More Payroll Reports in Excel, then Certified Payroll Report. It is an Excel based wizard, which explains the first two requirements: sign in as the Primary Administrator, and switch to single-user mode before starting. When Excel prompts you, enable macros. The workbook depends on them, and declining leaves the process dead in the water.
From there the wizard runs through a short sequence. Select Continue, enter the pay date, then your employer information, then the project information. Two questions along the way branch into extra screens.
Apprentices and journeyworkers. Answering yes opens an additional screen where you identify which workers fall into these categories and their experience levels. Answering no skips ahead to the fringe benefits screen.
Fringe benefits and cash in lieu. Enter the fringe benefit details. If you pay cash in place of fringes, answering yes opens a screen where you select the addition type payroll item used for those payments. Answering no moves you directly to the signer’s information.
Enter the signer’s information, meaning the person attesting to the certification, then select Create Report.
Where the process goes wrong
The recurring trouble spots are consistent. Macros declined, so the workbook never gets going. A non-administrator signed in, or the company file left in multi-user mode, blocking the run. Pay frequency set to something other than weekly. Paychecks built by hand instead of from time data, leaving the report without hours to certify. And the most common late stage snag: the payment in lieu of fringes set up as the wrong payroll item type, which surfaces only when the wizard asks for an addition item and there is not one to select. Checking those five points before starting covers nearly everything that stalls this report.
One scope note: the Excel and macros dependency makes this a QuickBooks Desktop Payroll feature on Windows. Anyone running payroll outside Desktop will need a different route to a signed WH-347.