Certified payroll help for small California contractors
You won the job. Now a form you have never filled out is due every week, the state wants a file your payroll software cannot make, and the progress payment depends on both. Here is what a 5 to 50 worker crew actually needs.
The three traps that catch small subs
1. The general contractor's portal is not the state
Your GC set you up in LCPtracker or another portal and you have been filing there faithfully. DIR's FAQ is explicit that this does not put you in compliance with the state unless you also submit eCPRs directly to DIR (DIR eCPR FAQ). Two filings, two places, on every project. Why, in detail.
2. Your payroll software cannot make the file
QuickBooks Online does not produce the California eCPR XML, and neither do the standard exports from ADP, Paychex, Gusto, or Sage. The portal offers a manual form instead, which means typing every worker, every week. Which system you run decides how painful this is: see your payroll system.
3. The 10 day clock
Under Labor Code section 1776, a written request for your certified payroll records gives you 10 days to comply. After that it is $100 per worker for each calendar day until you do, and the statute lets the state withhold the penalty from progress payments then due. A small crew feels this fastest, because there is nobody else to hand the folder to. Run your own numbers.
What a small crew actually needs
Not software seats and a training course. You need the two filings produced correctly from the payroll you already run, filed in the right places, with a person who catches the classification or fringe mistake before the portal or an auditor does, at a price that does not scale with the number of projects you win. That is the whole design of this service.
The 30 minute setup
- Confirm your registration. Public works contractor registration with DIR has to be current and in your name. Check it at DIR Public Works.
- List the project. Awarding body, contract number, DIR project number if you have it, and whether the GC uses a portal.
- Send one payroll export. The report you already run, any recent week. We map your crafts, fringes, and overtime once.
- Tell us if you are behind. We generate the missed weeks and get you current before it becomes a payment problem.
Pricing for small crews
$995 one time setup, then $249 per month flat for crews up to 25 workers, every project and every weekly filing included. Crews of 26 to 50: $449 per month. No contract, cancel anytime, and you can pause between public works jobs and pay nothing until the next award. The first weekly filing is free, before you pay anything, so you see the output on your own project first.