Certified payroll for Gusto

Q: Does Gusto file the California DIR eCPR?

No. Under Labor Code section 1771.4 , contractors and subcontractors on non-exempt California public works projects must furnish certified payroll records directly to the Labor Commissioner electronically, at least once every 30 days while work continues, or more often if the contract with the awarding body says so. Gusto has no path to the eCPR XML that duty runs on, and a general contractor's portal does not satisfy it.

Gusto made payroll pleasant, which is why so many smaller California trade contractors run it. On certified payroll and prevailing wage, the federal WH-347 and the California DIR eCPR alike, Gusto's own product pages say nothing, and the gap is total.

What Gusto gives you

Genuinely easy payroll, clean records, and exportable reports carrying workers, hours, rates, earnings, and deductions. For a sub with a tight crew, Gusto handles the paychecks with less friction than anything else on this list, and its exports carry what the filings need.

What it cannot do

Gusto's own product and help pages describe payroll, benefits, and reports. Its FAQ lists labor-compliance tools for overtime, break rules, and tipped wage adjustments, and nothing in that list describes generating a WH-347 or a DIR eCPR (see Gusto's FAQ). Gusto's own article on certified payroll walks through the federal Davis-Bacon rules and Form WH-347 in general terms and closes by pointing readers back to a payroll provider like Gusto for the work; it never claims the product itself produces the form (see Gusto's certified payroll article). That is the federal half. The California half is further away still: nothing in Gusto's published pages describes producing the DIR eCPR XML or filing anything with the state. A Gusto sub on a federally funded job owes a weekly WH-347. On a non-exempt California public works job, it also owes a DIR eCPR, filed at least every 30 days, with native support for neither.

Gusto's published labor-compliance tools stop at overtime, break rules, and tipped wage adjustments, not a prevailing wage engine (see Gusto's FAQ). Nothing in that feature list looks up a craft's published wage determination, flags a rate you entered that is too low, or converts a benefit you tracked into an hourly fringe credit measured against what a determination requires. A fringe shortfall stays invisible until something outside Gusto checks for it.

We meet a lot of Gusto subs right after their first public works award, discovering this in week one with a filing already due. Setup happens the same week, so your first filing can be ready before the deadline.

DAS 140 and DAS 142, from the same export

Most California public works jobs also carry apprenticeship paperwork alongside the weekly filings: the DAS 140 and DAS 142. Gusto has no path to either, since apprenticeship dispatch and notice are a Division of Apprenticeship Standards process, not a payroll feature. We prepare both from the same export and project details you already send us, with the same person reviewing them before anything goes out. See DAS 140 and DAS 142, explained for what each form does and when a project requires it.

How our mapping works with Gusto

You export the payroll report from Gusto and send it. During the one time $995 setup we map your layout: earnings types to straight time and overtime, deductions and fringe arrangements to the buckets the filings require, workers to projects and classifications. Every payroll after that, the same export returns as a finished WH-347 with the Statement of Compliance staged for your signature and a DIR eCPR XML checked against the project's published determination before it is sent, a person reviewing every file. When a project needs the DAS 140 or DAS 142, we prepare those too. Gusto stays exactly as it is. We never touch your pay runs, taxes, or money.

Pricing, published

$995 one time setup. $249 per month flat for crews up to 25 workers, every project, every weekly filing, both forms, plus DAS 140 and DAS 142 when a project calls for them. Crews of 26 to 50: $449 per month. First weekly filing free, done on your own live project before you pay anything. Between public works jobs, pause and pay nothing until the next award.

Questions

Does Gusto calculate prevailing wages automatically?

No. Gusto has no wage determination lookup. It runs payroll at the rates and classifications you enter, so matching a worker to the project's published determination, and catching a rate that is too low, stays a manual check.

Can Gusto generate Form WH-347?

No. Gusto's payroll exports carry the underlying data, workers, hours, rates, earnings, and deductions, but not a completed WH-347 or its Statement of Compliance. You build the form from the export, by hand or with something that automates it.

How do I handle fringe benefits I pay through Gusto on a prevailing wage job?

Gusto tracks the benefits you set up but does not convert them into the hourly fringe credit a determination requires, and it will not flag a shortfall between what you pay and what the determination sets. That comparison happens outside Gusto.

Does Gusto file the California DIR eCPR?

No. Under Labor Code section 1771.4, contractors and subcontractors on non-exempt California public works projects must furnish certified payroll records directly to the Labor Commissioner electronically, at least once every 30 days while work continues, or more often if the contract with the awarding body says so. Gusto has no path to the eCPR XML that duty runs on, and a general contractor's portal does not satisfy it.

Do I need to re-enter my crew every week if I stop doing this by hand?

Not with us. The one time $995 setup maps your Gusto export once, your crafts, fringes, and overtime handling. Every week after that you send the same export you already run, and it comes back as a finished WH-347 and eCPR.

What Gusto report should I export for certified payroll?

The payroll report or payroll journal listing each worker with hours, pay rate, gross earnings, and deductions for the period, by project if your account is set up that way. Send us a real export during setup and we confirm it carries what your filings need.