AASHTOWare Civil Rights and Labor certified payroll: how to submit it and how DOTs differ

Payroll rejected, locked out, or pay estimate held?

Outside users' access follows each agency's protocols (AASHTO product page), and AASHTO's user support page sends help-desk assistance to designated end-users at licensed agencies. Call your DOT first.

The payroll will not load, or came back rejected

Three things get called a rejection: a failed import, where the system does not load the payroll; a prime's return or rejection of a sub's payroll; and the agency's Agency Rejected status. All three are in the system help DC's DDOT hosts; agencies configure some settings, so yours may differ. Rules these DOTs name:

• Tennessee. TDOT's blank Excel template has an apostrophe in each empty Employee Info field; remove it without replacing it and AWP puts a zero there. TDOT also wants a "TN Employee ID" instead of the SSN (FAQ revised July 23, 2026).
• Ohio. A payroll with a negative Total Deductions value cannot import. ODOT's undated FAQ says to send the WH-347 to the contract compliance officer.

ODOT's FAQ says to re-import a rejected or returned payroll as a new modification. The Modify a Rejected Payroll guides from VDOT (copyright 2020) and TDOT (April 2021) give two paths: approve the payroll with an explanation if it is correct, or create a modification if it is not. For a sub's payroll the prime rejects it too, and the sub takes those paths. Montana's manual (updated June 22, 2023) splits the cases: a prime-returned payroll can be corrected directly, re-signed and sent back, while an agency-rejected one needs a modification. Ask your DOT which applies.

You cannot log in

• Virginia. Log in at least every 30 days or access is removed, and change your password every 90. After you get credentials, call the VITA Customer Care Center to activate them (VDOT FAQ).
• Minnesota. A password expires after 180 days with no email warning (MnDOT).
• Montana. Passwords must be updated every 60 days or they need a reset (2023 manual).
• Alaska. A MyAlaska account has no expiration. The page says contractors would need MyAlaska by January 2026 yet still lists the old login, so confirm which yours uses.

If you cannot get access at all, check your contract. Where it carries FHWA-1273 clause 3.b.(1) (form revised June 25, 2026), or the same text from 29 CFR 5.5(a)(3)(ii)(A), a contracting agency or prime contractor may require an electronic system if it requires a legally valid electronic signature, lets the contractor, the agency and the Department of Labor reach payrolls on request for at least 3 years after the prime contract work is complete, and permits other methods for a contractor unable or limited in its ability to use or access it.

You cannot see your contract

• Alaska. If the prime has submitted Subcontractor Self Cert 25D-042 to project staff, DOT&PF says to contact its Contracts staff; it also says to reach the staff working on the contract (contractor page).
• Tennessee. The contract appears after TDOT approves your subcontract, so follow up with your prime (TDOT FAQ).
• Virginia. Check your active role, then ask the District Civil Rights office to confirm you are listed as a subcontractor (VDOT FAQ).

The pay estimate is held or flagged

• Louisiana. A delay in submitting payroll delays processing of payment estimates (DOTD manual, September 2024).
• Minnesota. The project engineer may withhold part of partial estimates until the certified payroll reports arrive.
• Montana. The January 15, 2026 final specification revisions (108.01.4(F), Table 108-2) withhold $7,500 to $60,000 a month, by original contract amount, from the progress estimate of a contract in non-compliance status, more for continued non-compliance, and the whole estimate if the withholding is larger. Withholdings become permanent if outstanding payrolls are not in before Final Acceptance is submitted and the Final Labor Certificate carries a non-compliant finding. The revisions do not define non-compliance status or say which contracts they cover, so ask MDT which specifications yours carries.

How a payroll gets in

Virginia, Tennessee, Connecticut and Montana each list three routes: key it in, convert a spreadsheet to XML, or export XML from a payroll system (VDOT, TDOT, Connecticut, Montana). TDOT's page is undated and still says CRL payroll functionality was expected in Spring 2021, so treat it as partly stale. AASHTO publishes an XML Resource Kit and a validator.

Use your DOT's spreadsheet. AASHTO's converter page says its general-purpose version goes to agencies, who add their own values first, and MnDOT says not to use the general version. VDOT asks that employee identifiers (spelling, middle initial, ID numbers) not change between payrolls (VDOT, updated September 30, 2026).

What each DOT's page says

Rows come from DOT documents read for this guide; a missing state does not mean it skips CRL.

Not every DOT uses it

North Dakota's special provision of March 7, 2024 requires LCPtracker, and Maine's undated DOT form, for local-agency and airport projects, says federal-aid contractors and subcontractors submit certified payrolls in the Elation reporting system. See our LCPtracker and Elation guides and the state table.

Where the requirement comes from, and who signs

The weekly rule is in the Davis-Bacon contract clause, 29 CFR 5.5(a)(3)(ii); our WH-347 guide covers the form. The CRL mandate comes from the DOT's contract, and FHWA-1273 does not settle it.

Effective June 10, 2026, agencies are no longer required to physically incorporate the form in federal-aid construction contracts (FHWA-1273 section I.1; 91 FR 25492; what changed). They must still ensure compliance with the provisions it cites, so your contract controls. Montana's manual says paper payrolls will not be accepted and calls that a required contract specification. The 1273 accommodation clause above sits beside it, and the sources read here do not say how the two fit. Ask the DOT in writing.

The signature must be handwritten or a legally valid electronic one (29 CFR 5.5(a)(3)(ii)(E)). Alaska and MnDOT both treat a user's login as an electronic signature, so do not share logins.

This page is not from AASHTO or any DOT, and it is not vendor or agency support. We prepare certified payroll for public works contractors. Tell us about your project.

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