How much does certified payroll cost?
It depends which cost you mean. Having certified payroll filed for you on a California public works job costs $995 to set up and then $249 or $449 a month, flat. Getting personally certified as a payroll professional is a separate, unrelated cost. Software you run yourself is a third, and most of that market will not tell you a number until you sit through a demo.
If you searched this because a general contractor or a project just handed you certified payroll to deal with, the number you want is the done for you price: a done for you certified payroll service for California public works, filling out the federal WH-347 and filing the California DIR eCPR for you, runs $995 one time for setup and then $249 a month flat for a crew of up to 25 workers, or $449 a month for 26 to 50 workers. Your first weekly filing is free. That is WellStanding's own published price, and it is the number the rest of this page is built around.
Two other things share the same search term and cost something entirely different: a personal payroll credential called Certified Payroll Professional, which has nothing to do with public works reporting, and compliance software you run yourself, where most vendors price by quote rather than by a published number. The table below sorts out which one you are actually asking about.
Three different costs, one search term
| What "certified payroll cost" could mean | What it actually costs |
|---|---|
| A personal credential. Certified Payroll Professional (CPP), a general payroll designation from PayrollOrg. | An exam fee set by PayrollOrg, plus meeting an experience or coursework requirement before you can sit for it. Check PayrollOrg's current exam schedule for the fee, since it changes. Unrelated to prevailing wage reporting: passing this exam does not file anything for your project, and you do not need it to file correctly. |
| Software you run yourself. A QuickBooks add on or a compliance platform that produces the WH-347 and eCPR files, and you handle validation and submission. | A handful of vendors publish a price; most require a demo and a quote. See the full certified payroll pricing roundup for who publishes what. |
| Having it filed for you. A done for you service that produces, checks, and files the report, and you review and sign. | WellStanding: $995 one time setup, then $249 a month flat up to 25 workers or $449 a month for 26 to 50 workers. First filing free. |
What a done for you certified payroll service costs, in full
The $995 setup fee covers mapping your payroll export, your crafts, and your active projects once, the same week you sign up. After that, $249 a month is flat for a crew of up to 25 workers: every project, every weekly filing, the federal WH-347 and the California DIR eCPR, included. A crew of 26 to 50 workers is $449 a month, still flat, still everything. There is no contract and no per-project add on charge. If you go between public works jobs, you can pause the account and pay nothing until the next one starts. The full breakdown of what is included each week is on the certified payroll service page.
Two things do not move the price. Running more than one public works project at a time does not add a monthly charge; the flat fee covers your whole crew across every active project. And starting behind does not change the setup fee: catching up missed weeks uses the same mapping, generated in a batch, so back filings are folded into the same $249 or $449 a month rather than billed separately.
One thing does move the price: worker count. The 25-worker line is the only tier break. A crew over 50 workers, or a prime contractor rolling up several subcontractors' filings, is a custom scope rather than either flat tier; that is worth a call before assuming a number.
Certified payroll software cost, if you want to run it yourself
Buying software instead of a service is a real option, and it is covered in full on outsourcing certified payroll: your four options. On price specifically, the market is unusual: most compliance platforms and construction payroll services will not post a number, and instead route you into a demo before naming one. A couple of tools do publish a price outright, one a one time add on for QuickBooks Desktop, another a per-report or per-month fee for a contractor-side report generator. The exact figures, verified against each vendor's own page, are in the pricing roundup, along with which vendors will only quote after a call.
The number on a software quote is not the whole cost either. Software, at any price, still leaves you producing the file and checking the classifications and rates against the project's prevailing wage determination yourself, and you still sign two separate certifications on your own. On the federal WH-347, the Statement of Compliance on page 2 is not a perjury statement: DOL's own instructions state it is subject to the penalties in 18 U.S.C. section 1001, a fine, possible imprisonment of not more than 5 years, or both. Separately, the California payroll record itself must be verified by a written declaration made under penalty of perjury that the information is true and correct and that you have complied with Labor Code sections 1771, 1811, and 1815 (Labor Code section 1776(a)). A done for you service adds a person who checks the file before you see it, which is the difference between buying a tool and having the work done.
The other cost this is not: public works contractor registration
Certified payroll is not the only cost of being on a California public works job. Every contractor and subcontractor has to register with DIR to bid, be awarded, or work on public works at all, and that registration is a separate fee: $400, $800, or $1,200 for one, two, or three fiscal years, according to DIR's own contractor registration page. That fee has nothing to do with filing the certified payroll report itself; it is the license to be on the job. Your eCPR filings are tied to the DIR Project ID the awarding body creates for the project, not to your contractor registration number. Details, renewal timing, and what a lapse costs are in our DIR contractor registration guide. Filing the eCPR itself carries no separate DIR charge that the agency's own eCPR FAQ describes.