Prototype only. Nothing here is a public launch. No data is sent anywhere.
What is it? A weekly checker and builder for certified payroll on Davis-Bacon and prevailing wage work. It checks each worker classification, base rate, fringe, overtime, and deductions against the project wage determination, prices any shortfall in dollars before signing, and builds a WH-347 (Rev. January 2025) plus Statement of Compliance for the buyer to sign and file.
Who pays? Office managers, controllers, and owners at 5 to 80 person trade subcontractors (electrical, HVAC, plumbing, concrete) doing occasional or regular public works, who do not have a compliance department.
What problem does it solve? Small errors, misclassification, an expired wage determination, or fringe misallocation, can turn into back wage orders, withheld payments, or a wrong signed statement. The check prices the shortfall before signing, while it is still cheap to fix.
What would the customer receive? A weekly WH-347 built from the timesheet and payroll export, a Statement of Compliance ready for the buyer to sign, every worker checked against the wage determination, any shortfall priced in dollars, a nightly SAM.gov watch for wage determination modifications, missing week chase for lower tier subs, and every week kept as a timestamped packet for the prime.
Why would they buy ours? The proposed wedge is the check before signing, the shortfall priced in dollars, not form generation alone. Form generation alone is already served at $29 to $99 a month. That wedge is unproven.
What would it cost? PROPOSED pricing, not validated: $149 a month, one plan, unlimited weekly WH-347s for one company. No setup fee. No long term contract.
What evidence supports it? Two deduplicated buyer signals: one Upwork job posted 21 February 2026 hiring for certified payroll and WH-347 work, with 1 hire, and one Upwork specialist with 32 paid jobs and $70,000 plus earnings in certified payroll. See Research and evidence below. Named competitors with prices: CertifyWage from $99 a month, LCPcertified from $145 a month, WeeklyCertified from $29 a month, and human services at $350 to $700 a month.
What is still unproven? Whether any small sub will trial or pay $149 a month for a checker rather than using CertifyWage at $99 or WeeklyCertified at $29. No buyer has said they will pay $149 for this exact product. Whether the wage determination check can work on real determinations without human review on most weeks is unknown, and that cost could break the owner income math. Customer acquisition cost, sales cycle, and churn are all unknown. Use is project gated: a sub with no covered project has no reason to buy that month.
What happens next? Smallest test: ask 10 small trade subs with a public channel and a named office manager or controller to trial a $149 a month pre-sign checker. Kill criterion: kill if fewer than 5 of 10 will trial it, or if the check cannot work on real determinations without human review on most weeks, or if no sub will trial it at $149 rather than CertifyWage at $99 or WeeklyCertified at $29. Do not build the checker until that test passes.
Technical maturity: Concept demonstration. This page is a static demo only. There is no checker, no WH-347 builder, and no SAM.gov watch behind it.
Demand evidence: Public buyer signals. Two deduplicated buyer signals: 1 Upwork hire plus a specialist with 32 paid jobs. No buyer has said they will pay $149 a month for this product.
Project decision: Concept prototype. No build decision has been made. The kill test above decides it.
Buyer signals, deduplicated. Upwork job posted 21 February 2026, upwork.com/freelance-jobs/apply/QuickBooks-Expert-Needed-for-Certified-Payroll-Prevailing-Wage-Compliance: QuickBooks expert needed for certified payroll and prevailing wage compliance, WH-347 generation and review, 1 hire. Upwork specialist profile, seen May 2026 and November 2026: expert payroll consultant in certified payroll and prevailing wage, 32 jobs, $70,000 plus total earnings, companies from 2 to 499 employees. That is one seller serving buyers over time, counted once, not 32 buyers. No source in this pass states a named small sub paying $99 or $149 a month for a checker only product.
Rules and penalties, sources checked 11 November 2026. Form WH-347, dol.gov/agencies/whd/forms/wh347: covered contractors must submit payroll information weekly, each submission carries a signed Statement of Compliance. WH-347 revised January 2025, OMB 1235-0008, expires 31 January 2028, old layout approval lapsed 30 September 2026. Penalty figures in the boundary box above are illustrative figures from public guides, not a prediction for any particular case: back wage orders, withheld contract payments, debarment up to three years, civil fines up to $13,508 per violation, and criminal referral for a knowingly false certification under 18 U.S.C. section 1001. New York, from 1 January 2026, requires Article 8 certified payroll through NYSDOL Certified Payroll, with penalties of $100 a day for late submissions after a 14 day grace period. Virginia, for contracts signed on or after 1 July 2026, makes general contractors jointly liable with subs for unpaid wages on non-residential projects over $500,000 where the general contractor knew or should have known.
Competitors, prices checked 11 November 2026. LCPcertified, lcptracker.com/lcpcertified: plans from $145 a month, Professional $1,900 a year, about $158 a month, for up to 10 active projects, 50 plus validation checks. CertifyWage, certifywage.com: from $99 a month per company, WH-347 Rev. 2025, 27 states plus DC, 4 state files, nightly SAM.gov modification check. WeeklyCertified, weeklycertified.com: free for 3 WH-347s a month, Project Pass $49 once, Solo $29 a month unlimited, Crew $59 a month. PayCert: free for one project and two payroll runs a month, Pro $49 a month or $399 a year. Contractor Foreman: from $49 a month. Human preparation: PractiSight $350 to $700 a month, Aeternus Dynamics $1,350 a month for one active public works project. Both human services state plainly they do not sign the certification for the client. Neither does this product.
Owner income math, arithmetic only, not a forecast. Gross: 68 customers at $149 a month for $10,000 a month, 47 for the $7,000 floor. After illustrative outsourced operating costs of about $3,000 a month, about 90 customers for $10,000 a month owner income, about 70 for $7,000. Critical unknown: if every weekly payroll needs human review, outsourced cost per customer rises sharply and that math breaks. Customer acquisition cost is unknown. No public customer acquisition figure was found for any certified payroll product.
Honest limitations. This product checks paperwork. It does not sign or certify compliance. The buyer signs the Statement of Compliance and remains responsible for the payroll and for the certification. It is not legal advice. Verify anything uncertain with your own counsel. Scope on day one is federal Davis-Bacon work only. State files (California eCPR, NYSDOL, NYC Comptroller, New Jersey MW-562) are not promised on day one. A wrong all clear on a signed statement is a liability risk, which is why human review cost is the critical unknown.
A weekly checker and builder for certified payroll on Davis-Bacon and prevailing wage work. You drop in the week's timesheet and payroll export and the project's wage determination. The checker tests every worker's classification, base rate, fringe, overtime, and deductions against that determination, prices any shortfall in dollars before you sign, and builds a correct WH-347 (Rev. January 2025) plus Statement of Compliance, ready for you to sign and file.
It also watches SAM.gov for wage determination modifications and chases missing weeks from lower tier subs.
Boundary, please read this first. This product prepares and checks payroll paperwork only. It checks a WH-347. It does not sign or certify compliance. It is not legal advice. It does not sign the certification for you. You sign the Statement of Compliance, and you remain responsible for the payroll and for the certification. Verify anything uncertain with your own counsel. A wrong "all clear" on a signed statement can carry back wage orders, withheld contract payments, debarment from federal contracts for up to three years, civil fines up to $13,508 per violation, and criminal referral for a knowingly false certification under 18 U.S.C. section 1001. Those penalty figures are illustrative, from public guides, not a prediction for any particular case.
Office managers, controllers, and owners at 5 to 80 person trade subcontractors (electrical, HVAC, plumbing, concrete) doing occasional or regular public works, who do not have a compliance department. The prime still collects your payroll, and you still have to be right before you send it.
Covered contractors must submit payroll information weekly, and each submission carries a signed Statement of Compliance certifying accuracy and that each worker was paid at least the required prevailing wage. The WH-347 was revised in January 2025 (OMB 1235-0008, expires 01/31/2028), with expanded fringe benefit reporting. The old layout approval lapsed September 30, 2026, so from October 1, 2026 the revised layout is the only valid WH-347.
The most common errors are operational, not intentional: misclassification (laborer rate for journeyman work), an expired wage determination, and fringe misallocation. A checker that prices the shortfall in dollars before signing catches those while they are still cheap to fix.
New demand drivers in 2026: New York, from January 1, 2026, requires contractors on Article 8 projects to submit certified payroll through NYSDOL Certified Payroll, with penalties of $100 a day for late submissions after a 14 day grace period. Virginia, for contracts signed on or after July 1, 2026, makes GCs jointly liable with subs for unpaid wages on non-residential projects over $500,000 where the GC knew or should have known.
Scope on day one is federal Davis-Bacon work. State files (California eCPR, NYSDOL, NYC Comptroller, New Jersey MW-562) are not promised on day one.
$149 a month, one plan, unlimited weekly WH-347s for one company. PROPOSED pricing, not validated. No buyer has agreed to pay this price. No setup fee. No long term contract. Cancel any time.
The test price sits between CertifyWage at $99 a month and LCPcertified at about $158 a month for 10 projects, and far below a human service at $350 to $700 a month. The pitch is the check before you sign, at software price. This price is a test price, not a verified market price.
Software, prices verified live 11 November 2026:
Human preparation, prices verified live 11 November 2026:
Both human services state plainly they do not sign the certification for the client. Neither do we.
What has to earn $149 a month over CertifyWage at $99 and WeeklyCertified at $29 is the pre-sign dollar check: the shortfall priced before you sign, not just form generation. That has not been proven yet.
ILLUSTRATIVE and FICTIONAL. This sample is illustrative and fictional throughout. No real company, no real worker, no real project, no real wage determination, and no real verdict.
Fictional sub: Fictional Riverbend Electrical LLC, 12 employees. Fictional project: Fictional County Library Renovation. Fictional wage determination: FICT-2026-0001, fictional county, fictional construction type. Week ending 7 November 2026. Fictional WH-347, Rev. January 2025.
| Worker (fictional) | Classification checked | Required, base plus fringe | Paid, base plus fringe | Hours | Verdict | Shortfall |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A. Rivera (fictional) | Journeyman Electrician | $38.50 plus $12.40 = $50.90 | $38.50 plus $8.90 = $47.40 | 40 straight time | Fail: fringe short | $3.50 an hour x 40 = $140.00 |
| B. Chen (fictional) | Journeyman Electrician, overtime | $57.75 plus $12.40 = $70.15 | $57.75 plus $12.40 = $70.15 | 8 overtime | Pass | $0.00 |
| C. Okafor (fictional) | Apprentice Electrician, 2nd year | $24.00 plus $6.20 = $30.20 | $24.00 plus $6.20 = $30.20 | 40 straight time | Pass | $0.00 |
| D. Patel (fictional) | Laborer | $22.10 plus $5.80 = $27.90 | $22.10 plus $5.80 = $27.90 | 32 straight time | Pass | $0.00 |
Verdict: Do not sign yet. One classification shortfall found. A. Rivera (fictional) was paid $3.50 an hour short on fringe for 40 hours, a total shortfall of $140.00 for this week. Fix the fringe payment or the fringe allocation, re-run the check, and only then sign the Statement of Compliance. All other workers in this fictional week passed.
This fictional sample shows the product, not a real payroll. A real check would also test deductions, apprentice registration and ratios, and whether the wage determination used is the current modification.
Arithmetic only, on the test price of $149 a month. These are not forecasts.
After illustrative outsourced operating costs of about $3,000 a month (outsourced wage determination reviewer for spot checks and edge cases $2,000, outsourced support $700, hosting and PDF and SAM.gov polling $300, plus payment processing at about 3 percent):
Critical unknown: the human review cost per weekly payroll could break this. If every weekly payroll needs human review because wage determinations, fringe footnotes, and apprentice rules cannot be checked reliably without a person, outsourced cost per customer rises sharply and the math above breaks. Do not quote the 90 customer figure as a forecast. It is arithmetic on an illustrative cost base.
Other unknowns: CAC is unknown, no public CAC figure was found for any certified payroll product. Sales are project gated: a sub with no covered project has no reason to buy this month, and a sub who just won one needs it this week. Churn risk is project churn: use is weekly while a covered project runs, then stops. A per project pass may fit buyer behaviour better than a flat monthly subscription, but it makes $10,000 a month owner income harder because revenue stops between projects. That tension is unresolved.
Kill this idea if fewer than 5 of 10 small trade subs with a public channel and a named office manager or controller will trial a $149 a month pre-sign checker, or if the wage determination check cannot be shown to work on real determinations without human review on most weeks, or if no sub will trial it at $149 rather than CertifyWage at $99 or WeeklyCertified at $29. Do not build the checker until that test passes. Do not contact anyone without Matt approving the exact words first.
Demo form only. Nothing you type here is sent, stored, or processed, and no real request was received.