DOL's free online WH-347 form vs keeping your records

The Department of Labor offers a free online fillable WH-347 at dol.gov/agencies/whd/forms/wh347-web. If you only need one certified payroll, or one every few months, it may be all you need. This page lays out what it does, what it does not do, and when keeping your own records pays off.

What the DOL tool does

According to the DOL page, the tool:

• Works in your web browser, with "no downloads, installations, or subscriptions needed."
• Takes project details, workers, hours, wage rates and deductions.
• Performs "all wage, overtime, and deduction calculations instantly," and computes fringe benefit credits once workers are assigned to benefit plans.
• Lets you review and print the completed form, or save it as a PDF to submit to your contracting agency.
• States: "Your data never leaves your computer. We don't store your information on any servers."

It produces the Rev. January 2025 layout, including page 2. For a single week, that covers the whole job, and it costs nothing. If that is your situation, use it.

What it does not keep

The DOL page does not mention saving your work, reusing last week's entries, or importing hours. To check, we looked at the page source of the tool as archived on 2026-05-20: it contains no localStorage, sessionStorage or IndexedDB code (the browser features a web page would use to remember data between visits) and no file import. Printing goes through the browser's print dialog.

In practice that means each visit starts empty. For a contractor who submits every week, the crew, identifying numbers, classifications, rates, fringe plans and project header are typed in again every week. DOL may change the tool, so check the current page if this matters to you.

Why "every week" changes the math

A Davis-Bacon job means a certified payroll for each week of covered work, and many jobs run for months. Most of what goes on the form is the same from week to week:

Stays the same most weeks	Changes every week
Project name, location, contract number, wage determination	Week ending date and dates in column 4
Your business name and address, prime/sub status	Payroll number
Worker names, IDs, J/RA status	Hours per day
Classifications, base rates, fringe rates	Deductions and net pay
Fringe plan names, types, numbers, hourly credits	Who worked that week
Certifying official, phone, email

Re-entering the left column every week is where the time goes, and where typos creep in: a transposed rate, a wrong ID, a classification spelled two ways.

What keeping records adds

Whatever you use (payroll software, a careful spreadsheet, or a tool like ours), saved records give you:

• A saved crew and rates. Enter each worker and classification once.
• Copy last week. Start from last week's crew and hours and change what is different.
• Import hours. If your time comes from a time clock or a foreman's spreadsheet, a CSV import beats retyping.
• A history. The regulation requires you to keep certified payrolls for 3 years after all the work on the prime contract is completed. A record of what you submitted, with the numbers behind it, makes a review or a correction much easier.
• Consistent numbering. Payroll numbers that count up per project without you tracking them on a sticky note.

Where WH-347 Kit fits

WH-347 Kit is a small browser app for exactly the weekly case. It keeps projects, crew, classifications, fringe plans and past weeks in your browser (your payroll data is not sent to our server), copies last week, imports hours from CSV, and prints the Rev. January 2025 form on the official DOL PDF layout, page 2 included. You can export a backup file to move to another computer. Your first certified payroll report is free with no card; after that it is $19 a month or $149 a year for unlimited weeks and projects. If the DOL tool already covers you, there is no reason to pay us.

Either way, you are responsible for the numbers

Neither the DOL tool nor any software makes a payroll compliant. The contractor who signs the Statement of Compliance certifies the classifications, rates, fringe benefits and deductions. Whatever you use, check each week against the wage determination in your contract, and see how to fill out WH-347 for what each column means.