Form WH-347 is the U.S. Department of Labor's optional weekly certified payroll form for Davis-Bacon work. Page 1 lists each worker's classification, hours, rates, fringe, and pay; page 2 holds the project details, fringe credit table, and signed Statement of Compliance.
Plan reviews connect field conditions, drawings, and the next decisions on a job. AI-generated illustration.
To fill out the WH-347, enter the project and week-ending date, then one row per worker on page 1: entry number, name, a partial ID (never the full Social Security number), journeyworker or apprentice status, the classification from the wage determination, daily straight and overtime hours, rates, fringe credit, cash paid in lieu of fringe, gross pay, deductions, and net pay. On page 2, complete the fringe benefit credit table if you take credit for plans, check the required boxes in the Statement of Compliance, and sign it. DOL says the form itself is optional, but the weekly payroll information is not.
The instructions below follow DOL's current WH-347 instructions page (OMB Control No. 1235-0008, listed as expiring 01/31/2028). If your copy of the form has different column numbers, you have an older version; download the current one from DOL.
Before you start: what you need
The contract's wage determination and the classifications on it.
Daily time records for every worker on the site that week, split by classification.
Each worker's hourly fringe credit by plan, if you take credit for benefits.
Apprenticeship program names and registration details for any apprentices.
Payroll register showing gross pay on all work and deductions for the week.
Page 1, column by column
WH-347 page 1 columns, per DOL instructions
Column
What to enter
1A Worker entry no.
Number workers starting at 1, continuing across pages
1B to 1D Name
Last name, first name, middle initial
1E Identifying no.
Last four digits of the SSN or another individual identifier; full SSNs must not be included
2 Journeyworker / apprentice
J for journeyworker, or RA for registered apprentice plus the apprentice's progression level
3 Labor classification
Classification from the applicable wage determination; contact the contracting officer if one is missing
4 Hours each day
Day and date, then straight time (ST) and overtime (OT) hours
5 Total hours
Total of the hours in column 4
6A Hourly wage rate
Actual ST and OT rates paid, not including cash in lieu of fringe
6B Fringe benefit credit
Total hours times the hourly fringe credit from the page 2 table
6C Payment in lieu of fringe
Total cash paid in lieu of fringe benefits for the week
7A Gross, this project
Gross earned on this covered project
7B Gross, all work
Gross earned on all work that week, including non-covered jobs
8 Deductions
Tax withholding, FICA, and other deductions; do not pro-rate them
9 Net payment
Actual amount paid for all work during the week
Overtime in column 4
DOL's instructions say that for the Contract Work Hours and Safety Standards Act, enter hours worked on the project in excess of 40 total in the week as overtime. So if a carpenter worked 16 hours on a private job Monday and Tuesday, then 32 hours on your covered job the rest of the week, 8 of those 32 project hours are overtime.
Workers in two classifications
Use a separate line for each classification the worker performed, with the hours and rate for each. 29 CFR 5.5 allows paying each classification's rate only when payroll records accurately show the time spent in each. See how to handle dual classification.
Deductions
List each deduction for the whole week and do not split it between projects. DOL's instructions say deductions other than those allowed under 29 CFR 3.5 need prior DOL approval.
Page 2: fringe credits and the Statement of Compliance
Repeat the header: project name, project or contract number, payroll number, legal business name, project location, and week-ending date.
Certifying official: print the name and title of the contractor or subcontractor, or the agent who paid or supervised payment of the workers.
Boxes 1, 2, 3, and 6: DOL says these always must be checked. They certify compliance with the Davis-Bacon and Related Acts requirements.
Box 4, apprentices: check it if anyone was paid as an apprentice that week, list each program, mark whether it is registered with the DOL Office of Apprenticeship or a State Apprenticeship Agency, and enter the classification. If none, leave it unchecked and write N/A.
Box 5, fringe benefits: check it if you take fringe credit, and complete the Hourly Credit for Fringe Benefits table: plan name, type, number, funded or unfunded, then each worker's hourly credit under each plan and their total. If you pay only cash in lieu, check the box but skip the table, since those amounts go in column 6C.
Additional remarks: optional.
Sign and date: include phone and email. Legally valid electronic signatures are accepted; photocopied or scanned signatures are not.
Unfunded plans (such as paid vacation paid from company funds) need prior DOL approval before you can claim credit, under 29 CFR 5.28 as referenced in the instructions. The statement does not need to be notarized, but a false statement is subject to penalties under 18 U.S.C. 1001.
Worked example: one row on page 1
Say a carpenter works 8 hours a day Monday through Friday on a covered project. The wage determination shows $34.00 base plus $12.40 fringe (illustrative). The contractor pays $34.00 an hour and contributes to a health plan with an annualized credit of $9.00 an hour, then pays the remaining $3.40 in cash.
Example WH-347 entries for one worker
Column
Entry
1E
Last four of SSN, such as 4417
2
J
3
Carpenter
4 and 5
8 ST each day, 40 total
6A
$34.00 ST
6B
40 x $9.00 = $360.00
6C
40 x $3.40 = $136.00
7A
$1,360.00 wages + $136.00 cash in lieu = $1,496.00
On page 2, Box 5 is checked and the table shows the health plan with the worker's $9.00 hourly credit. Base wages plus fringe credit plus cash in lieu equals $46.40 an hour, matching the wage determination total. How you report gross in 7A should follow DOL's annotated guide and your agency's instructions; the point is that the three pieces add up to the required rate.
WH-347 mistakes to avoid
Classifications that do not match the wage determination wording.
Full Social Security numbers on the submitted form.
Overtime figured on project hours only, ignoring hours on other jobs that week.
Smart Business Automator fills the WH-347 fields from job time records, keeps each worker's classification and fringe credit on file, and checks for missing signatures and full SSNs before a report goes out. See certified payroll automation.
Frequently asked questions
Is the WH-347 form required?+
No. DOL says use of the WH-347 itself is optional, but covered contractors must still submit the same weekly payroll information with a signed Statement of Compliance. Some agencies require a specific format, so check the contract.
Can I put the full Social Security number on the WH-347?+
No. DOL's instructions say to use the last four digits or another individual identifier, and that full Social Security numbers must not be included. You still keep full SSNs in your own payroll records.
Does the WH-347 need to be notarized?+
No. The Statement of Compliance does not need notarization, but it must be signed, and false statements are subject to penalties under 18 U.S.C. 1001.
Can I sign the WH-347 electronically?+
Yes, with a legally valid electronic signature. DOL's instructions say photocopies or scanned copies of signatures do not satisfy the requirement.
Where do I send the WH-347?+
To the contracting federal agency, or to the applicant, sponsor, or owner when the agency is not a party to the contract. On subcontracts, send it to the prime contractor, who is responsible for submitting all subcontractor payrolls.
Your strategic plan is either a dusty binder from a conference you attended three years ago or it does not exist at all. This episode replaces bloated strategy documents with three simple templates any contractor can fill out in one afternoon: a one-page business plan, a 90-day execution roadmap, and a weekly scorecard. No consultants required. No MBA jargon. Just clarity.
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Read the full episode transcript
Published transcript from Scaling Legends. It may contain transcription errors. View the source transcript.
Okay, let's unpack this. I want you to picture your office right now. Oh, this should be good. Right. Because maybe it's, you know, a muddy trailer on a job site with plans caped to the walls, or maybe it's a corner office at your headquarters. But somewhere in that room, I guarantee there's a shelf. Yep, I know exactly what you're going to say. And on that shelf, there is a dusty three -ring binder from some leadership conference you attended, what, like three years ago? Easily three years ago. And inside that binder, is a 40 -page strategic plan that probably cost $10 ,000 to produce. It's full of MBA jargon, complex flow charts, these grand visions, and it has not been open since the exact day you put it there. It really is like the ultimate expensive
paperweight. I mean, we like things to be documented, you know, to feel official. Right. But in reality, that 40 -page document is just entirely disconnected from the daily chaotic operations of actually running a construction business. Exactly. And to you. the construction business owners and the contractors listening to this deep dive right now We know the feeling. I mean, you were executing constantly. You're managing subs. You're dealing with supply chain delays, putting out fires, pushing dirt, swinging hammers. But that lingering anxiety is always there, right? Like, are we actually executing on the right things? Yeah, that's the real question. So today we are pulling from a really fascinating stack of research and interviews from the Scaling Legends series. Yeah. Our mission today is to basically rescue your
business from that dusty binder. Please, it needs rescuing. We are going to explore three simple, highly actionable strategy templates that the source material suggests can completely replace those bloated planning documents. And we really need to emphasize why those bloated plans fail in the first place. Because the sources from Scaling Legends argue that before you even... touch a template, you have to understand what they call the strategy tax. Strategy tax. Yeah. The underlying logic here is that every single hour you spend on clear, focused strategy up front, well, it saves 10 hours of wasted execution on the back end. Wow. I mean, that is a staggering return on investment. It only works if the strategy is actually usable, right? Exactly. If I can
use an analogy here, it's like, imagine handing your framing crew a 50 -page theoretical manual on the, I don't know, the structural properties and load -bearing capacities of timber instead of just giving them the blueprints. They'd look at you like you were crazy. Right. They wouldn't know where to start swinging a hammer. So, like, why do we overcomplicate the blueprint for our own businesses? Well, we do it because we often... equate complexity with sophistication. We think, if it's not complicated, it's not a real strategy. But the source material pushes back hard on that. I'm glad it does. Yeah. In fact, according to Smart Business Automator's market intelligence report, companies with simple one -page plans execute at three times the rate of those with elaborate planning documents. Wait, three times the execution rate? Three times. And the why
behind that is really simple. You are drastically reducing the friction of understanding the plan. I mean, strategy and construction shouldn't be about sounding smart to a board of directors. No, not at all. It's about creating clear alignment for the people in the mud who are actually doing the work. So let's eliminate that friction right now and just get into the frameworks. Yeah. Because the sources lay out a foundational solution to the dusty binder problem, which is taking that entire 40 -page vision and shrinking it down to a single piece of paper. Yep. Template number one. The one page business plan. The Scaling Legends material describes this as an exercise in extreme clarity. They argue the one page plan should contain exactly seven boxes. Just seven. No more, no less. Their whole philosophy is that
if an initiative or a goal doesn't fit in these seven boxes, it's a distraction and you literally shouldn't be doing it. Okay, let's walk through the anatomy of this page as the sources define it. But I want to stop and really dissect a few of these because putting things in boxes sounds easy until you actually try to do it with your own business. Fair enough. It's harder than it looks. So, box one is, what do we do? And the rule here is that this needs to be your core service stated in a single sentence. Okay. Box two, who do we serve? That's your ideal client profile. Box three, what makes us different? Box four is your revenue target for this year and next year. Makes sense. Box five asks for three big goals for this year. Box six is how you get clients. And finally, box seven is the
one number that matters most right now. Okay, I have to push back here on behalf of the listener, specifically on box one. Let's hear it. How do you possibly narrow down everything a complex construction company does into a single sentence without it just sounding like generic corporate buzzwords? Because let's be real. Most contractors do renovations, some new builds, maybe a little bit of light commercial to pay the bills, some hardscaping on the side. If you get a leadership team in a room, the owner is going to say, well, we do it all. And that exact friction you're describing, that's the point of the exercise. What's really fascinating here is the psychological power of constraints. How so? Well, the authors of Staling Legends explain that. By forcing yourself to write just one sentence, you have to make hard, painful choices. If you just write, you
know, we provide premium building solutions for various needs. Which means absolutely nothing. Exactly. You haven't said anything. It's empty. You have to be willing to say, we do high -end custom residential builds. But the fear there is that by saying that, you're leaving money on the table. Like you're ignoring the light commercial work that keeps the lights on. Exactly. And that fear is exactly what causes the bloat in those 40 -page plans. But the mechanism behind this template is that if you try to be everything to everyone, your team doesn't know what to prioritize. Your marketing budget gets diluted. Your estimators, they don't know which bids to prioritize. And your brand just becomes muddy. The constraint is what actually forces profitability. And that
exact same logic applies to Box 7. Which was the one number that matters most. Yep. I'm glad you brought up Box 7 because that's the one I really want to wrestle with. Just one number. I mean, a construction business has dozens of vital metrics. We do, absolutely. But the source material argues that if you have 15 number one priorities... You actually have zero. Exactly. You have zero. By forcing the leadership team to debate and finally pick the single number that matters most right now, you eliminate conflicting priorities down the chain of command. Okay. Give me an example of how that looks in practice. Let's say your leadership team decides that for the next 12 months, the one number is gross profit margin. Okay. So if gross profit margin is the North Star, how does that actually change behavior out in the field? It changes everything. Because
now every single decision is filtered through that one metric. When the estimating team is looking at a massive, flashy project that will bring in a ton of top -line revenue but has terrible margins, they know to pass on it. Because it doesn't serve the North Star. Right. And when a project manager is deciding whether to, say, pay a premium to expedite materials or just wait a week... they filter it through how it impacts the gross profit margin. It just creates this universal decision -making framework. It's pure team alignment. I love that. You print this single page out, you hand it to your leadership team, and suddenly everyone is rowing in the exact same direction. The estimating team isn't bidding on strip malls if box two says your ideal client is a custom home buyer. But here is the reality
check. A one -page plan. as powerful as it is, is inherently a high -level vision. Sure. It covers the whole year. And in the construction industry, a year is an absolute eternity. Which brings us to the second framework the sources outline, because a year is way too long to maintain a sense of urgency on a day -to -day basis. The Scaling Legends material really emphasizes that you have to transition from that high -level annual vision to medium -term boots -on -the -ground action. This is where strategy actually becomes execution. Enter template number two. The 90 -day execution roadmap. That's the one. Let's break this down because if the one -page plan is the destination we're driving toward, the 90 -day roadmap is the vehicle actually getting us there. How do the sources structure this?
The method they suggest is beautifully straightforward. You look at those three big goals from box five of your one -page plan, and you pick three rocks for the next 90 days. Rocks. I like that terminology. Meaning they are heavy, they're foundational priorities, and they don't move easily. Right. And for each of those three rocks, the framework requires you to assign five to seven specific milestones. Okay. Each milestone must have a hard due date, and crucially, it must have a designated owner, like someone's actual name is written next to it. The rhythm, they suggest, is reviewing this roadmap weekly and adjusting it formally every month. It's just like the physical phases of a build. You know, you can't pour the roof while you're still digging the basement. If you try to look at an entire multi -year project schedule all at once, you're going to get overwhelmed and paralyzed. You have to focus on the foundation
first. That is your next 90 days. But I do have to ask, why specifically 90 days? Why not a six -month? sprint or, I don't know, a monthly plan. The sources are very deliberate about this time frame. According to Smart Business Automator's Market Intelligence Report, 90 -day planning cycles significantly outperform annual plans because they hit a very specific psychological sweet spot. What's the sweet spot? Well, it creates immediate urgency. 90 days is close enough that you feel the deadline looming so your team really can't procrastinate. But it also allows for crucial market adjustments. Oh, that's huge in construction. Right. Think about the reality of your job sites. Supply chain costs fluctuate wildly, lumber prices
spike, labor availability shifts, or, you know, a key subcontractor just walks off the job. Which happens all the time. All the time. If you are locked into a rigid 12 -month operational plan, you will break when the market shifts. A 90 -day cycle gives you structured permission to pivot. Okay, that makes total sense. So we have the one -page plan as the destination, the 90 -day roadmap as the vehicle. But if you're driving a vehicle, you need to know how fast you're going, if the engine is overheating, or if you're about to run out of gas. You definitely need a dashboard. Exactly. Which brings us to template number three from the sources, the weekly scorecard. This isn't the steering wheel. This is the gauge cluster on your F -150. You don't need to know how the transmission was built. You just need to know if the check engine light is on. We're moving
to the granular weekly level to make sure we don't crash. Exactly. And the framework Scaling Legends lays out is incredibly strict on this part. They argue the weekly scorecard should consist of exactly five numbers. Not 15, not 15, five. And their philosophy is that you review these five numbers every single Monday morning. without exception. Okay, if I'm building this gauge cluster for a contracting business, I'm guessing I'm looking at things like cash on hand, maybe schedule variance. What specific numbers do the sources suggest? They offer a few baseline examples that most contractors should start with. Leads generated, proposals sent, close rate, cash in the bank, and jobs in progress, which is often called WIP or work in progress. Now, wait a minute. I'm going to push back here again,
and I'm channeling every listener who is currently sitting in a truck just surrounded by paperwork. I can see them now. If I'm a contractor, I'm already drowning in RFIs, permits, submittals, and payroll processing. Isn't adding a mandatory weekly scorecard tracking session just creating more administrative busy work? It's a very fair question, and the authors of Scaling Legends address this directly. They argue we have to radically reframe what busy work actually is. Busy work is spending four hours digging through emails trying to figure out why a project is delayed. Tracking these five numbers, they argue, is pure survival. Yes. The underlying mechanism here is that if you track the specific leading and lagging metrics weekly, you will see problems
six to eight weeks before they ever hit your bank account. Okay, I want to make this incredibly concrete for the listener. Think about your own payroll account right now. If we trace the causality of these numbers, what does a failure actually look like? Let's say... My proposal sent number drops to zero this week. Exactly. Let's trace that timeline. If proposal sent drops to zero today, it means your close rate is going to drop next month because you literally have nothing to close, which means your jobs in progress drops the month after that, which means your cash in the bank dries up two months from now. Predicting a cash flow crisis two months in advance is the exact opposite of busy work. It's a lifesaver. It gives you an eight -week runway to fix the problem. Maybe you dramatically ramp up marketing or you aggressively follow up. on old leads.
You do all of this before that Friday payday hits and the account is just empty. That is a terrifying but very clarifying timeline. But the reality of construction is that you are going to... Miss milestones. You're going to miss targets on that scorecard. I mean, a storm rolls in and wipes out three days of work. Absolutely. And the sources stress that missing targets is completely normal. The point of this system is not perfection. It is visibility. When you miss a milestone, the framework dictates that you don't throw your hands up in the air and abandon the plan. You sit down on Monday morning, you look at the scorecard, you ask why you missed it, and you adjust the timeline or the approach based on reality, not guesswork. Okay, so these three templates, the one -page plan, the 90 -day roadmap, and the
weekly scorecard, they're brilliant in their simplicity. But let's address the elephant in the room. Implementation. Implementation. We have the templates, but how does a busy contractor actually find the time to fill them out initially and then consistently gather the data to track them without pulling their hair out? The Scaling Legends material offers a very specific how -to for the initial setup. They recommend blocking out exactly three hours on a Saturday morning. No phone calls from the site, no email notifications, just you, a pen, and these three templates. So you start with the high level. You force yourself through the friction of filling out the seven boxes of the one -page plan. Then you take those yearly goals and you slice them down into the 90 -day roadmap rocks and milestones. And finally...
You pick the five metrics for your weekly F -150 gauge cluster that will prove you are actually on track. The sources claim that you will walk out of that three -hour session with more clarity than most contractors get from a $10 ,000 consultant. I believe it. And once the baseline system is built, it's really just about maintaining the rhythm of review. Let's summarize that rhythm for the listener, because consistency is the glue here. Right. So you review the one -page plan quarterly to make sure the big picture market hasn't shifted. You review the 90 -day roadmap weekly. to check milestone progress and you formally adjust it monthly. And the weekly scorecard. That gauge cluster is reviewed every single Monday morning. But gathering those five numbers every Monday morning, that is where the bottleneck usually happens. I mean, if a project manager
has to spend four hours on a Friday afternoon digging through disorganized files, messy spreadsheets, and muddy field notes just to tell you how many jobs are on schedule or what the budget variance is. They're going to hate it. This whole system is going to collapse. People will just stop doing it. And the sources acknowledge that. The administrative burden is often what crushes the strategy. The Scaling Legends material points out that to solve this bottleneck, many modern firms are leveraging technology right specifically they highlight an ai platform built for the industry called smart business automator to handle all this manual coordination we're talking about removing the manual data entry that bogs everything down how do the sources describe this tool actually working in practice well they explain that instead of your team manually sorting through job site photos
plans and permits the ai and smart business automator handles the heavy lifting through smart document organization. Oh, nice. It automatically tags and categorizes everything coming in from the field. Which means when you ask for the scorecard numbers... On Monday morning, they are instantly available. Exactly. But the sources note it goes beyond just storing files. It actually acts like an AI project assistant. It does. I mean, think about the dreaded daily logs. Oh, the worst. Instead of project managers sitting in the trailer at 6 p .m. writing up long field reports, the platform turns field notes and meeting discussions into clear daily log summaries with key takeaways and action items. It extracts critical details directly from the specs and drawings. And here's
where it gets really interesting for me. The material mentions it can generate draft RFI responses based on historical context and existing project records. Anyone listening knows how much time is wasted just typing up RFIs. And it even has schedule risk detection, actively reviewing project activity to flag bottlenecks before they blow up the timeline. Exactly. And to pull this back to the weekly scorecard, the platform provides automated budget and variance insights. It spots cost movement trends instantly. Furthermore, the sources point out that it connects directly to your existing accounting and ERP software via API. Okay, let's pause and do a quick translation for anyone who isn't a software developer. An API is basically a digital bridge that lets two
different pieces of software talk to each other automatically. Right. And an ERP is essentially the central nervous system of your business. Software handling, accounting, inventory, all of that. So by connecting them, we're talking about completely eliminating double data entry. Precisely. Your project managers aren't spending their time doing data entry. They are actually managing the projects and the people. They can handle more jobs without drowning in admin work. If we connect this to the bigger picture, using tools to automate change order impacts and spec checking gives leadership the exact... real -time visibility they need to populate that weekly scorecard effortlessly. Which brings us full circle. Yeah. You involve your team. You share that one -page plan with leadership. You let them build their own 90 -day roadmaps that align
with your vision. And you use the tech stack to track the weekly scorecard without the headache. Yep. When everyone is rowing in the same direction, with total visibility, you'd be amazed at how fast things move. It completely eliminates the strategy tax. You aren't wasting hours executing on the wrong things because the plan is simple, visible, and constantly updated based on reality. The ultimate takeaway from these sources is clear. Bloated, MBA jargon -filled strategy documents simply do not work in the mud and chaos of construction. They belong in the dusty binder. They really do. Clarity, simplicity, and consistent visibility. That is what actually gets the job done. It really is that straightforward. We want to wrap up this deep dive with a final thought for you to ponder as you head back out to the site or the office today. We've talked a lot about using AI to gather
the data for your strategy, but here's something to mull over. Right. If AI platforms can now predict schedule bottlenecks and draft your RFIs automatically. How long will it be before the strategy templates themselves, like the one -page plan, the 90 -day rocks, are generated and adjusted entirely by an algorithm in real time? Oh, wow. Right? Are we moving toward a future where the strategic brain is digital and the contractor is just the algorithm's hands in the field? That is a wild thought, and it definitely raises some big questions about the future of leadership in this industry. If the strategy becomes automated, the human value becomes entirely about human execution. Absolutely. Something to think about while you're pouring concrete today. A huge thank you to the team over at the Scaling Legends show
for providing the source material that made today's breakdown possible. It was great material. If you found this deep dive valuable, please go subscribe to Scaling Legends on whatever platform you're listening on right now. Rate the show, leave a review, and most importantly, share this deep dive with your colleagues or team members who could benefit from ditching their own dusty binders. Yes, definitely share it. And to learn more about the tools mentioned in the sources so you can scale your operations without drowning in paperwork, make sure to visit smartbusinessautomator .com. Until next time, keep it simple and keep executing.
