How to Fill Out WH-347: A Column-by-Column Walkthrough (Revised Form)

What Changed in the Revised WH-347 (Rev. January 2025)

The Department of Labor published a revised WH-347 marked Rev. January 2025, OMB No. 1235-0008, expiring 01/31/2028. The previous version expires on September 30, 2026: from October 1, 2026, only the revised form is valid. Using the form itself remains optional, but every certified payroll must be accompanied by a signed Statement of Compliance, either page 2 of the WH-347 or another document with identical wording - so a layout that still prints the old statement no longer qualifies from October 1.

What disappeared: the column for the number of withholding exemptions, and the separate WH-348 statement, now merged into page 2. What the revised form asks for, column by column below: a worker entry number (1A) and a separate identifying number (1E); a column marking each worker as a journeyworker (J) or registered apprentice (RA); separate straight-time and overtime rates in 6A; a column for cash paid in lieu of fringe benefits (6C); gross earned split between this project (7A) and all work (7B), with deductions and net payment computed on all work; wage determination and revision numbers plus a 'Submission of Final DBRA Certified Payroll Form' box in the header; and, on page 2, an hourly fringe credit table by plan and the certifying official's telephone and email.

Before You Start: What You Need on Hand

Filling out WH-347 accurately requires three things gathered before you touch the form: the project's wage determination (which sets the required base rate and fringe rate for each classification on this specific contract, and whose number and revision number now go in the header), each worker's actual hours worked that week broken out by day, and the deductions taken from that week's pay. Filling in the form without the wage determination in front of you is the single most common source of a wrong number, since rates are set per project and per geographic area, not per company, and the same trade classification can carry a different rate on a different job.

This walkthrough uses one running example throughout: a carpenter, journeyworker, with a $30.00/hour base rate and $6.00/hour fringe ($4.00 health and welfare, $2.00 pension, both paid into plans), working 40 hours straight time and 4 hours overtime in the week, on this project only. Every dollar figure in the sections below traces back to that one worker's week, so the math can be checked column by column against the final gross, fringe, and net figures.

One WH-347 covers one project for one payroll week, with one row per worker, and the header carries the project name, project or contract number, certified payroll number, week ending date and project location. The process repeats the following week - certified payroll doesn't accumulate across weeks on a single form the way a running spreadsheet total might.

Columns 1A-1E and 2: Worker, Identifier, J or RA

Column 1A is the worker entry number. Columns 1B, 1C and 1D hold the last name, first name and middle initial. Column 1E is the worker identifying number, such as the last four digits of a Social Security number - never the full number. The identifier has to stay consistent for that worker across every week of the project so an auditor can trace one worker's record end to end.

Column 2 marks the worker as J (journeyworker) or RA (registered apprentice), with the progression level for an apprentice. Our carpenter is J. Anyone paid as an apprentice must be registered with the Office of Apprenticeship or a recognized State Apprenticeship Agency, and page 2 asks for the apprenticeship program name, the registered classification name and whether it is OA or SAA.

Column 3: Labor Classification

This is the labor classification exactly as it appears on the project's wage determination - carpenter, laborer, electrician, and so on. This is also where the most costly errors happen: a worker paid at the wrong classification's rate has been underpaid relative to the correct prevailing wage even if every other column is filled in correctly. For our example, the classification is Carpenter.

A worker who performs more than one classification in the same week gets one row per classification, reusing the same entry number in 1A, with the hours actually performed in each role paid at that classification's rate rather than a single blended rate for the whole week. Getting this split wrong is a common source of underpayment on multi-trade crews.

Columns 4-5: Day-by-Day Hours and Weekly Totals

Column 4 lays out each day of your company's workweek (day letter and date), with straight-time hours on one line and overtime hours on the line below. On contracts covered by the Contract Work Hours and Safety Standards Act, hours over 40 in the workweek are overtime, including hours worked off the project site. In our example, the week comes to 40 hours of straight time and 4 hours of overtime.

Column 5 is the total hours worked in the week: 40 + 4 = 44 hours. This total also drives the fringe credit, since fringe is credited on every hour worked, straight time and overtime alike - a detail that trips up hand calculations that only apply the fringe rate to the 40 straight-time hours.

Columns 6A-6C: Rates, Fringe Credit, and Cash in Lieu

Column 6A is the hourly rate actually paid, straight time on the upper line and overtime on the lower line, excluding any cash paid in lieu of fringe: $30.00 and $45.00 in our example. Overtime is 1.5 times the base rate (1.5 x $30.00 = $45.00), not 1.5 times the base-plus-fringe rate - multiplying the combined rate is a recurring error that inflates the overtime figure beyond what's required.

Column 6B is the total fringe benefit credit for the week: total hours times the worker's total hourly credit from the fringe table on page 2. Here, 44 hours x $6.00 = $264.00. Column 6C is the total cash paid to the worker in lieu of fringe benefits that week - $0.00 in our example, since the whole $6.00 goes into the health and welfare and pension plans. A contractor paying part of the fringe in cash reports that part in 6C instead of claiming it as plan credit in 6B.

Columns 7A-7B: Gross Amount Earned

Column 7A is gross earned on this project: 40 hours x $30.00 = $1,200.00 straight time, plus 4 hours x $45.00 = $180.00 overtime, for $1,380.00, plus any cash in lieu of fringe from 6C. The $264.00 fringe credit paid into plans is not added, which is why 7A is $1,380.00, not $1,644.00.

Column 7B is gross earned for all work that week, including other projects and work not covered by Davis-Bacon. Our carpenter worked only on this project, so 7B is also $1,380.00. A worker who spent part of the week on another job shows a 7B higher than 7A, and the deductions and net that follow are based on 7B.

Columns 8-9: Deductions and Net Payment for All Work

Column 8 itemizes deductions for all work, calculated on 7B: tax withholdings, FICA, other deductions and the total, each shown rather than lumped into a single unexplained figure. Deductions are not prorated between projects. In our example, total deductions come to $310.00.

Column 9 is the net payment to the worker for all work: 7B of $1,380.00 minus $310.00 in deductions equals $1,070.00. The $264.00 fringe credit never enters this number, since it went to the plans, not to the worker as take-home pay. A net figure that doesn't equal 7B minus itemized deductions, to the cent, is one of the fastest ways to trigger a follow-up question from a reviewing agency.

Page 2: Fringe Credit Table and Statement of Compliance

Page 2 is where the fringe credit in 6B is documented. For each worker (entry number and name), the hourly credit for fringe benefits table lists each plan - plan name, type, plan number, funded or unfunded - with the hourly credit claimed per plan and the total hourly credit in the last column. Our carpenter's row shows $4.00 health and welfare plus $2.00 pension, for a $6.00 total. An unfunded plan requires prior approval from the Department of Labor (29 CFR 5.28), and more than six plans go on an addendum.

The Statement of Compliance itself is a series of six checkbox certifications. Don't paraphrase or retype it from memory: the wording must be the official wording printed on page 2 of the revised form (or a document with identical wording). The page ends with additional remarks and the certifying official's name, title, signature, date, telephone and email, under a warning that cites 18 U.S.C. Section 1001 and 31 U.S.C. Section 3729. It is signed for each week's certified payroll, not once for the whole project.

Tools That Help

A free WH-347 Excel template for one project and up to five workers, laid out on the columns of the revised form, is available at tabletemplates.com/free/wh-347-form-excel-download/ - it covers the payroll table only, not the Statement of Compliance. LeaveSheet's Certified Payroll add-on ($19/month or $190/year per organization, 14-day trial) takes weekly straight-time and overtime entries per worker, reconciles the 6B fringe credit automatically by plan, and exports a WH-347-style PDF with columns 1A to 9 and the revised Statement of Compliance, plus an Excel copy - it doesn't process payroll or taxes, and it isn't an official DOL or state e-filing system.

DOL WH-347 generator vs LeaveSheet

The U.S. Department of Labor publishes a browser-based web version of the WH-347. Here is what each one does, as of October 9, 2026.

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