Illinois Certified Payroll: IDOL's Certified Transcript of Payroll Portal Explained

What IDOL Certified Payroll Means

Illinois adopted its own prevailing wage law in 1941, and the Prevailing Wage Act governs what contractors and subcontractors must pay laborers, workers and mechanics on public works, along with their record-keeping duties. IDOL's training material defines public works as fixed works constructed by any public body, work financed in whole or in part with public funds, renewable energy projects required to pay prevailing wage under the Illinois Power Agency Act, and construction performed by a third party contracted by a public utility.

The Certified Transcript of Payroll is Illinois' certified payroll. Under Public Act 100-1177 and 820 ILCS 130/5.1, IDOL develops and maintains the online portal where prevailing wage contractors file it. IDOL's own test is the contract: if it says the work is subject to the Illinois Prevailing Wage Act, you submit certified payroll to IDOL; if it mentions Davis-Bacon, IDOL's FAQ says you do not need to submit to the department.

Getting Into the Certified Transcript of Payroll Portal

Access runs through an Illinois Public ID account. You create the account, then log in to the Certified Transcript of Payroll portal and select "Public Account". IDOL recommends a shared business email address and a business-related username, which it says can be beneficial long-term.

Each company needs its own login: IDOL's FAQ says a user entering payroll for two different companies must have separate accounts. Questions go to dol.certifiedpayroll@illinois.gov.

The 15th-of-the-Month Deadline

IDOL's Prevailing Wage Act FAQ says contractors and subcontractors must submit certified payroll on a monthly basis, by the 15th of the month following the month in which the work was performed, for as long as they work on the public works project. Each submission is for one project; the upload file cannot mix projects.

Each payroll carries a payroll start and end date. If your pay period doesn't run Monday through Sunday, you enter the days in your own order; on a two-week payroll, IDOL says gross pay has to be split between week one and week two, with net pay reported on the second week. Asked whether a week with no work must be submitted, IDOL's Certified Transcript of Payroll FAQ answers "No", and its June 2025 training deck says "A No Work Report is not required by the Act"; the portal still offers a No Work Report checkbox.

Mistakes can be corrected: a submitted payroll for the month currently due has a withdraw button, but after the 15th, prior-month payrolls can no longer be withdrawn.

What the CTP Asks For, and the Upload Template

You can enter payroll manually or upload a file. IDOL's training says the full import is a CSV file that follows the column names of its template, and its FAQ adds that the template's column order cannot be changed. The current template, Full-CTP-Upload, was posted for use starting July 1, 2025.

The template runs to 102 columns. Beyond project, contractor and public body details (including county FIPS codes and a state capital funds flag), each worker row asks for the last four digits of the SSN, the work classification with its geographic division, class type and class code, race, ethnicity, gender, veteran status, journeyman, apprentice or foreman, prevailing and non-prevailing hours for each day, gross and net income, and the hourly fringe amounts by type. IDOL's FAQ says the Prevailing Wage Act requires the veteran status and race/ethnicity information, and that non-prevailing wage hours, meaning hours worked outside the project being reported, are collected to check rates and overtime.

A fringe benefit document must be submitted unless the payroll is a No Work Report, and IDOL publishes a Fringe Benefit Affidavit form. You certify by typing your first and last name on the review page; the portal then issues a CTP number and emails a PDF copy of the submission to the contractor's addresses.

Records You Must Keep

Contractors and subcontractors must make and keep records for at least five years from the date of last payment on a project. For each worker, IDOL lists name, address, telephone number when available, Social Security number, classification, gross and net wages, hours worked each day, starting and ending times each day, hourly wage rate, overtime rate and fringe benefit rate, plus the name and address, plan sponsor and plan administrator of each fringe benefit fund. Contractors that contribute to fringe benefit funds jointly maintained and jointly governed under the federal Labor Management Relations Act keep a shorter list, as the same FAQ explains.

The records are public records. On 7 business days' notice they must be made available for inspection and copying at a location in Illinois, and on demand from IDOL the contractor must submit a sworn statement of their accuracy.

Subcontractors and General Contractors

IDOL's own materials don't say the same thing here. Its June 2025 training deck states "Subcontractors must file their own CTP"; its FAQ says a subcontractor that has always handed certified payroll to the general contractor "may continue that practice", while recommending that every contractor file its own because liability falls on the individual contractor. Filing your own CTP satisfies both.

A general contractor or public body checking compliance can ask for the PDF confirmation email a contractor receives after filing, or create an Illinois Public ID account to use the Certified Transcript of Payroll Searchable Database.

Penalties for Late, Missing, or False Certified Payroll

Failing to submit certified payroll violates the Act and brings a Notice of Violation. IDOL's FAQ says a contractor, or an officer, employee or agent of one, who fails to file certified payroll before the due date, or who willfully files a certified payroll that is false as to a material fact, is guilty of a class A misdemeanor and, if found guilty, is subject to immediate debarment for four years without a hearing. Two Notices of Violation within five years for failing to keep or produce records can also lead to debarment.

Underpaying the prevailing wage is a separate exposure. According to IDOL's Prevailing Wage Act FAQ, the contractor is liable for the difference between what was paid and the prevailing wage, owes IDOL a 20% penalty on the underpayment, and the workers are owed 2% "of the amount of any such penalty for each month during which underpayments remain unpaid". For a second or later violation, the 20% becomes 50% and the 2% becomes 5%.

What a WH-347-Style Spreadsheet Does and Doesn't Do for Illinois Jobs

To be direct: a WH-347-style Excel template, including the templates on this site, and LeaveSheet Certified Payroll produce a WH-347-style report and Statement of Compliance as PDF and Excel files. Neither files into IDOL's portal or produces a CSV in IDOL's column layout, and the WH-347 layout has no fields for race, ethnicity, gender or veteran status; its column 7B, "Gross Amount Earned for all Work", is a weekly dollar total that includes other projects, not the daily non-prevailing hours the CTP asks for.

What they're useful for on an Illinois job is an internal, calculating record of each worker's classification, hours, rates, fringe and deductions, which you can use as the source when entering the CTP, alongside the five-year records the Act requires. If the project is a Davis-Bacon job instead, the WH-347 is the DOL's optional form for that federal weekly certified payroll.

If you need to upload rather than key in, the file has to follow IDOL's current template exactly, which is a job for a script or software mapped to those 102 columns, not a general-purpose spreadsheet template.