How General Contractors Automate Payroll for Compliance and Savings

As a general contractor, managing your labor force can get messy (and expensive) without construction payroll software.

• Paying for human error: A Dayforce report shows almost 70% of companies encounter payroll data discrepancies — and those errors add up. Human error can cost 20-30% of a contract’s value.
  
  
• Overlooking labor fraud: "Buddy punching” costs US businesses hundreds of millions in payroll expenses (annually) — and paper timesheets are easy to manipulate.
  
  
• Facing compliance violations: From Union laws to certified payroll, without a reliable and accurate data collection system, you could risk losing contracts, fines, or even legal battles.

Automated construction payroll software can increase productivity and accuracy, and this comprehensive guide offers benefits, statistics, recommendations, and real-world examples to help you maximize payroll profitability.

The Payroll Challenges Facing General Contractors

Sticking with traditional pen-and-paper time tracking, or using spreadsheets to track construction cost codes, vendors, open invoices, and time sheets are a recipe for disaster. Here are some risks you face by rejecting construction time and attendance software.

Compliance violations

Adhering to the Davis-Bacon Act by ensuring accurate certified payroll reporting, and following prevailing wage regulations, is much harder with analog processes. If you are found in violation, the consequences could be anything from lost contracts to legal troubles.

Manual entry and errors

Without remote payroll for construction, data entry mistakes lead to delays, miscalculations, and labor misclassifications. Not to mention, payroll errors can even lead to morale problems. A report by Kronos revealed that two payroll errors can drive 50% of workers to find a new job.

Multi-State and Union Payroll complexity

Adapting to varying wage laws and benefit structures is complex at the best of times, but doing so manually is not only more time-consuming, it’s unrealistic. Aside from the workload of daily payroll tasks, researching labor laws state-by-state is asking for errors (and a very frustrated payroll specialist.)

Time tracking issues

Manual time collection can lead to time theft, buddy punching, and ghost employees. Not to mention the innocuous miscalculations from data entry errors, inefficient processing, and payroll specialists forced to wait for paper time sheets to hit their desk. 

How Payroll Automation Solves These Problems

The benefits of implementing construction time and attendance software will appear almost immediately — and they ripple throughout every level of your organization.

• Eliminates manual data entry and errors: Automated construction labor tracking software reduces administrative workload, and minimizes payroll discrepancies. Businesses using software with timekeeping and payroll features were 44% less likely to commit errors. 
  
  
• Increases accuracy with real-time labor tracking: Accurate job costing, wage classifications, and labor cost control come standard when you integrate construction payroll software. Automated weather logging and job coding means a more efficient workflow for field teams.
  
  
• Automates certified payroll and compliance: Payroll software for construction simplifies reporting for government-funded projects so you never have to worry about prevailing wage, union, or certified payroll violations. Prevailing wage (and Davis-Bacon software) like hh2 is cloud-based, and automatically updates to reflect changes in regulations and policies. 

• Integrates seamlessly with major ERP: Prevent unnecessary downtime and data silos by choosing certified payroll software that works with major ERP solutions like Sage 100 and 300, Trimble, Foundation, and Viewpoint. 

What Construction Labor Tracking Software Features To Shop For

With so many time tracking and payroll software options on the market (and of vastly different price points), choosing the most affordable option is tempting — especially if you’re new to this type of software. However, the cheap option may cost you far more in frustration, inefficiencies — and even data security. Avoid that by looking for construction payroll software with these features:

Cloud-based systems with mobile access

Software that centralizes the many different aspects of your organization is essential to a fluid, efficient workflow. Cloud-based construction payroll software eliminates data silos, improves communication, and ensures documentation is consistently up-to-date.

Integration with accounting and ERP software

As mentioned, your construction time and attendance software should support your tech stack. It should complement and enhance what already works. This helps save you money by eliminating unnecessary software upgrades.

Compliance tracking for prevailing wage and certified payroll

Because policy changes can happen at any time (and can vary at the state level) you can protect your business by choosing cloud-based construction payroll software that updates automatically when new regulations are enacted.

Automated time tracking with geofencing

Optimize time tracking and job code processes with construction time tracking apps offering built-in geofencing. When you download the mobile time clock construction app on a device, it auto-generates a virtual boundary that records work hours.

How a General Contractor Cut Payroll Processing Time by 70%

To see how fast and cost-effective construction payroll software can be, hear from Lorraine Searcy about how hh2 improved Anchor 41’s certified payroll accuracy and efficiency.

Learn more

5 Steps To Successful Certified Payroll Software Implementation

Implementing a comprehensive but user-friendly construction payroll software can be a painless process, and the following steps will help you prepare, initiate, and maintain a productive integration experience.

Step 1: Assess current payroll inefficiencies

The point of implementing construction payroll software is to improve upon workflows. It’s much harder to do that if you don’t fully grasp current inefficiencies. Sit down with your team to identify the key problem areas to know exactly what you need from construction time and attendance software. 

Step 2: Implement mobile time tracking software for field crews

Your project managers and field teams may visit multiple job sites per day. Look for a solution with a mobile construction time tracking app that lets teams input hours, expense documentation, and job codes from anywhere. This increases efficiency and accuracy because your team doesn’t have to wrestle with old-fashioned paper time-sheets, or risk forgetting essential details after a long day.

Step 3: Choose certified payroll software that integrates current ERP

If you already have an ERP system in place, choose construction labor tracking software that integrates into it. That way, you’re not forced to rebuild your entire tech stack just to fit around a new software.

Step 4: Automate compliance reporting

Protect your business from prevailing wage and union violations with construction payroll software. Aside from the increased productivity, automated compliance reporting offers priceless peace of mind.

Step 5: Leverage cloud-based solutions like hh2 Remote Payroll

Your operation can’t reach its full potential in a silo. Your systems (from field reporting to payroll processing) must communicate seamlessly. Cloud-based construction payroll software positions you for growth and productivity by centralizing data, and keeping it automatically up-to-date.

Why General Contractors Need hh2 Construction Time and Attendance Software

When it comes to the benefits of automating time tracking in construction, general contractors aren’t just more productive, their business is better protected.

Automates certified payroll reporting and compliance tracking: From avoiding auditing issues to safeguarding against legal penalties and fines, hh2 payroll software for construction protects your business from the repercussions of human error.

Integrates with construction ERPs like Sage and Viewpoint: There’s no need to stress your tech stack because hh2 was designed to integrate with major ERP software.

Ensures accurate job costing and payroll processing: Thanks to hh2’s adaptable mobile time tracking app, your team can easily and quickly input their hours, submit daily field reports, expense receipts (and beyond) — anywhere and anytime.  

Reduces processing delays: Cloud-based payroll and automation dramatically speed up processing and approval workflows, which means no more delays and much happier vendors, payroll specialists, and employees. 

Construction payroll software isn’t just about digitizing time sheets, it’s about empowering your field and back office teams with the information, collaboration, and tools they need to help your business grow.

Don’t hold your profitability and productivity back for one more day…

Schedule a free demo of hh2 Remote Payroll to see the incredible things you can achieve with automation!