How to Submit Certified Payroll to NYSDOL: A Step-by-Step Guide for New York Contractors (2026)

Contractors and subcontractors working on covered New York public-work projects may be required to submit weekly certified payroll information electronically through the applicable New York State Department of Labor (NYSDOL) system. Whether you have to file — and where — depends on whether the project is covered under Article 8 of the Labor Law, what the awarding agency and contract require, whether you are the prime contractor or a subcontractor, and whether the project belongs in the statewide NYSDOL portal or a separate New York City system. This guide walks through how to submit NYSDOL certified payroll manually, one employee at a time, in the state portal.

Quick answer: To submit NYSDOL certified payroll manually, log into the state’s online portal, create your project using its PRC number, then add each weekly payroll by entering every employee’s classification, hours, wage rates, benefits, and deductions by hand. You review the entries against your records, certify the report, and submit it before the deadline.

Step 1: Confirm the Project Must Be Reported

Before you log in, confirm the job is actually covered. Review the following:

• The contract — it should indicate whether the work is covered under Article 8 and subject to prevailing wage.
• Awarding-agency instructions from the public entity or covered private owner/developer.
• The prevailing-wage schedule issued for the project.
• Information from the general contractor if you are a subcontractor.
• Article 8 status — covered work generally includes public work, certain covered private projects, and certain renewable-energy projects.
• The PRC number (Prevailing Rate Case number) assigned to the project.

If you are a subcontractor and you are unsure, confirm the reporting requirement with the prime contractor. When no one can give you a clear answer, the awarding agency or the NYSDOL Bureau of Public Work can help. Note that some New York City projects are filed in a separate NYC system rather than the statewide portal.

Step 2: Set Up Access to the NYSDOL Portal

To file, your company generally needs:

• A NY.gov account for the person filing.
• Access to the state’s certified payroll portal.
• Your FEIN (federal employer identification number).
• Your Contractor Registry number from the Public Work Contractor and Subcontractor Registry.
• Authority to file on behalf of the company.

Any contractor performing Article 8 prevailing-wage work in New York must be registered in the Contractor and Subcontractor Registry before filing.

Step 3: Gather Everything Before You Start

The single biggest time-saver is having complete information in front of you before you open the portal. Starting without it usually forces you to stop, go back to your payroll reports, and re-enter data. Use this checklist.

Project information

• PRC number
• Project name
• Project address
• Payroll day
• Week-ending date
• Prime or subcontractor status
• Prevailing-wage schedule
• Required classifications

Employee information (for every worker on the project)

• Legal name
• Address
• Required identifying information
• Workdays
• Straight-time hours
• Overtime hours
• Classification
• Hourly rate
• Supplemental (fringe) benefits
• Deductions
• Gross wages
• Net wages

Step 4: Create the Project

Each covered job is set up once as a project. In the portal:

1. Log into the portal.
2. Open Certified Payroll Reports.
3. Select New Project.
4. Enter your FEIN and Contractor Registry number.
5. Enter the project and PRC information.
6. Identify whether your company is the prime contractor or a subcontractor.
7. Review the dates and project details.
8. Save the project.

Check the project details carefully before saving. The dates you enter drive your filing due dates, and an incorrect PRC number will cause problems when you go to submit payroll. If a single project involves multiple contracts, each contract with its own PRC number or a different general contractor should be set up as its own project.

Step 5: Enter the Weekly Payroll Manually

This is the core of the process — and where the real work lives. You enter each employee individually, for each payroll week.

1. Open the correct project.
2. Select Add Payroll.
3. Choose the correct week-ending date.
4. Add the first employee.
5. Enter the employee’s classification.
6. Enter daily straight-time and overtime hours.
7. Enter wage rates.
8. Enter supplemental benefits.
9. Enter deductions.
10. Confirm gross and net wages.
11. Save the employee.
12. Repeat for every employee on the project.

A few things make this step longer than it first appears:

• Classifications must match. The classification you choose has to match the applicable NYSDOL wage schedule and the work the employee actually performed.
• Multiple classifications may need separate lines. An employee who performed more than one classification during the week — or who worked more than one overtime/premium rate under the same classification — may require separate entries or lines rather than a single row.
• Fringe benefits and deductions add fields. Union benefits, cash fringes, and various deductions each have to be entered and reviewed.

A realistic example: A contractor has 18 employees on a single project. Several worked overtime, a few performed different classifications, and payroll includes union benefits and multiple deductions. Every employee’s hours, rates, classifications, benefits, and deductions has to be entered and reviewed correctly before submitting — so what looks like a short form on the first screen becomes a repeated, detail-heavy process by the eighteenth worker.

Step 6: Reconcile Before Submitting

Before you certify, make sure the portal entries agree with your underlying payroll and job-cost records. Compare:

• Payroll register
• Time records
• Job-cost records
• Straight-time hours
• Overtime hours
• Classifications
• Wage rates
• Supplemental benefits
• Gross wages
• Net wages
• Week-ending date

If the numbers in the portal don’t tie out to your books, fix them before you submit — not after.

Step 7: Certify and Submit

Once the payroll reconciles, complete the submission:

• Review the acknowledgement/certification language.
• Confirm you have authority to submit on the company’s behalf.
• Upload supporting documentation when required (for example, benefit documentation).
• Submit the payroll.
• Save the confirmation.
• Record the submission date.
• Track the next weekly week-ending date and filing deadline.

If you discover an error after submitting: a submitted payroll generally cannot simply be edited or deleted on your own. Contact the NYSDOL Bureau of Public Work district office nearest the project for guidance on how to correct it, and keep a record of the issue and your communication.

Step 8: Don’t Forget No-Work Weeks

Reporting isn’t only for weeks you had crews on site. You are also expected to account for weeks with no work on a covered project. Keep these in mind:

• Full no-work weeks still need to be reported within the portal.
• Temporary pauses can typically be entered so you don’t have to file each idle week individually.
• Multiple consecutive no-work weeks can often be covered with a single entry for the hiatus.
• Restarting — resume normal weekly entries once work begins again.

Common NYSDOL Certified Payroll Mistakes

1. Wrong PRC number — the number entered doesn’t match the project, which blocks submission.
2. Wrong week-ending date — payroll is filed under the wrong week.
3. Missing employee — a worker who was on the project isn’t entered.
4. Incorrect classification — the trade classification doesn’t match the wage schedule or the work performed.
5. Incorrect overtime — daily or premium hours are entered wrong.
6. Missing supplemental benefits — fringe or union benefits are left off.
7. Payroll totals not reconciling — portal entries don’t tie to the payroll register.
8. Forgetting a no-work week — an idle week goes unreported.

The MPWR Electronic Filing Mandate (Effective December 31, 2025)

Certified payroll in New York is now fully electronic. As of December 31, 2025, contractors and subcontractors on Article 8 public work must submit certified payroll through the Certified Payroll portal on MPWR — NYSDOL’s Management System for Protecting Workers’ Rights (mpwr-public.labor.ny.gov, or the Certified Payroll tile on your NY.gov dashboard). Projects already underway on that date had their first electronic payroll due by January 30, 2026. Paper or emailed transcripts no longer satisfy the requirement, and the portal timestamps every submission — so late or missing filings are automatically visible to NYSDOL. Records must be provided at least every 30 days.

Manual entry vs. XML bulk upload

The portal accepts payroll two ways: manual entry (keying in each employee as described above) or an XML bulk upload that follows NYSDOL’s official schema. For contractors with multiple employees or projects, the XML route is the realistic method — your existing payroll data is exported once, formatted to the schema, and uploaded to the correct PRC. Importantly, you do not have to change payroll companies to comply: the XML file can be produced from whatever payroll system you already run.

What late or wrong filings cost

• Late filing: payrolls not submitted within 14 days of their due date can trigger a penalty of $100 per day.
• Interest on underpayments: up to 16% per year from the original underpayment date.
• Civil penalty: up to 25% of total wages, supplements, and interest due.
• Debarment: two willful violations within six years can bar a contractor from public work for up to five years.

When Manual Entry Becomes Difficult

Manual entry may be manageable when a contractor has one small project and only a few employees. The process becomes more demanding when the company has multiple projects, larger crews, several classifications, changing overtime, union benefits, and weekly payroll deadlines.

At that point, many contractors stop keying every worker in by hand. Construction companies that file at scale usually don’t rebuild each week from scratch — they standardize the process so information flows from payroll and job-costing records into the required reporting format, turning hours of manual entry into a fraction of the time. Those approaches still depend on accurate classifications, secure employee data, and a proper compliance review, and they tend to be set up with help from people who handle certified payroll every week rather than figured out project by project. Sound construction job-costing practices and disciplined payroll workflows are what make certified payroll reporting go smoothly — and fast — however it’s filed.

Working public jobs in New Jersey too? New Jersey uses a different form, a different portal, and a different fringe benefit calculation — see New Jersey certified payroll requirements.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who must submit certified payroll in New York?

Contractors and subcontractors performing work covered under Article 8 of the New York Labor Law generally must submit certified payroll records electronically to NYSDOL. This can include public-work projects and certain covered private and renewable-energy projects. Some New York City projects are filed through a separate NYC system.

What is a PRC number?

A PRC number is the Prevailing Rate Case number assigned to a covered project. It ties your certified payroll to the correct project and wage schedule, and it is required to set up the project in the portal. If you don’t have it, request it from the public entity that let the project.

Do subcontractors have to submit certified payroll?

Yes. On covered Article 8 work, subcontractors are generally responsible for submitting their own certified payroll — even if the general contractor doesn’t ask for it. When in doubt, confirm the requirement with the prime contractor and the awarding agency.

What happens during a no-work week?

Weeks with no work on a covered project still need to be accounted for in the portal. For an extended pause, you can typically report the hiatus so you don’t have to enter each idle week individually, then resume normal weekly entries when work restarts.

Can NYSDOL certified payroll be automated?

Much of the repetitive manual entry can be streamlined. Structured and automated options exist to move payroll and job-cost data into the required reporting format far faster than keying each employee in by hand — but they depend on accurate payroll data, correct classifications, benefits, project coding, and a proper compliance review. Contractors who file at volume typically set these workflows up with a construction-focused accounting firm rather than piecing it together alone.

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Related reading: If your public work project is paid for with federal money, you may owe both federal and New York prevailing wage at once — see Davis-Bacon vs. New York prevailing wage on federally funded jobs.

Precision Accounting & Consulting LLC works with construction companies on accounting, job costing, payroll reporting, and financial processes. Learn more about our construction accounting services.

Disclaimer: This article provides general information only and does not replace current NYSDOL guidance, awarding-agency instructions, legal advice, or the terms of the applicable contract. Requirements and portal procedures can change — always confirm current rules with the New York State Department of Labor and the awarding agency before filing.

Related: Apprentices carry their own rules on New York public work. See apprentice registration, ratios and certified payroll reporting before paying anyone an apprentice rate.

Working on a New York City project? Rates come from a different schedule — see NYC prevailing wage: why the Comptroller sets the rates.

Two things that decide whether the filing is accepted. Every New York public work project carries a Prevailing Rate Case (PRC) number, and a payroll filed under the wrong one is treated as not filed at all. Late or defective filings then run into the certified payroll penalty regime, where the exposure accrues per day rather than per filing.