The report that eats an afternoon
If you do public work (schools, county buildings, courthouses, some utility jobs) you owe a certified payroll report every week for each project. It names each worker, their craft classification, the hours they worked each day on that project, and the prevailing wage rate. Building it by hand means cross-referencing every timesheet against one job and splitting it by day. In the shop SWITCHBOARD was built in, that took about two hours a week, and on a busy month it fell behind.
What SWITCHBOARD fills in
The hours half, straight from job time:
- Each worker on the project that week.
- Their craft classification.
- Hours worked each day, Monday to Sunday, on that project only.
- The rate for their classification.
Because techs clock time from the job itself, the hours are already split by project. Pick the project and the week ending date, and the sheet is filled.
What it deliberately leaves out
It does not produce gross pay, deductions, net pay or check numbers. Those belong to whoever runs payroll. It also does not store Social Security numbers: the forms ask for the last four, and a field that tempts someone to paste a whole SSN into a CRM is a liability, not a convenience.
This matters because the owner signs the report under penalty of law. A report that invented any of those numbers would be a false statement. So SWITCHBOARD fills what it knows from job time, and a person completes and signs the rest.
Regular payroll and overtime
For everyday payroll, time is clocked from the job, overtime follows state rules (California's daily overtime, for example, as well as federal weekly rules), and the hand-off goes to QuickBooks or as a Gusto, ADP or Paychex file. Techs can see their own hours and pay. Commissions and spiffs are tracked too; see how to pay technician commissions.
Job costing comes with it
The same job time that fills the report feeds job costing: what each job made after labor, parts and drive time. That shows whether a prevailing-wage job actually paid; more in job costing for contractors.
Who needs it
Electrical, plumbing and HVAC contractors and general contractors who bid public work. Shops that never touch public work still get the time and overtime side. Ask about your report format on a walkthrough.
Questions people ask
Does SWITCHBOARD produce a complete certified payroll report?
It fills the hours side: worker, craft, daily hours on the project and rate. Gross, deductions and check numbers come from whoever runs payroll, and a person completes and signs it.
Where do the hours come from?
From the time techs clock on each job, so hours are already split by project and day.
Does it store Social Security numbers?
No. That is deliberate, to keep a sensitive number out of the CRM.
Does it handle California overtime?
Yes. Overtime follows state rules, including California daily overtime, on regular payroll.