Points North certified payroll vs Cert Pay Weekly for small subs

Points North is the better fit if you need state or municipal certified payroll reports, uploads to compliance portals, or a direct connection to ADP or QuickBooks. Cert Pay Weekly fits a small subcontractor that only owes the federal WH-347 and wants it built from the payroll export and timesheet files it already has, without an integration or setup project.

This page compares the two step by step so you can check which one matches the jobs you are on. Both prepare the report; in both cases someone at your company still reviews it and signs the Statement of Compliance.

What is Points North certified payroll?

Points North sells Certified Payroll Reporting, cloud software that takes pay data from your payroll system and produces prevailing-wage reports. Its own site describes it as working alongside your payroll rather than replacing it: "Points North doesn't manage your payroll, but integrates with your existing system."

From its public pages and app-store listings (checked October 2026):

• Integrations. Listed apps for ADP RUN and ADP Workforce Now on ADP Marketplace, and for QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Desktop on the Intuit app store.
• Report scope. The ADP Workforce Now listing describes Davis-Bacon prevailing wage reporting "at the federal, state, and municipal level."
• Services. It also offers managed services, where its staff handle the reporting for you, and phone support on weekdays.

How much does Points North certified payroll cost?

For ADP RUN, the ADP Marketplace listing showed a Basic edition at $175 a month plus $7.50 per report, with a $995 setup fee, for 1-25 employees and federal WH-347 reports only. State and municipal reports need the Deluxe edition, with a $1,495 setup fee (as listed in October 2026). Prices for other payroll systems are not all published; its QuickBooks listing asks you to call sales.

Prices and editions change, so check the current listing for your payroll system before you compare.

How do the two compare, step by step?

When is Points North the better choice?

Choose Points North, or a tool like it, when your work needs more than the federal form. Certified payroll requirements vary by state, and many state prevailing-wage programs and some primes require their own forms or an upload to a portal such as LCPtracker or a state system. Cert Pay Weekly cannot produce those today.

It is also the better choice if you want pay data to flow from payroll without exporting a file each week, or if you would rather pay someone to do the reporting entirely.

When is Cert Pay Weekly the better choice?

It fits when every covered job accepts the federal WH-347, you are a small crew on a few projects, and you would rather not take on a setup fee or an integration review. It reads the same files you would copy from by hand, so it works the same way whether you pay people through Gusto, QuickBooks or ADP.

It keeps the math visible: every flag has to be fixed or acknowledged with a note before a payroll is marked ready, and every number on the form traces back to your upload or something you typed.

What does Cert Pay Weekly not do?

It is a narrow tool, and the gaps matter:

• No state or portal formats. No LCPtracker export, no California DIR eCPR or other state submissions. You get the federal WH-347 PDF.
• No payroll connection. It does not connect to Gusto, QuickBooks or ADP; you upload exports.
• No running payroll and no sending reports to the prime or agency for you.
• No e-signature. You sign page 2 yourself.
• Not covered: apprentice ratio checks, piece rates, multi-state edge cases and automatic wage determination lookup.

If any of these is a requirement on your contract, it is the wrong tool for that job.

How do you decide for your own jobs?

Ask the prime or the contracting agency, before buying anything, exactly what they accept: the federal WH-347 PDF, a state form, or a portal upload. That answer rules tools in or out faster than any feature list.

Then run one real past week through whatever you are considering and compare it column by column with a WH-347 you already submitted. The WH-347 instructions explain each column, and the guide to prevailing wage payroll software has a fuller checklist for testing any tool. If you run ADP, certified payroll with ADP covers the other options on that platform, including doing it from the register yourself.

FAQ

What is Points North payroll?

Points North is a software company whose main product, Certified Payroll Reporting, builds prevailing-wage and certified payroll reports from data in your existing payroll system. It does not run payroll itself; it works alongside providers such as ADP and QuickBooks.

How much does Points North certified payroll cost?

On ADP Marketplace for RUN, the federal-only Basic edition was listed at $175 a month plus $7.50 per report and a $995 setup fee, and the Deluxe edition for state and municipal reports at a $1,495 setup fee (October 2026). Other editions are priced through its sales team.

How much does it cost to do certified payroll?

It depends on how you do it: a spreadsheet costs staff time each week, add-ons and compliance platforms charge monthly or per report, sometimes with setup fees, and payroll bureaus charge for the service. Count the hours your office spends each week as part of the cost, and see the certified payroll template if you are doing it by hand.

This is general information, not legal or payroll advice. Your contract and the agency's requirements govern what you must submit.