Tacoma Public-Works Subcontractor Records: Payroll, Forms and Payment

Begin with the actual public-works packet

A small electrical, plumbing or finishing contractor taking a public-works subcontract needs more than the ordinary customer invoice folder. Keep the agency name, prime contractor, signed subcontract, site address, project number and reporting instructions together. Record which person at the prime can answer payroll and payment questions.

Confirm the project’s requirements before building the payroll workflow. L&I’s guidance addresses public funding, the work performed and other relevant facts; being a small independent business does not answer those questions. A private customer job and a public-works subcontract should not silently inherit the same setup.

Tacoma’s public-works page directs contractors to prevailing-wage and public-works training. Check the applicable requirements and any recognized exemption rather than assuming a contractor registration proves every prerequisite. Keep the resulting confirmation in the project packet.

• Washington L&I: Public-works contractors and employers
• City of Tacoma: Public-works and improvements solicitations

Make one project crosswalk before the first timesheet

Create a short crosswalk linking the business’s job number, the prime’s project number, agency contract number and relevant filing identifiers. Put the internal job number on time records, payroll coding and invoices. Store portal instructions with access restricted to the people who actually submit or approve records.

Track each required item as not started, submitted, returned for correction or approved, with its receipt and responsible person. “Uploaded” and “approved” are different statuses. When a record is corrected, preserve the earlier submission and the reason for the change so the next reviewer can follow the history.

Agree who handles payroll preparation, certification, state submission, city reporting and invoice support. A payroll provider processing wages does not necessarily perform every project filing. Write that responsibility down before the first reporting cycle.

Capture the work performed, not just a weekly job total

Keep daily hours connected to the actual work and location. If one worker performs different tasks, preserve the detail needed for the payroll reviewer to choose the correct labor classification. Do not select a category solely because it produces a convenient rate or matches the worker’s usual title.

L&I says the work performed determines the classification and that job location and the applicable contract date matter to the wage review. Obtain the project’s confirmed wage information and keep the reviewer’s explanation. Do not use a rate copied from another Tacoma job without checking the new engagement.

Connect approved time with payroll detail, wage and benefit information, deductions and payment evidence. Keep worker-identification information in a protected payroll system; the invoice sent to the prime does not need to become an unrestricted personnel file.

• Washington L&I: Public-works contractors and employers
• Washington RCW 39.12.120: Payroll records and certified payroll filing

Distinguish the state filing from Tacoma’s reporting systems

RCW 39.12.120 requires accurate public-works payroll records and filing certified payroll at least monthly. L&I describes weekly records submitted at least monthly. Build a weekly preparation routine, then calendar the actual state and contract reporting obligations; do not mistake “monthly filing” for permission to reconstruct daily hours at month-end.

Tacoma’s vendor page separately describes B2Gnow for EIC utilization and payment reporting and LCPtracker for LEAP payroll reporting. For a project carrying those requirements, confirm the assigned systems with the prime and preserve the submission receipts. A successful city-system upload is not, by itself, evidence that a separate state filing was completed.

Keep a reporting checklist with the period, destination, submitted version, confirmation and correction status. If the prime requests another export or supporting report, identify it as a separate deliverable instead of overwriting the payroll record used elsewhere.

• Washington RCW 39.12.120: Payroll records and certified payroll filing
• Washington L&I: Public-works contractors and employers
• City of Tacoma: EIC vendor payment and LEAP payroll reporting systems

Reconcile a progress claim without losing the retained balance

Suppose a fictional subcontractor has an approved US$18,000 progress claim. Under the assumed contract, US$900 is held for later release, leaving US$17,100 currently payable. The bank receives only US$16,600. The payment review should explain the remaining US$1,400 as US$900 retained plus US$500 still unresolved.

The US$900 is an example contract amount, not a prescribed retainage rate. The example excludes tax, earlier claims, supplier deductions and change orders. It shows a payment-control schedule, not when a cash- or accrual-method business must recognize income.

Match the approval, remittance advice and bank reference before deciding whether the missing US$500 is a fee, backcharge, disputed item or short payment. Keep supporting correspondence. When retained funds are later released, connect the receipt to the original claim so the same work is not accidentally entered as a new invoice.

• IRS: Recordkeeping

Close the documents and the money separately

Under the normal RCW 39.12.040 process, intent approval is connected with payment and the affidavit is connected with retained-fund release or final acceptance where no retainage is withheld. Alternative small-project procedures exist. Keep the actual project instructions and approvals rather than promising release as soon as physical work ends.

At closeout, compare the approved scope, final changes, last payroll period, required forms, invoices and remaining balances. Note who must resolve each open item. A missing form can be an administrative issue; a disputed charge can be a commercial issue. Recording them separately makes the next action clearer.

Retain the payroll and project evidence after the last bank receipt. Public-works payroll retention has its own statutory trigger, and employment-tax records have separate requirements. Give the accountant a clear payment schedule and give the compliance reviewer the underlying project file; neither handoff substitutes for the other.

• Washington RCW 39.12.040: Intent, affidavit and alternative procedures
• Washington RCW 39.12.120: Payroll records and certified payroll filing
• IRS: Employment tax recordkeeping