Union & compliance

Union payroll that survives the audit — and the Tuesday deadline.

Ratecards by local and classification, fringes annualized per benefit, garnishments with running balances, and roughly 500 checks a week printed in-house at the contractor this was built for. The rates are already right before the run starts.

01Ratecards

Rates that already know the local, the class, and the date.

Every union local, trade, and classification carries its own ratecard — base rate, each fringe, and the effective date it turns over. When a scale changes mid-period, you set the new effective date once; hours worked before it stay on the old rate, hours after it move to the new one. No spreadsheet of rates to hand-maintain per job.

Each classification also carries its workers'-comp class, so WC burden rides with the labor onto the right job instead of being trued up at month-end.

02Fringes

Fringes managed one benefit at a time.

Health and welfare, pension, vacation, apprenticeship, and working dues are each their own line with their own rate and basis — per hour, per hour worked, or a percentage. That per-benefit structure is what lets the system annualize the way CA public works now requires, and what makes the union benefit reports downstream reconcile without a second pass.

03Timecards

Multi-trade, multi-class crews without re-keying a rate.

A foreman's crew can span trades and classifications on one day. Timecards come in by job, phase, and workcode with RT, OT, and DT split out; the ratecard supplies every rate and fringe automatically. Payroll never re-types a wage or a fringe to build the check — the register below is the same data the field entered, priced.

FORM UP-12Union payroll register — week ending 07/06rates locked
EmployeeClassRTOTFringeTotal
R. AlvarezDrywall Finisher404$412.80$2,687.40
D. OkaforLather400$376.00$2,214.00
M. ReyesTaper382$358.40$2,102.60
J. PhamApprentice, 3rd period400$281.20$1,542.00
04Garnishments & preflight

Catch it before 500 checks print.

Garnishments run with a live running balance — child support, levies, and orders draw down and stop themselves when the balance clears, so nobody over-withholds by a week. Advances and deductions carry the same way.

Before slips print, a preflight pass flags the exceptions — missing rates, negative net, a classification with no ratecard, an out-of-range fringe — while there is still time to fix them. Then the run prints in-house, roughly 500 checks a week in production at the reference contractor, including off-cycle handwrites for advances, bonuses, and final or layoff checks.

05Benefit reporting

Union benefit reporting that ties back to the run.

The Union Report and the Export Union Benefit Summary come off the same posted payroll — hours and each fringe by local and classification, ready for the trust funds. Because the fringes were structured per benefit at the ratecard, the totals on the report are the totals that were withheld, not a re-derivation you have to defend.

06Job cost

Where the payroll-layer tools stop, the job cost begins.

A payroll-layer tool ends at the pay run: it cuts the check and hands you a register. This is where our job cost begins. The same posted payroll — wages, every fringe, and the WC and overhead burden — lands on the job by phase and workcode the night it posts, fully burdened. Nobody exports a file and reconciles it into a second system.

That is the whole argument for one system: see how burdened labor reaches the cost ledger, or read why one back office beats a stack.

07FAQ

Questions the payroll manager actually asks.

A scale changes mid-period. How are hours split across the old and new rate?
You add the new rate to the ratecard with its effective date. Hours dated before that date price at the old scale, hours on or after it price at the new one, within the same check. There is no manual proration and no second run.
How are apprentice ratios and step-ups handled?
Apprentices carry their period and step on the ratecard, so the rate and reduced fringe follow the classification automatically. Ratio and standing questions come off the report suite — the Lone Apprentice and 500 Hour reports are part of it.
Do workers’-comp classes flow through to cost?
Yes. Each classification carries its WC class, so the comp burden is computed with the labor and lands on the same job and phase — not trued up separately at month-end.
Can we run off-cycle handwrites — advances, bonuses, final checks?
Yes. Off-cycle handwrite runs sit alongside the weekly run and print in-house the same way, so an advance, a bonus, or a layoff check does not wait for the next Tuesday.
What about ACA 1095-C reporting?
Hours worked are tracked per employee across every job, which is the measurement base ACA reporting needs. The 1095-C generation and e-file step is on the roadmap for the productized offering — we will tell you plainly what is and is not automated on the walkthrough.
Do you handle multi-state tax tables?
The system is California-first, matching the contractor it was built inside. Additional state tax tables are scoped per implementation; if you run crews across state lines, bring that to the walkthrough so we can be specific rather than vague.

Bring us your worst payroll week.

A multi-trade crew, a mid-period rate change, a garnishment, and a Tuesday deadline — we will run it on a walkthrough against your own locals and classifications.

45 minutes on your real workflows. See how pricing works.