We don’t have a non-compliant payroll… do we?
Before the advent of a web-based, easy-to-use payroll system, but after the time of quill and inkwell, The Department of Labor and contractors responsible for Davis Bacon compliant payrolls ‘estimated their compliance’ via a random sampling.
Every check – for every employee – was not inspected for compliance issues.
Mr. Kenn Umlauf, a retired project engineer for the Florida Department of Transportation said that, “the federal government funded some of our projects. The feds have their rules and regulations – including the Davis Bacon Act. So, on a federally funded contract we used a random sampling of approximately 15 percent of employee checks – which represented the federal requirements as stated in the federal guideline.”
Lack of readily available inexpensive computers, manpower and time, dictated a random sampling for the construction industry.
Mr. Umlauf continued: “Twice a month, 15 employee checks of the 60 to 70 workers were inspected to make sure that the prevailing wage and 31 other compliance issues were upheld. I assure you, we were diligent. A person’s paycheck is a serious matter.”
Sometimes FDT employees floated between projects that were federally funded. Other times, a single employee was both a bulldozer operator and a bobcat operator. With each of those jobs there is a unique prevailing wage to match their skill level and seniority.
What happened with employee check information and Davis Bacon compliance issues when matters became very complicated? “We interviewed people. We used pencils and notepads,” was Mr. Umlauf’s reply.
How was this information stored? “The information was stored in a filing cabinet – with a lock. But, at that time, computers with web-based storage systems were not available. The notes on each employee were stored in a reasonably sensible manner.”
What if the information changed on an hourly, daily, weekly, or monthly basis? “We prioritized what we could do based upon federal guidelines, severity of the situation and manpower.”
What does Mr. Umlauf think about the eMars/Compliant Client web-based system? “Technology that is easy to use and very accurate is worth the cost.”
Mr. Umlauf, now an avid golfer, uses a rangefinder to tell him the distance to the flag on a golf course that he frequently plays. “This handheld computer takes the guesswork out of golf. It tells me how many yards it is to the hole from my location on the course. I know how far I hit each club, so this accurate, affordable and readily available technology helps my game.”
Change usually comes with perceived risk. Avoiding pain. Adapting to the unknown. Uneasiness. Fear of lost time and money.
The upside of change is improvement. Huge improvement.
However, many construction companies still manually prepare their payroll with a writing instrument and paper – just as it was done before 1931.
Mistakes were prevalent then as they are now.
What if changing from manual preparation of your payroll – no matter how big – to automated certified payroll, came with:
• 24-hour customer service
• Two-minute payroll
• An affordable price
Is there an accurate, affordable, and easy to use system for construction companies to stay compliant with the Davis Bacon Act of 1931?
eMars/Compliant Client is that system, used by 48,000+ construction companies.
The system is easy to install and use. It provides immediate, concurrent, real-time visibility of all payroll records of the sub, prime, plus – the owner agency. All
screens are printable. Every submitted payroll is audited, online and in real time, against the wage determination and all 30 causes that are in support of Davis-Bacon and Related Acts. The results of these comparisons to the provisions set forth in the act are immediately reported, allowing corrections to be made promptly.
Subcontractors also use eMars/Compliant Client. The following subcontractor requested to be anonymous, but stated: “We are a subcontractor and have been using eMars for years as a means to report certified payrolls to the primary contractor. Simple, clean, and quick.”
Woody Chamberlain, President of eMars reports that: “This non-compliant company thought that they were flying below the radar and that they would tell the government agent that they just needed a few months to clean up the mess. Well, the government doesn’t work that way. The fine was just over 1.6 million dollars. A fine like that would put a dent in any company’s bottom line. Many companies would go out of business with that size of a fine.”
Out of compliance payroll checks difficulties don’t go away with “I’m sorry, I didn’t know, and we’ll fix this problem real soon”.
No kidding. No joke.
The Davis-Bacon Act, passed by Congress in 1931, requires private contractors to pay ‘prevailing wages’ to employees on all federally funded construction projects over $2,000. Stiff fines and jail time can result if payroll checks are not in compliance with this act. There are 30 compliance regulations that must be adhered to for every check.
How many checks does your organization handle every week? Can you manually catch every error… every week?
Doing payroll by hand every week is time consuming, costly and risky. You might also consider the state of mind of your payroll employees. Are they experiencing pressing personal problems that might affect their performance?
Humans make mistakes, especially under pressure
Part of a financial officer’s job is to protect the company and its top executives from catastrophic dilemmas. However, many of these financial executives do not protect their company and its top executives from submitting erroneous non-compliant, illegal payrolls. Based on a study of 100,000 payrolls, it has been identified that at least 20 percent of construction company payrolls will contain one or more errors, when audits of these payrolls rely on human review. There is a way to reduce your compliance risk to zero. Yes… zero.
Yes, there is a 100 percent safe alternative to relying on fallible human audits of a construction business’s payroll.
The Compliant Client system by eMars is your answer for worry free compliant payroll. Submissions can now be processed electronically, resulting in the entire process taking one-tenth of the time it takes to prepare, audit, correct and submit a hand finished payroll. A typical payroll is prepared in less than two minutes.
Ms. Rychelle Stone, Certified Payroll Administrator of Grunley Construction has been using eMars/Compliant Client for about 13 years. “I was hesitant at first, but I’m an open-minded person. I watched a demonstration of the Compliant Client web-based system. It doesn’t take up space in the hard drive of your computer. I felt comfortable with the demonstration. Our company has about 40 ongoing projects and about 70 subcontractors. I needed a strong system that was easy to use.”
Ms. Stone continued: “We needed a special report and eMars came through quite well. Their system integrated with our systems – so there were no glitches. What is really nice is that you don’t have to be a tech to use Compliant Client. And when I did have questions, they were answered quickly and succinctly.”
Compliant Client requires a PC and less than 30 minutes of training. Complete implementation takes less than one day after loading the wage determination. Compared to paper and pencil preparation, the eMars system represents an 80 percent productivity improvement, plus instant recognition of payroll errors that prompt the user how to solve the problems and guarantee compliance.
The system was designed with considerable input from the Department of Labor, agencies and contractors. Compliant Client’s 48,000+ clients have not had any random Department of Labor audits for the past seven years. The Department of Labor’s Chief of Compliance stated that “…your system already has completed the first level of an audit.”
The United States Army Corps of Engineers has mandated that electronic certified payrolls are a ‘must’ for most districts.
Why? They don’t want payroll errors
Imagine the following – a thief breaks into a bank and finds that the contents of the vault were valueless play money.
Compliant Client encrypts at rest sensitive data, giving another layer of security for this sensitive information, disallowing its use. What happens to typical at rest data in most computers? For many organizations, private at rest data is only protected by the username and code to get into the computer. Encryption is usually costly and sometimes requires specialized technical knowledge and manpower.
Mr. Rick Paul of ITS Rick Paul says that: “The primary purpose of encryption is to protect the confidentiality of digital data stored on computer systems or transmitted via the internet or other computer networks. Modern encryption algorithms play a vital role in the security assurance of IT systems and communications. They can provide not only confidentiality, but also the following key elements of security:
1. Authentication: the origin of a message can be verified.
2. Integrity: proof that the contents of a message have not been changed since it was sent.
3. Non-repudiation: the sender of a message cannot deny sending the message”
Why would eMars, offering Compliant Client, protect its ‘at rest data’? “Security and peace of mind for our clients is our major concern,” says Woody Chamberlain.
From routine payroll reviews to the complicated tracking of certified apprentices and calculation of restitution, the Compliant Client ensures that your at rest sensitive payroll data is encrypted, remains error free and follows Davis Bacon and Other Related Acts.
“We handle, save and encrypt hundreds of thousands of bits of information for our clients. Their workers’ privacy and sanctity cannot be compromised,” says Mr. Chamberlain, who formerly was in high level administration for a select group of top organizations across the United States.
Perhaps some financial executives are unaware of the amazing Compliant Client system by eMars.
“Ignorantia legis neminem excusat” is the famous Latin phrase, translated to English meaning – ‘ignorance of law excuses no one’.
Now, unawareness of an easy-to-use compliant payroll product that offers 100 percent compliance, excuses no one. Compliant Client by eMars make payroll easy and worry free for any construction company doing business with any federally funded business.
Make sure that your Davis Bacon compliance software is easy to use. Affordable. Strong. Dependable.