The short answer, for all four
None of the four generate a submission-ready WH-347 with everything Davis-Bacon requires, the wage determination number, the base rate and fringe split per classification, and the signed Statement of Compliance on page two, entirely on their own. QuickBooks comes closest with some native prevailing wage reporting in specific tiers. Gusto, ADP, and Paychex do not generate the form at all without a separate tool.
| Platform | Generates WH-347 | Live prevailing wage rates |
|---|---|---|
| QuickBooks | Partially, in some tiers | No |
| Gusto | No | No |
| ADP (RUN, Workforce Now) | No | No |
| Paychex | No | No |
QuickBooks
QuickBooks Desktop Payroll can generate a prevailing wage and certified payroll report, and QuickBooks Workforce Elite can produce a WH-347 from existing payroll data. That covers pulling numbers you already entered into a form-shaped report.
- Covers: generating a WH-347-shaped report from payroll data already in the system, in these specific tiers.
- Does not cover: automatically applying the correct prevailing wage rate per classification, or a worker who splits time across multiple rates and fringe offsets in one week.
Those rate lookups and multi-rate cases still have to be figured out and entered by hand, which is where the actual compliance risk sits.
Gusto
Gusto's own documentation is direct about this: it does not generate Form WH-347, and it has no table of prevailing wage rates by classification and location. Gusto runs payroll well; Davis-Bacon certified payroll is a separate weekly report layered on top, and Gusto leaves that report to something else.
- Covers: regular payroll, W-2s, tax filing, the usual payroll basics.
- Does not cover: the WH-347 itself, or any prevailing wage rate lookup at all.
ADP
Standard ADP plans, RUN and Workforce Now, do not produce a submission-ready WH-347 either. ADP's own marketplace lists third-party apps (Points North, Dapt) specifically because the core product does not cover this.
- Covers: regular payroll processing that a certified payroll add-on can pull data from.
- Does not cover: the WH-347 form or wage-rate checking on its own. Without a marketplace add-on, it is back to filling the form by hand from ADP's payroll data.
Paychex
Paychex's CPEO designation is about payroll tax filing authority, not certified payroll, and the two get confused often enough that Paychex's own site distinguishes them. Certified payroll compliance vendors sell into that gap: LCPtracker, for one, offers a Paychex-specific connector as its own separate product. That connector is a third-party add-on, not a feature Paychex ships itself.
- Covers: payroll and tax filing, including CPEO-status tax handling.
- Does not cover: certified payroll. Support comes only through a separate integration, not the core Paychex product.
Why this keeps happening
General payroll platforms are built to calculate what you tell them: hours times a rate you entered. Davis-Bacon compliance needs something different: a live lookup of what the rate is legally required to be, for a specific trade classification in a specific county, checked against a government wage determination that changes over time. That is a narrower, more specific job than payroll software is built for, which is why every platform above ends up pointing to a separate tool rather than building it in.
A no-signup demo shows that live check running on the real form, no need to take it on faith.
Frequently asked
Can I just keep using QuickBooks/Gusto/ADP/Paychex for everything else?+
Yes. None of this requires switching payroll systems. The certified payroll report is a separate weekly filing on top of whatever payroll system already runs your business, not a replacement for it.
Why not just use the third-party app inside ADP or QuickBooks' own marketplace?+
That is a reasonable option too, and several exist. The main things to check are whether the rate check runs against the live wage determination or a rate you type in yourself, and whether the WH-347 it produces is the actual current DOL form.
Does Certified Payroll need to be connected to my payroll system?+
No. You enter each worker's hours and classification directly, the same fields the WH-347 already asks for. Nothing reads from or writes to QuickBooks, Gusto, ADP, or Paychex.