Home / Compliance desk / Certified payroll review
Rung three · per active public-works job
Certified payroll, prepared and checked for you — you review, e-sign, and it's submission-ready
Every week, we read what your payroll clerk produced against the determination that actually governs the job, fix and flag the problems with the Labor Code section cited and a dollar figure attached, and prepare the DIR eCPR submission. You review the findings and e-sign, then submit it yourself with your own PWCR login — or, where a portal accepts an authorized submitter, we file it on your written authorization. The certification and the record stay yours.
Why it matters
Under Labor Code §1776(h), a contractor who paid every worker correctly still forfeits $100 per day per worker once a written request for payroll records goes unanswered for 10 days, and the forfeiture runs until strict compliance. The records penalty does not care whether the wages were right. That is the shape of this whole regime: the exposure attaches to the paperwork, and the paperwork is the part nobody has time for.
See a week get reviewed
Six workers, two held and quantified
A synthetic sample week, laid out exactly like the findings you would receive: every held line carries the statute behind it and the dollar gap, not just a flag.
The check itself
Checked against the determination, made submission-ready
Your payroll is read against the governing determination and every finding comes back carrying the statute it came from: sections of the California Labor Code, the federal Davis-Bacon Related Acts, the DIR eCPR schema, and a data-integrity check that holds any filing whose own numbers do not reconcile, with a conservative dollar estimate of the exposure attached. Then a person reads every finding before it reaches you. The machine drafts. The human decides. Once you approve and e-sign, it's ready for your DIR eCPR account — you make that submission with your own PWCR login, and we walk you through it.
Findings are for your review. We never sign the certification for you and would not want to: it is a sworn statement by the contractor, and it stays in the contractor’s hands. DIR's own eCPR portal has no path for us to submit on your behalf; where a different awarding body's portal does accept an authorized submitter, we file it on your written authorization instead.
Scope
What the price includes
The included list below is scope, not upsells. They are part of the engagement, not separately priced add-ons.
Included, at no separate charge
- Weekly pre-flight review of base and fringe rates by craft against the governing DIR determination, with classification checked against the work actually performed
- Overtime under Labor Code §§1813 and 1815. The flat $25 per worker per day forfeiture carries no good-faith reduction, so it gets checked every week
- Apprentice registration and the numeric apprentice-to-journeyman ratio floor, LC §1777.5(g)-(i) and 8 CCR §230.1
- DAS-140 and DAS-142 status tracking
- The monthly CAC-2 apprenticeship training-fund contribution computation and filing package, 8 CCR §230.2, due the fifteenth for the prior month
- Fringe-benefit statement review, travel and subsistence, wage-determination import and refresh through the job
- Audit-readiness file assembly, so a records request is a folder you already have rather than a two weeks of digging
- A DIR eCPR-ready submission once you've reviewed the findings and e-signed — you file it with your own PWCR login, or, where a portal accepts an authorized submitter, we file it on your written authorization. The certification stays a sworn statement only you can make
Explicitly excluded
- Any response to, or representation in, a DLSE proceeding or a Civil Wage and Penalty Assessment. That is attorney territory and we will refer it, not take it.
- Running your payroll. We review; we do not process, pay, or file taxes.
- Designing or administering a fringe-benefit trust. That requires a license we do not hold.
- Legal conclusions of any kind. Findings cite the statute so that you and your counsel can decide what they mean.
Pricing
Pricing
A project counts as active in a month if payroll was reported on it. Demobilised jobs drop out of the count the following month, without you having to ask.
| Concurrent active public-works projects | Monthly | Per project |
|---|---|---|
| 1 project | $1,350 | $1,350 |
| 2 to 3 projects | $3,500 | from $1,167 at three |
| 4 to 6 projects | $6,750 | from $1,125 at six |
| 7+ projects | $6,750plus $1,450 per project per month | marginal rate |
Minimum engagement: one full project cycle or three months, whichever is longer. The product is a running record; a single week of it is worth very little to you and prices the line down for everyone else. Preparing, checking, and getting it submission-ready for DIR eCPR — filing support included — is part of this price; it is not a separate add-on. Discounts: 10% for a twelve-month commitment paid quarterly in advance, 12% for annual prepay, and 10% off the smaller line if you take this with roster monitoring, because the roster, the determinations and the standing call are already paid for once — the two together are our Fractional Compliance Officer bundle. Surcharges, published rather than buried: +50% on retroactive or remediation work reconstructing prior periods, which is the highest-risk work we do; +25% where more than one collective bargaining agreement is in play; +20% for payroll documentation requiring non-English review.
One recent week of your certified payroll, reviewed line by line against the wage determination. You send the payroll register and the wage determination; the findings come back usually within two business days. Email hello@aeternusdynamics.com to set it up.
Every payroll is read against the governing wage determination through a statute-cited review, and every finding names its source: each traces to a statute or a federal rule, apart from one arithmetic-reconciliation check labeled plainly as our own math rather than a citation. Nothing in that review decides anything. A person reads every finding before it reaches you, and the judgment calls, the phone call and everything signed are mine. Every deliverable marks which lines were checked by software and which by a person.
rate card effective 2026-08-19Scope and license, stated plainly
Aeternus Dynamics LLC holds no CSLB contractor license. This page is not an offer or advertisement to perform construction, repair, improvement, or the supervision of means and methods, and it may not be read as one (Business and Professions Code §§7027.1, 7028). This service is compliance review, preparation, and submission support, not construction work.
On work we perform for you, you are the bidder of record and the contractor of record: we never sign your bid, never sign as your contractor of record, and never perform, direct, schedule, or supervise any physical work. We do not run your payroll. We never sign the certification on your behalf; that is a sworn statement by the contractor and it stays with you. What we do handle, once you've reviewed the findings and e-signed, is getting the completed filing submission-ready for your DIR eCPR, LCPtracker, or agency portal account. DIR's eCPR portal requires your own PWCR login, so you make that submission yourself; where a different portal accepts an authorized submitter, we submit it on your written authorization instead. We do not represent you before the Department of Industrial Relations or the Labor Commissioner, do not respond to a Civil Wage and Penalty Assessment, and do not issue legal conclusions. Dollar exposure estimates are conservative planning figures produced from the statutory ranges, not predictions and not legal opinions. Aeternus Dynamics is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice. See our Terms & Disclosures.
Questions
Common questions
Do you replace my payroll company?
No. Your payroll company still runs payroll. We read what comes out of it against the wage determination that governs the job, weekly, and prepare the filing. If you already have a system you like, keep it. We work from its output.
Who's legally on the hook for what's filed?
You are, and that's the law, not a loophole. The certification on a certified payroll is a sworn statement by the contractor's authorized officer about the contractor's own records, and only you can make it. Signing it for you would put our name on your representation and your liability in our hands, and neither of those is honest. What we do instead: prepare the numbers, run every check, and get the DIR eCPR filing submission-ready — you submit it yourself with your own PWCR login, or, on a portal that accepts an authorized submitter, we file it on your written authorization. Nothing goes out without your sign-off.
What if my payroll is a mess from earlier in the job?
Retroactive reconstruction is real work and it is surcharged at +50%, published rather than hidden. Historic payroll arrives as scanned paper, determinations have changed since, and there is no clean data path. We would rather tell you the number up front than discover it in the invoice.
Can you tell me what a violation will actually cost?
We give you a conservative estimate built from the statutory range, and we tell you it is a range. Labor Code §1775 tops out at $200 per day per worker. That is a ceiling the Labor Commissioner sets within, not a guaranteed bill. The floor moves with your record: $40 a day as standard, waived altogether for a good-faith mistake you corrected promptly and voluntarily; $80 if you have been assessed prevailing-wage penalties on another contract in the previous three years; and $120 if the Labor Commissioner finds the violation was willful. Anyone quoting you only the ceiling is selling fear.
Does this help with the prime-contractor safe harbor?
It is one of its conditions. Labor Code §1777.7(e) protects a prime from a sub’s apprenticeship violation only where the prime included the required clauses in the subcontract, continually monitored the sub’s apprentice use through periodic certified-payroll review, took corrective action, and obtained a signed compliance declaration before final payment. This service and roster monitoring are how those duties get performed and documented. Whether the safe harbor applies to any particular situation is a legal question for your counsel.
How do I know the review actually works?
Every payroll passes a statute-cited review against the governing DIR wage determination, with verified DAS apprenticeship records checked against it. Every finding names where it came from (each traces to a statute or a federal rule, apart from one arithmetic-reconciliation check labeled plainly as our own math), so you can check the work against the code rather than take our word for it, and a person reads every finding before it reaches you.
Configure and sign it yourself Pick the services, see the estimate, sign online.
Aeternus Dynamics uses AI-assisted tools to help prepare and check compliance documents; all deliverables are reviewed by a qualified human before submission or use. Aeternus Dynamics is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice. Statutory references are provided for orientation and are not legal advice; verify against the current text and the determination governing your job. Prices on this page are the current published rates for the Compliance Desk, effective 2026-08-19, and govern where they differ from older per-line rates listed elsewhere on this site. See our Terms & Disclosures.
Send one week of payroll
The lightest entry point to the desk is the Sub Roster Check, priced per sub. But if certified payroll is the fire, say so in the email and we will talk about the project count first.
Email hello@aeternusdynamics.com