Review and sign a Certified Payroll Report (CPR)

Last updated: 2025-06-03

Roles:

  • Payroll role for the prime and subcontractors = modify access
  • All other construction and CRL roles including Contractors = no access

Once a contractor has completed the import or entry of their Certified Payroll Report (CPRs) into AWP CRL Payrolls, the CPR is in the "Initial" phase. The following review process must take place in this order:

  1. All subcontractors, including tiered subcontractors on a contract, sign their own CPRs. A payroll signed by a subcontractor moves forward to "Under Prime Review".
  2. The prime contractor must sign all CPRs submitted by their subcontractors and any tiered subcontractors. A payroll signed by a prime contractor moves to "Under Agency Review" for a WisDOT compliance specialist to review.
Requirements:
  • This process is similar for both prime contractors and subcontractors. The differences are noted in the documentation below.
  • All subcontractors sign their own certified payroll reports (CPRs). The  CPRs are moved to "Under Prime Review" or "Under Tier Review" status.
  • A Prime Contractor signs their own CPRs and the CPRs of all their subcontractors, including tiered subcontractors. When these CPRs are signed, they are placed in "Under Agency Review" status.
  • A signed payroll cannot be changed or deleted. If changes are required, contractors will create a payroll modification
  • The contractors role does not have access to enter CPRs. Contractor staff with multiple roles will need to switch to a payroll role to complete these tasks.

Tip: Click on the thumbnail images below to expand and view the content.

The prime contractor and all subcontractors are required to submit their CPRs for review.

  1. Log onto WisDOT AASHTOWare Project with your WAMS ID and associated password.
  2. Ensure "PROJECT WisDOT Payroll" is the active role.
  3. From the dashboard search for and select the CPR under the Vendor Payrolls Overview component by searching for the Contract ID, controlling project ID, or project description in the search box.
  4. Click on the payroll hyperlink for the contract that your company is entering CPRs for.

  5. On the Contract Certified Payroll Overview component, locate the CPR to be reviewed. These CPRs will be in the "Initial" phase. Note that CPRs are listed in descending pay period date order.

  6. Select Open Row Actions Menu | Sign Payroll on the row of the CPR to be submitted.

  7. On the Sign Payroll component | Review screen, staff may review the CPR displayed on the Payroll Summary Report.

    1. This report shows the details for the CPR and each employee on the CPR.
    2. Review each employee's payroll information. Each employee has their own section of data.
    3. If there is an error in the employee's payroll information, scroll to the top of the window and click the Employee quick link, update the employee's payroll record, and start the CPR review process again.
    4. If there are no errors, click the <right arrow> at the bottom of the window.



  8. On the Sign Payroll component | Verify screen, review the Certification Statement. Scroll down to the bottom of the window and click the <right arrow> to continue.

  9. On the Sign Payroll component | Sign screen, enter any additional information about the CPR that may aid WisDOT with their review process. Scroll down to the bottom of the window and click <Sign Payroll> at the bottom of the window to submit the CPR. Subcontractor payrolls will be submitted to their Prime Contractor and placed in "Under Prime Review" status. Prime contractor CPRs will be submitted to WisDOT and placed in "Under Agency Review" status.

The prime contractor is required to sign all their subcontractor and tiered subcontractor CPRs. At the conclusion of the review, the payroll is forwarded to WisDOT in the "Under Agency Review" phase.

  1. Log onto WisDOT AASHTOWare Project with your WAMS ID and associated password.
  2. Ensure "PROJECT WisDOT Payroll" is the active role.
  3. From the dashboard search for and select the payroll under the Unapproved Payrolls Overview component by searching for the Contract ID, controlling project ID, project description, vendor (contractor) ID or contractor in the search box. As a Prime Contractor, staff can create a filter where Phase contains "Under Prime Review". See Searching, sorting, and filtering lists for details.
  4. Click on the contract ID hyperlink for the associated CPR in the "Under Prime Review" phase to access the selected CPR's External Certified Payroll Status component.

  5. On the External Certified Payroll Status component, select Open Row Actions Menu | Prime Review.



  6. On screen 1 of the Progress Payroll component, scroll down to the bottom of the Payroll Summary Report and click the <right arrow>.

  7. On the bottom of screen 2 of the Progress Payroll component, select <Forward to Agency>.

If staff need to update a CPR after it has been submitted to the agency for review, the CPR can no longer be edited and a payroll modification must be created. A payroll modification is a copy of the CPR, identical to the original except that it does not include attachments or comments. Staff can record changes to the original payroll in the modification record.

Tips:
  • The system automatically creates a payroll modification if you import an updated payroll record that has the same contract, payroll vendor, and payroll number as an existing payroll record. For more information, see Importing a Payroll.
  • When you create a payroll modification, all the information associated with the previous CPR (including payroll exceptions) becomes read-only and cannot be changed.
  • When adding subsequent modifications, the system creates an identical copy of the payroll record, except that it does not include attachments or comments. Each subsequent modification is listed in the Contract Payroll Overview component, and the value in the Modification Number field is automatically incremented by one.

  1. To manually create a payroll modification, on the Contract Certified Payroll component, select Open Component Actions Menu |Create Modification. In this example, a modification is created for an Agency Rejected payroll.

  2. The payroll modification record will be created and displayed on the Contract Certified Payroll Overview component. The Payroll number will remain the same but the Modification Number will be set to 1.

  3. Click on the Payroll number hyperlink to open the Payroll and make changes.

  4. Click the Status quick link to review the status of the payroll.

  5. Click the Employees quick link to update employee payrolls.

  6. Once all changes are complete and saved, go to Review and sign the payroll and repeat those steps.

The phase of each payroll is listed on the Contract Certified Payroll Overview component. Details about each payroll phase appear in the table below.

Phase Description
Initial

CPRs are entered by prime contractors and subcontractors through manual data entry or importing an XML file.

  • CPRs entered manually into the system are assigned this phase by default.
  • When a CPR is imported into the system, the system automatically validates the payroll to detect any errors that are normally captured when the payroll is manually entered. If errors are found, the system does not load the payroll into AWP CRL Payrolls. The errors are logged for the user to review. If no errors are found, the system loads the payroll and assigns this phase by default.
  • Payrolls in "Initial" status cannot be rejected but can be deleted.

When a payroll in "Initial" status is signed, the system automatically progresses it to "Under Prime Review" status.
Under Prime Review The prime contractors are responsible for reviewing their payrolls and progressing them to the next step in the process. When a payroll in "Under Prime Review" status is approved and forwarded to the agency, the system automatically sets its status to "Under Agency Review" and its "Prime Accepted Date" field to the current date.
Under Agency Review

In this phase, the system runs a series of checks to verify that the data in the payroll is valid.

  • If the payroll has no payroll exceptions and the validation is successful, the system will automatically accept and approve the payroll setting the payroll status to "Approved".
  • If one of these validations is not met, the system generates a payroll exception. WisDOT compliance staff can flag exceptions for vendor notification, enabling the contractor to review and respond to the exception if needed.
  • When a payroll in "Under Agency Review" status is rejected, the system automatically sets its status to "Agency Rejected" and sets the payroll's "Agency Original Not Accepted Date" field to the current date. The person who signed the payroll will receive an AWP Notification email informing them of the rejection.
  • If a change to the payroll is required, a payroll modification must be created for the existing payroll by the vendor (see Creating a Payroll Modification for details).
Agency Rejected

A payroll enters this phase if WisDOT compliance staff reject the payroll during the "Under Agency Review" phase. The person who signed the payroll will have received an AWP Notification email of the rejection. When a payroll is in the "Agency Rejected" phase, the contractor payroll staff member is required payrollcorrect issue(s) identified by the WisDOT compliance staff in the rejection comments:

  • Create a payroll modification and make any changes that are necessary.
  • After saving, the Sign option becomes available on the Actions menu on the payroll's row. The payroll will not progress further in the workflow until the contractor signs the payroll. See Open and sign a payroll in "Initial" status for details.
  • After the payroll is signed, the system automatically progresses it to "Under Agency Review" status.
Approved When a WisDOT compliance specialist reviews and approves a payroll, the payroll is placed in the "Approved" phase. Once approved, a payroll can only be changed by creating a payroll modification.