If you’re someone who’s looking for a perfect guide to become a certified payroll professional (CPP) then our specialists prepared a complete tutorial for you.
Managing payroll with online software like QuickBooks is one of the best occupations these days. Learning federal form WH-347 can help to fill out Certified payroll forms for any agency. Let’s take a look at what a CPP is and what it takes to get a certified payroll professional.
Contents
What is Certified Payroll?
A certified payroll works weekly with an agency that managing a government contract. It is also known as a federal form WH-347 and it includes every employee’s wages, benefits, work type, and working hours.
According to the Certification Board of the APA, CPP jobs are expected to increase in the next few years. Also stated that it’ll be a good career option for young payroll professionals.
Already, many CPP professionals work in small businesses and companies as employers to run payroll jobs. To become one, you must have certain requirements.
Certified Payroll Requirements
Here are the basic requirements that you should meet to become a CPP professional.
Register for Exam
Register for American Payroll Association (APA) examination program. Enter your personal information and click the submit button.
Sit for the APA Exam
Once you have registered with APA, you can schedule your exam through the dashboard. The APA conducts the exam two times a year in SPRING and FALL. You will be notified by the board to enroll for the exam. The dates of the exam window are as follows as given below.
| Exam | Open | Year of Rules & Regulation |
|---|---|---|
| SPRING | August 29, 2020 | January 1, 2019 |
| FALL | September 5 – November 7, 2020 | January 1, 2020 |
You’re permitted to register for the exam when you complete any one payroll experience listed below.
Option 1
3 years experience in the last 5 years on one of the following jobs.
- Payroll Production, Reporting, Accounting, Systems, and Taxation.
- Payroll Administration.
- Education/Consulting on Payroll.
Option 2
Worked as a practice of payroll (option 1)for at least the last 2 years before examination. It is also beneficial if you complete it by the last 2 years.
American Payroll Association providing a three set of courses, choose any course you like.
Set 1:-
- Payroll Practice Essentials
- Intermediate Payroll Concepts
- Advanced Payroll Concepts
- Strategic Payroll Practices
Set 2:-
Set 3:-
Option 3
Worked as a practice of payroll including option 1 for at least one and a half years. You must have fundamental payroll certification designation.
Choose any one course from listed 3 set of courses below.
Set 1
Set 2
Set 3
How to Prepare for the CPP Exam
The Certified payroll professional exam is a completely online-based examination and consists of 190 multiple choice questions in 4 hours. One of the most effective requirements for CPP is the time commitment. Our experienced professionals recommend you to spend at least 4 hours a day. Make sure to set up a significant timetable for the study.
There are many resources that are available from APA that you should learn from.
- Read the books
- Listen from live webinars.
- Go through with online research material.
- Complete the training courses online/offline
Moreover, the best way to approach preparing for the CPP exam is that participating in online tests conducted by APA.
How to Pass Certified Payroll Professional Exam
Here are some important notes that can you to pass the exam. Learn how to study for CPP exam.
- Before going to apply for the exam, I recommend you to read all the information mentioned in the CPP Candidate Handbook. After reading this, you’ll get a complete idea about the exam, application, fee & reservation, and more.
- CPP exam content outline: Get to know the syllabus coverage and list of topics included for the examination.
- Read study materiel offered by APA. Studying for the CPP exam from an APA’s materiel is 100% helpful.
- Complete the training courses online by attending online training classes.
- Practice online tests. The more you practice, the more you get confident in actual exams. Once you have done with reading a particular chapter, participate online test on that topic. This will help you to understand your difficulty level and then concentrate on where you’re weak at.
- Get some important notes while studying and Re-read that notes to remember.
How to Submit Your Application For CPP Exam
To apply for the CPP exam, please follow the list of steps provided below without fail. It’s all starts with the American Payroll Association website.
- Visit the APA site and click the Join/Renew button. (If you already have account on it then go to login step)
- Click on JOIN APA NOW! button.
- Enter your personal information into respective filed to create a profile.
- Now, login into the certification dashboard.
- Click the certification in the left sidebar.
- Go to the Certified Payroll Professionals (CPP) tab.
- Click on the “Submit the application” button.
- Enter applicant information in Section A. It includes your legal full name, address, phone number, and email id.
- Choose any one eligible criteria from three criterion.
- Enter your employer details for verification in section C. (Full name, Title, Daytime phone number, and supervisor email)
- In the Section D, enter applicant signature.
- Tick to agree terms of acceptance.
- At last, click on SUBMIT button
Instructions for Filling Out Certified Payroll Forms
Here’s a step by step guide on how to fill out certified payroll forms online.
How to get WH-347?
Form WH-347 can be available through WHD’s (U.S Wage and Hour Division) online portal(dol.gov). Once you’ve become a certified payroll professional then you’re allowed to submit the form online.
Alternatively, you can download it from the department of labor (dol.gov) website. Officially, certified payroll forms can’t available in excel format but only in PDF format. You can still convert the form into excel format for free using online PDF to Excel converters.
Instructions to fill out form WH-347
This form has two pages.
In this first page, fill out general details like Nama of contractor/ Or Subcontractor, Address, Payroll no, For Week Ending, Project and location, and Project or Contract No.
The next section includes 9 columns and you must have employee details handy.
Name and Individual Identifying Number of Worker: Enter name of your employee and their last four digits of SSN number. You can find this information on payroll.
No. of Withholding Exemptions: How many withholding exemptions do you have so far? If you don’t have any exemption then leave this option. It is not mandatory as regulations.
Work Classifications: Here, you’ve to write down the what kind of work done by the each worker.
Hours worked: Enter hours of worked.
Total: You need to enter total hours worked.
Rate of Pay (Including Fringe Benefits): Enter the hourly rate paid for worker including fringe benefits.
Gross Amount Earned: You have to enter the gross amount earned on particular project from federal and also include the gross amount earned on every work within that week.
Deductions: Enter deduction amounts for FICA, Withholding Tax, other, and total deductions.
Net Wages Paid for Week: What’s your Net pay per week.
That’s the end for first page…
Next, let’s discuss about second page.
Once you’ve completed the above segments, fill in statement required by regulations in 4 different parts.
In the first part, you need mention general information about your project and contractor.
Make sure to read the 2nd and 3rd parts, if you’re a filling the form for the first time. Otherwise, just get into 4th part.
Tick the check box for “WHERE FRINGE BENEFITS ARE PAID TO APPROVED PLANS, FUNDS, OR PROGRAMS”.
Next, Tick the check box for “WHERE FRINGE BENEFITS ARE PAID IN CASH”.
List the exceptions(Craft) and also give the explanation for respective exception field.
Use the Remarks section to fill missing details and notes.
At lest fill up name, title and signature.
Now, you’re finished filling of certified payroll form WH-347. I recommend you double check all your information before submitting the form.
FAQ
How to calculate fringe benefits for certified payroll?
In case, the actual amount is $13.10/.30 then $13.10 is the hourly rate and $.30 fringe benefits.
Calculate fringe benefits rate = ( All fringe benefits /annual salary ) * 100
Suppose the total fringe benefits for a year is $5.1 (.40+.30+.50+.25+.10+.80+.40+.60+.0+10+1.1+55), $3000 of annual salary.
Then, FBR(%) =( 5.1/3000) *100 = 0.17%
Who is exempt from certified payroll?
Only contractors or sub-contractors needs to submit the certified payroll online. Other than them are exempt.
How much does a certified payroll professional make?
It completely depends on how many projects they are working and how much fees they charge. On average, CP professional’s earnings would be $1000 per project.
What is a certified payroll report?
Both contractors and subcontractors should submit the payroll records to the Labour commissioner via DIR’s electronic certified payroll reporting system. DIR offers two options to submit CPRs such as Enter Payroll online and Submit Payroll in the XML file. To enter the details manually use the “Enter Payroll online”. If you have a completed report file then upload using the second option. It can also provide you the preview in PDF format to recheck detail before submitting the report.
How difficult is the certified payroll professional exam?
As I said in the above sections, the exam will be easy if you have a proper knowledge and experience on online payroll systems. If not, you can still learn thing from books, online tutorials, coaching, and more.
Where do I find previously submitted certified payroll?
Use the sCPR search tool. Enter the search terms like DIR Project ID and PWCR Number. In case you can’t still find then enter these details as well. They are Contractor Name, Project Name, Awarding body, Date range, and country.
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