XML PAYROLL

UPLOAD GUIDE

P r e v a i l i n g W a g e P r o g r a m

3 6 0 . 9 0 2 . 5 3 3 5

P W 1 @ L n i . w a . g o v

Step-by-step instructions

Upload payroll records to streamline filing your certified

payroll reports with L&I on public works projects.

Last Updated: January 2020

XML Payroll Upload Guide Instructions

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................................................................................................... 1

FEEDBACK........................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 1

ASSISTANCE ........................................................................................................................................................................................................................ 1

NAVIGATING THIS INSTRUCTIONS GUIDE ....................................................................................................................................... 2

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS ....................................................................................................................................................................... 3

GENERAL REQUIREMENTS FOR CERTIFIED PAYROLL REPORTS ............................................................................................ 3

SETTING UP YOUR XML FILE ................................................................................................................................................................ 4

VALIDATE A XML FILE AGAINST A SCHEMA.................................................................................................................................... 6

SUBMIT PAYROLL RECORDS VIA XML ............................................................................................................................................... 7

VALIDATION OF PAYROLL RECORDS ................................................................................................................................................ 8

Step 1: XML File ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 8 Step 2: Payroll Weeks ................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 8 Step 3: Employee Information ................................................................................................................................................................................................. 8 Step 4: Project Trades and Classifications .......................................................................................................................................................................... 9 Step 5: Employee Wage Rate(s) ............................................................................................................................................................................................ 10

XML Payroll Upload Guide Instructions

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Introduction

Public works contracts in Washington State require each and every business maintain weekly certified

payroll reports and provide, upon request, to your prime contractor, awarding agency, L&I, or other

interested parties. Find more information about the requirements for filing these reports here.

The following instructions will help you set up your XML file and upload your payroll records using L&I’s

Prevailing Wage Intent and Affidavit (PWIA) system.

Feedback Please let us know how the system and/or these instructions work for you by completing a two-minute

survey. Your feedback is greatly appreciated and will help us improve our online services.

Assistance Contact the Prevailing Wage Program at PW1@Lni.wa.gov or 360.902.5335 if assistance is needed with

accessing or using this system.

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Navigating This Instructions Guide

We have created three different ways for you to quickly and easily find instructions on a particular feature

within your PWIA system:

1. Select a feature/topic within the Table of Contents on the previous page to navigate to that section.

2. Use Bookmarks to navigate to different sections.

A. If you are viewing these instructions on our website, move your mouse to the top right-hand

corner of the page and a black bar will appear.

Select the flag and then the topic/feature you wish to learn more about.

B. If you saved these instructions to your computer, select the panel on the right-hand side.

Select the flag and then the topic/feature you wish to learn more about.

3. Press CTRL+F to open a dialog box to search this guide. Type in the feature/topic you wish to learn

about and then either press ENTER or select the Previous, Next, or arrows within the dialog box to

navigate through the results.

Google Internet Explorer

Adobe Acrobat

Select underlined text in light blue to go to that section of this guide.

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System Requirements

In order for you to upload your payroll records, your will need to have the following items:

Browser:

o Internet Explorer 11 (Windows 8 or older)

o Edge (Windows 10)

o Chrome

o Firefox

o Safari (Mac)

Program to Create/Edit a XML File:

o Notepad (PC)

o Textedit (Mac)

o Notepad++

o XML Notepad

Important: XML Notepad is highly recommended to validate your XML files against

a schema file. See Validate a XML File Against a Schema.

General Requirements for Certified Payroll Reports

Employers on public works projects are required to keep certain records in addition to the pay statement.

Certified payroll reports are required to be filed online with L&I at least once a month for all public works

projects. Each contractor must file their certified payroll using L&I’s online system at least once a month.

Please note, contractors can be penalized for failing to file. The awarding agency or prime contractor may

also require you to provide certified payroll records and/or additional information directly to them or to a

third party vendor.

Certified payroll reports must include the following information:

Full Name,

Address,

Social Security Number,

Trade or Occupation,

Straight-Time Rate,

Hourly Rate of Usual Benefits,

Overtime Hours Worked Each Date and Week,

Ten Hour Workday (4-10) Agreement, and

Actual Rate of Wages Paid

For additional information visit the following links:

Definitions: RCW 39.12.010(4)

Payroll: WAC 296-127-320

Ten Hour Day: RCW 49.28.065

Overtime Policy

Usual Benefits: Calculation Policy, WAC 296-127-014, WAC 296-127-01410

Eight Hour Day: RCW 49.28.010, RCW 49.28.040, RCW 49.28.050, RCW 49.28.060

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Setting Up Your XML File

First, watch our training video to learn more about the XML option for filing your certified payroll reports.

Then, use the following information below to help you ensure you file is set up correctly and has all of the

appropriate data/information.

Currently, our validation process is case sensitive (we’re working on changing it). o County must be in Title Case o Trade codes must be in ALL CAPS o Classifications and occupations must match what is shown in the wage lookup tools (see

links below)

The following elements can be removed from the XML file (we’re working on removing them from the schema). If included, they must be null.

o amendedFlag o amendedDate o amendReason o WageID o apprenticePgmOccpnID o apprenticePgmName o apprenticePgmOccpnStepCalcID

All required fields cannot be null and must have a value

All numerical data needs to have no more than two decimal places

o Acceptable: 50, 8.00, 7.5 o Not Acceptable: 50.235, 8.000, 7.563

Adding more deductions:

o Use an additional otherDeduction element for each additional benefit name

o When present, the deductionName must have data and the deductionHourlyAmt must be greater than zero

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Adding more fringe/usual benefits: o Use an additional tradeBenefit element for each additional benefit o When present, the benefitHourlyName must have data and the benefitHourlyAmt must

be greater than zero

Adding more trades/classifications/wage rates: o Use an additional tradeHoursWage element plus corresponding fields for each additional

trade, classification, and/or wage rate the employee had for the week

trade is a required field that must contain the correct trade code, which can be found here

jobClass is a required field unless the apprenticeFlg = true, then it can be null o Use our Journey Level Wage Lookup and Apprentice Wage Lookup tools to find the correct

classification, occupation, step name, step begin hours, and step end hours. o Classifications and wage rates vary for each project and are based on either the Bid Due

Date or Award Date - you will need to use one of those dates as the Effective Date to find the correct classifications.

apprenticeFlg is a required field that must be either true or false o If true, the following fields are required:

apprenticeID – use our ARTS lookup tool if you don’t know the number for a Washington state registered apprentice

apprenticeState – must be WA, OR, MT, or AK apprenticeOccpnName – found in the Apprentice Wage Lookup tool apprenticeStepName – found in the Apprentice Wage Lookup tool apprenticeStepBeginHours – found in the Apprentice Wage Lookup tool, must be a

whole number and cannot contain any decimals apprenticeStepEndHours – found in the Apprentice Wage Lookup tool, must be a

whole number and cannot contain any decimals o If false, you can keep the above named fields in your file or they may be removed.

If kept, both apprenticeStepBeginHours and apprenticeStepEndHours must equal 0 and cannot be blank/null.

Amending a week:

o Our system automatically identifies if it is for a duplicate week or not and will prompt you to indicate it is an amendment before moving forward with uploading the file.

o The file will completely replace the previously filed week and indicate it is an amendment. o We do keep a history/capture of the previous information.

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Validate a XML File Against a Schema

Before validating your XML file, you will need to download and install XML Notepad. This validation

process will review your file to ensure it is setup properly and our system will accept it.

1. Right-click XML Schema file in PWIA, select Save link as…, and save it to your local drive where you

can easily find it.

2. Open XML Notepad.

3. From the File menu, browse and select your XML you want to validate, then select Open.

4. From the View menu and select Schemas… to open the XML Schemas popup box.

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5. In the XML Schemas popup box, go to the File menu and select Clear to remove any previously loaded

schemas.

6. In the XML Schemas popup box, go to the File menu, select Add schemas… to browse and select the

XML Schema file saved in Step 1, then select Open.

7. In the XML Schemas popup box, select OK to load and run the schema against your file.

8. Review any errors found in the Error List tab at the bottom of XML Notepad. Double-click an error to

view and correct the incorrect values.

Submit Payroll Records via XML

1. Select Submit Payroll in XML File.

2. A popup box will appear allowing you to choose the XML file to upload. Once you have found and

selected the file, select Open.

3. Select Upload. Your file will be uploaded and the system will begin validating the information.

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Validation of Payroll Records

Once your XML file is uploaded, the system will begin a five-step validation process before creating your

certified payroll report(s). If any issues or missing information is found, the system will prompt you to

correct it before moving through the rest of the validation process.

Indicates a required validation item that will need to corrected before moving to the next step.

Indicates an optional validation item that will allow you to move to the next step without any

correction.

Tip: Update your payroll system, where applicable, to speed this process up in the

future.

Step 1: XML File

Step 1 validates the XML file uploaded is in the correct format and meets the following

requirements:

1. Matches the schema

2. Is a valid .xml file

3. You have access to file certified payroll for the intent/project

Step 2: Payroll Weeks

Step 2 validates the payroll week ending date in the XML file is the same day of the week as

previously submitted certified payroll reports for the same project. This step also checks to see if

there are:

1. No duplicate weeks within the file

2. Drafts or previously submitted reports for the same week in our system

Step 3: Employee Information

Step 3 ensures we have complete information for each employee provided in the XML file. This

includes:

Required Fields Optional Fields**

First Name

Last Name

Social Security Number*

Address

City

State

Zip

Gender

o F; M; ?

Race, ethnicity or culture

o Prefer not to answer; American

Indian/Alaskan Aleut; Asian; Black or

African American; Hispanic or Latino;

Native Hawaiian or other Pacific

Islander; White or Caucasian; Other

United States veteran

o Y; N; ?

*Must be a unique number. **Will be checked for valid information, if provided.

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Step 4: Project Trades and Classifications

Step 4 validates the trades and/or classifications provided in the XML file match the Prevailing

Wage trades and classifications. If they do not match, this step allows you to match your

trade/classification to the Prevailing Wage Trades and Classifications across all employees with the

same trade/classification.

In the example below, the XML file has CEME as the trade and Journeyman as the

classification for 2 employees on the project. The matching Prevailing Wage Trade is

Cement Masons with Journey Level as the Prevailing Wage Work Classification.

Once Choose Work Classification is selected, this Trade/Classification combo will

be applied to both employees on this project.

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Step 5: Employee Wage Rate(s)

Step 5 validates the total wages and benefits provided for each employee meet the minimum

prevailing wage rate for their trade and classification on the project.

Note: This is an optional validation step, but we strongly encourage you to validate

your wage rates. If you find you did not pay your employee at least the minimum

prevailing wage rate; pay the difference on their next paycheck and upload an

amended certified payroll report with the corrected wages.