WA L&I Certified Payroll XML Export Customization – Configuration & Usage Guide

By Silvertrek Systems

Version 1.07

Last updated 8/14/2024

Purpose

When working on a WA Certified Payroll job, you need to submit certified payroll reporting data to the state. You can either manually enter it on the website, which is time-consuming but free, or pay large recurring fees for a service that will submit the reporting for you. Instead, this customization is sold at a one-time flat price and allows you to create export files in the XML format recognized by the WA L&I website, so you can avoid hand entering your certified payroll data every week.

What does the Certified XML Customization do?

The button generates an XML Certified Payroll upload file for each certified job for a given week. These generated files are saved as attachments on the custom table UD PR Certified XML Export.

Configuration and Usage

There are 5 places that contain the configuration for this Customization:

    1. PR Deductions/Liabilities

    2. JC Jobs

    3. UD PR Certified XML Class Setup

    4. PR Race Codes

    5. PR Employees

Then, after all the configuration items are set up, you can use the Customization to generate XML files from the following place:

Following are more details on these configuration items and this usage form.

Configuration Item #1: PR Deductions/Liabilities

In PR Dedns/Liabs, there are two custom fields. For deductions that must be included on the upload to the WA L&I website, you must choose appropriate values for the Dedn Class Type and/or Fringe Benefit Type.

Dedn Class Type

The Dedn Class Type is a drop-down list with options: X – Tax Withholding, and O – Other Deductions. The Dedn Class Type is only used for Deductions.

• For deductions that would be included in the tax reporting section of the website, choose “X – Tax Withholding” and leave the Fringe Benefit Type blank. Examples: Federal Tax withholding, Social Security, Medicare, Additional Medicare. Note: PR Federal Information is where it looks to determine which "X" type code represents each of (Federal Tax withholding, Social Security, Medicare, and Additional Medicare). Note: The button now uses the Dedn Class Type under LCPTracker Export Classification for the "X" determination.
• For deductions that should be included in the reporting to the website, but aren’t “X – Tax Withholding” type, choose “O – Other Deductions”. This should likely be all deductions that aren't an "X" type.
• For deductions that shouldn’t be included in the reporting to the website, if any, you can leave the box blank.

Fringe Benefit Type

The Fringe Benefit Type is a drop-down list with options: P – Pension, M – Medical, V – Vacation, H – Holiday, A – Apprentice Benefit, and T – Trade Benefits.

These options may be familiar to you as the website shows these same categories for grouping together liability amounts of fringe benefits. Choose the same category here as you would enter the liability amount to on the website. The Fringe Benefit Type is only used for Liabilities.

Configuration Item #2: JC Jobs

In JC Jobs, there are two custom fields. To use the Certified XML Export button for the job, you must provide appropriate values for both Project Intent ID and LI County fields.

Project Intent ID

The Project Intent ID is the Intent number provided by the state corresponding to this JC Job. The generated XML upload files will be identified by Project Intent ID number.

LI County

The L&I County is the County of the job as used on the website. This field contains a PR Local Code. If you use Vista’s Lookup binoculars button or hit the F4 key from this field, you will see a lookup listing PR Local Codes. The most recommended setup is to make a PR Local Code for every WA county you will work in with Certified Payroll.

PR Local Codes can be strings of letters and numbers up to 10 characters, like “123” or “Abc” or “123ABC” or “Thurston” or “KING” or “Grays Harb”. The choice of naming convention is up to you. When you use a local code here, the exported file will use the Description of the local code rather than the actual Local Code. For example, if you set up a Local Code “53027” with description “Grays Harbor”, the exported file will contain “Grays Harbor” and that is what the state website requires. If the value in the LI County field is not a PR Local Code in your system, the exported file will contain exactly the text that you put in the LI County field. This can be done as a shortcut instead of creating Local Codes for the counties, but you will need to use Local Codes anyway if you ever work in a county with a longer name.

The value entered here in the LI County field must match exactly with the value in the UD PR Certified XML Class Setup table, which is Configuration Item #3.

Configuration Item #3: UD PR Certified XML Class Setup

The UD PR Certified XML Class Setup custom table exists to link the Vista Craft/Classes to the mandated WA L&I Trades/Occupations. For all Craft/Class combinations working certified time to a job, you must create rows here with the appropriate values.

Note: This is a custom table created for this customization. This table can be found in the User Database module > Programs folder > UD PR Certified XML Class Setup.

County

The County field here must have the same value as the LI County field on the job. See Configuration Item #2: JC Jobs > LI County for details on how to set this up.

Craft, Class

The Vista Craft and Class this row represents.

Effective Date

The date after which this row is effective. When generating the export files, the customization compares this date to the field “Start Date for Certifieds” on the form JC Jobs. The Start Date for Certifieds of the Job you are reporting on must be after this Effective Date, or this row will be ignored. The purpose of this is to allow for changes over time, though these tend to not change very much. It is OK to set the Effective Date as far back as necessary to make sure your jobs will all work, you can choose an early date like 1/1/2000 or similar, before all the Jobs’ Certified Start Dates.

LI Trade

The L&I Trade is a drop-down list with a long list of choices corresponding to the Trades as specified by the state. Enter the choice that corresponds to this Vista Craft and Class.

LI Occupation

The L&I Occupation is a text field where you must enter the Occupation as specified by the state. Enter the choice that corresponds to this Vista Craft and Class.

Apprentice information (LI Step Name, LI Step Begin, LI Step End)

The L&I Step Name, L&I Step Begin, and L&I Step End are for the details of the apprenticeship steps specified by the state. Enter the choices that correspond to this Vista Craft and Class.

Configuration Item #4: PR Race Codes

In PR Race Codes, you must link each Race Code being used for employees who work on L&I Certified Payroll jobs to a L&I Ethnic type.

LI Ethnic Type

The L&I Ethnic Type is a drop-down list with options: Prefer not to answer, American Indian/Alaskan Aleut, Asian, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, White or Caucasian, and Native Hawaiian.

Choose the option you wish to report this Race Code as to the state website. The Customization will use the LI Ethnic Type from the Race Code that is entered in PR Employees > Info tab > Race.

Configuration Item #5: PR Employees

In PR Employees, there are two custom fields. If you have apprentices, you must provide appropriate values for their Apprentice State and Apprentice ID.

Apprentice State

The Apprentice State that will be in the generated upload file for this employee. Enter the same value as you would on the website.

Apprentice ID

The Apprentice ID that will be in the generated upload file for this employee. Enter the same value as you would on the website.

Usage: UD PR Certified XML Export

Once the necessary places have been configured, you are ready to use the customization. The UD PR Certified XML Export custom table is the place where you use the Customization to generate the export files.

Note: This is a custom table created for this customization. This table can be found in the User Database module > Programs folder > UD PR Certified XML Export.

How to Use the Customization to Generate Files

Create a new row with the PR Group, PR Ending Date, Week First Date, and Week Last Date of the pay period you want to report with the export files.

Choose the “Hours In Period Only?” field and JC Company field. The JC Company will be used for the certified jobs. Hours in Period only controls whether to include hours from all PR End Dates that overlap the Week First/Week Last Date, or to limit to just the PR End Date chosen for this row. Note the Hours in Period Only and Is Processed fields may appear as checkboxes or as a textbox with ‘N’ meaning unchecked and ‘Y’ meaning checked. If you see an "Is Processed?" field, it does not have any effect, it is not being used by the latest version.

Click the “Export XML” button. This will generate XML export files for each job found to have certified payroll time in the pay period, making a series of attachments onto this form. The attachments have filenames that are the Project Intent ID of the job followed by the .xml file extension.

Download these XML export files and upload them on the WA L&I Certified Payroll website.

If there are any errors that appear on the website, see if all the necessary Configuration Items have been set up appropriately on the Job, Crafts/Classes, Dedn/Liab Codes, and Employees. When a value is missing, it may default to “NOT SETUP!” in the generated file. This is an indicator you may need to review the setup and fix any missing pieces. One helpful tool for understanding what is in the upload is inspecting the file in a text editor (such as Notepad, Notepad++, or VS Code) or by opening the file in a web browser (such as Firefox or Chrome). This may be an ugly file to look at, though, if you aren’t familiar with the XML format.