From the clock-in app
Crew clock in on their phone against the job. No texts, no Thursday reconstruction, and the hours are already attached to work.
Payroll
An hour costs more than the wage. Price it that way.
Payroll from the hours your crew already clocked, with CPP, EI, WSIB and vacation where they belong — in your labour rate, not discovered at year end.
What $32 an hour actually costs you Ontario, construction
Hourly wage $32.00
CPP — employer match $1.79
EI — employer portion $0.74
WSIB — construction rate $2.24
Vacation accrual $1.28
Burdened cost per hour $38.05
Priced at the wage — margin lost per 100 hrs −$605
The most common pricing mistake in small construction
And it compounds on every hour you sell
The problem: You pay someone $32 an hour, so you price labour at $32 an hour. Your real cost is that plus CPP matching, EI, WSIB at a construction rate, and vacation — materially more. Every hour you sell quietly erodes your margin, and you find out at year end, if at all.
Then the hours themselves arrive as text messages on Thursday night, get totalled from memory, and never say which job they were on — so your largest cost stays invisible where it matters most.
- Source deductions are generally due the 15th of the following month, and CRA compounds penalties
- Construction WSIB classification rates are among the highest there are
- Paying a regular worker on invoice because it is simpler is expensive when CRA disagrees
Contractor or employee? CRA weighs
Control — who sets hours and methods?
Tools — whose truck and equipment?
Chance of profit or risk of loss?
Integration — part of your operation?
Getting it wrongback deductions
From clock-in to remittance
The hours are already in. Payroll is a review.
Nothing is retyped from a group chat, which is why the pay run and the job cost can never disagree.
You check before it becomes money
Timesheets land for review, so a mis-clock is fixed before it becomes a payment.
Pay from what you approved
Rates live on each person’s profile and follow them across jobs. The resulting cost lands in your books without re-entry.
WSIB and CRA tracked
Part of the ledger rather than reconstructed at the deadline, so the 15th stops being a surprise.
Where the hour ends up
Paid once, costed once, filed once.
Clock inApproveBurdened job costPayrollBooksRemittance
The burdened figure is the one that belongs in your estimating rate book. That is the whole point of payroll sitting in the same system as the estimate — the cost of an hour and the price of an hour stop being two different guesses.
What it changes on Monday
- Your rate book uses the real number. $38.05, not $32.
- Thursday night stops existing. The hours are in and on the right job.
- WSIB is in the price instead of coming out of your margin.
- Remittance dates stop sneaking up, because they are tracked in the ledger.
This pay period
Hours approved102
Across jobs2
Gross$3,264
Employer cost on top$617
Costed to jobsautomatically
Work out your real hourly cost.
Put your wages in and see the burdened figure. Then check what your estimates have been using.
7 days free · no credit card · then $49.99/mo for 3 months
General information for Canadian employers, not payroll or tax advice · rates vary by province — verify with CRA and your provincial board