The Inflation Reduction Act made a solar crew’s paychecks the difference between a 6 percent credit and a 30 percent one. WageTime runs the covered project, the sales floor, and the per-watt crew on one payroll, with records ready when the credit is claimed.
A solar company isn’t one workforce. It’s a commissioned sales team, a piece-rate field crew, and an office, each paid a different way, and since 2023 the IRS grades the field crew’s paychecks.
On projects over a megawatt, the increased credit belongs to whoever paid every laborer the prevailing rate for the right classification and can prove it. Underpay one installer one week and the cure is back pay, interest, and a $5,000 penalty per worker. The spreadsheet that was fine for hourly payroll is now a tax exposure.
Construction that began in 2024 or later needs qualified apprentices performing 15 percent of total labor hours, inside the program’s apprentice-to-journeyworker ratio, checked day by day. That math lives in whoever’s timesheets you trust, which is the problem.
The closer’s commission is the spread above the redline, split with the setter, paid out in pieces at contract, install, and permission to operate, and clawed back when the deal cancels in window. Shops typically run that ledger in a spreadsheet next to payroll and hand-key the winners into the run.
Install crews earn per-panel or per-kilowatt rates, and a big-system week still runs past 40 hours. Piece pay doesn’t erase overtime: the premium is owed on the blended regular rate for the week, and the Friday spreadsheet quietly skips it.
This quarter it’s a community solar array two counties over and a commercial roof across the state line. Every jurisdiction wants its own withholding and its own filing calendar, and the crew wants per diem on the same check as wages.
Records that show every laborer and mechanic was paid at least the prevailing rate for the classification they actually worked, hour by hour, with fringes accounted for. WageTime’s prevailing wage add-on, scoped and priced on the demo, keeps that record straight off the run.
| Worker | Hours | Base + fringe |
|---|---|---|
| Dana M.Electrician | 40.0 | $41.20 + $12.85 |
| Luis O.Laborer, Group 2 | 40.0 | $26.10 + $8.40 |
| Priya S.Ironworker (racking) | 36.5 | $38.75 + $11.90 |
| Cole B. qualifiedApprentice Electrician, 2nd yr | 40.0 | $24.70 + $12.85 |
| Nate R.Laborer, Group 2 | 32.0 | $26.10 + $8.40 |
Replaces the classification spreadsheet someone rebuilds before every credit filing, and the hope that it matches the timesheets.
Setter and closer commissions run as pay codes in the same WageTime payroll that pays everyone else, milestone by milestone. A canceled-in-window deal is a payout you simply don’t run, not a negative number to chase, because nothing pays out until you approve the run.
Replaces the redline spreadsheet, the hand-keyed winners, and the argument about who was owed what at which milestone.
Yes: WageTime computes the overtime premium on the weighted-average regular rate. Piece pay changes how wages are earned, not whether overtime is owed: when a crew’s week mixes per-unit pay with hourly work, the kilowatts and the clock hours settle into one blended rate.
Replaces the per-watt tally that never meets the timesheet, and the overtime premium nobody computed on it.
By punching in where the panels are: the crew’s phones clock them into WageTime against a geofence drawn around each array. Taxes follow the same trail, with work and home addresses geolocated against 11,000+ local jurisdictions and every one of them filed automatically.
| Project | Hours | Labor cost |
|---|---|---|
| Sunrise Ridge Community Solar5 crew · covered project rates | 182.0 | $6,240.80 |
| Hartwell Distribution roof3 crew · commercial rooftop | 96.5 | $3,118.40 |
| Residential installs2 crew · 12 jobs this week | 71.0 | $2,043.90 |
Replaces the whiteboard hour tally, and the discovery that a county wanted withholding you’d never heard of.
Full-service payroll is $10 a month per person paid that month, plus $50 a month per company, with unlimited runs. No long-term contracts, no per-run charges.
Off-cycle runs and bonuses cost nothing extra. No long-term contracts; cancel anytime.
Example: 50 people paid × $10 + $50 company = $550 for the month
HR & hiring, onboarding, PTO, time tracking, benefits, and workers’ comp are optional add-ons, priced separately when you’re ready.
See a demoThe IRA prevailing wage and apprenticeship requirements multiply the investment tax credit by five, from a 6 percent base to 30 percent. Every laborer and mechanic earns at least the published rate for their classification, and qualified apprentices perform 15 percent of total labor hours on construction begun in 2024 or later, inside the program’s daily ratio. WageTime supplies the payroll side: classification rates, hours, and audit-grade records.
Projects under 1 megawatt (AC) qualify for the increased credit without meeting the prevailing wage and apprenticeship requirements, which keeps most residential rooftop work outside them. Larger commercial, community, and utility-scale projects are squarely inside. Confirm your project’s status with your tax advisor; WageTime provides the payroll records either way.
The cure is back pay of the difference plus interest, plus a $5,000 penalty per underpaid worker paid to the IRS, with steeper amounts for intentional disregard. Apprenticeship shortfalls run $50 per missing labor hour. The cheaper path is a payroll that applies the right classification rate the first time and keeps the record.
Yes, that’s the normal setup for a solar company on WageTime. Percentage-based comp settles through tiered commission structures, milestone payouts run as flat-amount pay codes, install crews earn per-unit rates, and mixed weeks compute overtime on the weighted-average regular rate. One run, one invoice, W-2s and 1099s filed at year end.
Yes. Certificates and licenses live on the employee record with documents attached and recurring 30/60/90-day expiration alerts, so a lapsed card surfaces before it idles an installer. Training sits alongside: safety courses assigned and tracked with completion records.
$50 per month per company plus $10 per person paid that month, unlimited runs, off-cycle commission payouts included at no extra cost. Prevailing wage, certified payroll, and union payroll are add-ons, scoped and priced on the demo. No long-term contracts; cancel anytime. Switching is full-service and paid; we’ll scope the effort on the same call.
Your wage determination, a week of install timesheets, and the June commission ledger. Twenty minutes with a payroll specialist on a live demo company: you’ll watch the classification rates apply, the milestone payouts run off-cycle, and the blended overtime come out right.
Book a 20-minute demo