How do I approve apprentices?

Created by Desirae Goode, Modified on Wed, 27 Nov, 2024 at 7:56 AM by Desirae Goode

Review Apprentice Documentation Prior to Approval/Rejection


Once the Contractor has submitted their apprentice documentation to eDocuments, you will want to review what was submitted prior to approving the apprentice. Although LCPtracker offers the ability to accept and reject eDocuments, this is not a requirement for approving an apprentice when using the Validation 21 functionality. It is based on the process the Project Administrator choose to enforce.


  1. Click on the eDocuments tab and the “View Documents” button.
  2. Choose your parameters from the available dropdown menus, such as:
    1. Department
    2. Project
    3. Contractor
    4. Document type (specific to the apprentice information you requested)
  3. Click “Load Data”.  All applicable documents uploaded to eDocuments under the specific document type will appear.
  4. Click on “View” to review apprentice certification. Note percentage, level, or step of apprentice as well as date that the document or apprentice expires.  This review allows you to confirm that an apprentice is: 
    1. Enrolled in a USDOL/State/County/City/Local approved apprentice program
    2. Determine what step, level, period, or percentage an apprentice is, and 
    3. Determine how the apprentice fringes are paid
  5. Once you have reviewed the uploaded document, you may approve or reject the eDocument by clicking on “Details”.


Note:  accepting an eDocument is not required for completing the apprentice approval process.   It is up to the Admin if they choose to require this step be completed.  To approve an Apprentice, please move to the next step within this document.



Apprentice Approval / Rejection Process - Done by Admin or Prime Approver if allowed


This section will typically be your last step if you are utilizing LCPtracker’s apprentice abilities to its fullest. You may choose to opt out of completing these steps, but in doing so, you will have to ensure that the validations are not set to Notice/Enforce. If you do want to use all functionality available, continue with the below instructions. As of May 2019, LCPtracker now has the ability to restrict a Prime Approver from completing this approval process.  Please contact your project manager for more information on this. 

Once you have added your Contractor’s apprentice classification and wage/fringe rates, the last step is to “approve” the apprentice.  

The Admin will determine how they want to enforce the apprentice approval based on how the Validation 21 is setup within the database. 


VERY IMPORTANT:  When utilizing Validation 21, it is crucial that the wage classification field has the word “Apprentice” or “Appr” in order for this validation to work correctly.

When a payroll has a classification with the words “Apprentice” or “Appr”, the system will look to ensure the apprentice has been approved.  If the approval has not been completed, it will flag the contractor with a notice.  It is recommended that this validation be set to Notice/Enforce which is a hard stop and will not allow a contractor to certify their CPR’s until the apprentice has been approved by the Admin or a Prime Approver (if setup and Admin allows).   If you do not utilize this functionality, be aware that you are not using LCPtracker’s apprentice abilities to its fullest potential.

When you are ready to complete the apprentice approval process, you will follow the steps below:   

 

  1. Click on the Admin Tab, then select the “Edit Employees” button. 
  2. Select the employee from dropdown menu.  
  3. Click on the section named “Apprentice Information”. If your contractor has not already completed the apprentice information, you can enter the apprentice ID, apprentice rate, and apprentice period/level/step (i.e., 2nd period, 3rd step, 4th level) if known. This information is not a requirement for approving an apprentice nor will this information carry down to the CPR or be used for prevailing wage verification. This is strictly informational. 
  4. Click on “Apprentice Approval” and select Approved or Rejected from the dropdown. 
    • Note: the system will automatically log the date of the approval and the Admin’s name who approved or rejected the apprentice.
  5. Enter the “Apprentice Expire Date” as you will not be able to save your file with this field blank. 
  6. Click “Save” at the bottom of the page.



Adding Apprentice Rates/Craft/Classifications to Project Wage Table - Step Done by Administrator


LCPtracker Database Administrators (Admins) (ONLY Full Admin, Business Manager, or Limited Admin Roles) can add new or missing apprentice classifications and their corresponding wage/fringe rates to the system. This section will walk you through the steps you need to take. (Note: It is likely that a Contractor has contacted you at this point to ask that their apprentice classification be added to the database, because they cannot pay their employee anything less than the journeyman prevailing wage/fringe rate that is listed in the system.) Depending on how your program is setup, you likely must add the classification and wage/fringe rates into LCPtracker. Next you will “approve” their apprentice so that they may certify their payrolls. (The steps for the approval process are in the next section).

As mentioned in the beginning, you need to understand the apprentice program you are working with before you proceed further. Keep in mind that prevailing wage is a minimum wage regulation, and as such, you can pay the wage and fringe rates as a percentage of the prevailing wage and fringe classification that is listed on the wage determination, unless otherwise specified. However, there are programs that will simply accept or add classifications and rates set by a Union Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) or the actual Apprentice Training Program. 

If you have a wage determination that includes your apprentice classification, percentage, step/level/period, wage rate and fringe rate (such as the Ohio state prevailing wage program) then you can likely skip this section. If, however, you are working with a Federal wage determination, or something like Illinois state prevailing wages, you will need to follow the below outlined steps.  

Note: before starting, you will need to confirm if your database has Master Wage Lookup turned on or off. If Master Wage Lookup is OFF, apprentice rates can be added to the Project Wage Data tab.  If Master Wage Lookup is ON, apprentice rates will need to be added to the Master Wage Data and not the Project Wage Data.  You do have the option of creating a separate Master for Apprentices to separate them from your regular rates, but they will need to be added via the Master and assigned to your project.  If you need further clarification on this, please contact your LCPtracker project manager. 

 

As an Admin, you will 

  1. Review the documentation that was submitted by the Contractor for the apprentice. This allows you to confirm that an apprentice is: 
    1. Enrolled in a United States Department of Labor (USDOL)/State/County/City/Local approved apprentice program
    2. Determine what step, level, period, or percentage an apprentice is, and 
    3. Determine how the apprentice fringes are paid
  2. You will need to perform a calculation to determine apprentice wage and/or fringe rates based on their current percentage according to their program, based on the journeyman prevailing wage and fringe rate.
    1. Note: there are four typical ways that fringes are paid:
      1. Paid in full like the journeyman
      2. Paid at the same percentage as the wage rate
      3. Paid specifically as listed in the CBA or training program (i.e., $5.00 to H/W, $4.00 to Pension, etc.)
      4. Program is silent; meaning that the CBA or training program does not specifically say how fringes are paid. This results in the fringes being paid in full like the journeyman
  3. Enter apprentice rates in LCPtracker by doing the following:
    1. Click on Set Up tab
    2. Select the “Prevailing Wage Setup” button
    3. Click on “Add/Edit Project Wage Data” button
    4. Select project from drop down box
    5. Find classification that matches the apprentice and click on the “Copy” button
  4. Add apprentice information/language after the Classification name/description as shown in the below example. 
    • VERY IMPORTANT:  When utilizing Validation 21, it is crucial that the wage classification field has the word “Apprentice” or “Appr” listed in the Classification field for this validation to work correctly.  Note: if you utilize the term “Appr.” for any other classification need (such as conformances, i.e., “USDOL Appr.”) the system will recognize this as an apprentice.    
  5. Add all applicable wage and fringe rates. We recommend that you leave a note in the “notes” section listing the date you added the classification. 
  6. Click save. 

 

Now contractors may choose this apprentice classification.


California Apprentice Prevailing Wages

The California (CA) Department of Industrial Relations (DIR) is committed to publishing the apprentice prevailing wages. They have made significant strides in the last year to do this, but still do not publish all prevailing wage data. The LCPtracker procedure for apprentice prevailing wage data is to not enter the data until a prevailing wage record is required based on a payroll record being entered. Then the LCPtracker staff is automatically notified of the data required and it is looked up (if available) or requested from the CA Department of Apprentice Standards (DAS). When it is received, it is entered. Standard procedure is to issue a warning notice about such payroll records entered but not checked because of the apprentice wage data not being available yet. 

NOTE: If you have a California project that is dual-funded with both State and Federal wages, you will need to upload an apprentice classification under the Federal Wage Determination. Dual-funded projects require a craft and classification be selected from both the State and Federal wage determination. You can approach this in two different ways. 

  1. You can enter a general apprentice classification to be used for all apprentices which will allow a contractor to select when uploading their apprentice payroll.   
  2. You can enter a specific craft and classification that mirrors the actual journeyman craft and classification.


Apprentice Schedule for Dual-Funded Projects

Of the 25 states that have their own prevailing wage program, only eight of them provide apprentice classifications and rates. Note: California is not listed below as LCPtracker maintains California State wages.

Alaska

No

 

Maryland

No

 

New Jersey

Yes

 

Rhode Island

No

 

Connecticut

No

 

Massachusetts

Yes 

 

New Mexico

No

 

Tennessee

No

 

Delaware

No

 

Minnesota

No

 

New York

Yes

 

Texas

No

 

Hawaii

Yes

 

Missouri

No

 

Ohio

Yes

 

Vermont

No

 

Illinois

No

 

Montana

No

 

Oregon

Yes

 

Washington

Yes

 

Maine

No

 

Nevada

No

 

Pennsylvania

No

 

Wyoming

No

 

 

For the 17 programs that do not provide apprentice classifications or rates, LCP recommends putting in what we now call a “Default Apprentice Schedule”. This allows for crafting matching on dual-funded projects.

A “Default Apprentice Schedule” consists of the same classifications that are included on that specific state wage determination, with the word “Apprentice” in it. The difference will be:

  1. No wages or fringes
  2. No percentages, periods, steps, or levels

Additional fields have been added to the Wage Entry Request form. Please utilize the following standard example: “Include CA SAC with zero $”, “Include OR Multnomah with zero $”, etc. See the explanation below:

  • CA is the prevailing wage state program
  • SAC is the three letter County abbreviation 
  • For states other than CA, please include entire County name  


Administrator Steps


There are multiple apprentice reports available for both Administrators and Contractors. For detailed examples and directions on how to best utilize these reports, please see the most recent Reports Catalog, which is available under the “Training Materials >> Manuals/Quick Start Guides” section. Below listed are the reports that we currently have, listed by type of account.

Keep in mind that when entering a craft or classification in the system, it is looking for the words “Apprentice” or “Appr.” when running reports. If you utilize the term “appr.” for any other classification need (such as conformances, i.e., “USDOL appr.”) the system will recognize this as an apprentice.

Administrator Reports

Apprentice Reports

  1. Apprentice/Trainee List Report
  2. Apprentice Hours Report by City
  3. Apprentice Hours Report by Contractor
  4. Apprentice Hours Report by Contractor 2
  5. Apprentice Hours Report by Trade
  6. Training Reimbursement Report

Special Reports

  1. Daily Apprentice Ratio Report
  2. Daily Apprentice Ratio Report 2

Contractor Reports

  1. Apprentice Hours Report by City
  2. Apprentice Hours Report by Contractor
  3. Apprentice Hours Report by Trade
  4. Apprentice/Trainee List Report.

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