When submitting certified payroll reports, it’s important to understand the difference between TradeSeal’s role (generating accurate electronic reports) and your certified payroll portal’s role (receiving, validating, and processing those reports).
TradeSeal creates the required file in the format your state or agency requires. Once generated, you are responsible for uploading it into your certified payroll portal.
Steps to Follow
- Log into your portal
Make sure you’re using the correct portal and account credentials provided by your agency or customer. - Upload your report
Use the electronic report generated by TradeSeal. Follow the portal’s upload instructions carefully. - If you receive an error
- Check the message: Carefully review any error message displayed by the portal.
- Share with TradeSeal Support: Forward the complete error message or screenshot to our support team. This helps us identify whether the issue is related to the file itself or to the portal’s settings.
- If no technical details are shown: Contact your portal administrator or agency. Ask them to provide a detailed error log or description. Without this, both you and our team are left guessing.
Common Causes of Portal Errors
While TradeSeal ensures reports are generated in the correct format, portals can still reject them for a variety of reasons:
- Incorrect or missing data
(e.g., employee ID numbers, Social Security numbers, project codes, or contractor license numbers). - Configuration issues in the portal
(e.g., your company or project setup in the portal is incomplete or mismatched). - Date errors
(e.g., payroll dates that don’t align with project start/end dates or reporting periods). Portal system issues
Sometimes the state or agency’s portal itself is down, overloaded, or has a bug.
When to Contact TradeSeal Support vs. Your Portal
- Contact TradeSeal Support when:
- You have a complete error message or log.
- You believe the file itself is not structured correctly.
- Contact Your Portal or Agency when:
- You receive a vague or non-technical rejection (e.g., “File could not be uploaded”).
- The portal does not provide an error code or log.
The issue seems tied to your project setup or credentials.
Key Takeaway
TradeSeal generates certified payroll reports in the correct format. If a portal rejects your upload, please provide us with the detailed error message so we can assist. If no details are available, your portal administrator must supply them. This ensures problems are resolved quickly and prevents wasted time on guesswork.