Deep Dive: Solving Complexities in Construction Payroll with Trayd

Payroll is one of the most complex and high-stakes challenges in the construction industry, shaped by union rules, certified payroll requirements, prevailing wages, and constantly changing labor laws. For Trayd, a payroll, HR, and compliance platform built specifically for construction, getting payroll right isn’t just about accuracy — it’s about protecting businesses, keeping jobs moving, and giving back-office teams the visibility they need to operate with confidence.

In this conversation with Check's Head of Service Delivery Jim Kohl, Anna Berger, Founder and CEO of Trayd, shares why payroll is the control center of construction, how Trayd helps contractors navigate payroll complexities, and how partnering with Check enables Trayd to scale compliance while staying focused on the workflows that matter most to its customers.

Jim: Let’s start simple. Can you share your role at Trayd and the teams you oversee?

‍Anna: Of course. I’m Anna Berger, founder and CEO of Trayd, a construction payroll, HR, and compliance platform designed for specialty contractors. I oversee the whole company, but day-to-day, I'm responsible for our sales and customer divisions.

Jim: I’ve heard your story before, and it’s a great one. What motivated you to help construction businesses navigate payroll and compliance?

Anna: It’s a problem I saw firsthand in my dad’s back office. I watched him build his construction business in New York for over 30 years and struggle with visibility into day-to-day project costs and labor management, all stemming from payroll. For specialty contractors, payroll makes up over 70% of total spend. If payroll costs are off, everything is off. Providing that foundational visibility allows contractors to operate more efficiently.

Jim: Is that visibility at the employee level, the employer level, or both?

Anna: Mostly for the back office. Employers need to understand where projects stand in real time: are they on budget, on time, do they need to speed up or pull back? If labor costs are off, their judgment will be off. And so they need to have real visibility into where the project is and what kind of wiggle room they have to make the correct business decisions. Payroll becomes the control center for back office teams. And if workers aren’t motivated by accurate, on-time paychecks, they’re not showing up on Monday.

Jim: That makes a lot of sense. Are there specific types of construction businesses you serve best?

Anna: We primarily power construction businesses with large field teams, people clocking in and out across different locations and states under one FEIN. That usually means specialty contractors like concrete, flooring, plumbing, and demolition teams with large, distributed workforces.

Jim: Beyond company size, what makes construction payroll especially complex?

Anna: We focus heavily on union construction payroll, which is undoubtedly the hardest type of payroll. You’re dealing with variable shifts, second and third shifts, night premiums, overtime rates — all of which affect weekly totals. In corporate payroll, someone works 40 hours at the same rate every week. Construction is the opposite. There are 16+ factors that can affect how a shift is paid, and Trayd manages that complexity for our customers.

Jim: Do customers understand that complexity, or are there other pain points driving them to you?

Anna: Every construction payroll admin knows it’s hard. They’re spending something like 14 hours a week processing payroll. They know it has to be done, but they also know it could be better. The challenge is they’re trying to run construction workflows in non-construction payroll systems. It’s a square peg in a round hole. Based on our customers’ experiences, platforms like ADP or Paychex don’t understand shift premiums or night differentials. Those concepts aren’t native to their systems.

Jim: Do you track metrics around that improvement?

Anna: Absolutely, my favorite metrics. We’ve seen payroll approval times drop from 13–14 hours to an average of 27 minutes for companies with over 200 workers. That's two full days back every week. Instead of moving paper timesheets to Excel, applying special rates, entering payroll, then re-entering the data into accounting, everything is automated with Trayd.

Jim: That must be incredibly fulfilling.

Anna: It is. We’ve completely changed how businesses operate. Payroll admins who used to spend a full week generating certified payroll can now do it in 1-2 hours. Some are taking their first vacation in 10 years! We’ve taken decades of institutional payroll knowledge and put it into a system that can scale.

Jim: You mentioned certified payroll reporting, too. Can you explain how Trayd approaches that?

Anna: Trayd supports contractors working on public projects, bridges, tunnels, highways, airports. all of which require certified payroll. Contractors must certify that every hour meets minimum wage requirements. We use first-party payroll data to automatically generate and submit forms for agencies like LCP Tracker, eMars, eComply, and others. If we already have the data, why make it harder? It's our job and our responsibility to keep you compliant.

Jim: Prevailing wages are also complex. What makes those calculations so difficult?

Anna: Projects governed by collective bargaining agreements have prevailing wages that can vary by location and job title, sometimes by cents. What looks like a rounding error can lead to penalties in the tens of thousands of dollars. We build checks and balances so contractors are protected. Rates are activated automatically based on who’s working, where, and on what project. That connection between field data and payroll drives compliance.

Jim: That must save payroll admins a lot of time.

Anna: Exactly. In traditional systems, admins manually review timecards and override rates. That’s why the payroll takes 14 hours. With Trayd, the system already knows the rates, so it flows directly into payroll. The power of unions is that incorrect pay leads to work stoppages, project delays, and blown timelines. I know I keep saying it, but payroll really is the control point of construction. That’s why having Check underneath us, double-checking our work, is intentional. The stakes are incredibly high.

Jim: How else does Trayd help with union complexity?

Anna: Contractors are usually affiliated with specific unions ahead of time. While the union stays consistent, the workforce changes frequently. Union labor is high-volume and high-turnover. Contractors bring people on and off as needed.

We’ve completely digitized onboarding. What used to take 10 hours and hundreds of pieces of paper now takes five minutes. From digital I-9s to tax and bank verification, workers can be onboarded on-site and start immediately.

And when workers cross state or jurisdictional lines, Check handles that complexity. Trayd doesn’t have to think about it. The system automatically understands location and filing requirements.

Jim: Let’s talk about Check enabling Trayd. What did you need from a payroll partner?

Anna: Three things. First, full automation of tax calculations, remittance, and filings. Many customers are coming off of on-prem systems where payroll admins manually send tax checks to agencies. That’s massive overhead and risk. With Check, all filings are automated, quarterly and annually, which is a huge value-add.

Second, multi-state payroll. Check provides the foundational tax knowledge for each state, allowing Trayd to focus on construction-specific complexity. It lets us scale faster without scaling our back office.

Third, regulatory monitoring. Laws change constantly. Without Check, we’d need in-house counsel. Check handles the hardest, riskiest layer of compliance, tax correctness, allowing Trayd to confidently bring construction companies into the digital age.

Jim: Was there a defining moment that inspired Trayd?

Anna: I grew up around contractors leaving money on the table without knowing it. I’ve seen lawsuits, penalties, contractors kicked off federal projects for compliance failures. One contractor faced a $20M time-shaving lawsuit because they lacked digital records. Every story reinforced why Trayd had to exist. Contractors need and deserve someone watching their back.

Jim: That’s powerful.

Anna: It’s personal. Contractors operate on razor-thin margins, yet carry the most risk. Trayd is their back-office best friend — their compliance engine and insurance policy.

Jim: You clearly have the passion to do it.

Anna: I’m living my dream. To be able to move and shake and shift and impact an industry as massive as construction, I'm very lucky to do what I do.

Jim: Final question: what are you excited to build together next year?

Anna: There’s a massive opportunity in the large employer space. If we meet those companies halfway, our impact can’t be capped. That’s where I’m excited to build together in 2026.