WHO WE SERVE
You structured the deal. You signed the PPA. You filed for the production or investment tax credit. But if a single subcontractor on your project paid below prevailing wage or missed an apprenticeship ratio, the IRS can reduce your credit to 1/5 of what you planned for. SkillSmart gives you the visibility and documentation to make sure that does not happen.
YOUR WORLD
You are responsible for PWA compliance on your clean energy project, but you did not hire the electricians or the ironworkers. Your general contractor did. And your GC hired subcontractors who hired their own subs. Three or four tiers deep, workers are earning wages that determine whether your tax credit stays at the full 5x rate or drops to 1x.
Your tax counsel is asking for prevailing wage documentation you cannot produce. Your accounting firm wants proof that apprenticeship ratios were met for every quarter of the credit period. Your GC sends you a spreadsheet and tells you everything is fine. But you have no way to verify that.
That gap between what you need to prove and what you can actually see is where tax credits get lost. SkillSmart closes that gap by giving developers direct visibility into labor compliance data across every tier of every project.
YOUR CHALLENGES
Your GC tells you the project is compliant, but you have no independent way to verify prevailing wage rates or apprenticeship ratios below the first tier. If a second-tier sub paid $2 below the Davis-Bacon rate for six months, you will not know until the IRS audit. By then, the recapture notice is already written.
PWA compliance is not just a construction-phase problem. Section 45Y requires prevailing wage on alteration and repair work for the entire credit period, up to 10 years after the project is placed in service. A maintenance contractor who skips prevailing wage in year 7 can trigger recapture of credits you already claimed.
When the IRS requests documentation supporting your PWA compliance, you need certified payrolls, wage determination records, apprenticeship logs, and good faith effort documentation for every contractor on the project. Most developers discover they do not have this package until someone asks for it.
HOW SKILLSMART HELPS
See prevailing wage status for every contractor on your project, at every tier, updated as payroll data comes in. SkillSmart does not wait for your GC to compile a monthly report. You see which subs have submitted, which are late, and which have compliance flags, on your own dashboard, on your own schedule.
SkillSmart tracks PWA compliance across the full credit period, not just during construction. When alteration or repair work triggers prevailing wage requirements in year 3 or year 8, the platform applies the current wage determination and monitors compliance the same way it did during the original build. No separate system. No manual tracking.
Generate the complete compliance package your tax counsel and accounting firm need with one click. Certified payrolls, wage determination records, apprenticeship ratio reports, and good faith effort documentation, organized by project, date range, or contractor. Formatted for IRS review. Exportable to PDF or Excel.
INSTANT DEMO
Click through InSight IQ yourself. No form. No sales call. Watch prevailing wage validation run on a live project, see apprenticeship ratios calculated in real time, and generate an audit-ready compliance package in under 60 seconds.
✓ Prevailing Wage Validation ✓ Apprenticeship Ratio Tracking ✓ Sub-Tier Oversight ✓ Audit Documentation
Prefer a guided walkthrough? Request a live demo with a compliance specialist. Request a live demo →
Trusted by developers and project sponsors on IRA and IIJA-funded clean energy projects
“We have 14 solar projects in various stages of construction across 6 states. Before SkillSmart, our only view into prevailing wage compliance was whatever our GCs sent us in a monthly spreadsheet. Now we see every sub, every payroll, every ratio in real time. Our tax team used the platform to produce the full documentation package for our first IRS inquiry. It took 20 minutes.”
VP of Project Development
Renewable Energy Developer
FREQUENTLY ASKED
Answers to the compliance questions that come up most often for clean energy developers, project sponsors, and tax equity investors managing IRA prevailing wage and apprenticeship requirements.
Any clean energy project claiming the production tax credit (Section 45Y) or investment tax credit (Section 48E) at the full 5x rate must meet prevailing wage and registered apprenticeship requirements. This means every laborer and mechanic on the project must be paid at least the Davis-Bacon prevailing wage rate for their trade and location. The requirement applies during construction and, for Section 45Y projects, during alteration and repair work throughout the credit period.
If prevailing wage or apprenticeship requirements are not met, the tax credit drops from the 5x bonus rate to the base rate. On a $200 million project, that can mean the difference between a $60 million credit and a $12 million credit. The IRS can also assess correction payments and penalties. For ongoing Section 45Y credits, a single year of noncompliance can trigger recapture of previously claimed credits.
Yes. SkillSmart gives project developers and sponsors their own dashboard with direct visibility into every tier of contractor on the project. You do not need to wait for your GC’s monthly report. Prevailing wage status, apprenticeship ratios, and submission timelines are updated as payroll data is submitted.
Yes. SkillSmart monitors apprentice-to-journeyman ratios by trade and flags when ratios fall below the required thresholds. For IRA projects, the platform tracks the 15% apprenticeship labor hour requirement and alerts your team when the ratio needs attention, before it becomes a compliance finding.
SkillSmart generates a complete audit-ready package including certified payrolls (WH-347), wage determination records showing the applicable rate at time of payment, apprenticeship ratio reports by trade, good faith effort documentation, and a project-level compliance summary. All records are timestamped and organized by project, contractor, and date range. The package exports to PDF or Excel.
Most developers are up and running in 2 to 3 days. A dedicated compliance specialist configures your project’s wage determinations, sets up sub-tier access for your GC and their subs, and walks your team through the developer dashboard. If the project is already in construction, existing payroll data can be imported for continuity.
READY TO PROTECT YOUR TAX CREDITS?
Get a 15-minute walkthrough of InSight IQ. See exactly how SkillSmart tracks prevailing wage compliance, apprenticeship ratios, and audit documentation across your entire IRA project portfolio.
15-min walkthrough. No commitment. SOC 2 Type II certified.