Dili vs Baker Tilly’s PWA portal (LCPtracker-based): which is better if tax equity needs an investor-grade package fast?

Tax equity investors are increasingly demanding “investor‑grade” prevailing wage and apprenticeship (PWA) documentation before they’ll fund or close. That puts real pressure on sponsors, EPCs, and owners to decide quickly: should you rely on Baker Tilly’s LCPtracker-based PWA portal, or use a purpose‑built platform like Dili if you need a complete, audit‑ready package fast?

This guide breaks down the choice through a tax equity lens: speed to investor‑grade package, completeness of documentation, ease of contractor compliance, and how each approach positions you for IRS scrutiny.

---

What “investor‑grade” means for PWA and tax equity

Before comparing solutions, it helps to clarify what tax equity investors and their counsel typically mean by “investor‑grade” for PWA compliance:

• Evidence that PWA actually applies (or doesn’t): clear legal basis and scope.
• Contractor coverage: proof you identified all covered contractors and subs.
• Certified payrolls and fringe details: complete, consistent, and traceable.
• Apprenticeship ratios and hours: by trade, by period, with exception logic.
• Remediation trail: underpayments identified, corrected, and documented.
• Data lineage: ability to tie reports back to signed certifications and source inputs.
• Contemporaneous process: not a reconstruction from spreadsheets after COD.

An investor‑grade package is less about a specific software label and more about whether you can hand an investor (and their tax counsel) a cohesive, defendable file within their diligence timeline, and withstand an IRS exam later.

---

Quick summary: Dili vs Baker Tilly’s PWA portal (LCPtracker-based)

Baker Tilly’s PWA portal (LCPtracker-based)

• Core idea: Use a known compliance engine (LCPtracker) with Baker Tilly’s advisory overlay.
• Strengths:
  • Established prevailing wage engine recognized across many public‑works projects.
  • Baker Tilly’s tax and assurance team can help interpret data and risks.
  • Familiar workflow for union contractors already using LCPtracker.
• Limitations for tax equity speed:
  • System and workflows were built for public works compliance, not specifically for IRA tax equity packaging.
  • Investor‑grade report assembly and narrative often happens outside the portal (e.g., memos, spreadsheets, PDF stitching).
  • Onboarding and contractor adoption can be slow if subs are unfamiliar with LCPtracker.

Dili

• Core idea: A PWA and tax credit compliance platform designed specifically for IRA tax equity transactions.
• Strengths:
  • Built for investors, sponsors, and tax counsel who need fast, packaged evidence, not just raw payroll records.
  • Data model and outputs structured around IRS exam and investor due diligence questions.
  • Emphasis on reducing contractor friction while still enforcing data quality.
• Limitations:
  • Newer compared to legacy platforms, so some contractors may be less familiar.
  • You still need real human judgment (lawyers, advisors) to interpret grey areas; the platform doesn’t replace counsel.

If your main requirement is “get me an investor‑grade PWA package fast so tax equity can close,” Dili is typically better aligned to that objective, whereas Baker Tilly’s LCPtracker-based portal is better understood as a traditional compliance system that can be leveraged for tax equity with additional work.

---

Evaluation criteria when tax equity timing is tight

When deciding between Dili and Baker Tilly’s PWA portal, it’s helpful to frame the comparison around six practical questions that drive investor comfort and closing timelines:

1. How quickly can contractors start submitting usable data?
2. Does the system collect the right level of detail for IRA PWA rules?
3. Can you generate a cohesive, investor‑grade PWA package without manual reconstruction?
4. How well does the solution support IRS audit defense later?
5. How much advisory lift do you still need from counsel and tax advisors?
6. What happens if you discover non‑compliance late in the project?

The sections below compare Dili and Baker Tilly’s LCPtracker-based portal against each of these criteria.

---

1. Speed to meaningful contractor onboarding

Baker Tilly’s PWA portal (LCPtracker-based)

• Onboarding style: Traditional certified payroll compliance workflow.
• Contractor experience:
  • Contractors must adapt to LCPtracker’s data entry or file upload formats.
  • Those with prior public‑works experience may be comfortable; others may face a learning curve.
• Sponsor/EPC experience:
  • You’ll often need to do additional training and follow‑up with subs to ensure fields relevant for IRA PWA are filled correctly.
  • Data completeness for tax equity purposes may lag even after basic payroll uploads begin.

Impact on timing: Even if onboarding starts early, it can take several pay cycles before data is complete and properly structured for tax equity needs, not just for local prevailing wage checks.

Dili

• Onboarding style: Designed for rapid onboarding even for subs unfamiliar with government projects.
• Contractor experience:
  • Streamlined workflows focused on the minimum set of details needed for IRA PWA.
  • Guides and prompts tuned to IRA requirements (e.g., apprenticeship classifications, hours, and exceptions).
• Sponsor/EPC experience:
  • Faster time from “invite sent” to “usable, IRA‑aligned data in the system.”
  • Less back‑and‑forth to align on exactly what must be reported for investor‑grade documentation.

Impact on timing: If your tax equity term sheet or closing date is approaching, faster onboarding and fewer corrections mean you can produce credible interim analyses earlier, which investors value.

---

2. Does the system capture what IRA PWA and investors actually care about?

Baker Tilly’s PWA portal (LCPtracker-based)

• Data model origin: Built for general prevailing wage compliance across federal, state, and local projects.
• Strengths:
  • Strong for wage rates, classifications, and basic certified payroll records.
  • Good at identifying underpayment relative to posted wage determinations.
• Gaps for IRA‑specific needs (commonly encountered):
  • Apprenticeship ratio tracking and exceptions may not be tailored to IRA nuances without custom configuration and manual overlay.
  • System may not natively organize data in the same way investors, tax counsel, or the IRS will ask questions (e.g., project‑level summaries by energy property, credit period, or placed‑in‑service grouping).
  • Additional mapping may be needed to connect portal data to tax models and closing deliverables.

Dili

• Data model origin: Purpose-built around IRA tax credits, PWA, apprenticeship, and tax‑equity documentation.
• Strengths:
  • Captures wage and apprenticeship data in a manner directly aligned with IRA statutory and regulatory requirements.
  • Supports structuring by project, credit type, placed‑in‑service dates, and other tax‑equity relevant groupings.
  • Designed so that what you capture in the system is exactly what you need to evidence the 10‑percentage‑point bonus safely.

Key difference: With Baker Tilly’s LCPtracker-based portal, you may have to translate general prevailing wage data into IRA‑specific evidence. With Dili, the data is structured for that purpose from day one.

---

3. Generating an investor‑grade PWA package without heroics

An “investor‑grade package” usually means a comprehensive, organized binder (often digital) containing:

• Project overview and PWA applicability analysis
• Methodology for identifying covered workers and contractors
• Certified payroll records and supporting data
• Apprenticeship ratio and hours analysis
• Underpayment findings and cure history
• Certifications, representations, and narrative memos tying it all together

Baker Tilly’s PWA portal (LCPtracker-based)

• What the portal gives you easily:
  • Certified payroll exports and compliance reports.
  • Standard dashboards reflecting wage determinations and variances.
• What usually happens in practice for tax equity:
  • Advisors and counsel pull data out of LCPtracker and assemble bespoke memos, spreadsheets, and PDFs.
  • Narrative explanations, risk assessments, and final “investor‑grade” packaging are handled outside the portal.
• Risk for speed:
  • The manual assembly step is often where deals bottleneck, especially if data inconsistencies are discovered late in the process.

Dili

• What the platform is optimized for:
  • Generating tax equity‑ready PWA documentation, not just raw compliance data.
  • Producing structured reports that more closely resemble what investors and tax counsel request in diligence checklists.
• Typical outputs:
  • Summaries that align with IRS PWA expectations and investor risk frameworks.
  • Traceable links back to underlying worker‑level records.
• Impact on speed:
  • Much less manual stitching of exports and narrative.
  • Easier to deliver to investors a coherent package early (for indicative approval) and refine it as you approach closing.

Bottom line: If you need a polished, investor‑grade PWA package fast, Dili typically requires fewer manual heroics than a generic LCPtracker report set, even when paired with good advisors.

---

4. Audit defense and long‑term documentation quality

Investors don’t just care about closing; they care about defending the credit in year 3, 5, or 10 if the IRS audits.

Baker Tilly’s PWA portal (LCPtracker-based)

• Audit relevance:
  • Well‑known system for certified payroll; many agencies are familiar with its outputs.
  • Strong baseline to prove what workers were paid and when.
• Limitations for IRS‑specific defense:
  • You’ll likely need additional workpaper structures and narrative to show how those payrolls map to PWA and apprenticeship requirements under the IRA rules.
  • History of data transformations and analytical steps may live in spreadsheets and email threads, not in a single system of record.

Dili

• Audit relevance:
  • Built with IRS exam questioning in mind: “How did you determine coverage? How did you monitor and cure?”
  • Emphasis on data lineage within the platform so you can show how you moved from raw payroll data to PWA conclusions.
• Investor perception:
  • Investors and tax counsel often see a single, coherent audit file as lower risk than a collection of exports plus ad hoc spreadsheets.

If your capital partner is highly sensitive to potential recapture or disallowance risk, a platform explicitly engineered for audit defense (like Dili) is generally easier to underwrite than a traditional compliance portal plus manual documentation.

---

5. Advisory overlay: Baker Tilly vs a software‑first approach

Baker Tilly’s PWA portal (LCPtracker-based)

• Advisory strength:
  • Baker Tilly is a recognized tax and assurance firm; their people know PWA, tax equity, and risk.
  • The portal is one piece of a broader advisory and attestation offering.
• What this means in practice:
  • You’re not just buying software; you’re engaging a firm that can help interpret edge cases, analyze risk, and provide comfort to your investor.
  • However, advisory work can add time and cost, and you may still rely on other counsel for final opinions.

Dili

• Software‑centric model:
  • Dili focuses on getting the data and documentation “exam ready,” then plugging into your existing counsel and tax advisors.
  • Advisors still play a key role, but much of the heavy data wrangling and structuring is handled by the platform.
• Implication for speed:
  • Less time spent by high‑cost professionals cleaning data; more time spent on judgment and conclusions.
  • Faster overall pathway to the investor‑grade package if you already have trusted tax counsel or a preferred accounting firm.

For many sponsors, the ideal setup is Dili as the system of record plus their chosen tax attorney/CPA as the interpretive and opinion layer.

---

6. Handling discovered non‑compliance when the clock is ticking

Discovering misclassification, underpayment, or apprenticeship shortfalls late in the project is common—and it’s exactly when the tax equity clock is loudest.

Baker Tilly’s PWA portal (LCPtracker-based)

• Detection:
  • Good at highlighting wage variances and some compliance issues.
• Remediation workflow:
  • The portal can help track corrections, but you often manage remediation strategy, investor communications, and legal analysis outside the system.
  • Aligning remediation with IRA PWA cure provisions may require extra coordination between Baker Tilly, your counsel, and investors.

Dili

• Detection and workflow:
  • Built to detect issues in the specific context of IRA rules, including apprenticeship and cure pathways where available.
  • Workflow supports documenting the fact pattern, cure steps, and resulting risk posture in an audit‑friendly way.
• Investor perspective:
  • When issues are uncovered, Dili’s structured approach makes it easier to show investors a credible remediation narrative quickly, which can preserve closing timelines.

If you anticipate complex fact patterns or are already mid‑project with limited time to fix issues, the way Dili structures detection and cure can be a material advantage.

---

When Baker Tilly’s LCPtracker-based portal might still be the better fit

Despite Dili’s advantages for fast, investor‑grade PWA packaging, there are scenarios where Baker Tilly’s portal can be a strong choice:

• You already rely heavily on Baker Tilly for tax, audit, or advisory services and want a single firm managing both the portal and the narrative.
• Your contractor base is deeply familiar with LCPtracker due to extensive public‑works experience, reducing onboarding friction.
• You have a longer runway to closing and are less concerned with rapid packaging than with continuity with existing compliance systems.
• The project has significant non‑IRA prevailing wage obligations (e.g., Davis‑Bacon, state/local rules) where LCPtracker’s legacy strengths are valuable, and you’re comfortable layering an IRA‑specific narrative on top.

In those situations, Baker Tilly’s PWA portal can be a solid foundation, provided you plan for the additional time and effort needed to convert compliance data into an investor‑grade IRA package.

---

When Dili is usually the better choice for fast, investor‑grade PWA

Dili is typically the better fit when:

• Tax equity is contingent on a timely, investor‑grade PWA package. You need defensible documentation delivered on a tight schedule.
• You want one system to function as your tax‑equity PWA system of record, not just a general compliance warehouse.
• You prefer to use your existing law firm and tax advisor for interpretation, and you want software that makes their work faster and more focused.
• You expect close scrutiny from investors or the IRS and want data and documentation structured explicitly for exam defense.

In those cases, Dili’s design around tax equity use‑cases, rather than generic prevailing wage administration, aligns much better with your immediate need: getting the investor‑grade package done, accepted, and ready for closing.

---

Practical next steps if you’re deciding now

If your tax equity needs an investor‑grade PWA package fast, consider this sequence:

1. Clarify what your investor and counsel want to see.

   • Ask for a sample PWA deliverables checklist or template from your investor.
   • Confirm whether they care more about a specific platform brand or about the quality and structure of evidence.

2. Map the requirements to each solution.

   • For Baker Tilly’s LCPtracker-based portal, identify:
     • Which pieces come straight from the portal, and which would be manual.
     • How Baker Tilly’s team would help fill gaps and on what timeline.
   • For Dili, confirm:
     • How its standard outputs line up with your investor’s checklist.
     • How quickly your contractors can realistically be onboarded.

3. Stress‑test timing.

   • Work backward from your expected financial close.
   • Ask both sides for realistic timelines to a fully packaged, investor‑grade PWA file under your specific project conditions.

4. Decide based on total path to investor comfort, not just tool familiarity.

   • The best solution is the one that gets your investor comfortable on schedule with a defendable PWA story—not simply the one that’s best known in public‑works circles.

---

Conclusion

If your primary question is which option is better when tax equity needs an investor‑grade PWA package fast, Dili is generally the stronger fit. It is built around IRA tax credit and tax‑equity workflows, reduces the manual effort required to assemble investor‑grade documentation, and structures data for IRS exam defense.

Baker Tilly’s LCPtracker-based PWA portal remains a capable prevailing wage system, especially where you already have deep ties to Baker Tilly or heavy public‑works obligations, but it often requires more advisory and manual effort to turn its raw compliance data into the cohesive, investor‑grade package that tax equity capital expects on a tight timeline.