A single store pays flat-rate techs, sales on draws, F&I on chargebacks, and hourly crew in the same run. WageTime runs the dealership pay run the way it actually works: every EIN in the group, one Friday.
These aren’t edge cases. They’re every period at every store, and every one is either hours of unpaid office work or a liability quietly compounding while nobody has time to check.
Gross commissions, unit minis, volume tiers, F&I chargebacks netting against draws: documented, approved, and keyed by hand before payroll can run. One sheet per salesperson, one dispute per sheet, one late night per month.
Warranty time flags tighter than customer-pay. A warranty-heavy period drags a tech’s effective rate toward the minimum-wage floor, and the top-up is owed whether or not anyone did the math. Right now the math lives in the controller’s head.
An ASE cert lapses, or a tech levels up mid-cycle. The flat-rate figure should move on the effective date. Instead it moves three paychecks later, as a retro adjustment and an argument at the parts counter.
Every period someone exports closed repair orders from CDK, Reynolds, Dealertrack, or Tekion and re-types the hours into payroll. Every re-typed number is a chance to short a flat-rate check, and a shorted flat-rate check is a dispute you’ll hear about all week.
Each rooftop is its own company with its own filings, and the group still closes payroll once, on the same day. Generic providers answer with four logins and a consolidation workbook the bookkeeper keeps by hand.
Volume bonuses that clear after the close, aged-unit spiffs, contest cash: they land mid-cycle, and the store still owes correct tax treatment and, often, a check this week, not at the next scheduled run.
The week generic payroll leaves you to survive alone becomes a WageTime screen: gross commissions, unit minis, volume tiers, and F&I chargeback netting calculate per person. You approve a number, not a stack of sheets.
Replaces the commission workbook, the deal-by-deal recheck, and the argument that starts with “my sheet says.”
Warranty time flags tighter than customer-pay, and a warranty-heavy stretch drags flat-rate earnings toward the minimum-wage floor. WageTime tests every tech against that floor each period and pays the difference on the run.
| Tech | Effective | True-up |
|---|---|---|
| R. Okafor #03$3,638.80 ÷ 74.5 hrs · 18% wty | $48.84 | - |
| D. Klein #07$2,786.00 ÷ 76.5 hrs · 26% wty | $36.42 | - |
| P. Nguyen #11$1,584.00 ÷ 70.0 hrs · 57% wty | $22.63 | - |
| L. Ferro #19$865.20 ÷ 68.0 hrs · 24% wty | $12.72 | $256.80 |
| M. Vega #21$576.00 ÷ 61.5 hrs · 61% wty | $9.37 | $438.75 |
Replaces the by-hand check the controller runs when there’s time, because the liability doesn’t wait for when there’s time.
ASE certs and manufacturer tiers gate a tech’s flat-rate figure. In WageTime, rates bind to certifications with effective dates: level up and the new rate starts on the right day.
| Tech | Rate rule | Status |
|---|---|---|
| R. Okafor #03Mstr+L1·L1exp Aug8→$38.00 Sep1 | $44.00/flag hr | At risk |
| D. Klein #07ASE Master · recert Mar 2027 | $35.00/flag hr | Current |
| P. Nguyen #11ASE A1-A5 · Master review done | $27.50 → $32.00/flag hr | Rate chg Aug 1 |
| L. Ferro #19ASE A1, A4 · two exams booked | $21.00/flag hr | Current |
Replaces the whiteboard of who’s Master and who’s due, and the retro-pay cleanup after a quiet lapse.
WageTime imports clock and flag hours so there’s no double entry: closed-RO flag time and time-clock hours land in one review screen, matched to the pay period and tied to the ROs they came from.
| Tech | Total flag | Status |
|---|---|---|
| R. Okafor #0374.5 clk · 66.8 CP · 14.2 wty | 81.0 | Ready |
| D. Klein #0776.5 clk · 58.2 CP · 21.4 wty | 79.6 | Ready |
| P. Nguyen #1170.0 clk · 24.1 CP · 33.5 wty | 57.6 | Ready |
| L. Ferro #1968.0 clk · 31.0 CP · 10.2 wty | 41.2 | 1 RO open |
| M. Vega #2161.5 clk · 12.5 CP · 19.5 wty | 32.0 | Ready |
Replaces the period-end export-reformat-retype ritual, and the two-week pay dispute that starts with one transposed digit.
Dealer groups hold each store as its own company: separate LLC, separate EIN, separate filings. WageTime treats that as the default: one login across the group, one pay day, reporting per store or combined.
| Company | Net pay | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Summit Auto Group LLCEIN ••-•••4821 · 62 paid | $214,380 | Ready |
| Summit Import Center LLCEIN ••-•••7702 · 38 paid | $131,240 | Ready |
| Summit Collision LLCEIN ••-•••1187 · 17 paid | $52,610 | Ready |
Replaces a payroll login per LLC, and the consolidation workbook that ties the group together every Friday.
Full-service payroll is $10 a month per person paid that month, plus $50 a month per company, with unlimited runs. No long-term contracts, no per-run charges.
Off-cycle runs and bonuses cost nothing extra. No long-term contracts; cancel anytime.
Example: 50 people paid × $10 + $50 company = $550 for the month
HR & hiring, onboarding, PTO, time tracking, benefits, and workers’ comp are optional add-ons, priced separately when you’re ready.
See a demoYes. That’s the month-end commission close. Gross commissions, unit minis, volume tiers, and F&I with chargeback netting calculate in the system, draw offsets apply against a running ledger, and any unreconciled deal rolls forward instead of holding the close hostage. Draws carry threshold flags, and recovery from a final paycheck is blocked where state law prohibits it. Bring one real month to the demo and watch it close.
Flat-rate earnings are divided by actual clock hours each period and tested against the wage floor; a warranty-heavy stretch that drags a tech below it becomes a documented true-up earning on the run, before the check goes out. Flag hours can carry two buckets (warranty and customer-pay) at their own rates, and cert-tied rates change on their effective date.
We import clock and flag hours so there’s no double entry; closed-RO flag time and time-clock hours land together, matched to the pay period. Finished payroll also posts to QuickBooks mapped by department. Tell us your DMS on the demo and we’ll confirm the exact flow for your setup.
One login, one pay day. Each rooftop runs under its own EIN with its own federal, state, and local filings, deposits included, and reporting comes per store or combined. Adding the next rooftop means adding a company, not adding a vendor, and the group approves once instead of closing three payrolls and a consolidation workbook.
Yes. The pay plans are the same shape (flat-rate service, commissioned sales, F&I, and hourly crew) whether you sell new, used, or both, and whether you run one lot or a group. Franchise cert ladders and warranty-time splits simply switch off when they don’t apply; the commission close, true-up, and multi-EIN group reporting don’t.
$50 per month per company, plus $10 per month per person paid that month. No long-term contracts, cancel anytime. The three-rooftop group in the screens above, 117 people paid, comes to $1,320 for the month: $150 in company bases plus $1,170 in per-person fees. Payroll runs are unlimited, so off-cycle spiff and final-check runs cost nothing extra, and year-end W-2s and 1099s are included, with 1099 contractors running alongside your W-2 employees.
Onboarding and migration are full-service: a specialist configures your entities, pay plans, and people with you instead of handing you a checklist. It’s paid work, not a “free migration” teaser, and we’ll scope the cost and timing on the demo. Support after go-live is real humans, around the clock, not a ticket queue.
Last month’s commission sheets, a warranty-heavy fortnight of flag hours, the cert list off the whiteboard. Twenty minutes with a payroll specialist on a live demo store: if WageTime can’t carry your comp plans, you’ll know before the meeting ends.
Book a 20-minute demo