FRANCHISE PAYROLL · INDEPENDENTLY OWNED BIG O TIRES

Free for the life of the tire. Not free to pay. WageTime pays those hours.

A Big O store gives away rotations, rebalances, and flat repairs for the life of the tire: real labor at zero on the ticket that still owes overtime and minimum wage. WageTime is payroll built to pay the lifetime promise.

Built on infrastructure processing $35B+ in payroll & taxes · 2.8M+ employees paid

For independently owned and operated Big O Tires® franchise businesses. WageTime is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Big O Tires, LLC or TBC Corporation; those marks belong to their owners and are used here only to describe the businesses this page serves.

SOUND FAMILIAR?

The promise that sells the tire is the labor a generic payroll never accounts for.

Big O has roughly 460 franchised stores across two dozen states, most run by an owner and one office manager who close out payroll after the last alignment. The hard part is not the hours on the board. It is that a store gives away rotations, rebalances, and flat repairs for life, spiffs protection plans and financing at the counter, and steps techs up a cert ladder, all under overtime and wage-floor rules that do not care whether the ticket was billed.

THE WORK YOU GIVE AWAY

Free-for-life service is real labor at zero on the ticket

Rotate and rebalance every 5,000 miles for the life of the tire, repair the flat you sold for free, check the alignment on every install. That is the promise that moves Big O brand tires, and it is a standing pile of bay hours that bills nothing. The tech still gets paid, the hours still count toward overtime, and the week still has to average minimum wage. On a production plan, that is exactly the math a spreadsheet drops.

A COUNTER AND A BAY

Two pay languages, one Friday

Up front the counter sells tires, protection plans, and financing on commission and spiff. Out back the bay installs and repairs on an hourly base plus flat-rate service work. Those two comp worlds close out on the same Friday, and the office is left stitching protection-plan attach, financing bonuses, and flag hours together by hand before every run. One store, two pay languages, no translator.

THE ATTACH THAT NEVER HIT THE RATE

The quietest line an audit recalculates

Pay a Pro-tec+ plan spiff, a Big O credit-card financing bonus, or an alignment-bundle commission straight, and you have booked a nondiscretionary earning that never reached the overtime rate. Each one lifts the regular rate for the week it lands, so a straight payout underpays every hour past forty. It is the quietest line on the check, and the first one a wage-hour audit recalculates.

THE ASE LADDER

Pay tiers gated on certifications you pay to earn

Big O pays for the training and the ASE certification, and moving up to advanced technician takes a minimum of two ASE certs. So the raise is tied to a credential, the training hours are tied to a completion record, and the whole ladder lives on a whiteboard until someone notices a tech qualified two months ago and was underpaid the whole time.

460 STORES, ONE OWNER'S SHARE

Labor by store, not in a pile

Big O grows on area developers and multi-unit operators inside the TBC network, so one owner runs three, six, or a dozen stores. Labor cost per store is the number that steers each one, and a store manager should approve their store and no one else's. Generic payroll hands you one pooled figure and a login everybody shares.

Each of these gets a real product screen below, shown with sample Big O store data.
01 · FREE-SERVICE HOURS

How do we pay technicians for free-for-life rotations, rebalances, and flat repairs?

Free-for-life work gets its own WageTime pay code: the labor behind the lifetime promise lands on the check even though the ticket reads zero, hourly or per-unit at the tech's rate, right beside billed flag work in the same run.

  • Billed flag hours and free-service hours in one weighted-average overtime rate.
  • Minimum-wage floor tested on actual clock hours, not billed hours.
  • Unlimited runs, so weekly pay costs nothing extra.
app.wagetime.com/payroll/free-service-week

Service Week · Andre C. · Jul 6-12

Free-service paidOT on weighted average
Free-service rotations, flat repairs, and alignment checks paid at the tech's rate beside billed flag work
Andre C. · flat-rate technician
Billed flag 26.0 @ $28.00$728.00
Free service 14.5 @ $22.00$319.00
Shop time 4.0 @ $18.00$72.00
Straight time · 44.0 hrs$1,119.00
Regular rate ÷ 44 hrs$25.43/hr
OT premium 4.0 @ $12.72$50.86
Gross pay$1,169.86
free-service hours paid and in the OT rate · 4 OT hrs at half the weighted rateclears the wage floor on all 44 hours

Replaces the give-away hours nobody put on the check, and the overtime rate that ignored them.

02 · ATTACH INTO THE RATE

How do protection-plan, brand-tire, and financing commissions get paid without becoming back overtime?

By folding every non-discretionary counter commission into the overtime regular rate before the premium is figured, WageTime keeps the attach that sells the ticket from becoming back wages in an audit.

  • Protection-plan spiffs and financing bonuses as pay codes, into the OT rate.
  • Brand-tire and service commissions through tiered commission structures.
  • Off-cycle attach and contest runs at no extra cost, withholding applied.
  • Retail-exempt salespeople handled to the rule you and your counsel set.
app.wagetime.com/payroll/attach-run

Attach Commissions · Sales + Bay · Jul 6-12

Commission in the OT rate1 exemption to review
PersonEarningBasisOT treatment
Rosa M. salesProtection-plan spiff18 plans at $6.00Into regular rate
Dev P. salesBrand-tire commissiontire gross tier 2Retail-exempt, review
Cody R. salesFinancing-attach bonus$75 flat this weekInto regular rate
Nina T. installerHourly + service commission42.0 clock hrsOT on weighted average
4 people · every non-exempt commission in the overtime rate$283.00 attach reconciled to the run

Replaces the protection-plan reconciliation done by hand, and the attach commission nobody put in the overtime rate until an auditor did.

03 · THE CERT LADDER

How do we track the ASE training we pay for and step pay when a tech qualifies?

WageTime binds the raise to the credential: the ASE training you pay for tracks as a completion record, and a tech who earns the certs is paid the higher tier the day they qualify, not when the office catches up.

  • Every ASE credential with recurring 30/60/90-day expiration alerts.
  • Cert-gated pay tiers bound to the credential with an effective date.
  • Paid training hours run as hourly time in the same run.
  • Self-service app shows each tech where they stand on the ladder.
app.wagetime.com/hr/cert-ladder

Certification Ladder · Service Team

Training tracked1 promotion effective
TechASE certsTrainingPay tier
Andre C.A4 Steering + A5 BrakesCompleteAdvanced, effective Jul 1
Nina T.A5 BrakesIn progressGeneral service
Cody R.A1 Engine + A4 + A6CompleteAdvanced, current
Sam W.none yetA5 course assignedLube tech
9 credentials tracked · training completion on the recordtiers bound to certs with effective dates

Replaces the cert ladder on a whiteboard, and the raise that started two months after the tech qualified.

04 · STORES UNDER ONE ROOF

Can I run several Big O stores from one login and see labor by store?

Yes: WageTime runs each store as its own EIN, or each a department under one, with one login across all of them and labor reported per store or combined, so the number that steers the business stops arriving as one pooled figure.

  • Role-based access: store, territory, and owner each see their scope.
  • Taxes filed per entity: 50 states, Puerto Rico, 11,000-plus local jurisdictions.
  • Department-level controls with division-level overrides keep the group consistent.
app.wagetime.com/group/store-labor

Store Group · High Desert Tire Partners · June

3 stores · 1 loginTaxes filed per EIN
StoreEINPeople paidLabor MTD
Store 214 Reno NV**-771011$28,940.00
Store 219 Sparks NV**-77109$23,410.00
Store 231 Carson City NV**-40858$20,120.00
Combined view2 EINs28$72,470.00
3 stores · 2 EINs · combined labor $72,470role-based access per store

Replaces the pooled labor figure that hid the slow store, and the single login every manager shared.

05 · HOURS AND THE BACK OFFICE

What happens to the hours your store system logs, and who handles the rest of the desk?

Your store system’s clock and flag hours import straight into WageTime, no double entry between the shop and the check, with the exact flow for your setup confirmed on the demo. The rest of the desk rides along.

  • Hours coded to jobs, cost codes up to 40 characters matched to your tickets.
  • QuickBooks posting by department, plus configurable GL export.
  • Tool-account deductions where state law permits; garnishments end to end, ACH remittance.
  • Self-service portal and app for paystubs, W-2s, and PTO.
app.wagetime.com/time/store-import

Hours Import · Store 214 · Jul 6-12

Hours imported1 ticket open
TechClock hrsFlag hrsStatus
Andre C. TK-447144.026.0Ready
Nina T. TK-448842.031.5Ready
Cody R. TK-449040.022.8Ready
Sam W. TK-449538.512.01 ticket open
4 techs · 164.5 clock hrs · 92.3 flag hrs0 hours re-keyed

Replaces the export-reformat-retype ritual between the store system and the check, and the tool-account ledger in the drawer.

PRICING

Simple payroll pricing. No surprises.

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.

  • Full-service payroll, unlimited runs
  • Federal, state & local tax filing
  • Year-end W-2s & 1099s
  • Direct deposit, checks & pay cards
  • Contractor payments & filings
  • Off-cycle runs & bonuses, no extra fee
  • Employee paystubs & W-2 access
  • QuickBooks integration
$10/mo per person paid
+ $50/mo per company

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 demo
THE INFRASTRUCTURE BEHIND WAGETIME
$35B+
in payroll & taxes paid
2.8M+
employees paid
4.3M+
W-2s & 1099s filed
100%
of tax filings automated

Big O Tires franchise payroll FAQ

Do we have to pay technicians for free-for-life rotations, rebalances, and flat repairs?

Yes. Free-service work bills nothing to the customer, but it is real labor the tech performs, so it is paid time that counts toward hours worked, the minimum-wage floor, and overtime. WageTime runs free-service work as its own pay code beside billed flag work, so the labor behind the lifetime promise is on the check and in the weighted-average overtime rate.

How does a flat-rate tech clear minimum wage in a week full of free-service work?

Earnings still have to average at least minimum wage across all hours actually worked that week. WageTime runs minimum-wage processing at federal, state, and local levels against real clock hours, so a week heavy on give-away rotations and repairs gets caught by the system instead of by an auditor. When free-service and billed hours mix, overtime computes on the weighted-average regular rate automatically.

Can WageTime pay commission on tire sales, protection plans, and financing?

Yes. Protection-plan spiffs run as per-unit pay codes, brand-tire and service commissions settle through tiered commission structures, and a financing-attach bonus runs as a flat-amount code. For non-exempt staff, each non-discretionary commission folds into the weighted-average overtime rate. Off-cycle attach and contest runs cost nothing extra, with withholding applied and every tax filed automatically.

How do we track the ASE training we pay for and the pay tiers tied to it?

The paid training assigns and tracks as a completion record on each tech's file, and every ASE credential sits on the record with recurring 30, 60, and 90-day expiration alerts. When a pay tier is gated on a cert count, the rate binds to the credential with an effective date, so the raise starts the day the tech qualifies rather than whenever the office catches up.

We own several Big O Tires stores. Can we run them under one login?

Yes. Run each store as its own EIN or as a department under one, with one login across the group and labor reported per store or combined. Role-based access lets a store manager approve their store, an area developer see their territory, and the owner see everything, while WageTime files each entity's taxes separately across all 50 states plus local jurisdictions.

What does payroll cost for a Big O Tires store?

$50 a month for the company plus $10 per person actually paid that month, with unlimited runs, so weekly pay and off-cycle attach runs cost nothing extra. Filings, W-2s, and 1099s are included. Run several stores as separate LLCs? Each keeps its own EIN, with one login and reporting per store or combined.

Bring one free-service week and your attach sheet.

Last week's billed flag hours by tech, the free-service hours beside them, and your protection-plan and financing commissions. Twenty minutes with a payroll specialist on a live demo store: you'll watch free-service labor land on the check and in the overtime rate, see the minimum-wage floor run on real hours, and get a straight answer on stepping a tech up the cert ladder the day they qualify.

Book a 20-minute demo