WageTime is payroll for independently owned BrightStar Care agencies, the network that has required every agency to pursue Joint Commission accreditation since 2010. One run pays aides, per-visit nurses, and staffing shifts, with credential records a surveyor can read.
For independently owned and operated BrightStar Care® franchised agencies. WageTime is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by BrightStar Franchising, LLC, BrightStar Group Holdings, Inc., or Peak Rock Capital. All trademarks belong to their respective owners.
A BrightStar Care agency holds itself to a hospital-grade standard: an RN behind every plan of care, a surveyor allowed into the files. Then the week ends, and payroll happens the way it happens everywhere: late, manual, and on trust.
BrightStar has required every agency to pursue Joint Commission accreditation since 2010, the first national home care brand to do so. Accreditation lives or dies on files: the RN license, the CNA certificate, the CPR card, the competency training, each current and each provable. A binder that was accurate in March is a finding in September.
The franchise model markets five revenue streams: companion care, personal care, skilled care, medical staffing, and national accounts. On the payroll side that reads as five kinds of pay: aide hours at two rates, per-visit nurse fees, facility shifts with weekend differentials, and a Director of Nursing salary, all owed one correct Friday.
Published FDD analyses describe a royalty of 5.25 percent of monthly Net Billings from local business and 6.25 percent on National Accounts work, plus a technology fee that reads the prior month’s billings. Two fee rates on one week of labor means margin depends on which stream the hours belong to. Generic payroll can’t say.
Caregivers clock in and out through the Athena Business System, the brand’s own platform for scheduling, billing, and clinical records. What ABS doesn’t take off your desk: the paychecks, the payroll tax deposits, and the W-2s, which all issue under your company’s EIN. Between the punch and the paycheck sits somebody’s Thursday.
Per the 2025 FDD, first franchised locations open 12 or more months averaged $2,432,014 in 2024 revenue across 190 locations, with a median around $2 million. Revenue like that is headcount: dozens of caregivers, several pay bases, and a mixed week wherever skilled care meets staffing shifts.
Personnel records, first and constantly: licenses current, competencies documented, training on file. WageTime keeps that shelf stocked as a side effect of running payroll, every license and credential on the employee record with its document attached.
| Employee | Expires | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Adaeze N., RN (DON)RN license | May 2027 | Verified |
| Bill T., CNACNA certificate | Feb 2027 | Current |
| Carmen V., RNCPR certification | Aug 19 | 30-day alert |
| Dre H., aideTB test | Dec 2026 | Current |
| Elena S., aideCompetency training | Renews Mar 2027 | Completed |
Replaces the credential binder that goes quietly stale between surveys.
With a pay code per kind of work, in one WageTime payroll: companion and personal care hours at hourly rates, skilled visits as per-unit fees, staffing shifts with their differentials, LPN day rates, and the Director of Nursing’s salary in the same run.
Replaces the spreadsheet that paid a skilled-care agency like a companion-care one.
By coding every hour and wage dollar to its stream and client, then letting WageTime’s reports answer. With two royalty rates on Net Billings plus a technology fee keyed to billings, margin math runs per stream, and labor is the biggest number in it.
| Stream | Labor | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Personal care2,412.0 hours | $41,004.00 | 46% |
| Companion care1,186.0 hours | $18,976.00 | 21% |
| Skilled visits402 visits | $16,884.00 | 19% |
| Facility staffing512.0 hours | $9,728.00 | 11% |
| Office & clinical admin168.0 hours | $2,706.00 | 3% |
Replaces the month-end debate about which line of business actually made money.
Through an import on your side of the franchise line: we import clock and visit hours with no double entry (exact flow confirmed on the demo), and WageTime does the employer half: payroll, every tax filed under your EIN, W-2s at year end.
Replaces the Thursday retype between the brand’s system and the paychecks.
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 demoAn affiliate of Peak Rock Capital, a private equity firm, completed its acquisition of BrightStar Group Holdings, Inc. in March 2025, in partnership with founder Shelly Sun Berkowitz, who moved to executive chairwoman; Andrew Ray became CEO in 2024. The agencies themselves remain independently owned and operated franchises. Educational summary as of mid-2026.
For the local agency, which is independently owned and operated. Brand materials state that caregivers and nurses are employees rather than independent contractors, screened, bonded, and insured, and franchise job postings hire into the local franchise company. Wages, payroll tax deposits, and year-end W-2s all run under that company’s EIN: yours.
No. ABS is the brand’s operations platform: brand materials describe scheduling, billing, clinical data capture, and caregiver time and attendance. The employer obligations stay with your company, so paychecks, tax deposits, and W-2s issue under your EIN. WageTime covers that half: we import clock and visit hours so there’s no double entry, and we’ll confirm the exact flow for your setup on the demo.
Surveys check that the people in clients’ homes are provably qualified: current licenses, documented competencies, completed training. WageTime keeps those records where payroll already lives: credentials with documents attached and 30/60/90-day expiration alerts, training completions in the learning module, and full audit logging with effective dating behind every change, exportable when the survey starts.
Yes, in one run. Skilled visits run as per-unit pay codes with a different fee per visit type, LPN days can run as flat day rates, staffing shifts carry their differentials, and aide hours run at hourly rates. A week that crosses rates computes overtime on the weighted-average regular rate automatically. Whether a clinician is overtime-exempt is for your employment counsel; the payroll math works either way.
$50 per month per company plus $10 per person paid that month, with unlimited runs. Weekly pay day, off-cycle runs, and final checks are included, and every federal, state, and local tax files automatically with year-end W-2s and 1099s. Onboarding and migration are full-service and paid, scoped on the demo. No long-term contracts; cancel anytime.
Twenty minutes with a payroll specialist on a live demo company. We’ll load a week that looks like yours (an aide on two rates, a nurse on visit fees, a weekend staffing shift), let the weighted-average overtime do its work, then open the credential screen a surveyor would want and the labor-by-stream report your fee math wants.
Book a 20-minute demo