SHOP PAYROLL · INDEPENDENTLY OWNED CHRISTIAN BROTHERS

Closed every weekend. In overtime by Thursday. WageTime runs the five-day week.

A Christian Brothers shop runs 7 to 6, Monday through Friday, so a flat-rate flag week stacks near fifty hours and trips overtime without a weekend shift. WageTime is payroll built for that five-day week, legible to an owner who never turned a wrench.

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

For independently owned and operated Christian Brothers Automotive® franchise businesses. WageTime is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Christian Brothers Automotive; those marks belong to their owners and are used here only to describe the businesses this page serves.

SOUND FAMILIAR?

The weekends are off. The overtime, the warranty, and the payroll are not.

A Christian Brothers shop runs full-service repair Monday through Friday, closed both weekend days so the team gets its evenings and Saturdays back. That schedule is a brand promise, and it is also a payroll shape generic products get wrong: a long five-day week that hits overtime fast, a 3-year warranty that brings cars and labor back, inspection-driven upsells that pay techs and advisors mid-cycle, and an owner running the business who never turned a wrench. Right now the flag math, the comeback call, and the owner’s own paycheck all live in a spreadsheet nobody reconciles until a check is short.

FIVE DAYS, STILL OVERTIME

A weekday-only shop clears forty fast

Christian Brothers stores run roughly 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday to Friday, closed on weekends. Ten paid hours a day across five days lands near fifty clock hours, so a flat-rate tech is in overtime by Thursday afternoon with no Saturday shift in sight. The dealership overtime exemption stops at the franchise line, so that premium is real, figured on the week’s blended rate, and today it is a spreadsheet guess.

THE OWNER ISN’T A WRENCH

Payroll can’t assume shop-floor fluency

Christian Brothers recruits owners from outside the trade: it reports that about 85% of its franchisees had no automotive experience before opening. The owner leads the business on a base salary and a general manager runs the bays. So the person approving payroll may not read a flag sheet fluently, and the software has to make the flat-rate math legible instead of assuming a mechanic is checking it.

THE 36,000-MILE PROMISE

Nationwide warranty, cross-country labor

The Nice Difference warranty runs 3 years or 36,000 miles, whichever comes last, and any Christian Brothers location honors it. So a comeback can land on your lift for a repair your store never sold, and the labor your tech reworks has to be paid here and charged back to the store that wrote the original ticket. Split that across a group of stores by hand and the cost settles in the wrong place, or nowhere at all.

THE INSPECTION WRITES THE TICKET

Photos in, spiffs out

Every visit gets a free digital courtesy inspection: the tech documents findings with firsthand photos, texts them over, and the advisor presents line items the customer approves one by one. The approved work pays the tech a spiff and the advisor a commission. Those are nondiscretionary dollars that raise the overtime rate, and shops typically batch them into next month or cut a side check.

THE GM’S DESK, THE OWNER’S DASHBOARD

Credentials, tools, and hours

The ASE test a tech just passed, the EPA 609 card, the state inspection license, the tool account a tech is paying down, and last week’s hours still parked in the shop system: at a Christian Brothers store the general manager works that desk while the owner watches the numbers from a chair that never held a torque wrench. Both need one system that tracks it, not a whiteboard the GM rebuilds every Monday.

Each of these gets a real product screen below, shown with sample Christian Brothers shop data.
01 · THE FIVE-DAY WEEK

Does a shop that’s closed on weekends still owe overtime?

Usually yes, and a Christian Brothers shop hits it faster than most: ten paid weekday hours stack near fifty by Friday, with no dealership exemption to lean on. WageTime blends every rate the tech earned into one weighted-average overtime figure automatically.

  • Flag jobs as per-unit codes; hourly shop time on its own code.
  • Minimum-wage processing at federal, state, and local levels.
  • No weekend or Sunday differentials to run on a closed-weekend shop.
  • Weekly Friday pay at no extra cost, because runs are unlimited.
app.wagetime.com/payroll/weekday-week

Weekday Week · Grant H. · Mon-Fri Jul 20-24

Per-unit flag payOT on weighted average
Ten paid hours a day, five days: 48.5 clock hrs, 8.5 of them overtime
Grant H. · flat-rate technician
Flag 42.0 hrs · $31.00$1,302.00
Shop time 6.5 hrs · $19.00$123.50
Earnings ÷ 48.5 clock hrs$1,425.50
Weighted-average rate$29.39 /hr
8.5 OT hrs at $14.69$124.90
Week gross$1,550.40
overtime on the weighted-average rateclears the wage floor on 48.5 weekday hours

Replaces the after-close spreadsheet that guesses at overtime, and the straight-time premium that shorts a fifty-hour weekday week.

02 · THE OPERATOR’S SEAT

How does a franchise owner who isn’t a mechanic run payroll?

Through WageTime’s role-based access, built for the Christian Brothers model: the general manager approves technician hours and the flat-rate week, the owner sees labor cost by store and signs off, and nobody has to read a flag sheet to trust the run.

  • The owner’s salaried W-2 pay runs in the same payroll.
  • Segregation of duties, configurable approvals, full audit logging with effective dating.
  • Each store its own EIN or a department under one, one login.
  • Labor reported per store or combined across the group.
app.wagetime.com/group/store-labor

Owner View · Cornerstone Auto Group · June

Role-based accessTaxes filed per EIN
StoreApproverPeople paidLabor MTD
Christian Brothers (North) EIN **-4417GM: Trevor K.11$47,900.00
Christian Brothers (West) EIN **-6620GM: Simone A.9$38,150.00
Owner salary (all stores)Owner: W-2 salaried1$5,000.00
Combined view2 stores, 2 EINs21$91,050.00
2 stores · 2 EINs · combined labor $91,050GM approves each store, owner approves the group

Replaces the second login for the owner’s own paycheck, and the pooled labor number a non-mechanic owner couldn’t read by store.

03 · THE 3-YEAR PROMISE

How do you pay a tech for a Nice Difference warranty comeback?

The comeback pays on its own WageTime pay code, keyed to the store that wrote the original ticket: a rework your store caused runs on a reduced policy-time rate, and one forced by a defective part earns full flag.

  • Warranty dollars land in the weighted-average overtime rate.
  • Job costing, cost codes up to 40 characters matched to your RO numbering.
  • Clock and flag hours imported, no re-key; exact flow confirmed on the demo.
app.wagetime.com/payroll/warranty-week

Warranty Week · Nadia P. · Mon-Fri Jul 20-24

Warranty pay codeCoded to originating store
LineBasisAmount
Flag hours (customer-pay ROs)38.0 hrs at $32.00$1,216.00
Warranty redo, defective part (full flag)2.0 hrs at $32.00$64.00
Warranty redo, policy time (own comeback)1.5 hrs at $17.00$25.50
Regular rate for overtime (all pay ÷ 46 clock hrs)$28.38 / hrincluded
Overtime premium (6 OT hrs at half the regular rate)6.0 hrs$85.14
$1,390.64 gross · warranty labor in the OT rateclears the wage floor on 46 hours

Replaces the warranty rework that got charged to the wrong store, and the comeback hour that never made it onto a check.

04 · THE INSPECTION PAYS OUT

How do digital courtesy inspection spiffs and advisor commissions run through payroll?

WageTime runs them as per-item pay codes tied to the lines the customer approved: because inspection-driven spiffs and advisor commissions are nondiscretionary, both fold into the weighted-average rate the overtime premium is figured on, not paid on base flag alone.

  • Advisor commissions on approved-labor gross through tiered structures.
  • In-cycle or off-cycle runs at no extra cost, every tax filed.
  • Each spiff maps to a photo-documented line the customer approved.
app.wagetime.com/payroll/inspection-run

Off-Cycle Run · Wed Jul 22

Off-cycle · no extra costSpiffs in the OT rate
PersonEarningBasisAmount
Bianca S. advisorCommissionapproved-labor gross tier 2$1,140.00
Grant H.Brake & rotor spiff6 jobs at $14.00$84.00
Nadia P.Suspension spiff4 jobs at $15.00$60.00
Colby R.Fluid-service spiff11 units at $5.00$55.00
$1,339.00 gross · nondiscretionary spiffs fold into the OT ratewithholding applied

Replaces the spiff dollars that waited for next month’s check, and the advisor commission argued from memory at close.

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

Christian Brothers Automotive franchise payroll FAQ

Does a Christian Brothers shop still owe overtime if it’s closed on weekends?

Usually yes. A 7-to-6 weekday schedule runs about ten paid hours a day, so five days stack near fifty clock hours and a flat-rate tech crosses forty by Thursday, no weekend shift required. The dealership overtime exemption stops at the franchise line, so WageTime computes the premium on the weighted-average regular rate whenever a tech works two or more rates in a week, automatically.

How can a franchise owner who isn’t a mechanic run this payroll?

Christian Brothers reports about 85% of its franchisees had no automotive experience, so WageTime makes the flat-rate math legible instead of assuming a mechanic is checking it. Role-based access lets a general manager approve technician hours and the flag week while the owner reviews labor cost by store and signs off. The owner’s own salaried pay runs in the same payroll.

How do you pay a tech for a Nice Difference warranty comeback?

A warranty comeback runs as its own pay line, coded to the store that sold the original job. A redo your store owns can run on a policy-time code; one caused by a defective part can run at full flag. Either way the dollars fold into the weighted-average overtime rate, and job costing pins the redo to the originating Christian Brothers location.

How do digital courtesy inspection spiffs run without breaking overtime?

The spiff a tech earns on approved inspection work is nondiscretionary, so it belongs in the regular rate the overtime premium is figured on. WageTime runs it as a per-item pay code, in-cycle or off-cycle at no extra cost, and folds it in instead of paying the over-forty hours on base flag alone. The advisor’s commission settles through tiered commission structures in the same run.

Who tracks ASE certs, tool accounts, and the hours in our shop system?

WageTime tracks ASE, EPA 609, and state inspection credentials on each employee record with recurring 30, 60, and 90-day expiration alerts, so a lapse never surprises a store mid-inspection. Tool accounts carry return tracking with paycheck deductions where state law permits, and the clock and flag hours your shop-management system already holds import without a second keying once you name the system on the demo.

What does payroll cost for a Christian Brothers store?

$50 a month for the company plus $10 per person actually paid that month: $160 for a ten-person store, with unlimited runs, so a weekly Friday close and a midweek spiff run cost nothing extra. Filings, W-2s, and 1099s are included. Run a second store as its own LLC? Each company keeps its own EIN, with one login and combined reporting.

Bring one weekday week.

Last week’s flag hours by tech, the courtesy-inspection spiffs beside them, and a warranty comeback or two. Twenty minutes with a payroll specialist on a live demo shop: you’ll watch a fifty-hour five-day week compute its own weighted-average overtime, see the minimum-wage check run, and get a straight answer on approving payroll as an owner who runs the business, not the bays.

Book a 20-minute demo