WageTime is payroll for independently owned and operated FirstLight Home Care offices, built for the weeks the wider service menu creates. A travel companion engagement pays line by line, wages split from reimbursements, overtime on the weighted average of every rate the week touched.
WageTime is an independent payroll provider serving independently owned and operated FirstLight Home Care franchise businesses. WageTime is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by FirstLight Home Care Franchising, LLC or Cornerstone Franchise Brands. All trademarks belong to their respective owners.
A FirstLight office sells a wider menu than most home care businesses, and every line of it lands on the same local payroll: the trip, the survey season, a royalty that waits for cash while wages never wait for anything.
Travel companion care puts a caregiver at the airport at six in the morning, beside the client through security, and in the next hotel room all weekend. Which hours are worked, which are sleep, what’s per diem, what’s a reimbursement? Somebody answers those questions before the plane boards, or payroll guesses after it lands.
FirstLight’s own franchising FAQ says the 5 percent royalty is calculated on revenues collected, not revenues billed. Caregivers, meanwhile, are paid for hours worked this week. Between those two clocks sits your checking account, funding wages weeks ahead of the cash that covers them.
FirstLight offices earned more than 222 Best of Home Care awards in 2026, and the surveys behind them never stop. Every celebration lands on payroll as something: a caregiver-of-the-month bonus, a referral payout, an anniversary check. Great culture. Now find the pay code it runs on.
The brand’s published numbers run from a median office near $1.2 million in revenue to a top office above $11 million. Same royalty, same programs, a payroll ten times the size. The office at either end needs the run to price and behave like it was built for exactly that roster.
The national careers site tells applicants that caregivers are paid for travel time between clients, reimbursed for mileage, and that offices offer weekly, biweekly, and sometimes daily pay. Recruiting copy lives on a brand page. The wage obligations live on your Friday payroll, one system down from the promise.
Pay the trip with codes, not guesses: care hours at their rates, differentials and per diem as their own pay codes, and airfare, hotel, and mileage reimbursed on the same check, separated from wages.
| Line | Rate | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Home visitsMon-Tue · 12.0 hrs | $17.00 | $204.00 |
| Trip care hoursThu-Sat · 32.0 hrs | $18.00 | $576.00 |
| Overnight differential2 nights · 8.0 hrs | +$2.50 | $20.00 |
| Per diem3 travel days · non-tax code | $55.00/day | $165.00 |
| Airfare & hotelReceipts on file | Reimbursement | $684.20 |
| Mileage46 mi to the airport | $0.725/mi | $33.35 |
Replaces the envelope of receipts on the scheduler’s desk, and the wage math nobody wanted to own.
FirstLight’s franchising FAQ states the 5 percent royalty is calculated monthly on revenues collected, not billed, while caregivers are paid for hours worked this week. WageTime puts the wage half of that gap in plain view: cash out by week, labor by client.
| Run | Net pay | Taxes & total |
|---|---|---|
| Fri Oct 1034 people paid | $23,410 | $29,882 |
| Fri Oct 1736 people paid | $24,655 | $31,395 |
| Fri Oct 2435 people paid | $23,980 | $30,562 |
| Fri Oct 3137 people paid | $25,240 | $32,177 |
Replaces the bank-balance archaeology at the end of a slow-collections month.
Recognition pay runs as pay codes in WageTime, so an award season is a bonus run, not a data-entry project: caregiver-of-the-month, referral, and retention milestones each land as a flat-amount code, paid the week they’re earned.
Replaces the gift cards bought on the office card because a real bonus felt like too much paperwork.
Delivering the advertised pay is configuration, not intentions: the brand’s careers site promises applicants travel-time pay, mileage reimbursement, and weekly, biweekly, and sometimes daily pay. In WageTime pay frequency is a setting, and hours import from your scheduler with no re-key.
| Caregiver | Travel hrs | Net pay |
|---|---|---|
| Dana R.Weekly cadence | 2.5 | $612.40 |
| Miguel A.Weekly cadence | 1.75 | $588.10 |
| June P.Biweekly cadence | 3.0 | $1,204.50 |
| Aisha K.Weekly cadence | 0.5 | $497.30 |
Replaces the recruiting ad that promised Friday and the back office that couldn’t afford to keep it.
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 demoCornerstone Franchise Brands, a franchise platform led by managing partners Bernard Markey and Bill Stewart, owns FirstLight Home Care; in February 2025 it added a majority stake in the home-repair franchise Surv. Glee McAnanly has been FirstLight’s CEO since June 2022. Jeff Bevis co-founded the brand in Cincinnati in 2010. Each office is independently owned and operated.
The franchisee does. All 238 US FirstLight units in the 2025 FDD, as reported by franchise trackers, are franchised and none are company-owned, so caregivers are employed by a franchisee’s business. That business carries the wage bill, the overtime, the filings, and the workers’ comp premiums; WageTime runs payroll for the office, not for corporate.
Split the check in two before you split the hours: taxable wages on one side (care hours, overnight and weekend differentials, the overtime premium) and reimbursements on the other (per diem per travel day, configurable as non-taxable, plus receipts). Overtime computes on the week’s weighted-average rate. Which round-the-clock hours count as worked time belongs with your employment counsel. Educational summary, not legal advice.
FirstLight’s franchising FAQ states a royalty of 5 percent of revenues, calculated monthly and based on revenues collected rather than billed. Fee terms change, so verify against the current FDD. The collections basis matters to payroll because wages go out on hours worked weeks before the matching cash arrives, which is why owners watch labor cash out by week.
FirstLight’s franchising site lists a $52,000 initial franchise fee (some trackers report $50,000), total investment of roughly $127,000-$219,000, and a $250,000 net-worth requirement. Its published earnings relay shows locations open over 13 months averaging $1,545,697 in gross revenue, median $1,195,409, with a top office above $11.25 million. Published figures, not offers or promises; verify against the current FDD.
Best of Home Care awards come from Activated Insights, FirstLight’s exclusive client-survey partner since January 2022; provider-level awards require an overall satisfaction score of 8.75 or higher, and FirstLight offices earned more than 222 of them in 2026. The payroll effect is the bonus rhythm: recognition, referral, and retention bonuses running as flat-amount pay codes with an audit trail.
$10 per person paid in a month, plus $50 for the company. Cadence changes nothing: weekly, biweekly, or semi-monthly runs, off-cycle bonus runs, and final checks are all included. Every federal, state, and local tax files automatically, with year-end W-2s and 1099s included, and there’s no long-term contract. Full-service onboarding and migration are paid, scoped on the demo.
One travel companion engagement, one award-season bonus list, and the week your collections ran slow. Twenty minutes with a payroll specialist on a live demo company: the trip paycheck line by line, the bonus codes, the cash-out view, and the invoice math for a roster your size.
Book a 20-minute demo