Freight brokers earn on gross margin, the spread between the shipper rate and the carrier cost, not on salary. WageTime is payroll for freight brokerages, built to settle broker commission the way the brokerage actually books it.
Freight brokers are paid on gross margin, the spread between the shipper rate and the carrier cost, not on the gross revenue most sales jobs pay against (industry brokerage guides, 2025-2026). A payroll system that only knows hours and salary cannot compute that, so the commission close moves to a spreadsheet, and the spreadsheet moves to Friday night.
A broker who books a $10,000 load and covers it for $3,000 did not earn commission on $10,000. The commission is a percentage of the $7,000 margin, and the percentage itself tiers with the rep's book: near 50/50 for a new hire, 60/40 mid-career, 70/30 for an agent with established shippers. Generic payroll has one field for a bonus and no idea what a margin is.
New brokers ramp for months, so most brokerages carry them on a draw: a recoverable advance paid now against commission earned later. The rep only truly earns above the accumulated draw, and the unrecovered balance rolls into next month. Run that in a spreadsheet across six reps and the running balances drift, and every disputed paycheck starts with “what's my draw at?”
The margin is booked the day the load delivers. The cash shows up on net-30, net-45, or net-60 terms, if it shows up at all. When a shipper stiffs the invoice, that commission was paid on money the brokerage never collected, and clawing it back by hand means finding which paycheck it rode out on.
In-house brokers are W-2: base salary plus a slice of margin. Independent agents are 1099, keeping most of the margin and working from a home office three states away. Come January that is W-2s from one system and 1099-NECs from another, plus a stack of state registrations for wherever the agents happen to live.
Every load's margin, every split, every draw offset, every chargeback, retyped into a workbook, reconciled by hand, then re-keyed a second time into a payroll system so the taxes come out right. Per-run pricing meters every one of those runs, and every retyped number is a commission dispute waiting to happen.
WageTime pays brokers on the margin they book: percentage-based comp settles through tiered commission structures, so the rate rides the rep's tier and applies to the spread, not the gross, and each commission run computes against booked margin automatically.
Replaces the margin workbook that gets retyped into a payroll system that only speaks salary.
A ramping rep gets carried on a draw-against-commission ledger with the running balance always in view: WageTime pays the recoverable advance out now, offsets it as commission comes in, and rolls the unrecovered remainder forward instead of letting it vanish into a spreadsheet cell.
| Month | Commission | Balance |
|---|---|---|
| Maydraw paid $3,500.00 | $1,900.00 | -$1,600.00 |
| Junedraw paid $3,500.00 | $2,800.00 | -$2,300.00 |
| Julydraw paid $3,500.00 | $4,100.00 | -$1,700.00 |
| Aug projecteddraw paid $3,500.00 · cleared | $5,200.00 | $0.00 |
Replaces the six-tab draw spreadsheet where the balances quietly stopped matching.
W-2 in-house brokers and 1099 independent agents run as one payroll on WageTime: full withholding on the employee side, contractor setup with W-9 collection on the agent side, and year-end W-2s and 1099s both included.
| Worker | Net pay | Type |
|---|---|---|
| Dana R.Work state IL | $9,214.60 | W-2 broker |
| Marcus T.Work state IL | $8,640.12 | W-2 broker |
| Coastline Freight Agents LLCHome office TX | $18,900.00 | 1099 agent |
| J. OkaforHome office OH | $7,450.00 | 1099 agent |
Replaces the W-2 payroll and the 1099 agent book kept as two systems that only meet at year-end.
When a booked load is never collected, WageTime nets a commission chargeback against the rep's next commission run, so the reversal follows the same rep and the same ledger instead of a manual clawback hunt. Credit policy stays yours; the netting mechanism is automatic.
| Rep | Amount | Item |
|---|---|---|
| Marcus T.Load #88214 · shipper net-60 | -$1,840.00 | Chargeback |
| Marcus T.August comm · booked margin | $11,460.00 | Commission |
| Dana R.Load #87990 · invoice paid | $2,210.00 | Hold released |
| Priya N.No adjustments this run | $0.00 | Current |
Replaces the clawback you tracked down by hand across three old 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 demoFreight brokers are paid on gross margin, the shipper rate minus the carrier cost, not on gross revenue. WageTime settles that as percentage-based comp through tiered commission structures, so each rep's rate rides their tier and applies to the booked margin, with base salary running as its own pay type on the same W-2 check.
Yes. WageTime carries a ramping rep on a draw-against-commission ledger with the running balance shown: the advance pays out now, earned commission offsets it as it arrives, and any unrecovered draw rolls forward to the next month. Threshold flags surface a rep who has stayed under water too long.
Yes. In-house W-2 brokers run with full withholding and 1099 independent agents run as contractors with W-9 collection, both in one run, with W-2s and 1099s included at year-end. Classifying a broker as W-2 or an agent as 1099 is your call with your attorney; WageTime runs both from one system so the agent book is not a second payroll.
Freight agents usually work from home offices, so tax setup follows each agent's work state, with withholding overrides, reciprocity, and effective-dated setup across all 50 states plus Puerto Rico and 11,000+ local jurisdictions. When an agent relocates, the change is effective-dated so the old state stops and the new state starts cleanly.
WageTime nets a commission chargeback against the rep's next commission run, so a reversal stays on the same ledger and is dated and logged rather than clawed back by hand. Whether you hold commission until a net-30/45/60 invoice clears or reverse a paid one on default is your credit policy; WageTime carries the mechanism.
$50 a month for the company plus $10 for each person actually paid that month, with unlimited runs. A commission close often needs a same-day correction after a dispute or a late chargeback; that correction run is free, not a second bill. Whether the sales floor is 8 reps or 20, the plan scales by headcount paid, not by how many times you run it that month.
Last month's commission workbook, your tier splits, and a draw or two in progress. In twenty minutes on a live demo company, a payroll specialist will build a margin-based commission run, show the draw ledger recovering, and put a W-2 broker and a 1099 agent in the same register.
Book a 20-minute demo