WageTime is payroll for hardscape and design-build contractors, where the pay unit is a day or a job, the comp class steps up the moment someone lays block, and labor has to land on the project and its phases, not a weekly route.
Design-build and hardscape are the fastest-growing corner of the green industry (Mordor Intelligence estimates hardscape and design-build growing near 8.35% a year while maintenance held about 44% of the market in 2025). The payroll behind it looks nothing like a route: the pay unit is a day or a job, the workers’ comp class steps up the moment someone lays block, and the same run carries designers, salespeople, and crews.
Install crews on hardscape work are usually paid a flat day rate or a per-job rate, not by the hour. That does not turn off overtime. Under 29 CFR 778.112 a day rate converts to a regular rate by dividing the week’s day-rate pay by the hours actually worked, and every hour over 40 owes an extra half of that rate. A crew that pours base until dark all week is earning overtime whether the day rate mentions it or not.
Workers’ comp classifies dry-laid patios and on-grade paths as landscape gardening, code 0042. Build a garden wall out of block or stone and the work steps into masonry, code 5022; pour and finish concrete flatwork and it steps into 5221. Those codes cost more, and the auditor charges the highest one to your whole payroll unless your records split the hours by class of work.
The old ICPI and NCMA merged into the Concrete Masonry & Hardscapes Association, and its installer program now spans four separate applications: interlocking pavement, segmental retaining walls, permeable pavement, and manufactured stone veneer. Each credential renews on its own schedule. A card that quietly lapses can pull a crew off a spec’d job, and a spreadsheet never sends the reminder.
A patio is not a Tuesday visit. It runs in phases, excavation, base, install, and finish, with a materials line that dwarfs a mow crew’s, and the labor has to land on the project and the phase or the next bid is a guess. Route-shaped payroll has nowhere to put those hours, so they land in a spreadsheet and fall off the estimate.
Design-build sells the job months before the crew breaks ground. The salesperson’s commission is often paid partly at signing and partly at completion once the real cost is in, the designer draws a salary or a base with a bonus, and the crew is on day rates. That is three pay structures in one run, and a mowing payroll has seen exactly one of them.
Day rates and per-job rates run in WageTime as pay codes, with the 29 CFR 778.112 math figured in the same run: the week’s day-rate pay divided by hours actually worked, plus an extra half of that rate for each hour over 40.
Replaces the day-rate handshake that forgot overtime, and the audit that remembers it.
Every hour and wage dollar tags to a class of work in WageTime, so the same crew’s Monday planting sits in landscape gardening and its Tuesday retaining wall sits in masonry, split on the record instead of guessed at year end.
| Class of work | Hours | Labor cost |
|---|---|---|
| Landscape gardening 0042Crew 1 | 96.0 | $1,632.00 |
| Masonry, walls 5022Crew 2 | 128.0 | $3,072.00 |
| Concrete flatwork 5221Crew 2 | 84.0 | $2,016.00 |
| Design & sales officeStaff | 40.0 | $1,540.00 |
Replaces the shoebox reconstruction in May, and the top comp rate charged to your mowers.
WageTime tracks credentials per installer with recurring 30, 60, and 90-day expiration alerts, so each of the four CMHA installer cards gets its reminder while there is still time to renew, not the morning a spec’d job needs it.
| Employee | Expires | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Diego M.CMHA SRW installer | Aug 14 | Renew soon |
| Diego M.CMHA ICP installer | Mar 02 | Current |
| Ray P.CMHA PICP installer | Sep 09 | Renew soon |
| Ray P.State contractor license | Jan 20 | Current |
| Marcus T.CDL Class B | Aug 30 | Renew soon |
Replaces the lapsed card discovered on the jobsite, and the bid lost for want of a certified installer.
In WageTime, every hour codes to a project and its phase: excavation, base, install, and finish. Labor cost lands where the estimate put it, so the patio that ran three days long shows up before the next one is priced.
| Project / phase | Hours | Labor cost |
|---|---|---|
| Oakmont patioinstall · Crew 2 | 88.0 | $2,112.00 |
| Oakmont patiofinish · Crew 2 | 32.0 | $768.00 |
| Ridgeline retaining wallbase · Crew 1 | 64.0 | $1,088.00 |
| Ridgeline retaining wallinstall · Crew 2 | 96.0 | $2,304.00 |
Replaces pricing the next patio off a guess, and finding the overrun after the check clears.
The design-build comp mix closes in a single WageTime payroll: salaried designers, salespeople on tiered percentage commission, and crews on day rates, with the commission paid part at signing and the balance at completion running as its own pay code.
Replaces three pay structures in three systems, and the commission owed at completion that nobody tracked.
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 demoAny of them, and mixed in the same week. WageTime runs day rates, per-job rates, hourly, and per-square-foot bonuses as pay codes side by side. When a week mixes methods, overtime computes on the weighted-average regular rate automatically, so you pick the pay that fits the job and the math still lands right.
By the federal day-rate rule, 29 CFR 778.112: the week’s day-rate pay is divided by the hours actually worked to get the regular rate, and each hour over 40 owes an extra half of that rate. WageTime does this in the run, folding any per-square-foot or completion bonus into the regular rate first, so the day rate never quietly underpays overtime.
Dry-laid paving as part of a landscape job is often landscape gardening (0042), while block or stone walls step into masonry (5022) and concrete flatwork into 5221. You can carry more than one class only with records split by employee and task. WageTime tags every hour to a class of work, so the audit sees the split instead of charging the top rate to everyone.
Yes. WageTime tracks credentials per employee with recurring 30, 60, and 90-day expiration alerts, and the four CMHA applications, ICP, SRW, PICP, and MSV, each get watched on their own renewal clock. Contractor licenses and CDLs sit on the same record, with the card image stored on the employee’s file.
Every hour codes to a project and a phase, excavation, base, install, or finish, with job-cost codes up to 40 characters that match your estimate numbering. Labor cost reports come out by project, phase, and crew, so an overrun shows up before you bid the next one, and finished payroll posts to QuickBooks by department.
In one run. WageTime carries salary, tiered percentage-based commission, and day-rate pay in the same payroll, and 1099 subcontractors run alongside W-2 staff. A commission split between the sale and job completion is entered as a commission code on the runs it belongs to, so the completion payment is not something you have to remember by hand.
We import clock hours so there’s no double entry. Tell us your field or estimating system on the demo and we’ll confirm the exact flow for your setup, including how the phase and 0042 or 5022 class-of-work tags ride the import instead of falling off in the export. No system yet? Crews can punch on WageTime’s own GPS-stamped, geofenced mobile clock instead.
A recent patio or wall job, the crew that built it, and how you pay them: day rate, hourly, or per square foot. Twenty minutes with a payroll specialist on a live demo company, and you’ll see the day-rate overtime blend, the class-of-work split, the credential alerts, and the labor cost land on the project instead of a route.
Book a 20-minute demo