DEALER PAYROLL · HONDA & ACURA STORES

Two cert clocks, a recon lane, and a survey bonus — none of them fit a normal pay run. WageTime was built to run them.

A Honda service department pays on machinery generic payroll never sees. A STEP flat rate that can’t move until a tech finishes an in-person PDC lab. A high-voltage EV credential that expires on its own two-to-three-year clock. HondaTrue recon flag hours that pay a tech but bill no customer. CSI-survey bonuses that land after the calendar closed. WageTime carries every one of them — across each Honda and Acura EIN, on one Friday.

Built on infrastructure processing $30B+ in payroll & taxes · 1.5M+ employees paid

WageTime serves independently owned and operated dealerships. WageTime is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by American Honda Motor Co., Honda, or Acura. All trademarks belong to their respective owners.

SOUND FAMILIAR?

Honda pay isn’t hard because it’s big. It’s hard because four mechanics run on their own clocks.

A STEP rate waits on a lab seat. An EV credential expires early. Recon hours pay nobody’s customer. Survey money lands off-calendar. Each one is tracked on a sticky note today, and each one is either unpaid office time or a quiet liability.

PDC BACKLOG

The STEP raise is stuck behind a lab that hasn’t opened

A tech finishes the HondaPro online courses, but the flat-rate bump doesn’t come until the hands-on instructor-led lab at a Honda Professional Development Center. Move the rate on the enrollment and you overpay; move it late and you owe retro. The trigger is the lab date, and it lives on a whiteboard.

THE HV CLOCK

The high-voltage credential expires faster than anyone tracks

Prologue and Acura ZDX work needs a current high-voltage safety certification, and that credential renews every two to three years — well ahead of the roughly five-year ASE cycle. Miss the date and the tech shouldn’t touch an electrified powertrain, yet the EV pay premium keeps paying until someone notices.

RECON GHOST HOURS

HondaTrue flag time pays the tech and bills no one

Certifying a HondaTrue used car means a 182-point reconditioning pass, and every flagged hour pays a tech at flat rate. There’s no customer to invoice and no warranty claim to file — so the hours get hand-coded to the used lot, or they get missed.

SURVEY MONEY

CSI and President’s Award bonuses ignore your pay calendar

Customer-satisfaction scores and President’s Award criteria post after the period closes. The store still owes advisors and techs their spiff this week, taxed as a bonus, not folded into next month’s regular check where it’s already too late.

TIGHT FACTORY TIMES

Short warranty, assembly-line labor times, dragged rates

Honda’s basic coverage is 3 years / 36,000 miles, powertrain 5/60 — so warranty work concentrates in a car’s first years. Warranty pays factory assembly-line times that run tighter than customer-pay, and a warranty-heavy fortnight quietly drags a flat-rate tech toward the wage floor.

Each of these gets a real product screen below, shown with sample store data. The commission close and multi-EIN group get straight answers in the FAQ.

01
PDC-GATED STEP

The raise starts on the lab date, not the login.

WageTime binds a Honda tech’s flat rate to the STEP level with an effective date you set to the PDC lab — not the online enrollment. Finishing the HondaPro coursework queues the change; the higher rate turns on the day the instructor-led lab is signed off. Express to Technician to Master, the raise lands once, on the right day, with no retro cleanup and no early overpay.

app.wagetime.com/service/step-progression

STEP Progression · Service Dept

1 rate held for the PDC lab1 change dated to lab sign-off
Online HondaPro courses complete does not change the rate — the flat rate moves on the PDC instructor-led lab date
TechSTEP levelRate changePDC labStatus
A. Okonkwo · #05Technician → Master$28.00 → $37.00/flag hrOnline done · ILT lab Aug 12Held at $28 until lab
L. Byrd · #09Master Technician$37.00/flag hrRecert currentCurrent
R. Cho · #12Express → Technician$21.00 → $28.00/flag hrLab signed off Jul 2Effective Jul 2
D. Mensah · #17Technician · PACT grad$26.00/flag hrTwo labs bookedCurrent
Effective date tracks the PDC lab, not the online enrollmentno retro pay to unwind

Replaces the whiteboard of who passed which lab — and the retro adjustment after a rate moved on the wrong date.

02
THE HV CREDENTIAL

The EV premium stops the day the certification does.

WageTime tracks each tech’s high-voltage safety certification as a rate rule with an expiry date. The EV pay premium is tied to a current credential, so it turns off automatically on the expiry — and the lapse is flagged thirty days out, in dollars, so the shop can move electrified work off that tech before pay is ever exposed. It renews far faster than an ASE cert, so it’s watched on a tighter cadence.

app.wagetime.com/service/hv-credential

High-Voltage Safety Certification

1 credential expires in 24 daysEV premium at risk
HV safety certification renews every ~2–3 years, faster than the ~5-year ASE cycle — the $6.00/flag-hr EV premium is tied to a current credential
TechHV credentialRenewsEV premiumStatus
L. Byrd · #09CurrentRenews Mar 2027+$6.00/flag hrActive
A. Okonkwo · #05Expires Aug 824 days out+$6.00/flag hrRenew now
R. Cho · #12Not heldClass booked SepNo EV pay
D. Mensah · #17CurrentRenews Nov 2026+$6.00/flag hrActive
Premium stops on the expiry dateflagged 30 days out so EV work moves before pay is exposed

Replaces the calendar reminder nobody set — and an EV premium that paid on for weeks after the credential lapsed.

03
HONDATRUE RECON HOURS

Flag time that pays the tech and posts to the used lot.

WageTime pays HondaTrue 182-point reconditioning flag hours as flat-rate time and posts them to the used-vehicle department in QuickBooks — no customer invoice, no warranty claim. The imported closed-RO hours land per tech at their own flat rate, and the finished run maps the labor cost to the used lot instead of leaving it hand-coded or lost between the service drive and the sales side.

app.wagetime.com/service/cpo-recon

HondaTrue Recon Flag Hours · June

Posts to Used Vehicles deptNot a warranty claim
182-point HondaTrue recon pays the tech at flat rate but bills no customer — the flag hours post to the used-lot department
Unit / RORecon flag hrsTechFlat payPosts to
2022 CR‑V · RO #614023.4L. Byrd #09$125.80Used Vehicles
2021 Accord · RO #614552.1D. Mensah #17$54.60Used Vehicles
2023 Pilot · RO #614784.6A. Okonkwo #05$128.80Used Vehicles
2020 Civic · RO #615031.8R. Cho #12$37.80Used Vehicles
11.9 recon flag hrs · posted to Used Vehicles, no customer billed$347.00 to techs

Replaces the used-lot labor line the bookkeeper reconstructs by hand — and the recon hours that never made it onto a check.

04
SURVEY-TIED BONUSES

CSI money paid off-calendar, taxed right.

WageTime pays CSI and President’s Award bonuses on an off-cycle run at no extra cost, taxed as supplemental wages, the week the scores land. Customer-satisfaction results and award criteria post after the pay calendar has closed; instead of waiting for the next scheduled check or fudging the tax, you cut the spiff now, per advisor or tech, with every federal, state, and local tax filed automatically.

app.wagetime.com/payroll/off-cycle

Off-Cycle Bonus Run · CSI Q2

Off-cycle run · no extra costSupplemental tax applied
CSI / President’s Award scores posted after the calendar closed — paid this week, taxed as a supplemental bonus
EmployeeRoleMetric hitBonusTax
T. AlvarezService advisorCSE 96.2 · tier cleared$800.00Supplemental
L. Byrd #09Master techService retention 92%$500.00Supplemental
M. SatoService advisorCSE 94.8 · tier cleared$650.00Supplemental
P. OkoyeService managerPresident’s Award criteria met$1,200.00Supplemental
4 paid · off-cycle run today, taxes filed automatically$3,150.00 bonus

Replaces the bonus that waited a month for the next check — and the guess at how to tax it.

05
THE WAGE-FLOOR CHECK

Short warranty, tight factory times, an automatic true-up.

Because Honda coverage is short — 3 years / 36,000 miles basic, 5/60 powertrain — warranty work stacks up in a car’s early years, and warranty pays factory assembly-line labor times that run tighter than customer-pay. WageTime divides each tech’s flat pay by actual clock hours every period, tests it against the wage floor, and writes any shortfall as a documented true-up on the run — before the check goes out, not after a claim.

app.wagetime.com/service/wage-floor

Wage-Floor Check · Jun 16–30

Warranty mix 41%2 techs under floor
Warranty pays factory assembly-line times, tighter than customer-pay · effective wage = flat pay ÷ clock hours, tested at $16.50
TechWarranty shareFlat payClock hrsEff. wageTop-up
L. Byrd #0933%$3,182.0076.0$41.87
A. Okonkwo #0538%$2,240.0074.5$30.07
D. Mensah #1744%$1,404.0068.0$20.65
R. Cho #1258%$861.0067.5$12.76$252.75
J. Faye #2163%$602.2563.0$9.56$437.25
True-up total — earning code TRUEUP on the Jul 3 run$690.00

Replaces the by-hand floor check that only runs when there’s time — and the wage-and-hour exposure that builds while there isn’t.

Honda & Acura dealer payroll FAQ

A tech finished the online STEP courses but hasn’t done the hands-on PDC lab — when does the higher flat rate kick in?

On the lab date. WageTime queues the STEP rate change when the HondaPro coursework is done, but the higher flat rate turns on with an effective date set to the in-person Professional Development Center lab sign-off. No early overpay on the enrollment, no retro adjustment three checks later.

Our Prologue and Acura ZDX techs hold a high-voltage credential that renews every couple of years — can payroll flag the lapse before it costs us?

Yes. The EV pay premium is bound to a current HV safety certification with its own expiry date, so it stops automatically on that date. The lapse is flagged about thirty days out, in dollars, so the shop can reassign electrified work before any pay is exposed.

How do we pay reconditioning flag hours on HondaTrue 182-point used cars when there’s no customer to bill and it isn’t a warranty claim?

The recon flag hours import off the closed RO and pay the tech at flat rate, and the finished run posts that labor cost to the used-vehicle department in QuickBooks. No customer invoice, no warranty claim — the used-lot line reconciles on the same payroll instead of being hand-coded later.

We run CSI and President’s Award survey bonuses for advisors and techs — can those go on an off-cycle run with the right tax treatment?

Yes. Payroll runs are unlimited, so a CSI or President’s Award bonus run costs nothing extra and can go out the week the scores post. Each spiff is taxed as supplemental wages per person, with every federal, state, and local tax filed automatically.

We’re on CDK, Reynolds, Dealertrack, or Tekion, and STEP records and warranty claims live in the Honda Interactive Network — how do the flag hours that pay the tech get into payroll?

We import clock and flag hours so there’s no double entry — closed-RO flag time and time-clock hours land together, matched to the pay period. The Honda Interactive Network stays your certification and warranty system; the hours that pay the tech come off the DMS ROs. Tell us your DMS on the demo and we’ll confirm the exact flow for your setup.

We run a Honda store, an Acura rooftop, and a used-car company under separate LLCs — is that several payrolls, and what does it cost?

One login, one pay day. Each rooftop files under its own EIN, and the month-end commission close — minis, volume tiers, F&I with chargeback netting, draw offsets — runs in the same period. At $50 per company plus $8 per person, a 113-person Honda-Acura-used group is $1,054 a month.

Bring the pay run that never fits the software.

A tech waiting on a PDC lab, an HV credential about to lapse, a stack of HondaTrue recon ROs, and last quarter’s CSI spiffs. Twenty minutes with a payroll specialist on a live demo store — if WageTime can’t carry the Honda pieces, you’ll know before the meeting ends.

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