DEALER PAYROLL · NISSAN & INFINITI STORES

A tech’s rate moves when they finish an ASE core area or clear Level 2 on the battery. Payroll should move with it — not three paychecks later.

A Nissan store ranks techs by how many ASE core areas they’ve finished, gates battery work to Level 2 high-voltage authorization, and pays sales on draws and minis across Rogue and Altima, F&I on chargebacks, and hourly crew — one run, every EIN. Generic payroll reads none of that, so the office re-keys it by hand. WageTime binds the rate to the certification and the authorization, trues up the warranty wage the store actually owes, and pulls flag hours off closed ROs so nobody retypes NNAnet and ASIST into the check.

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 Nissan North America, Inc., Nissan, or INFINITI. All trademarks belong to their respective owners.

SOUND FAMILIAR?

The service drive classifies every tech. Payroll finds out weeks later.

A Nissan store already tracks who’s finished which ASE area and who’s cleared to touch a battery. The trouble is none of it reaches the check on time — so the raise is retro, the EV hour pays wrong, and the office squares it by hand.

COUNTING CORES

SCOPE promotion is a count of finished ASE areas

Nissan promotes a tech by how many of four core specialty areas they’ve completed — one makes a Specialist, two a Senior, all four a Master. The rate should step the day the fourth core clears. Instead it moves later, as a retro adjustment nobody enjoys keying.

THE BATTERY GATE

Only a Level 2 tech may flag Ariya and Leaf pack work

Nissan lets only a Level 2 high-voltage tech de-energize a pack and flag live-system repair. That hour is worth a different rate than a brake job — but generic payroll has one rate per tech and no idea who’s authorized.

WHOSE WAGE?

Nissan reimburses the store; the tech’s wage is yours

Nissan’s flat-rate program sets what Nissan pays the dealer for warranty work. The wage the technician earns, and any minimum-wage make-up, is the store’s obligation — a split a Florida appeals court confirmed in 2024, and a check the controller still runs from memory.

RE-KEYED FROM ASIST

Warranty lives in NNAnet, hours live in the DMS

Warranty claims and bulletins run through NNAnet 2.0 and ASIST; the flag hours that actually pay the tech come off closed ROs in CDK, Reynolds, Dealertrack, or Tekion. Someone retypes both into payroll, and every retyped number can short a flat-rate check.

THE ACADEMY HIRE

An NTTA graduate starts somewhere on SCOPE

A two-year Nissan academy graduate walks in ASE-certified and enters at a SCOPE level. The entry rate has to match on day one, then step up as each core area certifies — not wait for someone to remember which exams they’ve passed.

INFINITI NEXT DOOR

Three rooftops, three EINs, one Friday

The Nissan store, the INFINITI rooftop, and the pre-owned company are each their own LLC with their own filings — and the group still closes payroll once, on the same day. Generic providers answer with three logins and a consolidation workbook.

The first four get a real product screen below, shown with sample store data. Group pay day and the commission close round it out.

01
SCOPE BY THE COUNT

The rate steps per finished ASE core area.

WageTime advances a Nissan tech’s flat-rate figure by the number of ASE core specialty areas they’ve completed, because that is exactly how SCOPE promotes them: one area makes a Specialist, two a Senior Specialist, all four — Engine, Chassis, Electrical, Driveline — plus New Model Training makes a Master. Each area binds to the rate with its own effective date, so the raise starts the day the core clears, not the paycheck after someone tallies the whiteboard. NTTA academy graduates enter at their SCOPE level and step up the same way. Because promotion depends on ASE results feeding Nissan through an affiliated myASE account, WageTime watches the same credentials the store tracks — and flags one drifting toward lapse before it drops the rate.

app.wagetime.com/service/scope-ladder

SCOPE Ladder · Service Dept

1 area completing Aug 11 credential at risk
TechSCOPE levelCores doneRate ruleStatus
D. Ferraro #06Nissan Master4 of 4 + NMT$46.00/flag hrCurrent
L. Okafor #11Senior Specialist2 of 4 · Engine, Electrical$34.00/flag hrCurrent
M. Bianchi #14Specialist → Senior1 → 2 · Chassis Aug 1$29.00 → $34.00/flag hrRate change Aug 1
R. Sethi #19Specialist1 of 4 · Engine$29.00/flag hr → $24.00 Oct 1 if lapsedAt risk
T. Alvarez #22Technician0 of 4 · NTTA grad$24.00/flag hrCurrent
Lapse impact — R. Sethi: −$5.00/flag hr at his current 75.0 flag hrs≈ −$375 / period

Replaces the whiteboard tally of who’s finished which core — and the retro raise after the fourth one quietly cleared.

02
THE HIGH-VOLTAGE LADDER

Only a Level 2 tech earns the EV flag rate.

WageTime pays high-voltage flag hours at their own rate, and only to the techs Nissan authorizes to earn them. Nissan sets three levels: Level 0 does conventional service only, Level 1 may remove and install HV components after a Level 2 has disabled the system, and only a Level 2 may de-energize an Ariya or Leaf pack, confirm zero residual charge, and flag live-system and battery repair. WageTime binds the EV rate to that Level 2 authorization the way it binds any certification-tied rate — so an HV repair order flagged by a Level 2 tech carries the EV bucket automatically, and a tech without the authorization simply can’t accrue it. When the authorization changes, the rate changes on its effective date.

app.wagetime.com/service/ev-authorization

High-Voltage Authorization · Service Dept

2 techs Level 21 EV rate queued
TechHV levelAuthorized to flagEV flag rateStatus
D. Ferraro #06Level 2Battery + live-system repair$52.00/flag hrLevel 2
L. Okafor #11Level 2Battery + live-system repair$46.00/flag hrLevel 2
M. Bianchi #14Level 1HV remove/install onlyLevel 1
R. Sethi #19Level 1 → 2Battery repair · EV course clears Aug 1$40.00/flag hr queuedEV rate Aug 1
T. Alvarez #22Level 0Conventional service onlyLevel 0
5 techs · 2 cleared for battery flag hoursEV bucket applies only to Level 2 authorizations

Replaces the single rate that pays a battery pack like a brake job — and the guessing about who’s cleared to touch it.

03
WHOSE WAGE IS THE TRUE-UP

Nissan reimburses the store; the wage make-up is yours.

WageTime trues up the wage the dealership owes, not the rate Nissan reimburses — because those are two different numbers. Nissan’s flat-rate program sets what Nissan pays the store for warranty work; a Florida appeals court confirmed in 2024 that the wage the technician earns, and any minimum-wage make-up, is the dealership’s obligation. So every period WageTime divides each tech’s flat-rate earnings by actual clock hours, tests the result against the wage floor, and writes any shortfall as a documented true-up earning on the run — before the check goes out, not after a claim. Warranty flag hours and customer-pay flag hours ride in separate buckets at their own rates, so the split Nissan draws between reimbursement and wage is the split payroll already keeps.

app.wagetime.com/service/effective-rate

Effective-Rate Check · Jun 16–30

Warranty mix 36%2 techs below floor
Effective rate = flat-rate earnings ÷ clock hours, tested at $16.50/hr
TechWarranty shareFlat earningsClock hrsEffectiveTrue-up
D. Ferraro #0619%$3,588.0074.0$48.49
L. Okafor #1130%$2,652.0078.0$34.00
M. Bianchi #1452%$1,566.0066.0$23.73
R. Sethi #1925%$952.0070.0$13.60$203.00
T. Alvarez #2261%$600.0064.0$9.38$456.00
True-up total on the Jul 3 run · earning code TRUEUP$659.00

Replaces the by-hand floor check the controller runs when there’s time — and the argument about which number Nissan actually owes.

04
NNAnet, ASIST & THE DMS

The paying hours never get re-keyed.

WageTime pulls the flag hours that pay the tech straight off closed repair orders in your DMS, so the numbers in the check are never retyped. On a Nissan store, warranty claims and service bulletins live in the NNAnet 2.0 portal and the ASIST application launched from inside it — but the hours that actually pay a flat-rate tech come off the closed RO in CDK, Reynolds, Dealertrack, or Tekion. WageTime imports both clock hours and flag hours into one review screen, matches them to the pay period, splits customer-pay from warranty from EV, and ties each line back to its RO. When the run finishes it posts to QuickBooks mapped by department. Tell us your DMS on the demo and we’ll confirm the exact flow for your setup.

app.wagetime.com/time/import

Hours Import · Jun 16–30

5 techs matched1 RO still open
Source: RO #58120 · 2025 Rogue · rear brakes · 2.4 CP hrs · and RO #58344 · 2024 Ariya · warranty HV battery module · 3.2 warranty hrs
TechClock hrsCP flagWarranty flagEV flagTotal flagStatus
D. Ferraro #0674.048.014.013.075.0Ready
L. Okafor #1178.052.018.09.079.0Ready
M. Bianchi #1466.028.030.00.058.0Ready
R. Sethi #1970.030.010.00.040.01 RO open
T. Alvarez #2264.020.012.00.032.0Ready
5 techs · 352.0 clock hrs · 284.0 flag hrs0 hours re-keyed

Replaces the export-reformat-retype ritual between NNAnet, the DMS, and payroll — and the dispute that starts with one transposed digit.

05
THE COMMISSION CLOSE

The month-end spreadsheet, run as payroll.

WageTime closes the month-end commission run as a screen instead of a spreadsheet. Gross commissions, unit minis, volume tiers, and F&I with chargeback netting compute per person; draw offsets apply against each salesperson’s running balance; and any deal still unreconciled rolls to next period instead of holding the whole close hostage. Where a draw ends the month negative, the balance carries as a ledger entry — and recovery from a final paycheck is blocked where state law prohibits it. You approve one number per person, not a stack of sheets, and off-cycle spiff runs cost nothing extra.

app.wagetime.com/payroll/commission-close

Commission Close · June

1 deal rolled forward1 negative draw carried
Front-end pack $600/unit applied · chargebacks net against June gross before the draw offset
SalespersonUnitsGross commMinis + tiersF&I / chargebacksDraw offsetNet
Dana K.14$9,240.00+$1,000.00−$3,000.00$7,240.00
Owen T.11$6,270.00+$500.00−$3,000.00$3,770.00
Camille R. · F&I$11,520.00−$1,140.00−$4,000.00$6,380.00
Nate P.5$2,050.00−$3,000.00−$950.00 carried
Bianca S.8$4,680.00+$500.00−$3,000.00$2,180.00
4 paid · Nate P. −$950 draw balance carried, not clawed from final pay$19,570.00 netpays on the Jul 3 run

Replaces the commission workbook, the deal-by-deal recheck, and the argument that starts with “my sheet says.”

06
ONE GROUP, EVERY EIN

The Nissan-INFINITI group closes once.

WageTime runs a Nissan-INFINITI group as one login and many EINs, because that is how the group is actually held. The Nissan store, the INFINITI rooftop, and the pre-owned company are each their own LLC with their own filings — and payroll still closes once, on the same Friday. Each company files under its own EIN with every federal, state, and local tax handled automatically and deposits included; reporting comes per store or combined. 1099 contractors — the detail vendor, the lot porters — run alongside W-2 employees on the same day, and pricing stays $50 per company per month plus $8 per person paid, with unlimited runs.

app.wagetime.com/group/payday

Group Pay Day · Fri Jul 3

3 companies · 3 EINs · all runs ready
CompanyEINPeople paidNet payTaxesStatus
Lakeshore Nissan LLC••-•••420761$221,600Auto-filedReady
Lakeshore INFINITI LLC••-•••813533$126,400Auto-filedReady
Lakeshore Pre‑Owned LLC••-•••607217$54,900Auto-filedReady
111 people · three filings, one approval$402,900 netreporting per store or combined

Replaces a payroll login per LLC — and the consolidation workbook that ties the group together every Friday.

Nissan dealer payroll FAQ

Our techs move up Nissan SCOPE by finishing ASE specialty areas — Engine, Chassis, Electrical, Driveline. Can the pay rate step up as each core area is completed?

Yes. WageTime advances the flat-rate figure per completed core area, mirroring SCOPE itself — one area makes a Specialist, two a Senior Specialist, all four a Master. Each area binds to the rate with its own effective date, so the raise lands the day the credential clears, not as a retro adjustment three paychecks later.

A tech just made Nissan Master Technician — all four SCOPE areas plus New Model Training. How does that rate change land on the right paycheck?

You queue the Master rate against its effective date and WageTime applies it on that period’s run — no retro cleanup. Because the rate binds to the credential, the fourth core area and New Model Training completing is what triggers the change, shown in the ladder before the check goes out.

Only our Level 2 high-voltage techs can flag Ariya and Leaf battery work. Can we pay a separate EV rate for high-voltage flag hours?

Yes. HV flag hours post to their own rate bucket, and the EV rate binds to the Level 2 authorization the way any certification-tied rate does. A Level 0 or Level 1 tech can’t accrue it; when a tech clears Level 2, the EV rate starts on its effective date.

Nissan reimburses us a flat warranty rate, but the technician’s wage is on the dealership. How does the minimum-wage true-up handle that split?

WageTime trues up the wage you owe, separately from what Nissan reimburses you — a distinction a Florida appeals court confirmed in 2024. Each period it divides flat-rate earnings by actual clock hours, tests against the floor, and writes any shortfall as a documented true-up earning before the run closes.

We hired an NTTA graduate as a trainee. How do we start them at SCOPE entry pay and move them up as they certify?

Set the graduate’s rate at their SCOPE entry level and WageTime carries it until an ASE core area certifies. As each area feeds Nissan through their affiliated myASE account, you queue the next rate against its effective date and it steps up on the run — Specialist, Senior, and on to Master.

Warranty claims and service info run through NNAnet and ASIST — how do the flag hours that actually pay the tech get into payroll without re-keying?

NNAnet and ASIST stay your warranty-claim and service-information systems. WageTime imports the flag hours that pay the tech off the closed ROs in your DMS — CDK, Reynolds, Dealertrack, or Tekion — matched to the period and split by bucket, then posts finished payroll to QuickBooks by department. Tell us your DMS on the demo.

Bring your worst pay period.

The SCOPE list off the whiteboard, a warranty-heavy fortnight of flag hours, last month’s commission sheets, and who’s cleared to Level 2. Twenty minutes with a payroll specialist on a live demo store — if WageTime can’t carry your comp plans, you’ll know before the meeting ends.

Book a 20-minute demo