Quick lube doesn’t pay on flag hours: the crew is hourly by bay position, upsell commission rides on top, and a lot of first jobs fill the schedule. WageTime is payroll built for oil change shops to run exactly that.
Roughly 25,000 US oil change and lubrication shops run on hourly crews, upsell commissions, and a lot of first jobs, none of which the flat-rate repair playbook fits. The pay math still has to clear overtime and minimum wage every single week. Right now it clears them in a spreadsheet, after the last car leaves.
A dealership tech flags a job; your crew clocks a shift. Lube, lower bay, upper bay, greeter, CSA: each is its own hourly rate, and one person moves between them inside a single week. Generic payroll wants one rate per employee, so the second and third rate end up in a spreadsheet, and so does the overtime.
The courtesy check is where the money is: an air filter, wipers, a coolant flush on nearly every ticket. Those commissions are nondiscretionary, so they raise the overtime rate for that week. Pay the over-40 hours on base wage alone and you have underpaid overtime, which is exactly the error the Labor Department keeps writing up in this industry.
Quick lube is where a lot of teenagers earn a first paycheck. Federal rules let a 16-year-old run the rack lift but not the engine hoist, and not a customer’s car out on the street, and many states pile on stricter night, hour, and break limits. None of that surfaces in a generic payroll product, and a wrong schedule is a citation, not a footnote.
The system that runs your bays knows every car, every upsell, and every clocked hour. Payroll sees none of that. Somebody exports the week, retypes hours and upsell counts into payroll, and hopes the transposed digit didn’t land in a teenager’s first check.
Entry-tier turnover means you are always hiring. Every new lube tech is another I-9, another E-Verify case, another stack of forms, and every returning one is a rehire. In a two-manager shop, that stack lands on the closing manager after the last car rolls out.
WageTime treats each bay position as its own hourly pay code, so a tech who splits the week across lower bay, upper bay, and the CSA desk is paid each position’s rate on one check, with overtime on the weighted-average across all of them.
Replaces the second and third pay rate that lived in a spreadsheet, and the overtime figured against one rate the week never paid.
Yes: WageTime counts courtesy-check commission in the regular rate, because it is nondiscretionary by design: run the menu, earn the commission. The commission joins the week’s hourly earnings and the overtime premium pays on that true rate automatically.
Replaces the base-rate-only overtime that shorts a commissioned week, and the bonus nobody folded into the rate.
A 16 or 17 year-old may run the grease-rack lift but not an engine hoist, and not a customer’s car on public roads, with many states adding stricter night, hour, and break limits: a question for you and your counsel.
| Crew | This week | Schedule check |
|---|---|---|
| Dominic V. 19Upper bay | 44.0 hrs | Clear |
| Kayla T. 17Lower bay, greeter | 27.0 hrs | Overnight shift flagged |
| Trey B. 16Greeter, courtesy check | 16.5 hrs | Rest-period gap flagged |
| Sofia L. asst mgrCSA desk, closing | 40.0 hrs | Clear |
Replaces the paper schedule where a minor’s overnight shift went unnoticed until after it was worked.
Car count and clock hours stop living in a second spreadsheet: WageTime imports the clock hours from LubeSoft or whatever fast-lube POS runs your bays, car-count bonuses run as pay codes, and we confirm the exact flow on the demo.
| Crew | Clock hrs | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Dominic V.Store 12 · 28 upsells keyed | 44.0 | Ready |
| Aisha N.Store 12 · 31 upsells keyed | 43.0 | Ready |
| Kayla T.Store 12 · 9 upsells keyed | 27.0 | Ready |
| Trey B.Store 12 · 4 upsells keyed | 16.5 | New hire, I-9 open |
Replaces the export-reformat-retype ritual between the bay system and the check.
WageTime handles turnover as the recurring event it actually is: new hires self-onboard with e-signatures from a phone, the I-9 and E-Verify run electronically on the record, and a returning tech is a rehire, not a fresh file.
| New hire | Step | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Trey B. 16Greeter | Self-onboarding + I-9 | E-Verify pending |
| Bianca R.Lower bay | e-signed, I-9 complete | Ready to pay |
| Devon McK.Upper bay | Rehire, returning tech | Record restored |
| Marisol E.CSA desk | Offer e-signed | Docs 1 of 3 |
Replaces the onboarding stack the closing manager did by hand, one new hire at a time.
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 demoNo. Quick lube crews are paid hourly by bay position, not book-hours times a flag rate. WageTime runs each position as its own hourly pay code, and when one person works two or more rates in a week, overtime computes on the weighted-average regular rate automatically. The flag-hour playbook from the dealership never has to fit.
When commission is nondiscretionary and tied to sales, it belongs in the regular rate the overtime premium is figured on. WageTime folds courtesy-check commission into that weighted-average rate automatically, so an over-40 week is paid on hourly plus commission, not hourly alone. How the rules apply to your specific plan is a question for you and your counsel.
Federal rules let 16 and 17 year-olds run a service-bay grease-rack lift but not an engine hoist, and not customer cars on public roads, and many states add stricter limits. WageTime does not decide what a minor may do; it keeps roles and hours in one view and flags overnight shifts and rest gaps before you publish. Legal questions stay with you and your counsel.
In the way that matters: we import clock hours so there’s no double entry. Tell us your fast-lube system on the demo, whether that’s LubeSoft or another, and we’ll confirm the exact flow for your setup. WageTime does not claim a direct integration with any point-of-sale, and your car-count bonus runs as a pay code inside the payroll.
Self-onboarding with e-signatures lets new hires enter their own details from a phone, WageTime runs electronic I-9 with document capture and creates the E-Verify case once I-9 requirements are met, and rehire onboarding restores a returning tech’s record. A bulk termination wizard clears end-of-season waves in one pass.
$50 a month for the company plus $10 per person actually paid that month, with unlimited runs, so a midweek commission run or a weekly cadence costs nothing extra. Filings, W-2s, and 1099s are included. Run three stores as separate LLCs? Each keeps its own EIN, with one login and combined reporting.
Last week’s clock hours by tech, the courtesy-check commission beside them, and your bay positions and rates. Twenty minutes with a payroll specialist on a live demo shop: you’ll watch a multi-position week compute its own weighted-average overtime, see the commission fold into the rate, and get a straight answer on your crew and your POS.
Book a 20-minute demo