WageTime is payroll for independently owned Spring-Green franchises, including the many owners who run one alongside an existing mowing, landscaping, or pest-control company. Each business keeps its own EIN and filings under a single login, with every crew and route costed where it belongs.
For independently owned and operated Spring-Green® franchise businesses. WageTime is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Spring-Green Lawn Care Corporation. Spring-Green® is a trademark of its owner, used here only to describe the businesses this page serves.
Spring-Green is sold as a way to diversify a green-industry business you already own, so many owners end up running two companies with the same trucks, the same people, and two sets of payroll rules that generic software treats as strangers.
You bought the franchise to add treatment revenue to the mowing or landscaping company you already ran, and now payroll runs twice: two logins, two tax accounts, two year-end filing chores. The reporting you actually want, labor across both businesses on one screen, is the report neither system will produce, so the combined picture lives in a spreadsheet you rebuild every month.
Inside the franchise, one technician runs an aeration and overseeding route at one rate on Monday, then licensed fertilization and weed-control applications at the higher rate on Wednesday. Under federal rules, a week worked at two rates earns overtime on the weighted-average of them, not on whichever rate happened to fill hour 41. Pay that by hand across two service lines and the blended-rate math is where the back-pay balance quietly starts.
Franchise directory analyses describe Spring-Green’s royalty as a sliding scale, 10% of gross sales stepping down toward 8% as volume rises, plus a brand marketing fee. Growth literally changes your royalty rate, which makes labor cost per route and per program the number that both lifts the top line and protects the margin under it. An office that can’t read labor by service line is steering the one controllable cost blind.
Spring-Green territory is measured in single-family dwelling units, and directory analyses note that expanding past 60,000 SFDUs carries a per-unit fee. Routes are built by residential density, so drive time between homes and labor cost per territory are the real economics. When one owner runs several territories, a per-territory labor number is the only way to see which one actually pays.
Your applicators carry a state certification to put product on a lawn, and that certification has an expiration date the payroll system usually never sees. Keep the license in a binder and the pay rate in software, and the two drift apart until a renewal deadline becomes a lapse, and a lapse becomes a fine. The rate you pay for the credential belongs in the same record as the credential.
Yes: WageTime runs each business as its own company under its own EIN, with one login across the group and reporting per company or combined, so Friday payroll for the maintenance company and the treatment franchise is one session, not two systems.
| Company | People paid | Labor MTD |
|---|---|---|
| Ridgeline Landscaping LLCEIN **-6021 · mow & maint | 14 | $41,880 |
| Ridgeline Turf LLC dba Spring-GreenEIN **-7744 · treatment | 9 | $23,540 |
Replaces the monthly spreadsheet that merges two payrolls by hand, and the second login for the business you added to grow.
A two-rate week pays on the weighted-average regular rate, in the WageTime run, without a side calculation: the aeration hours, the higher licensed-application hours, and the overtime premium on the blend of both, side by side on one paystub.
Replaces the two-rate week reconciled by hand, and the overtime paid on the wrong rate because the tech crossed service lines.
A flat, readable number, so the volatile line is the royalty, not the payroll bill: $50 a month per company plus $10 per person paid that month, unlimited runs included, with labor coded to the service line you steer on.
| Service line | Hours | Labor cost |
|---|---|---|
| Fertilization & weed control3 routes | 208.0 | $5,408.00 |
| Insect & grub control2 routes | 84.0 | $2,184.00 |
| Aeration & overseeding1 route | 46.0 | $874.00 |
| Tree & shrub care1 route | 52.0 | $1,352.00 |
Replaces the payroll bill that needed a sales call to read, and pricing next season’s programs off a hunch instead of real labor cost.
Yes: WageTime reports labor cost by territory and route. Spring-Green is a density business first, territory sold in single-family dwelling units, so the sparse territory that looks big on a map but thin on the ground shows up in the numbers before renewal.
| Territory | Hours | Labor cost |
|---|---|---|
| North4 routes · dense suburban | 176.0 | $4,224.00 |
| West3 routes · mixed density | 148.0 | $3,552.00 |
| County line2 routes · sparse rural | 118.0 | $3,186.00 |
| Drive time between homesall routes · own paid code | 41.0 | $902.00 |
Replaces the drive time nobody wrote down until it ate a sparse territory’s margin, and the export-and-re-key ritual after dark.
Every applicator credential lives on the technician’s WageTime record, and the recert date, not a wall calendar, triggers the reminder at 90, 60, and 30 days, so a lapse is a scheduling problem in March, not a stop-work call in July.
| Technician | Expires | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Marco T.Comm Applicator · turf/ornam | Renews Mar 2027 | Active |
| Devon P.Registered Technician | Renews Aug 2026 | Active |
| Rosa L.Comm Applicator · weed ctrl | Renews Sep 2026 | Active |
| Alex R.Registered Technician | 1 credit short | CE due |
| Sam K.Comm Applicator · turf/ornam | Renews Jan 2028 | Active |
Replaces the certification tracked in a binder until the renewal date has already passed, and the winter software bill for techs who are home until spring.
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 demoYes. WageTime runs each as its own company under its own EIN, with one login across the group and reporting per company or combined. Spring-Green is often added to a mowing, landscaping, or pest-control business the owner already runs, so WageTime files each entity’s taxes separately while showing labor across both on one screen. Weekly payroll for both is one session.
A week worked at two rates earns overtime on the weighted-average of those rates under federal rules, not on either rate alone. Within the franchise, WageTime holds the aeration rate and the higher licensed-application rate on separate pay codes, sums the hours, and applies the overtime premium on the blend automatically. The paystub shows each service line and the correct overtime side by side.
Yes, in most states. Putting fertilizer, weed control, or insect product on a lawn is a regulated application, so the tech typically holds a commercial applicator certification, or works as a registered technician under one, with categories that differ by state. WageTime stores each credential on the employee record and flags the recert at 90, 60, and 30 days, while the licensed pay rate rides its own code.
WageTime reports labor by territory and route, which matches how Spring-Green sells territory: by single-family dwelling-unit density. Every stop books a GPS-stamped, geofenced punch, drive time between homes posts to its own paid code, and hours code to a territory and route number. An owner running several territories sees each one’s labor cost on its own line.
Directory analyses describe Spring-Green’s royalty as a sliding scale that falls from 10% toward 8% of gross sales as volume grows, so labor is the line you steer while the royalty rate moves. WageTime is a flat $50 per company plus $10 per person paid that month, unlimited runs included, with every federal, state, and local tax filed and year-end W-2s and 1099s handled.
The off-season layoff is one pass through a bulk termination wizard, not a dozen individual terminations. When crews return for the spring rounds, their records are still there: returning workers confirm details rather than starting over, and anyone new fills out everything from a phone, I-9 and E-Verify included. You pay $10 only for the people actually paid each month, across both companies.
Your existing business and the Spring-Green franchise, a week where someone worked both, and the licenses your applicators hold. Twenty minutes with a payroll specialist on a live demo company: you’ll see the two EINs on one login, the blended overtime, the labor cost by territory, and the applicator credentials tracked.
Book a 20-minute demo