FRANCHISE PAYROLL · INDEPENDENTLY OWNED VALVOLINE INSTANT OIL CHANGE

You signed up to open the next three. WageTime makes each opening a pay run.

A Valvoline Instant Oil Change development agreement is a build schedule: at least three centers, each staffed and trained before it takes a car. That makes payroll a new-store problem before it is a weekly one, and WageTime treats it that way.

Built on infrastructure processing $35B+ in payroll & taxes · 2.8M+ employees paid

For independently owned and operated Valvoline Instant Oil Change™ franchise businesses. WageTime is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Valvoline Inc., Valvoline Instant Oil Change, or SuperPro; those marks belong to their owners and are used here only to describe the businesses this page serves.

SOUND FAMILIAR?

The agreement says open three. Generic payroll acts like you have one.

The network has grown by 858 stores since 2017 to more than 2,000, and franchisees are the build engine: a development agreement commits you to at least three centers, opened by construction or conversion. Every opening is a crew hired, onboarded, and paid before the first car, a new EIN on the books, and a promotion ladder that keeps stepping rates behind you. Right now the new-store crew, the pay steps, and the per-center labor all live in a spreadsheet you rebuild from scratch each time you open a location.

PAYROLL BEFORE THE FIRST CAR

A new center earns nothing and still makes payroll

You hire and train a full crew weeks before a new store opens: pre-open training, a dry run, a soft open, all of it paid, none of it against a single ticket yet. That first payroll runs before the register does. Generic products treat a new location as a project for next quarter, not a crew that has to be paid this Friday.

EVERY OPENING IS A NEW EIN

The books grow a company at a time

Convert an existing shop here, build a new one there, and the entity list grows with the territory. Each center wants its own EIN, its own filings, and its own labor line, but one owner still needs a single view across all of them. A pile of logins, one per store, is how a filing gets missed.

THE LADDER MOVES IN WEEKS

Certified in two months, promoted by ten

A Valvoline crew promotes fast: a lube tech can reach Certified Technician in about two months and Senior Technician inside ten, and more than nine in ten managers started entry level. Every step raises the rate, often mid-pay-period, and a rate that changed on Wednesday still has to be paid right for the whole week. The step math is where a check quietly comes up short.

SUPERPRO COUNTS, PAYROLL DOESN’T

The store system logs the hours, the check gets a retype

SuperPro runs the bay and logs every clocked hour and every service by tech, one center at a time. Payroll sees none of it until someone exports each store and re-types the week. The center where a digit transposes is the one whose new hire’s first check is wrong, and the counter knows before payroll does.

FIFTEEN MINUTES, PEAK AFTER PEAK

Staffing a stopwatch, not a shift

The promise is a 15-minute service with the customer in the car, so the work arrives in waves: the lunch rush, the Saturday line, the after-work push. Staff flat and you are overstaffed at 10am and buried at noon. The schedule that matches the crew to the car count is the one nobody has time to build by hand.

Each of these gets a real product screen below, shown with sample franchise data.
01 · NEW STORE, NEW CREW

How do you staff and pay a whole crew before a new center opens?

WageTime treats a store opening as the recurring payroll event it is for a Valvoline franchisee: a whole crew hired, onboarded in one bulk wave, and paid before the center takes its first car.

  • Self-onboarding with e-signatures from a phone; electronic I-9 with front-and-back document capture.
  • E-Verify case created once I-9 requirements are met.
  • Pre-open training paid on an hourly code, each course assigned and tracked to completion.
  • Rehire onboarding restores a returning tech’s record.
  • The opening crew is paid on the same schedule as the running stores.
app.wagetime.com/onboarding/new-center

New-Center Onboarding · Center 07 · Opens Aug 4

Bulk onboardingPre-open crew
The whole opening crew onboards in one bulk wave, before the first car
New hireRoleStatus
Marcus D.Self-onboarding · I-9 capturedLube techVerify pending
Renata O.Transfer · rehire, restoredCertified techReady to pay
Tyler B.Offer e-signed, I-9 completeLube techPre-open
Sasha P.Offer e-signedAsst managerDocs 2 of 3
6 in the opening crew, 4 shown · pre-open training paid as hoursI-9 and E-Verify tracked on the record

Replaces the opening-crew onboarding stack the manager did by hand, one hire at a time, before every new store.

02 · LABOR ACROSS A GROWING FOOTPRINT

How do you see labor by center and file every EIN as you keep adding stores?

A growing footprint gets one view under WageTime: each new center carries its own EIN and labor line from its first pre-open payroll, so another location is a report line, not another payroll system.

  • New construction and conversions fill the development agreement, never a second payroll system.
  • Labor cost reported per center or combined, every run.
  • One login across the territory; access scoped by role per center and region.
  • Every tax filed automatically: 50 states plus Puerto Rico, 11,000-plus local jurisdictions.
  • Work and home addresses geolocated to rooftop level; reciprocity handled.
app.wagetime.com/group/center-labor

Center Group · Cardinal Lube Holdings · June

4 centers · 1 loginTaxes filed per EIN
Each center carries its own EIN and labor line from its first pre-open payroll
$82,100Combined labor MTD
4Centers in the group
2EINs · 2 states
CenterEINLabor MTD
Center 03Tempe AZ · 10 paid**-2261$24,180.00
Center 05Mesa AZ · 11 paid**-2261$27,540.00
Center 06Henderson NV · 9 paid**-7738$21,960.00
Center 07Reno NV · 6 paid · opens Aug 4**-7738$8,420.00
Labor reported per center or combined, every runrole-based access per center

Replaces the pile of one-store logins, and the pooled labor figure that hid which new center was still ramping.

03 · PAID BY THE RUNG

How does payroll handle a rate that steps as a tech gets certified and promoted?

A rate change takes effect the same day a certification does, not on a retro spreadsheet: a tech who reaches Certified Technician on Wednesday gets the new rate from Wednesday, calculated automatically by WageTime.

  • Each position its own hourly pay code and band, lube tech through assistant manager.
  • Mid-week promotions get weighted-average overtime across both rates.
  • Premium-service and full-synthetic upsell commission folds in; over-40 hours never ride base wage alone.
  • Minimum-wage processing at federal, state, and local levels on actual clock hours.
  • Learning module tracks who has cleared which certification.
app.wagetime.com/payroll/promotion-week

Promotion Week · Renata O. · Jul 20-26

Rate stepped mid-weekOT on weighted average
Lube tech rate through Tue, certified tech rate from Jul 22 · 4 of 44 hrs are overtime
Renata O. · promotion week
Mon-Tue · 16.0 at $17.00$272.00
Wed-Sat · 28.0 at $19.50$546.00
Commission · 34 services$102.00
Regular rate for overtime$20.91 / hr
4.0 OT hrs at half rate$41.82
Gross pay$961.82
Step and nondiscretionary commission ride the OT ratewithholding applied

Replaces the base-rate-only overtime that shorts a promotion week, and the rate step nobody dated.

04 · HOURS OUT OF SUPERPRO

What happens to the clock hours your SuperPro system already logs?

The clock hours the SuperPro operating system already logs get imported by WageTime one center at a time, then rolled into a single run for the group: no per-center export, no double entry, no retype.

  • Every center’s clock hours pulled from SuperPro, no double entry, no integration claim.
  • Hours coded to the center and the job for labor-by-center reporting.
  • Cost codes adjustable to your own center and job numbering.
  • Finished payroll posts to QuickBooks by department, plus a configurable GL export.
  • Open onboarding steps ride the import so a missing I-9 is caught first.
app.wagetime.com/time/superpro-import

Hours Import · Center 03 · Jul 20-26

Clock hours importedCoded by center
Clock hours pulled from SuperPro · coded to the center and the job
157.5Clock hrs imported
4Techs in this run
0Hours re-keyed
TechClock hrsStatus
Marcus D.Center 03 · lube tech41.5Ready
Renata O.Center 03 · certified tech44.0Ready
Tyler B.Center 03 · lube tech32.0Ready
Sasha P.Center 03 · asst manager40.0I-9 open
Hours coded by center, ready for Friday’s runno export, no retype

Replaces the per-center export-reformat-retype ritual between SuperPro and the check.

05 · FIFTEEN MINUTES, ALL DAY

How do you schedule a crew to the car-count peaks a 15-minute service creates?

A full-service oil change taking about 15 minutes, with an 18-point check and the customer in the car, arrives in waves, not a flat shift: WageTime sizes the crew and the schedule to those peaks.

  • Coverage staged to the lunch rush and Saturday line, not one flat shift.
  • Conflict safeguards flag double-booking, rest gaps, and overnight shifts.
  • Job costs carried on each shift, read against the car count.
  • Approved hours flow to payroll; minimum-wage floor checked on real hours.
  • Break and meal rules and rounding options built into approved hours.
app.wagetime.com/scheduling/peak-week

Crew Schedule · Center 03 · Week of Jul 20

Peak coverage2 flags to review
Coverage staged to the lunch rush and the Saturday line · job cost on each shift
4Crew scheduled
157.5Hours this week
CrewThis weekSchedule check
Renata O.Certified · upper bay44.0 hrsClear
Marcus D.Lube · lower bay41.5 hrsRest gap flag
Tyler B.Lube · greeter, courtesy check32.0 hrsClear
Sasha P.Asst mgr · peak cover, close40.0 hrsOvernight flag
Peak windows covered across the car-count wavesflags raised before publish

Replaces the flat schedule that was overstaffed at open and buried at noon, and the labor nobody costed against the car count.

PRICING

Simple payroll pricing. No surprises.

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.

  • Full-service payroll, unlimited runs
  • Federal, state & local tax filing
  • Year-end W-2s & 1099s
  • Direct deposit, checks & pay cards
  • Contractor payments & filings
  • Off-cycle runs & bonuses, no extra fee
  • Employee paystubs & W-2 access
  • QuickBooks integration
$10/mo per person paid
+ $50/mo per company

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 demo
THE INFRASTRUCTURE BEHIND WAGETIME
$35B+
in payroll & taxes paid
2.8M+
employees paid
4.3M+
W-2s & 1099s filed
100%
of tax filings automated

Valvoline Instant Oil Change franchise payroll FAQ

How do you pay and onboard a crew for a new center before it opens?

A new Valvoline center is staffed and trained before it takes a car, so WageTime bulk-onboards the whole opening crew with self-service e-signatures, runs electronic I-9 and E-Verify, and pays pre-open training on an hourly code that lands on the check. Whether a given hour is compensable is a question for you and your counsel.

Can WageTime run several Valvoline centers under one owner, each with its own EIN?

Yes, and a new center joins the group the day it opens: its own EIN, its own filings, its own labor line, all reachable from the same login. As the development agreement fills in, WageTime files each entity’s taxes automatically and scopes access by role, so a developer adds a location without standing up another payroll system.

How does payroll handle a rate that steps when a tech gets certified and promoted?

A Valvoline crew promotes fast, so WageTime applies the new rate on its effective date instead of a retro spreadsheet. When a promotion lands mid-week, two rates fall in one workweek, so overtime computes on the weighted-average regular rate across both automatically, with any nondiscretionary premium-service commission folded into that rate too.

Does WageTime work with SuperPro instead of a repair-order system?

In the way that matters: WageTime imports the clock hours SuperPro already logs so there is no double entry. Tell us your setup on the demo and we will confirm the exact flow. WageTime does not claim a direct integration with SuperPro or any point-of-sale system, and your service commissions run as pay codes inside payroll.

Can payroll schedule the crew around a 15-minute service model?

Yes. WageTime’s shift scheduling builds the week around car-count peaks rather than flat shifts, with conflict safeguards that flag double-booking, rest-period gaps, and overnight shifts before you publish. Each shift carries its job cost, and approved hours flow straight into payroll with no re-entry.

What does payroll cost for a Valvoline franchise with a few centers?

$50 a month per company plus $10 per person actually paid that month, with unlimited runs, so a weekly cadence and a pre-open payroll before a store opens cost nothing extra. Filings, W-2s, and 1099s are included. Run four centers as separate LLCs? Each keeps its own EIN, with one login and combined reporting.

Bring one center you’re about to open.

The crew you’re hiring for the next opening, where each tech sits on the certification ladder, and the two or three centers already running. Twenty minutes with a payroll specialist on a live demo group: you’ll watch a pre-open crew onboard in a bulk wave, see a mid-week promotion compute its own weighted-average overtime, and get a straight answer on running every EIN from one login.

Book a 20-minute demo