DEALER PAYROLL · VOLKSWAGEN & VW ID. STORES

The ID.4 premium, the apprentice’s guarantee, and a warranty check on VW’s tight times — one pay run. WageTime runs all three.

A Volkswagen store pays a Level 4 tech extra to work an ID.4 live, a FastTrack apprentice a guaranteed hourly until they can flag a full board, and every flat-rate tech a warranty true-up when VW’s ALTG times pull the check toward the floor — on top of sales draws, minis, and F&I. Generic payroll sees none of it, so the office keeps the math on sticky notes. WageTime carries every VW pay rule — across each VW and Audi EIN, on one Friday.

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WageTime serves independently owned and operated dealerships. WageTime is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Volkswagen Group of America, Volkswagen, or Audi. All trademarks belong to their respective owners.

SOUND FAMILIAR?

VW pay is hard because four different rules land in the same run — and each one is tracked by hand.

An EV premium keyed to a safety level. An apprentice who can’t flag enough to clear the floor. Warranty paid on times tighter than customer-pay. A used lot full of cars under two different warranties. Every one is unpaid office time or a quiet liability.

THE HV LADDER

Four high-voltage levels decide who’s on the ID.4 — and the premium rides with them

Volkswagen runs four high-voltage technician levels, from no contact with the pack to working the car live. The ID.4 EV premium — and who’s even cleared for the job — follows the level a tech holds. Move the pay before the level, and you overpay a tech who shouldn’t be on the car.

THE APPRENTICE RAMP

A FastTrack apprentice can’t flag a full board yet

FastTrack apprentices come out of a few weeks of Academy training and can’t yet flag enough hours to clear minimum wage on straight flat rate. They need a guaranteed hourly that converts to flat rate the day they can carry the board — a switch nobody remembers to flip on time.

ALTG DRAG

Warranty pays VW’s tight ALTG times, and a warranty-heavy fortnight thins the check

VW warranty labor is paid on the Automated Labor Time Guide, which runs tighter than customer-pay guide time. A stretch of warranty-heavy work quietly drags a flat-rate tech’s effective wage toward the floor, and the top-up is owed whether or not anyone did the division.

TWO WARRANTIES, ONE LANE

6/72 People First cars beside 4/50 cars

Model-year 2018–2019 VWs carry the transferable 6-year/72,000-mile People First Warranty; 2020-and-newer cars reverted to 4/50. The same service lane straddles two coverage regimes, so warranty work — paid on the tighter times — shows up across a far wider band of vehicle ages than a normal brand.

DOUBLE ENTRY

Flag hours live in the DMS. Payroll doesn’t.

Closed-RO flag hours sit in CDK, Reynolds, Dealertrack, or Tekion; VW’s times live in ELSA and warranty rides SAGA. Every period someone re-types the hours into payroll. A single transposed flag figure shorts a tech and starts a week-long dispute at the service drive.

MULTI-ROOFTOP

A VW store, an Audi rooftop, a used LLC — three EINs, one Friday

Volkswagen Group stores are commonly paired with an Audi rooftop and a pre-owned company, each its own LLC and EIN. The group still closes payroll once. Generic providers answer with three logins and a consolidation workbook the bookkeeper keeps by hand.

Five of these get a real product screen below, shown with sample store data. The rest get straight answers in the FAQ.

01
THE HV LEVEL LADDER

The ID.4 premium follows the high-voltage level, on its effective date.

WageTime binds the ID.4 EV premium to a Volkswagen high-voltage level as a rate rule with an effective date. VW runs four HV levels — from no contact with an energized pack up to live-condition work — and the premium pays only while the tech holds the level the job requires; the roster shows who is cleared for high-voltage work. Level up, and the premium starts on the day the class is signed off — not the enrollment, and never as a retro three checks later.

app.wagetime.com/service/hv-levels

High-Voltage Level Roster · ID. Line

1 tech cleared for live HV work1 premium queued for a class date
VW runs four HV levels — the ID.4 premium pays only at the level the job requires and follows the level on its effective date.
TechHV levelID.4 eligibleEV premiumStatus
K. Berger #04Level 4 (live HV)Yes+$7.00/flag hrActive
M. Ortega #08Level 3Yes+$5.00/flag hrActive
S. Patel #12Level 2 (isolated only)NoNo ID.4 pay
D. Rhodes #15Level 1 → Level 3class Aug 5+$5.00 on Aug 5Premium queued
The EV premium pays at the required level only — rate change dated to the class, not the enrollment

Replaces the sticky note of who’s cleared for EV work — and the premium that paid on for weeks before the level was real.

02
THE APPRENTICE FLOOR

A guaranteed hourly until the FastTrack tech can flag a full board.

WageTime pays a FastTrack apprentice a guaranteed hourly and converts them to flat rate on an effective date — the day they can flag past the guarantee. A tech fresh out of Academy training can’t yet flag a full board, so straight flat rate would put them under the wage floor every period. The guarantee holds until their flagged hours beat it; then the plan flips to flat rate, dated, with no retro cleanup, as they bank hours toward Certified and the ~520-hour Master ladder.

app.wagetime.com/service/apprentice-guarantee

Apprentice Guarantee · Jun 16–30

2 apprentices on guarantee1 converting to flat rate
FastTrack apprentices paid a guaranteed hourly until flagged hours beat it — converts to flat rate on the effective date.
TechStageClock hrsFlag hrsFlat would payGuaranteePaid
J. NowakFastTrack wk 680.044.0$1,056.00$1,520.00$1,520.00 guarantee
A. VogelFastTrack wk 1282.062.0$1,488.00$1,558.00$1,558.00 guarantee
R. Diazconverting Jul 178.088.0$2,288.00$1,482.00$2,288.00 flat
T. SmallCertified80.092.0$2,760.00$2,760.00 flat
Guarantee holds until flagged hours beat it — R. Diaz converts to flat rate Jul 1, no retro

Replaces the guaranteed-pay spreadsheet the office keeps for green techs — and the conversion that happened three checks too late.

03
THE LEASE-HEAVY CLOSE

The VW sales month, run as payroll instead of a sheet stack.

WageTime settles a Volkswagen sales month where subvented leases dominate the board. Lease-pulled deals often pay a flat unit mini rather than a slice of front-end gross, factory stair-step bonuses reward the volume brackets VW pushes, and cancelled VSC or GAP products charge back against a later period — WageTime computes each per consultant, offsets it against the running draw ledger, and rolls an unreconciled deal forward on its own instead of stalling the whole close. You approve one number.

app.wagetime.com/payroll/commission-close

Commission Close · June

3 subvented leases · mini rate1 negative draw carried
Front-end pack $595/unit applied · subvented lease deals pay unit minis · chargebacks net against June gross before the draw offset
SalespersonUnitsGross commMinis + tiersF&I / chargebacksDraw offsetNet
L. Fischer16$8,120.00+$900.00−$2,800.00$6,220.00
P. Novak13$4,160.00+$1,200.00−$2,800.00$2,560.00
C. Weber · F&I$11,240.00−$980.00−$3,500.00$6,760.00
R. Adler7$2,100.00−$2,800.00−$700.00 carried
M. Reyes10$4,900.00+$500.00−$2,800.00$2,600.00
4 paid · R. Adler −$700 draw carried, not clawed from final pay$18,140.00 netpays on the Jul 3 run

Replaces the per-salesperson lease-deal workbook — and the argument that starts with “my sheet says.”

04
ALTG WARRANTY & THE TRUE-UP

The wage-floor check runs every period, on VW’s tight times.

WageTime tests every Volkswagen tech against the wage floor on VW’s own warranty times. Warranty labor is paid on the Automated Labor Time Guide, which runs tighter than customer-pay, and the service lane straddles the transferable 6/72 People First warranty and today’s 4/50 coverage — so warranty share is high and swings period to period. Each period a tech’s flat-rate earnings are weighed against actual clock hours, and any shortfall becomes a documented true-up on the run — before the check goes out, not after a claim.

app.wagetime.com/service/altg-true-up

ALTG Wage-Floor Check · Jun 16–30

Warranty mix 44%2 techs under floor
Warranty paid on VW’s ALTG times, tighter than customer-pay · effective wage = flat pay ÷ clock hours, tested at $16.50
TechWarranty shareFlat payClock hrsEff. wageTrue-up
K. Berger #0429%$3,381.0078.0$43.35
M. Ortega #0837%$2,214.0076.0$29.13
T. Small #1046%$1,392.0069.0$20.17
S. Patel #1258%$902.0066.5$13.56$195.25
A. Vogel #1861%$611.0062.0$9.85$412.00
True-up total on the Jul 3 run · earning code TRUEUP$607.25

Replaces the by-hand floor check the controller runs when there’s time — because the ALTG doesn’t wait for when there’s time.

05
THE VW–AUDI GROUP CLOSE

Three rooftops, three EINs, one Friday.

A Volkswagen Group point usually runs a VW franchise, an Audi franchise, and a pre-owned company as three separate LLCs — three EINs, three sets of filings — yet one office still has to close them together. WageTime signs the whole group in under a single login, files each rooftop under its own EIN with federal, state, and local taxes and deposits handled for it, and reports either per rooftop or across the group. The Friday run covers all three at once.

app.wagetime.com/group/payday

Group Pay Day · Fri Jul 3

3 companies · 3 EINs · all runs ready
CompanyEINPeople paidNet payTaxesStatus
Rhine Motors VW LLC••-•••339048$168,240Auto-filedReady
Rhine Motors Audi LLC••-•••339134$142,880Auto-filedReady
Rhine Pre-Owned LLC••-•••339212$38,520Auto-filedReady
94 people · three filings, one approval$349,640 netreporting per store or combined

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

Volkswagen dealer payroll FAQ

Our ID.4 techs hold different Volkswagen high-voltage levels — can payroll tie the EV premium to the level?

Yes. The ID.4 EV premium is a rate rule bound to the tech’s current VW high-voltage level, and VW runs four of them. The premium pays only at the level the job requires and starts on the class sign-off date — not the enrollment, and never as a retro adjustment later.

A FastTrack apprentice can’t flag a full board yet — how do we keep them above minimum wage without overpaying?

Pay them a guaranteed hourly floor. WageTime runs the guarantee until the apprentice’s flagged hours beat it, then converts them to flat rate on an effective date. No under-floor periods while they ramp, and no retro cleanup when they graduate toward Certified and the ~520-hour Master ladder.

VW warranty pays on the ALTG, which is tighter than customer-pay — does the minimum-wage true-up handle that?

Yes. Each tech’s flat-rate earnings are divided by actual clock hours every period and tested against the wage floor; a warranty-heavy stretch on VW’s Automated Labor Time Guide that drags a tech below it becomes a documented true-up on the run. Warranty and customer-pay flag hours import split, at their own rates.

Our lot has 2018–2019 People First cars under 6/72 and newer 4/50 cars — does that change payroll?

Not the pay math — the mix. Because two coverage regimes share one service lane, warranty work shows up across a wider band of vehicle ages, and warranty is paid on the tighter times. That makes the per-period wage-floor true-up matter more, which is why WageTime runs it automatically rather than by hand.

We’re on CDK, Reynolds, Dealertrack, or Tekion, with VW times in ELSA and warranty in SAGA — how do the hours 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. ELSA and SAGA stay your service and warranty systems; 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.

We run a VW store, an Audi 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 runs in the same period. At $50 per company plus $8 per person paid, the 94-person VW–Audi–used group in the screens above is $902 a month: $150 in company bases plus $752 in per-person fees.

Bring the pay run that never fits the software.

An ID.4 tech waiting on a high-voltage class, a FastTrack apprentice on a guarantee, a warranty-heavy fortnight on the ALTG, and last month’s lease-deal commission sheets. Twenty minutes with a payroll specialist on a live demo store — if WageTime can’t carry the VW pieces, you’ll know before the meeting ends.

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