A single store pays flat-rate techs split across warranty and customer-pay time, sales on draws and minis, F&I on chargebacks, advisors on labor gross, and hourly crew, all in the same run. Generic payroll handles none of the hard parts, so a controller does, one spreadsheet at a time. WageTime runs the dealership pay run the way it actually works: the commission close, the flat-rate true-up, cert-tied rates, and imported flag hours. Every EIN in the group, one Friday.
These aren’t edge cases. They’re every period at every store, and every one is either hours of unpaid office work or a liability quietly compounding while nobody has time to check.
Gross commissions, unit minis, volume tiers, F&I chargebacks netting against draws: documented, approved, and keyed by hand before payroll can run. One sheet per salesperson, one dispute per sheet, one late night per month.
Warranty time flags tighter than customer-pay. A warranty-heavy period drags a tech’s effective rate toward the minimum-wage floor, and the top-up is owed whether or not anyone did the math. Right now the math lives in the controller’s head.
An ASE cert lapses, or a tech levels up mid-cycle. The flat-rate figure should move on the effective date. Instead it moves three paychecks later, as a retro adjustment and an argument at the parts counter.
Every period someone exports closed repair orders from CDK, Reynolds, Dealertrack, or Tekion and re-types the hours into payroll. Every re-typed number is a chance to short a flat-rate check, and a shorted flat-rate check is a dispute you’ll hear about all week.
Each rooftop is its own company with its own filings, and the group still closes payroll once, on the same day. Generic providers answer with four logins and a consolidation workbook the bookkeeper keeps by hand.
Volume bonuses that clear after the close, aged-unit spiffs, contest cash: they land mid-cycle, and the store still owes correct tax treatment and, often, a check this week, not at the next scheduled run.
Five of these get a real product screen below, shown with sample store data. The commission-close details get straight answers in the FAQ.
This is the week generic payroll leaves you to survive alone. In WageTime it’s a screen: gross commissions, unit minis, volume tiers, and F&I with chargeback netting calculate per person, draw offsets apply against the running balance, and any unreconciled deal rolls forward instead of holding the whole close hostage. You approve a number, not a stack of sheets.
| Salesperson | Units | Gross comm | Minis + tiers | F&I / chargebacks | Draw offset | Net |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Angela P. | 14 | $9,240.00 | +$1,000.00 | - | −$3,000.00 | $7,240.00 |
| Marcus D. | 11 | $6,820.00 | +$500.00 | - | −$3,000.00 | $4,320.00 |
| Devon R. · F&I | - | $12,480.00 | - | −$1,150.00 | −$4,000.00 | $7,330.00 |
| Tyler B. | 6 | $2,400.00 | - | - | −$3,000.00 | −$600.00 carried |
| Sofia M. | 9 | $5,050.00 | +$500.00 | - | −$3,000.00 | $2,550.00 |
Replaces the commission workbook, the deal-by-deal recheck, and the argument that starts with “my sheet says.”
Warranty time flags tighter than customer-pay, so a warranty-heavy stretch drags flat-rate earnings toward the minimum-wage floor. Every period, each tech’s flat-rate earnings are divided by actual clock hours and tested against the floor. A shortfall becomes a documented true-up earning on the run, before the check goes out, not after a claim comes in.
| Tech | Warranty share | Flat earnings | Clock hrs | Effective | True-up |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| R. Okafor #03 | 18% | $3,638.80 | 74.5 | $48.84 | - |
| D. Klein #07 | 26% | $2,786.00 | 76.5 | $36.42 | - |
| P. Nguyen #11 | 57% | $1,584.00 | 70.0 | $22.63 | - |
| L. Ferro #19 | 24% | $865.20 | 68.0 | $12.72 | $256.80 |
| M. Vega #21 | 61% | $576.00 | 61.5 | $9.37 | $438.75 |
Replaces the by-hand check the controller runs when there’s time, because the liability doesn’t wait for when there’s time.
ASE certs and manufacturer tiers gate a tech’s flat-rate figure, and ASE credentials expire on a five-year cycle. In WageTime, rates bind to certifications with effective dates: level up, and the new rate starts on the right day; let a cert drift toward lapse, and it’s flagged before it lands, with the cost of the lapse in plain numbers, not a surprise three paychecks later.
| Tech | Level | Rate rule | Watching | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| R. Okafor #03 | ASE Master + L1 | $44.00/flag hr | L1 expires Aug 8 → $38.00 on Sep 1 if lapsed | At risk |
| D. Klein #07 | ASE Master | $35.00/flag hr | Recert due Mar 2027 | Current |
| P. Nguyen #11 | ASE A1-A5 | $27.50 → $32.00/flag hr | Master review passed | Rate change Aug 1 |
| L. Ferro #19 | ASE A1, A4 | $21.00/flag hr | Two exams scheduled | Current |
Replaces the whiteboard of who’s Master and who’s due, and the retro-pay cleanup after a quiet lapse.
We import clock and flag hours so there’s no double entry. Closed-RO flag time and time-clock hours land in one review screen, matched to the pay period, split warranty vs. customer-pay, tied to the ROs they came from. Time tracking flows into payroll, and when the run finishes it posts to QuickBooks mapped by department, so the books show fixed-ops vs. variable labor without the bookkeeper keying a journal entry.
| Tech | Clock hrs | CP flag | Warranty flag | Total flag | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| R. Okafor #03 | 74.5 | 66.8 | 14.2 | 81.0 | Ready |
| D. Klein #07 | 76.5 | 58.2 | 21.4 | 79.6 | Ready |
| P. Nguyen #11 | 70.0 | 24.1 | 33.5 | 57.6 | Ready |
| L. Ferro #19 | 68.0 | 31.0 | 10.2 | 41.2 | 1 RO open |
| M. Vega #21 | 61.5 | 12.5 | 19.5 | 32.0 | Ready |
Replaces the period-end export-reformat-retype ritual, and the two-week pay dispute that starts with one transposed digit.
Dealer groups hold each store as its own company: separate LLC, separate EIN, separate filings. WageTime treats that as the default, not an exception: one login across the group, each company filing under its own EIN with every federal, state, and local tax handled automatically and deposits included, reporting per store or combined. 1099 contractors (the detail vendor, the lot-porter crew) run alongside W-2 employees on the same pay day, and off-cycle spiff runs cost nothing extra.
| Company | EIN | People paid | Net pay | Taxes | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Summit Auto Group LLC | ••-•••4821 | 62 | $214,380 | Auto-filed | Ready |
| Summit Import Center LLC | ••-•••7702 | 38 | $131,240 | Auto-filed | Ready |
| Summit Collision LLC | ••-•••1187 | 17 | $52,610 | Auto-filed | Ready |
Replaces a payroll login per LLC, and the consolidation workbook that ties the group together every Friday.
Yes. That’s the month-end commission close. Gross commissions, unit minis, volume tiers, and F&I with chargeback netting calculate in the system, draw offsets apply against a running ledger, and any unreconciled deal rolls forward instead of holding the close hostage. Draws carry threshold flags, and recovery from a final paycheck is blocked where state law prohibits it. Bring one real month to the demo and watch it close.
Flat-rate earnings are divided by actual clock hours each period and tested against the wage floor; a warranty-heavy stretch that drags a tech below it becomes a documented true-up earning on the run, before the check goes out. Flag hours can carry two buckets (warranty and customer-pay) at their own rates, and cert-tied rates change on their effective date.
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. Finished payroll also posts to QuickBooks mapped by department. Tell us your DMS on the demo and we’ll confirm the exact flow for your setup.
One login, one pay day. Each rooftop runs under its own EIN with its own federal, state, and local filings, deposits included, and reporting comes per store or combined. Adding the next rooftop means adding a company, not adding a vendor, and the group approves once instead of closing three payrolls and a consolidation workbook.
Yes. The pay plans are the same shape (flat-rate service, commissioned sales, F&I, and hourly crew) whether you sell new, used, or both, and whether you run one lot or a group. Franchise cert ladders and warranty-time splits simply switch off when they don’t apply; the commission close, true-up, and multi-EIN group reporting don’t.
$50 per month per company, plus $10 per month per person paid that month. No long-term contracts, cancel anytime. The three-rooftop group in the screens above, 117 people paid, comes to $1,320 for the month: $150 in company bases plus $1,170 in per-person fees. Payroll runs are unlimited, so off-cycle spiff and final-check runs cost nothing extra, and year-end W-2s and 1099s are included, with 1099 contractors running alongside your W-2 employees.
Onboarding and migration are full-service: a specialist configures your entities, pay plans, and people with you instead of handing you a checklist. It’s paid work, not a “free migration” teaser, and we’ll scope the cost and timing on the demo. Support after go-live is real humans, around the clock, not a ticket queue.
Last month’s commission sheets, a warranty-heavy fortnight of flag hours, the cert list off the whiteboard. 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