Payday should be a pleasant day. In many repair shops it’s the opposite: the owner stays late reconstructing “Andi’s jobs this month” from a stack of receipts, the technician runs his own tally in his head, and the gap between the two becomes an awkward negotiation — every single month.
The problem is almost never intent. It’s the method of counting.
Why manual commission math always ends in drama
Manual commissions rest on three fragile pillars: memory (whose job was whose), recap honesty (which receipts made the count), and midnight arithmetic. All three drift naturally — and every drift lands on the most sensitive spot there is: someone’s income.
Subtler but equally corrosive: unclear rules. When “what do I get for a screen job?” has an answer that shifts with the month’s mood and traffic, your best technician starts feeling the need to “secure” his own income — and that’s where the side jobs at the back bench begin.
The foundation isn’t the formula — it’s the work record
Before any percentages, one prerequisite: every job is recorded under its worker’s name. In Automan that’s the work record — a technician takes a job, does it, and the result attaches to that repair. Set the shop up as a vehicle trade and the role label reads Mechanic instead, but the mechanics of it are unchanged: the job carries the name of whoever did it. From the same record the shop gets three things at once: the commission basis, the evaluation basis, and the warranty basis.
Without work records, even the fairest formula computes on debatable data. With them, the debate dies before it starts — the list is simply opened.
Choosing a scheme: percentage, flat, or both
There is no one right scheme for every shop, and that’s fine. What matters is that the rules are clear up front and computed consistently. Two base patterns that combine well:
- A percentage of the job’s value/profit — fits variable-value work; the technician shares in high-value jobs. Example (illustrative): 30% of a repair’s profit.
- A flat amount per job type — fits standardized work; simple and predictable. Example (illustrative): a fixed amount per screen replacement, or per oil-and-filter change in a workshop.
Four things that are allowed to differ — and why that matters
“Commission” is an easy word for any vendor to print. What separates a scheme you can actually live with from a checkbox on a feature list is how many things are allowed to differ inside it. In Automan there are four:
- The rule attaches per technician. Not one number that governs everyone on the floor. Seniors, juniors, and part-timers can each carry their own rule.
- A percentage or a fixed amount. One rule can be a percentage, another a fixed sum per job — you are not forced to pick one shape for the whole shop.
- Labour and parts have separate rules. Commission on labour is computed by its own rule; commission on parts sold by its own. Shops that treat both the same usually end up paying commission on top of thin goods margin without noticing.
- Exceptions per service type, without dismantling the general rule. The general rule keeps running; particular services — the hardest, the longest, the ones needing special tooling — can carry their own number. Both are live at the same time.
Why this isn’t a luxury: deals struck on a shop floor are rarely one number. “Fifteen for an oil change, but an engine job we split” is a normal sentence in a workshop, and “flat for a screen swap, but accessories are counted differently” is a normal sentence at a phone counter. A scheme offering a single percentage for everything forces you to compute the rest outside the system — and the moment any math lives outside the system, payday drama is back.
It’s all configured once, then computed by the system from work records. One important note for profit-percentage schemes: profit is only as honest as the parts costs beneath it — a system with correct COGS makes commissions correct too.
Transparency is half of fairness
A correct number that can’t be inspected still feels unfair. Because commissions are computed from recorded work, a technician can see their own job list — and payday shifts from negotiation to a quick reconciliation.
The side effect is healthy: open schemes make technicians chase the right thing — completing more jobs well — instead of chasing recap loopholes.
Payment is part of the story too
Shop cashflow doesn’t always align with payday, and a good system accommodates that: salaries and commissions can be paid in stages with clear status (unpaid, partial, settled), so even installments stay recorded — not a vague debt between an owner and their staff.
Where to start
- Agree the scheme up front with the team — percentage, flat, or mixed; write it down, no folklore.
- Discipline the work record: no job without its worker’s name.
- Enter the scheme into the system once, then let the math run itself every period.
After that, payday goes back to being a good day. The details live in technician commissions & payroll.