Track technician time and commission

Knowing who did which job, and how many hours they billed, is how you pay a fair commission and spot who needs help. AutoShop POS records this through the labour lines on each invoice: the line’s quantity is hours and the line carries the technician’s name. Attendance gives you the other half of the picture: the hours each technician was actually on site.

Before you start

• Add technicians as users marked as service staff in add staff and roles.
• Set up labour as hourly services in add labour services and rates.
• Write down your commission scheme: for example a percentage of labour sales, a rate per billed hour, or a bonus above a weekly hours target.
• For attendance and payroll you need the Shop or Fleet plan. See the pricing page.

Steps

1. Assign a technician on every labour line. When you build a quotation, job sheet or sale, use the service staff picker on each labour line to choose who did the work. If two technicians shared a job, split it into two labour lines with each person’s hours.
2. Enter billed hours as the quantity. For a job your labour guide rates at 2.3 hours, enter 2.3, whatever time it actually took. This is the flag-hour figure.
3. Make it a rule at the counter. Agree that no invoice is completed without a technician on each labour line. Missing names are the main reason reports come out wrong.
4. Turn on attendance (Shop and Fleet). In the HRM section, enable attendance and, if your account offers it, set the working hours your shop keeps. The menu may be labelled slightly differently on your account.
5. Have technicians clock in and out. Each technician signs in on the shop tablet or their phone and uses clock-in at the start of the day and clock-out at the end. Managers can correct a missed clock-out from the attendance list.
6. Run the service staff report. Go to Reports → Service staff report (or the report listing sales by service staff). Pick the date range, such as last week, and the location. You will see each technician’s lines, hours and labour totals.
7. Compare with attendance. Open the attendance report for the same dates. Divide billed hours by clocked hours for each technician to get a productivity figure.
8. Work out commission. Apply your scheme to the report: for example labour total × your percentage, or billed hours × your per-hour rate. Export the report if you prefer to do this in a spreadsheet.
9. Pay through payroll (Shop and Fleet). In HRM → Payroll, create the pay run for the period and add the commission as an allowance or line according to how your payroll is set up. Ask support if you want help setting up allowances.

The technicians page has more on labour time and flag hours.

Check it worked

• The service staff report shows every technician who worked in the period, with hours that match a sample of their invoices.
• The attendance report shows a clock-in and clock-out for each working day.
• The commission you calculated for one technician matches a hand check on two or three of their invoices.

Common problems

• A technician’s hours look too low. Some labour lines were saved without a technician. Filter recent sales, find the lines with no service staff and edit them.
• Hours are counted twice. The same job was billed on two invoices, often a draft and a final sale. Delete the unused draft.
• A technician forgot to clock out. Their day shows as open or very long. A manager can correct the record in attendance; agree a rule for who does this.
• Payroll does not show commission. Commission is not added to payroll automatically unless your account is set up for it. Add it as a pay component, or ask support.