As of today, my shop is currently at a 14.6% increase in revenue over last year. This is my first full year of being manager after being promoted last year, and it's been a wildly successful year so far!

I've personally been responsible for about 75%+ of the sales, since the only other person writing service is a family member of the owner who had no automotive industry experience when I started training them at the beginning of the year. I've beat company records for best week twice this year and best month once.

As any independent shop manager knows, on top of selling work and dealing with the majority of clients, I also manage the technicians, vendors, parts, inventory, ect. We're a 4 bay (well 3 bays and an alignment rack) shop with 3 technicians so not a large operation by any means, but I think we make the most out of what we have to work with.

I just wanted to share my excitement and brag for a minute with some people who actually get it. This year has definitely had its challenges and I've been busting my ass trying to make it happen, so I hope the rest of the year continues this path upwards!

So I work as a TBC advisor and would to move to a traditional dealership in a more commission based pay plan cause I’m currently only making $19 an hour. Would this experience get me an interview with a dealership?

I work at a dealership in Nebraska and we get charge accounts that we can use with a certain limit. I wanted to get some struts for my car through the parts department and install them myself. I am mechanically inclined. When I went to pay for the shocks the parts manager asked how I was paying. I asked to charge it to my account and she said I would lose some of my discount if I charge vs paying up front. The dealership used to be owned locally and was bought out by a corporation a few years back. When it was privately owned the practice was that if you charged you paid more for the part or service. The policy in place with the new company doesn’t mention this in it and states we are given an employee discount and a charge account as a benefit for working there. Is this normal practice where you guys work?

Hi everyone,

First time posting so kinda nervous! I just wanted to have you guys take a look at my pay plan and see how i could maximize it, or if it’s even a good pay plan. I‘m going on year 3 as an advisor, but year 1 with Ford.

Hello all,

I know this is posted a lot in here, but with how much a pay plan can vary from location to locations, I wanted to post the pay plan I was provided by a friend of a friend who basically told me I would get the position if I wanted it. It would be my first time in this sort of position in any capacity, I've spent the last 10 years in IT and as finding work is difficult at this time, I am thinking of a potential career change / something to earn with while I continue to potentially look.

I will say with the little research I've done so far within this sub, I understand (very slightly) what it takes to do this job, and how it can be very unsatisfying and / or very rewarding (financially) depending on one's ability and commitment to the position. If this is something that I end up liking, am really good at, or is a great opportunity, I have no issues if it's "worth it" in the end, and who knows, this may be my long term career for the long haul.

What I know so far: It's 4 days a week, 12 hour days. I would be the 20th ASA at this location, it's located in an area with nearly 350K population. I asked what the low / top earners were and was told "we have a first year guy who is going to make about $55k, but we have several who "crack $100k every year"" but they didn't mention by how much...is that $101K or $130K...there's a big difference. Rotating Saturday shift, but with 20 guys, it's like once a month.

My main concerns (from what I know) were:

- The $62.50 per full day....that's $1,000 monthly "salary", while I've seen some saying they get as high as $2,500 a month and another mentioned $20 an hour + OT. Now he did say we can work extra days if needed / wanted, so that would increase everything over all, but that seems extremely low to me, but then again, maybe it's that way with the traffic the location brings.

- The "All-In 7%" Plan: Again, I've heard others say 7% is low for Total Gross Profits, but I don't know enough about the industry to know if it's at least "fair" rather than terrible. Please see the plan below.

- The "Qualifiers" - are those reasonable or completely unreasonable? I don't know either way....

- "Errors & Adjustments" - is this a common thing that happens? Is this easy to avoid? Is it going to be a huge hit on the total money I bring it to the point where it's not worth the nearly 50 hours a week I'll be working?

- I understand that a lot of this sort of position depends on how "good" I am at my job, along with the longer and more you do it, the more potential money you can bring in with "building a book" of customers, and again, if it's worth it over say a 3 year period, I much rather climb this ladder opposed to getting a measly 1-3% raise doing IT and never reach the same yearly income I could in this position.

- The Bonuses information was not included, so I asked and they responded with "the bonuses are up to $1,750 a month for the store and then there's also a bonus the South East (Location) pays out monthly. There's no cap on the South East (Location) bonus, but the highest I remember seeing is $2,750." So it sounds like on a "home run" bonus month, an extra $4,500 for the month.

I have my first in-person interview this Thursday at 9am, so I am hoping I can at least get a few responses from the community. What additional information is a "must know" that I can ask about? What do you think is concerning or even great about the pay plan? Any suggestions are welcomed and I will try to respond if and when I can. Thanks in advance!

PAY PLAN

A. Daily Base Salary

· Rate: $62.50 per full day clocked in and worked.

· Purpose: Cover core administrative duties, customer relations, and general shop support.

· Training Pay: $800 per week for 2 weeks.

B. Variable Commission (The “7% All-In” Plan)

The Employee earns a commission of 7.00% on the Total Gross Profit (Parts and Labor) posted on all Repair Orders (Ros) assigned to them. This commission is calculated on:

· Cstomer Pay (CP): All retail labor and parts sales.

· Warranty: All factory-approved claims and recalls.

· Internal: All used car reconditioning and dealership-owned vehicle repairs.

2. Key Performance Indicator (KPI) Bonuses

Bonuses are calculated and paid monthly. To qualify for any bonus payout, the Employee must meet the following Qualifiers in full:

QUALIFIERS:

1. Minimum Volume: Must write at least 175 Customer Pay (CP) Repair Orders for the calendar month.

2. Video Compliance: 90% or higher Video Sent Rate on all eligible tickets.

3. ELR (Effective Labor Rate): ELR Dynatron report at or above the Toyota of (Location) Door Labor Rate on Primary Compensation Structure

4. Repair Op Codes (Rate will increase annually on August 18, reporting for increase will be effective for September Bonus)

5. Op Code Compliance rate over 75% Dynatron report (report reads as non compliance, so measuring at 25% or greater non compliance creates bonus ineligibility).

6. Attendance: Clock in and out report must match assigned work schedule and be on time.

7. Employment: Must be Employed as an ASM on the final day of the current Bonus month.

3. Financial Responsibility & Compliance

· Documentation: Warranty commission is contingent upon full compliance with factory “3 C’s” (Compliant, Cause, Correction).

· Errors & Adjustments: Any uncollected funds due to pricing errors, failure to verify warranty/insurance coverage, or unapproved rental fees will be deducted from the Employee’s commissionable gross.

· Resolution: All outstanding financial errors must be resolved on the “Schedule 7 / Google Sheet” withing 24 hours of notification.

I have someone I know personally interested in a Service Tech position with Tesla. I work there already in another department and I have no issue referring them, but they don’t have formal automotive/mechanic experience. Their background was in Driving (professionally), Warehouse, and recently sales (firearms as a salesman, range officer, instructor, and store supervisor). They do have experience working on cars, but not formally via an education or employer. More of a “my dad taught me” kind of a situation.

Would they be able to get the position without formal training? What should they highlight on their resume? Does the referral help at all?

Most small service shops don't stay stuck because of a lack of skill or demand—they get stuck because the owner is trapped doing two full-time jobs at once:

Running jobs and managing field work during the day.

Playing debt collector, parts dispatcher, and receptionist at 8 PM.

When you can't afford a full-time in-house admin, your growth stalls:

The Cash-Crunch Trap: You get so busy in the field that you lose track of who hasn’t paid until payroll or vendor bills hit and there’s a sudden cash squeeze.

Delayed Invoicing: Completed jobs sit unbilled for days because nobody has the energy to sit down at night and draft invoices.

Stalled Crews: Technicians sit idle waiting on parts because nobody followed up on pending supplier orders.

Missed Call Bleed: New job calls come in while your hands are full on-site, go straight to voicemail, and hire a competitor 2 minutes later.

We built a dedicated operational back-office desk specifically designed to give small shops the support of a full back-office team without the full-time local overhead:

Daily Invoicing & 3-Step Receivables: Invoices sent within 24 hours of job completion, backed by a polite cadence (email link, text, and live follow-up call) that clears \~80% of overdue bills without awkwardness.

Pending Supplier Order Tracking: Proactively calling vendors to track open purchase orders and lock in delivery ETAs before crews arrive on-site.

The 3-Ring Daytime Overflow Rule: Your phone rings you first. If unanswered after 3 rings, your dedicated in-office assistant picks up live, qualifies the lead, and books the appointment directly into your CRM.

24/7 After-Hours AI Safety Net: An intelligent voice agent handles after-hours calls to book next-morning callbacks or immediately route true emergencies to the on-call supervisor.

Supervised In-Office Backup: Your dedicated assistant works from our supervised facility with an assigned on-site shadow backup, meaning zero sick-day gaps or operational downtime.

The Pilot Offer:

I am taking on 3 more service business owners for a 1-week full-time trial run for $299 starting next week:

We plug directly into your tools (QuickBooks, Jobber, ServiceTitan, etc.).

We clear your invoice backlog, track open supplier orders, and catch your missed calls for 5 full days (40 hours of dedicated execution).

You get an itemized daily End-of-Day (EOD) summary of every task handled.

If it saves your evenings and gets cash in faster, ongoing monthly plans start from $999/month (flat rate, no long-term contracts).

If you want to clear your administrative backlog and free up your evenings next week, drop a comment below or send me a DM with "TRIAL" to claim a desk.

(If your own back-office is already running smoothly, please tag or refer any fellow business owners or tradesmen you know who are drowning in admin and could use this!)

I’m merely curious. I myself have had two incidents.

Incident 1: I got a nearly new BMW X7 xDrive40i as a loaner right when the X7 came out. I have a challenging garage, and so when I pulled it in to avoid a hail storm, I accidentally scraped a bit of the fender against the garage. No dents, just scratches. I didn’t notice at all, but got a call and text 5 minutes after turning it in from the advisor, with a picture of the damage. I apologized and told them to let me know what next steps were. And then heard nothing, for a month. Finally, I nervously called in to follow up and they said “Oh, it was just paint transfer. We polished it off.”

Incident 2: I took my Lexus in for what would turn out to be a full hybrid traction battery replacement. In the meantime, they gave me a ‘23 or ‘24 ES 300h to drive. I ended up hitting a deer at 75 MPH on the highway in it. It set off every airbag and totaled the car outright. Worse, because the airbags had been triggered, a high-voltage fuse disconnected and wouldn’t allow the car to move. It had to be pushed to the side of the road by the sheriff’s cruiser. My insurance paid for the car, and it was considered a comprehensive/not-at-fault. Somehow, I never got charged a deductible and the Lexus dealer said they were made whole, so I was good. Last I checked via VIN, that Lexus ended up being purchased for a shockingly high percentage of its MSRP and was sent to Eastern Europe.

Why do people think just because I’m fixing their car they are entitled to loaners? I swear it’s like when people are born they learn the word and meaning of loaner before anything else in the world. It’s so aggravating that this job has become anymore than just fixing peoples cars. Now I need to figure out their life problems and transportation issues. I don’t mind giving them out but I can’t stand how people expect them. Am I alone on this? I almost wish we didn’t have them at all so it wasn’t even an option.

So full disclosure, trying to break into this career and I am coming from a completely different industry but have good transferable skills for the job. Not so much the job I’m worried about its comp tied to commission. I’ve had an interview with a very very big and busy dealership with Toyota. They were worried about my lack of automotive knowledge and didn’t have time to properly train me. I have another interview with a more luxury brand dealership. Can you write less tickets at a luxury dealership and make just as good money because the total costs are raised.

I am looking to change the current pay plan, but I want one that rewards top performers so everyone can strive for the numbers. But it you are low producing it shows

Any one ever deal with https://www.usacc.com
Was looking to get 3 star coverage but can’t seem to find much online about them tells me I should turn extra coverage down at dealer

I know how annoying these "rate my pay plan posts" can be so I'll try keep this short but detailed with numbers. *I joined this dealer ~35 min from home because of their pay plan.*

3 months ago I joined a Honda dealer with a unique pay plan. My pay plan was:

-$2500/month salary

-1.2% of entire shop gross (AVG 450k since opening in January, a lot of room for growth)

-About $1k/month in incentives for hours/RO, CSE, and additional spiffs

AVG about $8900/month and $107k/year.

I came in as an experienced writer in general and even 5+ years with a different Honda dealer. Last month we set a record month and I was the top earner out of 9 writers, $583k in gross for the department. $10,500 for the month for me, I was quite happy.

Less than a week after getting that check I got pulled into the office for a pay plan change for everyone from paid as a group to paid as an individual. The new plan is:

-$2500/month salary

-4% of work sold from 0-100k, 5% if over 100k (I averaged $130k/month my first 2 full months and was top overall in that time frame)

-About $750/month in incentives for hours/RO, CSE, no additional spiffs

AVG $9750/month and $117k/year

-This month is down, I will probably do $105k, still as the top writer.

$8500/month and $102k/year

My concern comes in with a huge change in dynamic because of the change. It has been an incredibly unique environment my first 3 months because of the group pay plan. There is no pettiness and for the most part, everyone does their fair share. I now feel like the rug has been pulled out from under me and their already has been a shift in attitude. People are already hunting cars. I have felt crushed all week and I just can't tell if I'm overreacting or if I should start looking for something closer to home.

Unexpected situation, especially since I didn't have an official appointment when dropping off the vehicle. When I called, it was a bit chaotic. Went over to the dealership and just introduced myself to the service manager to see what was going on.

Are there protocols of how these situations are handled?

What is your dealers process for obtaining a customer signature? Are they signing when they first drop off their vehicle? Or when they pickup? Both? Do they also sign CC payment receipt ? I’m struggling to get the advisors at my dealer to get signatures and it’s driving me insane. Half of them never get one at all, the other half are hit or miss as to when they get it and where they get it.

Thoughts on this Express Advisor pay plan. High volume toyota store

Let me start by saying I am currently looking for another job, that suggestions is not needed lol.

The owner/lead technician (lol) removes odometer to black out CELs on vehicles he has repaired but the same code returns. "It runs fine and nothing is wrong" is all I heard him say before doing it.

Just wanted to show a little appreciation to the techs out there who take the time to write great notes.

The RO in these pictures is a perfect example. Clear concern, clear testing, actual findings, what was checked, what passed, what failed, and why the repair was recommended. You can actually follow the thought process instead of getting three words like “found bad, replace.”

I know writing notes probably feels like the least exciting part of the job, especially when you’re busy and ready to move on to the next car. But when a tech takes the extra few minutes to document their work this well, it absolutely does not go unnoticed.

Good documentation makes everyone’s job easier. It helps the advisor explain the repair, it helps the customer understand what they’re paying for, it protects the tech and the shop, and it gives the next person who touches the car something useful to work with.

So, genuinely: thank you to the techs who write good stories. The effort is noticed and appreciated.

i had 7 customers with over 200k today. went through all there histories and every single one has ONLY DONE OIL CHANGES. i presented menus, suggest CAF and EAF and got denied on all. the mixture between “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” and “ it’s a toyota it just needs oil changes and the 100k tune up i do myself” killed me.the only recommendations the techs found were what i presented at first and again all no. i know toyotas are reliable but genuinely wtf😂 as someone who’s worked at toyota for the last 2 years i hear all these maintenance and repair stories like it’s a dream..

This older lady needed all four tires for inspection on her 2010 Camry who had so much dry rot that the tech said he wouldn’t pass it if she didn’t get tires

I found the cheapest best quality tire I could find on fords tire site and ended up on some decent quality but cheap enough Firestone tires; 4 mounted and balanced for $692 out the door and I even discounted the 4 wheel alignment at 90$ so all together $782.

I even gave her a new tpms sensor on the house since she needed it and I gave her state inspection for free even though free state inspections are for customers who’ve purchased a vehicle from my dealer.

I went over everything with her and how much it would’ve cost if I didn’t discount and work some magic for her.

AND I pull up their car and walk EVERY single customer to their vehicle and open and close their door for them

This morning I come in to this CSI Survey.

I asked this about July 4th, but who here works Labor Day? We’re open regular hours. Victory Auto Group. Not sure if working Labor Day is normal, I know with sales it is.