Dent Shop Manager

Help center · Money

Payroll

Clear a car for payroll
Run the weekly payroll report
Scan a receipt into expenses
Payments and rentals

Dent Shop Manager pays your people the way PDR shops actually pay: a flat drop (an advance per car, for the people who get one) plus a backend commission, either a flat amount or a percent of the car’s gross profit. On each claim you record the insurance payments, expenses and customer charges, then clear the car for payroll once it’s delivered and paid. Cleared cars roll up into the weekly payroll report, and paid amounts are frozen so nobody is paid twice.

Who can do this

  • Payroll is part of the paid plans (Monthly, Annual and up).
  • Entering payments, expenses, charges and payouts: members who can see financials (Owner, Manager and Admin by default; the Owner can turn it on for others).
  • Clear for payroll and Un-clear: Owner, Manager or Admin.
  • Changing unpaid amounts on a cleared car that’s partly paid: Owner only.
  • Sales reps and technicians see only their own pay, on the Payroll page and in the phone app.

Steps

1. Record the money on the claim

  1. Open the claim and click the Finance tab.
  2. Under Payments & expenses, enter the Initial insurance payment. Tick received when the check arrives and set the date.
  3. Click + Add supplement for each supplement (there’s no limit) and tick received when each one is paid.
  4. When every insurance payment is in, tick All payments received.
  5. Under Expenses (parts, rental, admin fee, misc), choose a category (Parts, Rental, Admin fee, Misc or Other), type a label, the amount and an optional date, and click Add.
  6. Under Customer charges, add money collected from the customer beyond the insurance pay, such as Rental damage or Fuel. Charges add to gross.
  7. When every parts and rental invoice is entered, tick All costs entered (parts & rental invoices).

Everything saves as you go. The right-hand card shows Gross profit and Shop net.

2. Scan a receipt or insurance check

  1. On the Finance tab, click Scan a document and pick a photo (JPG, PNG, WEBP or GIF) of an invoice or an insurance check.
  2. Wait while it reads the document (usually under a minute).
  3. For an invoice: check the Category, Label, Amount ($) and Date on the paper, fix anything that doesn’t match the paper, and click Add expense.
  4. For an insurance check: check the Amount ($) and click Record as initial payment (or Add as supplement if the initial payment is already recorded).

The photo stays attached, and a 📎 link next to the line lets you view it later.

3. Check the payouts

  1. Scroll to the Payouts section (drop and backend). Everyone assigned to the car (sales, tech, admin) appears automatically with their default pay.
  2. To pay someone else on this car, click + Add person, choose the team member and their role (Sales, Tech or Admin) and click Add.
  3. To change one person’s pay on this car only, click Edit. Set the drop $, tick split to pay the drop in two parts (and enter the first part), and set the backend as a percent or tick flat for a flat amount. Click Save.

4. Clear the car for payroll

  1. Click Clear for payroll. The button only works when:
    • the car is Delivered,
    • all insurance payments are received,
    • a shop-paid rental has its rental invoice entered as an expense, and
    • All costs entered is ticked. If something is missing, the reason shows under the button.
  2. Once cleared, you’ll see “Cleared for payroll”.

5. Pay people

  1. On a cleared car, click Pay next to a drop (or Drop 1 and Drop 2 for a split drop) or a backend to mark it paid. It shows the date it was paid.
  2. Click 📎 attach to add proof of payment (a check photo or a transfer screenshot).

6. Run the weekly payroll

  1. In the left menu, click Payroll. It opens on the current week, Monday to Sunday.
  2. Change From and To if needed and click Run.
  3. The Summary tab lists every cleared car in the range, rolled up per employee: Drop, Backend, Total and YTD. Click a name to see which cars produced their pay.
  4. The Payments tab lists actual payments by payment date. Filter by Person, Role and Status (Paid or Owed).
  5. Use the buttons at the top: Email statements sends each employee their pay statement, Download CSV exports the report, and Report PDF downloads the whole report. The PDF button on a person’s row downloads their own pay statement.

Good to know

  • Pay lock: once a car is cleared, its pay, expenses, charges and payment amounts are locked. Click Un-clear to make changes. Once someone on the car has been paid, only the Owner can change the unpaid amounts, and the app asks you to confirm first. Paying, attaching proof and the received boxes are never locked.
  • Paid drops and backends are frozen, so a car can’t be paid twice.
  • If a car with a drop already paid is marked Total Loss, that drop becomes money the person owes the shop. The payout shows “Owes the shop” so you see it before you pay them next.
  • A second sales rep or tech on a car splits that commission 50/50.
  • Default pay for each person is set on the Team page (Pay), and shop-wide defaults for new hires under Settings > Default pay rates.
  • In the phone app, the Payroll tab shows the week’s totals (or “Your pay this week” for reps and techs), and the claim’s Finance screen has the same payments, expenses, scanning and payouts.