Configurable Payroll: Streamlining Tech Compensation with ServiceTitan

Managing payroll in the trades can be a nightmare — especially when handling commissions, bonuses, and multi-department structures.

Just ask Chelsea Myers, HVAC Service Manager at Above & Beyond in Oklahoma City, who used to do the process manually.

“We printed out the timesheets for each technician,” Myers says on a recent episode of the Mastering ServiceTitan podcast. “We do split payroll, so they have an hourly rate, and then they have commission and bonuses. So we would print out the timesheet for each technician, and literally go through every single job on the dispatch board, figure out their pay amount, and write it on the timesheet. Then we would give them the timesheet when we could get it to them. Sometimes, we'd send it to them in an email. Sometimes, they'd come by the office. It was nuts.”

In this podcast recap, learn how Above & Beyond calmed the chaos with ServiceTitan’s Configurable Payroll.

Optimizing the Payroll Process

To alleviate some of the payroll burden, Myers first implemented some of ServiceTitan’s core product offerings. 

“Once I got that set up, it was a little bit easier,” Myers says. “The core product has some really great features. If you have a really good deal on a pricebook item and want to incentivize the techs to sell it, you can go into that specific item and say, ‘I want to give an extra 3% on this particular item when it goes on to the invoice.’ Then, you can set in the tech profile, to give the technician 5% of everything he sells. Maybe this other technician is a little bit less experienced, so you only want to give him 2%. There is quite a bit of flexibility with the core product.”

Still, payroll was a big job and Myers knew there was opportunity with ServiceTitan’s automated solution.

“ When you have your ServiceTitan power user spending eight hours every two weeks running payroll, it’s time to ask, ‘OK, is it worth the money that we're going to spend to implement this product?’”

After learning that Configurable Payroll was available in ServiceTitan’s The Works package, Above & Beyond decided to take the leap. 

“It’s a game-changer,” Myers says. “Before it would take me six to eight hours. Now, I can get payroll done in an hour and a half, two hours tops. And that's on a busy week.”

Configurable Payroll Features

In the core product, if you want a tech to be paid more based on what they sell, you’d set that in the pricebook. 

“Configurable Payroll has a profile. So you set up your profiles for each technician, and then once they're in the profile, it pays them the same way,” Myers says. “So we have a plumbing service profile, plumbing install. We also have first, second, and third levels for different levels of experience. It's a lot of “if-then” statements. So if it's under the plumbing service business unit, then pay him a flat rate of the invoice.

“There are lots of different options with Configurable Payroll. You could put in an Excel spreadsheet and say, ‘I don't want commission paid on any of these items.’ And it will not pay commission on those items,” Myers adds. “Or, ‘Every time you see this item, give him a $10 spiff.’ There's all kinds of cool things that you can do to be very flexible with your payroll.”

Configurable Payroll supports Above & Beyond’s hybrid pay schedule, in which technicians earn an hourly rate based on experience in addition to commissions on equipment sold. 

“Another thing we do that's kind of cool is we give techs a 3% lead set. So if they go out to an AC tune up and they identify that the water heater is leaking, then our plumber sells the water heater, the HVAC tech gets 3%,” Myers says. “We can do all of that in Configurable Payroll.”

Configurable Payroll Tips and Tricks 

If you’re considering Configurable Payroll, Myers says to make a list of all the ways you pay your staff. Make sure most or all of those options are supported by the software. Myers notes they did have to make a couple changes before implementation. She also utilized ServiceTitan’s implementation team to make the process go smoother. 

“I'm so happy that we did,” Myers says. “The implementation team was really great. We would meet every week and I could ask any questions that came up from running payroll.” 

Myers recommends performing periodic spot checks to ensure the software is calculating payroll as intended.

“It’s not set it and forget it. You add pricebook items, and sometimes they need to go in certain categories,” Myers says. “As your business moves and shakes, sometimes you need to make sure everything still works the way that you want it to work.”

You can find this interview and many more by subscribing to Mastering ServiceTitan on Apple Podcasts, on Spotify, or here.

Know a business that could use a bit of muscle from ServiceTitan? Refer them here!

Listening on a desktop & can’t see the links? Just search for Mastering ServiceTitan in your favorite podcast player.