Bill BrownFounder of ServiceTitan Hacks community (9k+ pros) | INC 5000 Contractor | Helping contractors win with AI & Automation

Mess Up Payroll Once? You Lose Their Trust 💸😬

18 Jul 2025

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Short monologue about the critical importance of perfect accuracy when calculating commissions and running payroll for straight-commission technicians. The speaker (a payroll/commission administrator) warns that a single payroll mistake destroys trust, leads employees to monitor pay closely, and reduces technician motivation regardless of the error’s cause.

I was the one who calculated all of our commissions, ran our payroll for many, many years. If you screw up once you're straight commission people, they don't trust you. If you mess up their paycheck one time now they feel like they have to watch every single time. So it's kind of one of those things that you've got to get it right 100% of the time. Otherwise you get unmotivated technicians because they don't trust the system, they don't trust your. They think you're trying to cheat them out when really maybe it was their fault that their commissions weren't right, but still, they're going to come back at you.