A complete pay model: each person earns their tier's day rate for every day worked, the pool is days figured multiplied by what a day of that crew costs (tiers plus equipment), and the difference between the pool and what was actually earned is the surplus, split by each person's share of total crew hours.
Also called: pay crew by the day · finish early bonus · labour pool · incentive pay for crews · profit share with the crew
Pay the crew for the days you figured, however fast they finish
A job is figured for a number of days. The pool is those days multiplied by what a day of that crew costs — every man's tier rate plus the equipment allowance. The crew earns its day rates for the days actually worked, and whatever is left in the pool goes back to them. Finish a three-day build in two and the crew keeps the day you saved, and you are onto the next job a day sooner.
One ladder of day rates, priced once, instead of a rate per man
Tiers are a per-org list with a day rate each, edited in place on the Crews tab and retired rather than deleted so old payouts keep their arithmetic. A tier is a rate, not a rank: two men on Tier 2 earn the same day whatever their job title. That is the point of paying this way instead of negotiating with every man separately.
The surplus splits by hours worked, not by tier
The tier decides what a man earns; presence decides what he shares. Once base pay and equipment come out of the pool, the remainder is divided strictly by each person's share of total crew hours. The man who missed a day and worked half of another takes a visibly smaller slice than the man who was there for all of it, which is the fairness question that decides whether the scheme survives contact with a real crew.
A day is a day over six hours — and a long day earns no more
At or above the threshold the full day rate is earned; below it the day prorates against a standard day and can never exceed the rate. Two shifts on one date collapse into one day's attendance. Both numbers are settings, because the next builder does not run a six-hour day. It is a rule anyone on the crew can state in one sentence, which is what makes it stick.
Fuel, equipment and the truck are in the crew day
A per-day allowance is added to the sum of the tier rates to price one crew day, so the pool is funded at what a day actually costs rather than at wages alone. It is charged per crew day, not per person, and it comes off the builder's side of the ledger at the days actually worked. Leave it out and a job one day over reports money still sitting in the pool while you are down.
The number the crew is measured against is written on the job
Each job carries the days its labour was figured for. When nobody has set one the calculation falls back to the scheduled span and says on screen that it did. The pool does not shrink when the crew comes in early — that is the entire incentive, and it is the builder's deliberate bet that buying the empty day back beats watching the work stretch to fill it.
Run long and the overrun comes out of your margin, not their pay
When day rates and equipment exceed the pool there is no surplus to share, and the screen says so in those words rather than showing a negative bonus. The crew still earns its day rates. That is the other side of the bet you made when you fixed the pool, and stating it plainly is what keeps a crew willing to work under it.
A man with no tier is named, not silently paid nothing
Anyone on the crew without a pay tier still appears on the payout with a No tier label and zero base pay, and the panel names him and says where to fix it. The crew cost table flags the same gap and states that the crew's day rate is understated because of it. A configuration hole that quietly pays somebody nothing is the worst way to find out about a configuration hole.
- 1The builder sets a pay ladder of tiers with day rates and puts each crew member on one.
- 2A crew is switched to the 'Day rates + shared surplus' model, with its own equipment-per-day and full-day threshold.
- 3A job is figured for N days (or falls back to the scheduled span).
- 4Hours come from the crew's field-link clock entries, collapsed to one row per person per day.
- 5allotment = daysFigured x (sum of the crew's tier day rates + daily equipment); base pay = what each man earned day by day; surplus = allotment - base pay - equipment actually incurred.
- 6The surplus is split strictly by share of total hours, not by tier.
Labour is sold into a job as one price and a crew's daily cost is known, so a build figured for three days carries a fixed pot of labour money. If the crew finishes in two, the builder is on the next job a day sooner and the saving is real — but keeping it teaches the crew that working faster is worth nothing to them. The pool pays out whether the crew takes three days or two, and the surplus from finishing early goes back to the men who created it. What each man earns is set by his tier; what he takes out of the surplus is set by the hours he actually worked, so the man who missed a day and worked a quarter of another takes a visibly smaller slice than the man who was there throughout.
- Hourly pay giving a crew no incentive to finish early.
- Builders capturing all the upside of a fast build and crews having no stake in it.
- Splitting a bonus fairly across men on different rates and different attendance.
See it on your own jobs
Twenty minutes, your numbers, no slide deck. We’ll build one of your real buildings in front of you and send you the estimate link at the end — yours to keep either way.
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