Stan McWilliams has seen a lot of changes in the auto collision industry since he started in the late 1990s. “When I first started, I was handwriting estimates,” McWilliams said, “and when the business I worked for switched to CCC in 1998, CCC would send you a disk, and you’d update it once a month. So, I’ve seen a lot of changes in how that part of the business runs.”
From handwriting estimates to updating CCC technology with floppy disks, McWilliams has experienced firsthand how technology has evolved. He’s been a body shop manager, spent a decade working for major insurance companies, and is now the owner of Gator Collision Centers in Humble, TX. Today, he’s using CCC® Payroll to manage his 16-employee shop and saving hours per week.
Gator Collision Centers
Humble, TX
281-318-7757
gatorcollisioncenters.com
Facebook: @GatorCollisionCentersGatorCollisionCenters
Instagram: @GatorCollisionCenters
Company At A Glance...
Type: Collision Repair
Facility Employees: 16
In Business Since: 2016
Number of Locations: One
Combined Production Space: 16,000 square feet
Located in the Houston metropolitan area, Gator Collision occupies a 16,000-square-foot shop that needs every bit of space to accommodate the large trucks they service. “Being on the outskirts of Houston means we see a lot of trucks — 1500, 2500, 3500 duallys — and they take up a lot of space,” McWilliams said.
McWilliams knew he needed a payroll solution that could handle the shop’s unique needs without requiring him to manage everything on-premises in the body shop office.
Owner Stan McWilliams said using CCC® Payroll offers transparency and saves hours per week.
CCC Payroll checked all those boxes by integrating everything into a single system to track labor, production and employee pay, eliminating the need to input information into other payroll solutions. Plus, it features an easy-to-read dashboard to see pay cycles, payroll funding and potential processing errors.
“I don’t want to be bouncing from one system to another,” McWilliams said. “The biggest advantage for me is that CCC Payroll integrates everything into one system. I can do everything there. I track all my labor, do all my payroll, and calculate our taxes through CCC. It’s just a lot easier to do it that way, and it saves us so much time.”
McWilliams also found the CCC Payroll interface to be more user-friendly than other systems he’s used before. Learning to use it was easy and the transition was smooth, thanks to the training and support provided by CCC.
“CCC’s training was great,” McWilliams said. “We had a few people help us get set up and trained on the system — it wasn’t difficult to learn — and when the training was finished, they provided ongoing support. In the beginning, we had quite a few questions and they were always accessible when we needed them. Now, I really don’t need to make those calls.”
Profitability is always a priority for collision repair shop owners, and even small accounting errors can lead to significant losses. Luckily, “CCC Payroll won’t let you make a mistake,” McWilliams said. “In the past, I know I’ve made the mistake where I’ve overpaid on ROs, but CCC Payroll catches it when things don’t add up. The system knows exactly what the costs should be for every job we do, and they won’t let me make an error without an override.”
McWilliams appreciates that he can use CCC® Payroll off-site, offering the freedom to expand his business seamlessly.
CCC Payroll, purpose-built to accommodate the collision repair industry’s unique compensation structures, also supports McWilliams’ commitment to pay transparency, a value he has always prioritized as an employer.
“I know that some shops don’t share estimates with employees, but transparency has always been important to me, and I’ve always done that,” said McWilliams. “CCC Payroll makes that easy, and my techs like that all the ROs are included on the pay stub because they can see that they got paid for that particular RO.”
With an eye on future growth, McWilliams plans to open another shop, and CCC Payroll will play a key role in managing payroll for both locations.
“One of the reasons I wanted to switch to CCC Payroll is because I’m planning on opening another shop,” McWilliams said. “Because it’s a one-system tool that I can actually work on when I’m off location, it means that I’ll be able to manage payroll for both shops without having two separate payroll systems. I don’t have to be physically at the shop to work on CCC Payroll.”
For Gator Collision, CCC Payroll has provided transparency, peace of mind, and the ability to expand the business seamlessly without the headache of creating a new payroll system.
As McWilliams puts it: “It offers a lot of freedom.”
CCC Intelligent Solutions
877-208-6155
www.cccis.com/payroll
Facebook: @CCCIS
LinkedIn: @ccc-intelligent-solutions
To read more auto body shop profiles from the June 2025 Shop and Product Showcase, click here.
