How much control does a master have over its dealers?

A dealer network works when the master keeps hold of what matters and the dealer is free to run their own shop. Where that line sits is different for every dealer: a workshop that joined last week is not a tuner you have worked with for five years.

On TunerEngine the line is drawn with switches, a set for each dealer, on that dealer's page in your own portal. This post goes through all of them, and through everything else you decide: what a dealer pays you, how far they may owe you, when their files stop, and who sees what. Every switch is also listed by name, in the portal's own groups.

Where do you set what a dealer can do?

On the dealer's own page, under Your network. It has three tabs that matter here:

• Features: the switches, grouped as Tuning, File tools, AI, Workspace, Dealer hubs and Dashboard widgets.
• Account: how they pay you, how much they may owe, and their balance and statement.
• Settings: the name you see them by, your own notes, blocking them and closing them.

You and your admins set these. Your tuners work the jobs your dealers send and cannot open the dealer pages. A change reaches the dealer's portal at once, or within a few minutes if it cannot be reached right then, and every change is written down with who made it and what it was before.

What does a new dealer start with?

That depends on the seat you add them on. A Dealer starts by sending you jobs, and little else: their customers upload on the dealer's portal, in the dealer's name, and every job comes to you. A Dealer Pro starts with its own tuning on, with the switches a tuning shop needs first: uploading tuned files, the vendor connectors, quick decrypt, and a branded plan to sell to its own trade customers.

A few things start on for every dealer, because a dealer's customers expect them and switching them off would take away something already in use: number-plate lookup on your key, express turnaround, messages between their own staff, the support assistant on Telegram, the AI assistant on your key when you share it, and every box on their dashboard. Everything else starts off. You open it when the dealer is ready, one dealer at a time or for all of them with one switch.

What does Own tuning change?

Own tuning is the switch that matters most. Off, every job a dealer takes goes to you. On, they tune on their own portal and send you only the jobs they choose, and they can take a job back until you accept it.

Own tuning also opens a set of switches that only work while it is on:

Switch Own tuning off and every one of these goes off with it, whatever its own switch says. Dyno Studio is the exception: a dealer who only sends you jobs can still make dyno sheets for their customers. Two switches on the list change nothing yet, the hex editor and the game leaderboard, and the page with every switch says so beside them.

What can you give their customers?

The Dealer hubs group is about the people your dealer serves, and none of it needs Own tuning:

• the workshop diary, with a booking form on the dealer's own website;
• the support assistant on Telegram, and the same assistant as a chat on their portal;
• number-plate lookup, on your key, for a dealer whose plates it can read;
• an express turnaround they can sell, with those jobs arriving in your queue at that priority;
• the vehicle hub, the marketing videos and the knowledge base;
• Lead Finder, which the dealer buys on their own licence, with your tick as the second lock;
• a branded plan they can sell to their own trade customers.

Two more decide who talks to the customer. On the jobs a dealer sends you, their customer's messages can be yours to answer, so the dealer's inbox stops showing them a reply owed. And you decide whether the dealer can still write in that conversation, or only read it. A job the dealer tunes itself always stays theirs.

How do you set what each dealer pays you?

On their Account tab, for that dealer alone. They pay the same price for every job, a price per service, a rate for each credit the job costs on their portal, your own price list, or nothing through the portal at all, settled between you. Their account counts money in the currency you choose, or credits.

Express and urgent jobs have their own line: the dealer keeps what their customer paid extra, pays your express and urgent rates, or pays a rate you set just for them. You can also promise one dealer an express time of its own. New jobs use what you save, and charges already made stay as they were.

What happens when a dealer owes you too much?

Each dealer has a balance with you: what they paid in, less what their jobs cost. One rule in your settings covers all your dealers: they may always send, not once their balance is at zero, or up to a credit limit. Each dealer can have a limit of their own, and days to pay.

A job past the limit is not taken. It waits on the dealer's portal and comes through by itself once they top up or you raise their limit, and you are told it was tried. A dealer past their limit or their days to pay shows as Late payment at the top of your list. Every payment you record, every free credit and every correction is a line on their statement, for any period, and the statement exports. For the habits that keep this simple, see how a master bills its dealers.

Can you stop a dealer completely?

Yes, in two ways. Block a dealer and new files from them are refused, and they are told. Jobs already in work finish and their balance stays. A file they try to send waits on their portal, and comes through by itself if you unblock them.

Close a dealer and their seat is free for the next one. Only you, the owner, can close a dealer, and their files are kept.

Who pays for a dealer's add-ons and seats?

You do, on your own bill, at the list price: the AI package €24 a month, File Match €35, priority support €35, an extra staff sign-in €5.90, extra storage €2.30 for each 100 GB, and white label €12, with the first 5 dealers included while you have white label yourself. In My account you add a dealer with its add-ons and pay once; an add-on you switch off stays to the end of what was paid.

Every dealer takes a seat. On Network each dealer is €35 a month, or €70 for a Dealer Pro that tunes its own. Master includes 5 dealer portals, then €30 each, or €60 for Dealer Pro.

Who sees what?

• Their customers see only the dealer's portal, in the dealer's name.
• The dealer sees their own customers and jobs, their balance with you, and what you switched on for them.
• You and your admins see every job a dealer sends you, with the dealer's name, the customers on those jobs, and each dealer's balance, statement and switches. Jobs a dealer tunes itself stay on its portal.
• Your tuners see the jobs dealers send, in your queue, and nothing of the money.
• No dealer sees another: each portal has a database of its own.

Give a new dealer little, and open more as they earn it. The switches make that a minute's work.

How much control is too much?

Control is there to protect your name and your money, not to make a dealer's day harder. Most masters do well with three steps: a new dealer only sends jobs; a dealer who has paid on time for a few months gets the customer features they ask for; a dealer you trust with tuning gets Own tuning and the tools under it. Put the price, the limit and the days to pay in writing before the first job, and the switches only ever confirm what you already agreed. For the whole picture, see how a dealer network works.