Managers and offline income
A manager is not a bonus skin. Hiring one is how a business keeps working when you are looking at another stand, or when the app is closed.
One manager, one business
Every business has a named manager and a hire price in cash. You pay once. There is no wage after that. The hire price sits in the game, on that business, and it is higher for the later businesses in the row. This page does not copy those prices out, because a balance change would make the copy wrong while the button in the game stayed right.
Until you hire, you start cycles yourself. After you hire, that business runs on its own. The tutorial demonstrates this on purpose, after you have bought the first stand more than once.
If you close the app
Offline income is the cycles that finish while you are away. Two cases earn nothing useful. If no manager is hired and no cycle was already running, the absence is empty and there is nothing kept for later. If the device clock jumps backwards, the game does not invent the missing time.
If a manager is working, or a cycle was already in progress, the absence can be paid. A gap shorter than about half a minute stays quiet, and those seconds are still there for the next settle. They are not deleted.
The eight hours are a provisional purse
When the game cannot confirm the time with its server clock, it credits up to eight hours of the main game first. That is not a ceiling on real offline time. Once the clock is confirmed, the unpaid remainder of the actual absence is paid. Confirmed time is not cut off at eight hours.
The fiesta does not use that rule. While its own clock is unconfirmed, fiesta offline credit stops at 24 hours. The main game and the fiesta keep separate ledgers.
You need a connection for that confirmation, for the league, for ads, and for purchases. The local save itself is on the device. The FAQ explains what a guest account does and does not restore.
What to hire before you leave the app
Hire the manager of any business you want to keep earning. An unstaffed business that is not mid-cycle will not grow while you are gone. Staffing half the businesses in a town also matters for the map: the next town wants that proof, not only a pile of cash.
Time warps in the inventory simulate a stretch of production. They are items you choose to use. They are not the same thing as closing the app.