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Tip Rules

This is where the fairness of the tip sheet is decided. Open Venues in the admin view, choose the venue, then the Tip Rules tab. It has four sections: Departments, Tip Allocation, Tip Calculation Method and Staff Settings. The service periods are on the next tab, Venue Timings.

The Tip Rules tab of The Slippery Slope, showing Departments, Tip Allocation, Tip Calculation Method and Staff Settings, each with an Edit linkEach section has its own Edit

Each section reads in words until you choose its Edit.

Dependent venues

A dependent venue's Tip Rules tab has different sections, and it has no Venue Timings tab. See Dependent venue settings.

Changing a section​

Choose Edit beside the section. Make your changes, then choose Save at the foot of the section, or Cancel to leave it as it was.

Saving recalculates the weeks that are still in progress. Weeks that are locked or paid keep the figures they were paid on.

If you open another section, or another tab, before saving, a bar asks what to do with your changes: Keep editing, Discard or Save.

The bar reading You have unsaved changes to Departments, with Keep editing, Discard and Save

Classic view

Classic view, at the top right of the venue, brings back the old single Venue Settings tab for a while. Use the new settings returns to this one.

Departments​

Every department gets a share of the tip pool, and the shares add up to 100%. Each one has a Name, an Abbr of up to three letters (that is what the tip sheet shows) and a Share of pool.

The Departments section being edited: Bar, Front of house and Kitchen with their abbreviations and shares, Add department, and 100% of 100%Add a department

The counter at the bottom right turns red until the shares add up to 100%.

How the split works:

  • Each service period's tips are split between departments by these shares.
  • A department with nobody working gets nothing that service, and its share goes to the departments that did work. So a 20% kitchen share means "20% when the kitchen is on", not a guarantee.
  • Within a department, each person's share depends on their hours and tip points.

To add one, choose Add department and fill in the new row.

To delete one, choose the bin at the end of its row. The row is crossed out, and Undo puts it back. Nothing is deleted until you choose Save, and Tip Sheet asks you first. Weeks in progress are worked out again without it; paid weeks keep their figures.

The Bar department crossed out with an Undo link, and the counter showing 90% of 100% in redPuts it back

Tip Sheet won't delete a department while anyone active or waiting still belongs to it, or while an unpaid week still uses it. Move those people to another department first.

Kitchen shared with other venues?

If one team serves several venues, a department in each venue pays them twice. Use a dependent venue instead.

Tip Allocation​

Where the money coming in lands. The section asks three questions, each answered by choosing a card.

The Tip Allocation section being edited, with three questions answered by cards

How are card tips placed into service periods?​

  • Transaction Time, the recommended choice. Each card tip lands in the service period that was running when its order was created. A 7:45 pm order goes to dinner.
  • Custom Percentages. Each day's card tips are split between the service periods by fixed shares you type in. Use it only when the time of a payment doesn't reflect who earned it, such as a venue that settles every table at the end of the night.

With Custom Percentages, a box opens with one share per service period. The counter under it must read 100% of 100% before you can save. The service periods themselves are set on the Venue Timings tab.

Custom Percentages chosen: Lunch 40% and Dinner 60%, with 100% of 100% in green, and cash locked to Single amount daily

How often are cash tips entered?​

  • For each service period, the recommended choice. Whoever counts the cash enters a figure per service on the Tip Collection screen.
  • Single amount daily. One figure for the day, split the way card tips are.

Choosing Custom Percentages above sets cash to Single amount daily, and the other card is locked.

Does the venue have a service charge?​

If your POS adds a surcharge or service charge that it reports separately from tips, you can bring it into the pool.

  • No service charge. Only tips are shared.
  • Manual. Someone enters the day's service charge total on the Tip Collection screen, like cash.
  • Automatic. Service charges come in from your POS. List each one under Name on your POS, exactly as your POS names it, and choose how much of it goes to staff under Tip allocation. Choose Add service charge for another row.
Automatic chosen, with a row named 10% weekend surcharge, Tip allocation Remove GST and 90.9091% to staffAnother charge
Tip allocation% to staff
100%All of it.
Remove GSTThe charge without the tax: 90.9091% in Australia, 86.9565% in New Zealand.
CustomA percentage you type in.

A row with no name is left out when you save.

Where you'll see it

With Manual, Tip Collection gets a Service Charges tab. With Automatic, the charges are counted into each day's POS tips. Either way they are shared alongside card and cash tips, and a dependent venue's share is taken from the whole pool. See Service charges.

Tip Calculation Method​

Do you want to calculate tips on a daily or weekly basis?

  • Daily. Each service period on each day is shared out on its own. A tip belongs to the shifts that earned it, which is how most venues want it.
  • Weekly. Each person's qualifying hours are added up across the week, then the week's tips are shared once. Choose it when shifts are irregular and you'd rather even out the week. Under The most hours in a week that count, choose No maximum hours or Set maximum hours to and type a number.

Weekly chosen, with No maximum hours ticked and the warning about changes made by hand

A frontline venue always counts entitlement in hours, and unlike a dependent venue it can switch later.

Switching removes changes made by hand

Switching between daily and weekly clears every change made by hand on the tip sheet (hours, tip points, amounts, rows added) in every week that isn't locked, then works those weeks out again. Lock the weeks you've finished first, and switch at the start of a week.

Staff Settings​

Tip points. The Minimum, Maximum and Increment (0.25, 0.5 or 1) for tip points across the venue. Tip points weight one person's share against another's within a department: 8 points earns twice as much per hour as 4. You can't narrow the range past a value someone already has.

Activate Waiting Room. When it's on, new starters from your timesheet system wait on the Incoming tab of Staff Management and don't earn tips until the Number of days to wait has passed. It gives you time to set their department and tip points before they're paid. Turn it on after your first staff import. Tip Sheet won't let you turn it off while anyone is still waiting.

Staff Settings being edited: tip points 0 to 10 in steps of 1, and Activate Waiting Room switched on with 30 days to waitSwitch it on

See New starters for what happens to people in the waiting room.

Pay periods and payout day​

Tip periods run weekly, and the payout day is set when your business is set up. To change the payout day or the date the next period starts, contact Tip Sheet support.

Permissions​

Each section needs its own permission: departments, tip allocation, or staff management settings. If Edit is missing, or Save is refused, a business admin can make the change or give you the permission. The permission reference lists each one.