Tips

Tips are an optional amount added to an order. Settings belong to one location: there is no account-wide POS policy for all locations.

What you need to get started#

Open the location in Admin Panel → Locations.
Enable tips and save the percentage presets.
For guest payments, connect a payment provider available in the location's country.
Add staff and choose a payroll distribution policy if tips should be assigned in payroll.

Enabling and setup#

Open Admin Panel → Locations and select the location.
On the General tab, turn on Enable Tips.
Under Suggested Tip Percentages, enter values such as 5, 10, and 15.
Enable Allow Custom Tip Amount if guests or cashiers should enter any amount.

A country preset can fill percentages and enable or disable the block. The storefront fallback is 18/20/25% for the US and Canada, 5/10/15% for Georgia, Australia, and New Zealand, and 10/15/20% elsewhere. In Japan, China, Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore, the fallback hides the block.

The kiosk uses the same country defaults as the storefront. The POS fallback is 5/10/15%. Leave the percentage field after editing so the change is saved. Changing one location does not change the other locations in the account.

Where guests leave tips#

Storefront and online order#

In the QR storefront checkout, a guest chooses a percentage or custom amount before online payment. The percentage is calculated from item prices, excluding the service charge. The total shows items, service charge, tips, and the amount due.

Table bill and split#

The Bill button on a QR table opens the current table order. A guest can pay the whole bill, selected items, an equal share, or a custom amount. Tips are calculated from that guest's share, not from the whole bill.

The tip section offers percentage options and a custom amount when enabled. A selected tip appears as a separate line before payment.

Kiosk#

The kiosk payment screen has its own Prompt for tips at checkout toggle. It controls the kiosk and does not replace the storefront or POS location settings.

Tips at the POS#

During a normal POS payment, the cashier chooses a tip preset or enters a custom amount in the payment window.

After a bill is closed, the cashier can use Add tip / Tip after payment. The window offers Custom amount, How the tip is paid, and Add tip. The guest can leave cash or card tips; a card tip is charged as a separate terminal transaction.

Only the shift that closed the bill can add a post-payment tip. An unpaid or refunded bill cannot receive one.

Tips on the reader#

For Stripe, Square, and SumUp terminals with a Reader ID, the guest can choose a tip on the reader. POS settings expose Tip on the card reader and the modes As set up in the terminal account, On, and Off. Guest may enter their own tip amount controls custom entry on Square; Stripe and SumUp do not offer this switch.

The bill and reader tip are charged together, while the tip remains a separate accounting line. In this flow, the fiscal receipt covers the bill without the tip; adding a post-payment tip does not rewrite the issued receipt. Other terminals use Add tip after payment.

Suggested tips on the bill#

To help the guest choose a tip before paying, enable suggestions on the printed bill:

At the POS, open POS appearance.
On Contents, under Bill features, enable Suggested tips on the bill. It is off by default.
Print a bill with no tip selected yet.

The toggle is stored in the location's appearance settings and is shared by its tills. Selecting This device for display settings does not make this toggle local. Repeat the setup separately for each other location.

Percentages come from this location's Suggested Tip Percentages; an empty list falls back to 5%, 10%, and 15%. Up to four distinct positive percentages are printed in ascending order. Each tip is calculated from the item subtotal, excluding service charge and delivery, then added to the full bill total. Amounts are rounded to two decimal places.

For example, items cost 1,200 ₽, the service charge is 120 ₽, and the bill before tips is 1,320 ₽. With 10% and 15% configured, the Suggested tip block reads:

10% — 120.00 ₽ · total 1440.00 ₽
15% — 180.00 ₽ · total 1500.00 ₽

These are suggestions: printing does not add a tip to the bill. Once a positive tip amount has been selected, the suggestions are no longer printed.

Distribution and payroll#

Choose the policy under Staff → Payroll → Tips. The available modes are:

Mode	Result
Direct (whoever served the order)	assigns the amount to the employee linked to the order or bill
Pooled — by hours worked	splits the venue-mediated pool by actual time worked in closed shifts
Pooled — by role weights	splits the pool by role weights configured in the policy

Payroll uses tips that passed through the location: card, online payment, or folio. Cash handed directly to a staff member does not become a location debt and is not pooled. If the payment method is unknown, the amount remains an unclassified stream until it is resolved.

The Pay out through payroll setting controls whether a distributed amount is included in the employee payout. Tips do not create a second copy of sales revenue: cashless tips reach the location alongside sales takings and feed payroll, while management reports show them separately; direct cash is a different stream because the location did not receive it.

If servers keep their own tips but share with the bar or runners, add a rule in the same Staff → Payroll → Settings → Tips section, block Tip share to other positions (tip-out):

Click Add rule.
In Who gives, choose a position, for example Server.
In Who receives, choose the recipients' position, for example Bartender.
Set Share, % and Of what: of the employee's sales for the period or of their tips.
Save the payroll settings.

Example: a server sold $5,000 in a month and received $300 in card tips. The rule "2% of sales to the bartender" gives $100, leaving the server $200. The next rule, "10% of tips to the runner", is calculated on the remainder: $20 to the runner, $180 to the server.

How the share works:

it is taken only from tips that went through the location and never exceeds them — cash in hand stays with the employee, and no debt to the bar appears;
recipients are employees in the chosen position who worked in the period, in proportion to hours in closed shifts;
if nobody in the receiving position worked in the period, the rule does not apply — the money stays with those who earned it;
rules apply in order, after the distribution mode above, and split to the cent;
a position cannot give a share to itself; an incomplete rule is not saved and is marked with a hint.

Positions come from the role builder (Staff → Roles & access): bartender, runner (line server), host, and your own roles.

Cash tips for a shift#

The POS does not see cash a guest left on the table outside the receipt. It is declared manually per shift:

an employee — in their cabinet, My hours this month: a worked shift has a 💵 Cash tips button; enter the amount and Save;
a manager at the POS — Hall → Day: the same button under the shift time of an employee who has already clocked out;
a cashier in the POS app (Android, Windows, Linux) — ☰ → “💵 Cash tips”: the register finds the current cashier's worked shift for today (or last night's), shows the amount already declared; enter the amount and tap “Save”; “Remove” clears the declaration. If the cashier was chosen by PIN and the register is signed in under another account, only the owner or a manager can declare for them.

The declared amount is shown on the shift ("Cash tips: …") and can be changed or removed. In payroll it goes into the direct stream: the location did not receive this money and does not pay it out, but it appears in the inputs summary ("of them, declared by staff for shifts") for reports and taxes. An employee declares only their own shifts; a manager with a limited scope declares shifts at their locations. Once the month's timesheet is closed, the declaration cannot be changed.

Where to see amounts#

Finance → Overview has the Tips KPI. The Sales tab has Tips by waiter and a payment-method breakdown.

Orders and POS payment summaries show tips on a separate line. Tips contribute to the payment total. Finance is available in the AWS environment; these reports are not available on cenaly.ru yet.

Limitations#

Tip acceptance and presets are configured for the selected location; there is no chain-wide switch.
Guest tips require online payment. Guest online payment is not available on cenaly.ru yet.
In a split, tips belong to the guest's own share.
Reader tipping has been tested with simulated provider responses; live readers and provider test environments have not yet been validated.
Personal waiter QR tip cards and withdrawals to a waiter's personal card are not supported. Money goes through the location and its reporting/payroll flow, or remains direct cash.
Cash handed directly to staff is not included in a second payout by the location.
The share to other positions is calculated for the whole payroll period, not per shift; recipients split it by hours, not equally.
Cash tips can be declared in the web cabinet, the web POS and the POS apps for Android, Windows and Linux (for the current cashier's shift); there is no iOS POS.

Troubleshooting#

Symptom	Cause	What to do
Guest does not see tips	tips are off, no provider is available, or a country fallback hides them	check this location's settings and online payment
Table bill has no tip option	location tips are off or there are no payment providers	check the location tips and payment provider
Tip after payment is missing	another shift closed the bill, or the bill was refunded	use the shift that closed the bill
Reader shows no tip screen	mode is off, terminal is unsupported, or Reader ID is missing	check the reader mode and provider terminal
Amount is missing from an employee	pooling is selected, assignment is missing, or payment method is unknown	inspect the order employee and payroll tip stream
The bartender did not get a share	they have no closed shifts in the period, the server has no venue-mediated tips, or the rule is incomplete	check the bartender's shifts, the server's tip stream, and the rule hint
No Cash tips button	the shift was not worked or the month's timesheet is closed	record clock-in/out; a closed month changes only after the timesheet is reopened
Suggested tips are not printed	A tip is already selected, or the location toggle is off	Check the tip amount and Suggested tips on the bill at the POS; the setting is shared by the location

Frequently asked questions#

Do printed suggestions add a tip automatically?#

No. They show possible tips and full totals; the tip is selected separately during payment.

Do tips count as location revenue?#

Cashless tips reach the location alongside sales takings and are shown separately in management reports. It must not be added to sales a second time; direct cash handed to staff is separate because the location did not receive it.

Can I set presets for all locations at once?#

No. Each location stores its own settings and country preset.

Can I add a tip after a card payment?#

Yes, during the same shift that closed the bill. A card tip is a separate terminal transaction.

Can I change the tip on a card payment that has already gone through?#

No. «Add tip» after payment is a separate operation; it does not change the earlier card charge.

How does the hourly pool work?#

The venue-mediated pool is split by actual time worked in closed shifts in the period. Direct cash is not part of that pool.

Can a server give the bar more than they received in tips?#

No. The share is taken only from tips that went through the location and never exceeds them. If "2% of sales" is larger than the server's tips, the bar gets everything there was and the rest does not become a debt.

Why declare cash tips if the location does not pay them out?#

So the amount appears in payroll reports and the tax base where the country requires it. It does not increase the payout — the money is already with the employee.

Is there a waiter QR code?#

No. Personal waiter QR cards and withdrawals to a personal waiter card are not supported.