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Tip pool policies

A step-by-step guide to building a tip pool policy in SocialSchedules

Written by Emma

To create tip policies, you must be either:

  • An Administrator, or

  • A Manager with the Manage tip policies permission

Your company must also have the tip management add-on enabled. Contact support@socialschedules or live chat if you don't see this option.

Before you start

  • Ensure your positions are set up. Contributors and recipients are chosen by position, so a policy is only as useful as your position list.

  • Policies are built one location at a time. If you run tip pools the same way across several locations, plan to repeat these steps for each one.

  • Tip pooling rules vary by state and city, and some roles are excluded from pools in certain jurisdictions. Check your policy against local labor law — or with legal counsel — before publishing.

Create a new tip policy

Policies list screen showing a location selector set to Oakland, CA, an empty policies table, and a Create policy button in the top right

  1. Settings > Organization > Tip management > Policies.

    1. If you have multiple companies, use the location selector near the top to make sure you're working in the right one. Then select Create policy in the top right.

  2. Enter a name for the tip policy.

  3. Under Intervals, pick the window of time tips get pooled across.

    1. Full workday: Pools tips across everyone clocked in during the whole workday

    2. Daypart: Pools tips only among people who worked the same part of the day — e.g. breakfast, dinner.

    3. Order **Coming soon** Allocates tips based on who's clocked in when the order is placed, when it's closed, or across the time in between.

  4. Set Active days - select all or some

    1. If it applies to all days of the week, check Every day

  5. Publish

Configure Tip Policy

  1. Set Tip distribution method

    1. Percentage (each position is assigned a share of the tip pool)

    2. Equal distribution (tips are split evenly across all positions)

    3. Points model (tips are split based on a points value assigned to each position)

  2. Set the split method

    1. Hours worked splits proportionally to hours clocked.

    2. Equal split divides it evenly regardless of hours.

Distribution section with the distribution method dropdown open, showing Percentage, Equal distribution, and Points model

Distribution section with the split method dropdown open, showing Hours worked and Equal split, and a See calculation formula link below it

5. Choose who contributes tips and who receives tips

To define which tip types are available to be pooled, navigate to Tip management > Settings.

  1. Add a contributor + for the contribute to the pool

    1. Add and set its share.

    2. The share type will be different based on the distribution method selected. For example, if percentage was selected then a percentage will need to be entered against each position.

  2. Add a recipient + for positions that get paid out of the pool

    1. At least one contributor and one recipient must be defined.

  3. Once all sections are complete > Publish

  4. Effective From:

    1. Choose date policy will take effect from up to 28 days in the past

  5. Publish

    1. The tip policy will now be visible on the Policies screen.

Who contributes tips to this pool and Who receives tips from this pool sections, each with a position selector, a percentage field, and an Add a contributor or Add a recipient link

Tip Pool Example

A tip pool is created for full day on Sundays. It has an equal distribution method between bartenders and barbacks, with tips then split between individual workers based on hours worked.

  • John and Sam work on Sunday as bartenders. John works 5 hours; Sam works 10 hours.

  • Matt and Lucas work on Sunday as barbacks. Matt works 3 hours; Lucas works 6 hours.

  • There is $300 in the tip pool to be distributed.

As the distribution method = equal split, bartenders get 50% of the tips ($150), and barbacks also get 50% of the tips ($150).

  • Sam gets $100 of the bartender tips. John gets $50. (Proportional to the individual hours worked).

  • Lucas also gets $100 of the barback tips; and Matt gets $50 (again, proportional to the individual hours worked)

Good to know

Tip policies run in the order they appear on the Policies screen. If pools overlap, tips are only allocated once — the policy listed higher takes priority.

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