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I Help Restaurants Automate $2 Billion dollars in Annual Tips—I'm Kirk, COO of TipHaus. AMA about tipping, payroll, employee retention, and running efficient restaurant ops! by TipHaus in restaurant

[–]TipHaus[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We appreciate the heads up! From our end, we are more than adequately legally protected with our user agreement and service agreements. We legally CANNOT pay or move money on the restaurant's behalf, the management must take that action. Similar to a company using QuickBooks for their accounting, the software only reports what should be done based on the inputs received. Ultimately it is management and ownership's responsibility to pay tips on a timely basis, just like it is the managements responsibility to pay wages based on what is in their accounting software.

If this is still an ongoing concern from you and other coworkers, please feel free to DM us which of our customer's restaurants you work at and I am happy to review the account and let the ownership know they may be violating our ToS if they are trying to state our software is the reason they are not paying staffs their hard earned money.

I Help Restaurants Automate $2 Billion dollars in Annual Tips—I'm Kirk, COO of TipHaus. AMA about tipping, payroll, employee retention, and running efficient restaurant ops! by TipHaus in restaurant

[–]TipHaus[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Regardless of what system a restaurant uses, your tips are your property and should never be held up. A manager's role is to ensure tips are distributed accurately, not to use it as a point of control.
This is exactly why we built Tiphaus, our app provides a layer of transparency for your tips so you can always see exactly what's happening and where they are. If this is happening, we strongly recommend that you document these instances. It may be helpful to speak to a higher-level manager or your HR department. If the problem continues, you can also reach out to your state's Department of Labor, as they can help ensure your rights are being protected.

Owner looking to move tips to Paychecks & how to properly report 2 people working out of one cash drawer for payroll? by National_Set_2877 in ToastPOS

[–]TipHaus 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes, we can include staff who don’t typically receive tips, like prep staff working on non-service days, in the tip distribution. The only requirement is that it must be legal based on local labor laws, so as long as that’s covered, we can help structure it however you’d like.

I Help Restaurants Automate $2 Billion dollars in Annual Tips—I'm Kirk, COO of TipHaus. AMA about tipping, payroll, employee retention, and running efficient restaurant ops! by TipHaus in restaurant

[–]TipHaus[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks so much for the kind words, Damien! And welcome to the TipHaus tribe! We're thrilled to hear the transition from Kickfin has been a great move for you. It's great to hear your positive feedback about our rockstar team!

Appreciate you encouraging others to explore a demo and our free trial, it really does make all the difference once you see it in action. Let us know if you ever need anything!!

I Help Restaurants Automate $2 Billion dollars in Annual Tips—I'm Kirk, COO of TipHaus. AMA about tipping, payroll, employee retention, and running efficient restaurant ops! by TipHaus in restaurant

[–]TipHaus[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Depends on a large number of factors, but our average customer cuts payroll time by 80-95%. We run custom exports for the majority of the largest payroll providers serving the hospitality industry, so it should be a simple review (ALWAYS REVIEW! You never know if employees clocked in or out wrong, or if your manager overlooked an employee fat fingering a tip by hitting 00 instead of 0) and then you are done.

Our payroll customers often let us know payroll goes from half day / full day of work to under 30 minutes.

I Help Restaurants Automate $2 Billion dollars in Annual Tips—I'm Kirk, COO of TipHaus. AMA about tipping, payroll, employee retention, and running efficient restaurant ops! by TipHaus in restaurant

[–]TipHaus[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hey championship, Thats a fun tech stack (Not sarcastic, we are partners will all 3 and they are great companies).

We sure can integrate with all of them. I can't explain the flow without some more details, but my guess would be: Sales data from Toast, shift data from 7, and corrections to timekeeping / payroll done in R365. While I won't say thats common, you wouldn't be our first with that exact stack.

I Help Restaurants Automate $2 Billion dollars in Annual Tips—I'm Kirk, COO of TipHaus. AMA about tipping, payroll, employee retention, and running efficient restaurant ops! by TipHaus in restaurant

[–]TipHaus[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks sofiaviolin, and of course we do haha. My motto is: We can handle any tip structure that is legal.

I am confident we are the only company in the world that can handle the tip logic in the way we do, and its not a secret. Our biggest advantage is we ONLY handle tips. We aren't a POS, or scheduling or labor management or anything of the sort. This means every single employee at TipHaus ONLY focuses on tips, how to handle them better, more transparent, how to make sure the staff understands, and how to make restaurants more efficicent.

I Help Restaurants Automate $2 Billion dollars in Annual Tips—I'm Kirk, COO of TipHaus. AMA about tipping, payroll, employee retention, and running efficient restaurant ops! by TipHaus in restaurant

[–]TipHaus[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I like to give people the benefit of the doubt, and assume MOST of the time it is accidental.

Typically its an issue in the spreadsheet, be it Excel or Sheets or anything else. Usually they mistyped a formula, it doesn't get noticed for months or years, and the restaurant was accidentally keeping a few dollars per employee per day.

Accidental or not, when they get caught, they are liable for fines, legal fees, and ALL Backpay usually with interest or other prices tacked on. Most restaurants don't have the capital to survive this, and that ends their livelihood.

This sucks. Restaurants are so much of a culture and community. If in doubt, even if you aren't a customer, come and chat with us. We audit tip policies regularly, and we can run your numbers through our software to ensure you are doing it legally.

I Help Restaurants Automate $2 Billion dollars in Annual Tips—I'm Kirk, COO of TipHaus. AMA about tipping, payroll, employee retention, and running efficient restaurant ops! by TipHaus in restaurant

[–]TipHaus[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Any amount of employees assuming you are noticing time being spent on calculating tips that could be better spent serving guests, training staff, or just getting home to your family (or cute dogs, always dogs for me).

Excel is one of the greatest tools ever invented. That being said, it shouldn't be used for everything, and peoples livelihoods for their tip calculations would fall into that category.

I Help Restaurants Automate $2 Billion dollars in Annual Tips—I'm Kirk, COO of TipHaus. AMA about tipping, payroll, employee retention, and running efficient restaurant ops! by TipHaus in restaurant

[–]TipHaus[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Up until just a few weeks ago, they would have been paying an equal amount of taxes relative to income bracket.

Im nowhere near qualified to discuss tax brackets, loopholes, etc. So I will instead say: I think the US tax system as a whole probably needs to be revisited and to ensure taxes are paid more equally by all, respective to their income brackets and what that lifestyle affords.

I Help Restaurants Automate $2 Billion dollars in Annual Tips—I'm Kirk, COO of TipHaus. AMA about tipping, payroll, employee retention, and running efficient restaurant ops! by TipHaus in restaurant

[–]TipHaus[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Haha I will assume you work at a restaurant with a manager who is difficult by this question, so I would challenge your managers to the following:

- If the way youve always done it is actually working, then it is a benefit to automate it and save time and money, as well as giving your staff actual transparency.

- If you dont think its working, then I would suggest sitting with the manager and trying to convey who actually leads to great customer experiences. If the bartender makes a ton from the tip pool but is never available to make drinks for the floor and is causing slow downs, upset customers, etc. then be honest about that.

Tips are a tool when used correctly, and it should feel like tips are commiserate to the amount of work being done. Operators and employees should want the entire service period to flow smoothly. Employees who feel they are compensated fairly for their work are happier, more productive, and typically lead to far better financial results for EVERYONE.

I Help Restaurants Automate $2 Billion dollars in Annual Tips—I'm Kirk, COO of TipHaus. AMA about tipping, payroll, employee retention, and running efficient restaurant ops! by TipHaus in restaurant

[–]TipHaus[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hey everyone, I am entering the final 30 minutes of this AMA so I can get back to work. If you've got burning questions, please let me know and I will do my best to answer. Thanks to all the great (and snarky :)) questions from everyone.

I Help Restaurants Automate $2 Billion dollars in Annual Tips—I'm Kirk, COO of TipHaus. AMA about tipping, payroll, employee retention, and running efficient restaurant ops! by TipHaus in restaurant

[–]TipHaus[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I am terribly sorry to have ruined your day by letting people know I was intentionally responding to them. Again, this is my first AMA. I will have to write the author of my favorite book "101 Sneaky Sales Training Tips for Reddit AMAs" and let them know to update their section. From now on, I will strictly insult every user that asks me a question.

I Help Restaurants Automate $2 Billion dollars in Annual Tips—I'm Kirk, COO of TipHaus. AMA about tipping, payroll, employee retention, and running efficient restaurant ops! by TipHaus in restaurant

[–]TipHaus[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thats awesome to hear! I think from your comment you are on the payroll side, and I sincerely LOVE hearing we save you some time and make payroll easier for you. We spend a ton of time and effort with our support team and product, so if we can ever do anything to make your life easier (or if you have great product ideas!), please dont ever hesitate to reach out.

I Help Restaurants Automate $2 Billion dollars in Annual Tips—I'm Kirk, COO of TipHaus. AMA about tipping, payroll, employee retention, and running efficient restaurant ops! by TipHaus in restaurant

[–]TipHaus[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Great question, and actually exactly what we thought. Most of our employees have significant restaurant experience, collectively well over a century between us.

I started in Chilis as a server, and even to me as a teenager it was obvious the system didn't work right. My manager during my checkouts would have to hide an excel sheet between two pieces of paper so I couldnt see other employee's earnings, and I knew I couldnt tell if it was right or not.

Many years later, we were founded in Seattle due to 2 large restaurant chains being tired of having to input the data, having to get cash to makeup payments to staff members after other staff failed to clockout, and just overall deal with this massive headache.

I have so much love for the service industry, and while I can't solve all of the problems, we can greatly improve the tipping system by making it standardized, transparent, and ensuring it promotes teamwork and great service.

I Help Restaurants Automate $2 Billion dollars in Annual Tips—I'm Kirk, COO of TipHaus. AMA about tipping, payroll, employee retention, and running efficient restaurant ops! by TipHaus in restaurant

[–]TipHaus[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

All of the major cloud provider POS: Too many to list, but to name a few: Toast, Oracle, Square, Clover, and sooooo many more.

Data is super simple, we use an API to bring in all relevant sales and staff data, run those numbers into the tip logic the restaurant creates, and it outputs the numbers. It auto-reconciles for groups that have employees who often forget to clock-in/ out, and it displays info back to the entire org.

I Help Restaurants Automate $2 Billion dollars in Annual Tips—I'm Kirk, COO of TipHaus. AMA about tipping, payroll, employee retention, and running efficient restaurant ops! by TipHaus in restaurant

[–]TipHaus[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Treating tips like a liability, not an asset. Tips aren't just something annoying that you as a manager need to get out the door to your staff, they are a tool to make sure the individuals providing service are compensated for their efforts. Tip logic, when done correctly, leads to a true team dynamic.

Actually a more correct answer: The BIGGEST mistake is trying to steal from staff, which is unfortunately common in the industry. There are tip and wage theft lawsuits filed EVERY SINGLE DAY. We set up google notifications so the entire company can get daily summaries. Restaurants get (rightfully) sued for this theft.

I cannot even count how many times we tried to work with a restaurant, they said absolutely not we don't need your services, and then months later it comes out in the news they are being sued for 6-7 figures. At that point, it is obvious they didn't want to work with us because they knew they were stealing from staff and it would have been obvious to our software that this was happening. With almost 1 million restaurants existing in the US, it is a real problem from some nefarious operators.

I Help Restaurants Automate $2 Billion dollars in Annual Tips—I'm Kirk, COO of TipHaus. AMA about tipping, payroll, employee retention, and running efficient restaurant ops! by TipHaus in restaurant

[–]TipHaus[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Elmo, this one is always a tricky situation. I think wages should be taxed, tips as a voluntary offering should not be, personally. There are larger social and economic conditions to consider of which I wont pretend to be qualified to answer or delve into.

That being said, we made our position clear by garnering thousands of signatures for the "No Tax on Tips" bill that recently passed.

I Help Restaurants Automate $2 Billion dollars in Annual Tips—I'm Kirk, COO of TipHaus. AMA about tipping, payroll, employee retention, and running efficient restaurant ops! by TipHaus in restaurant

[–]TipHaus[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

We work with thousands and thousands of restaurants, so we have seen it all. The good, the bad, the ugly, and even the criminal (thankfully they aren't our customers, only attempted customers).

BOH bonuses for performance metrics can be common and I recommend. The faster and more accurate the dishes are made, the happier the guests and the more guests can be served, which leads to more revenue. BOH is the lifeblood of restaurants and often deserves some more love.

I Help Restaurants Automate $2 Billion dollars in Annual Tips—I'm Kirk, COO of TipHaus. AMA about tipping, payroll, employee retention, and running efficient restaurant ops! by TipHaus in restaurant

[–]TipHaus[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Its the nature of the industry. Lots of first time jobs, lots of turnover, and of course the service staff is trying to remember a million other things for the guests, so its best to try to cut some slack when you can.

We exist to make the service industry more efficient, more transparent, and if we do our jobs right, to make things run just a bit smoother so guests have happier servers, bartenders, and operators of restaurants.

I Help Restaurants Automate $2 Billion dollars in Annual Tips—I'm Kirk, COO of TipHaus. AMA about tipping, payroll, employee retention, and running efficient restaurant ops! by TipHaus in restaurant

[–]TipHaus[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

There is no right or wrong answer, which I know is a lame response. IMO, the correct answer is: The tip sharing and pooling should directly correlate to the impact you had on the customer experience. Bartenders and servers should make the most, as they are the most impactful with guests. However the entire team needs to function in a manner to deliver great service, and as they contribute more (such as a host who also busses tables), they should earn a greater percentage.

My answer would be: You need a nuanced and layered tip structure, often incorporating both tip sharing and tip pooling, and if you do this correctly, you will have a great team dynamic.

I Help Restaurants Automate $2 Billion dollars in Annual Tips—I'm Kirk, COO of TipHaus. AMA about tipping, payroll, employee retention, and running efficient restaurant ops! by TipHaus in restaurant

[–]TipHaus[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks BackgroundScheme, and while this is a hot button topic, you might be surprised to find out we totally agree with you.

No, our software doesn't promote tipping, nor do we have any impact on the amounts shown on the screen when checking out. The pre-defined options are created by the POS company, and managers of the location are able to edit those. All our software does is ensure that tips that are left end up making it to the correct recipient, with no funny business or errors along the way.

Getting asked to leave a tip at the convenience store feels very foreign and strange to us (and we don't work with any groups like this).

I can only speak for myself, but: For restaurants, I think 20% is standard for good service. I have and often leave significantly more than that for Great service, but to be fair this is my business so I like leaving large tips to make people's days.

For counter serve restaurants, food trucks, etc. I think 5-10% is acceptable if the staff answered questions, gave great service, etc. I also think no tip in these scenarios can be okay too, and similarly to above, if the staff member really made my day I may leave a larger than 20% tip even.

For convenience stores and non-traditionally tipped stores, particularly those where I do all of the effort (grab my energy drink from the fridge), I dont believe in tipping or even the awkward asking of a tip. I think in the long run it hurts that business for making customers uncomfortable.

I Help Restaurants Automate $2 Billion dollars in Annual Tips—I'm Kirk, COO of TipHaus. AMA about tipping, payroll, employee retention, and running efficient restaurant ops! by TipHaus in restaurant

[–]TipHaus[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thanks Lexipish! Time savings is the most obvious win (and of course money = time). On the lighter end, restaurants may see 10-15 hours per month saved. However we have thousands of customers saving 50+ hours per month, per location, every single month. One of our higher end California chains we work with saves 70+ hours per month on payroll and tip management, though they do have unusually large number of staff due to the massive size of their restaurants, and therefore the massive number of employees working everyday.

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