Tips
Where a guest is asked for a tip decides whether that tip can be corrected later. This is the single most useful thing to know about tipping, and it is decided by a setting, before service, not by the person holding the card.
The two moments a tip can be taken
Before payment — the guest is asked on the terminal or the till before the card is charged. The tip is part of the one charge that goes through.
On the receipt — the card is authorised for the bill amount, the guest writes a tip on the printed slip, and the final amount is taken later.
Which one can be changed afterwards
| Collected | Can the tip be changed later? |
|---|---|
| Before payment | No. The charge already went through complete. |
| On the receipt | Yes, until the amount is captured. |
That is not a policy choice — it is how card processing works. A charge taken in one step is final. A tip added afterwards requires that the payment was left deliberately open, which only the receipt mode does.
Switching tip collection to "on receipt" mid-shift does not make earlier payments adjustable. Payments already taken in one step stay closed.
Adjusting a tip
While the payment is still open, a manager can adjust the tip from the transaction. This happens once — the amount is then captured and the window closes.
If the window has closed, see Refunds and adjustments. Note in particular that a partial refund is the wrong instrument for correcting an over-tip.
Anything not adjusted gets captured anyway
Payments left open are captured at the base amount when the batch closes, so an authorisation is never abandoned. A tip nobody entered is simply not collected — the guest is charged for their food.
Tips in reports and payroll
Tips flow into tip reporting and, where configured, into tip pooling and payroll. Because tips attach to the transaction and the transaction belongs to a server, transferring an order changes who the tip belongs to — see Splitting and transferring.
For pooling, see Tips and pooling.