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Tip Out Calculator
What you really keep from a shift after you tip out the rest of the team.
Part of the 🍽️ Restaurant Servers toolkit, with more tools made for the job.
Your shift
What you took in tips, and what your tables spent. Your till or POS report shows the sales.
Cash and card tips together.
What your tables spent in all.
Only if a tip-out is a share of food sales.
Only if a tip-out is a share of alcohol sales.
Who you tip out, and how it is worked out
Use your restaurant's own rules. Each person gets a percentage of one thing: your tips, total sales, food sales or alcohol sales.
The percentages in the boxes are only examples. Tip-out rules differ by restaurant and by country, so use the ones you were given.
Type your tips and who you tip out, and what you keep appears here.
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Type your tips and your sales for the shift, then list who you tip out and how each tip-out is worked out. This shows what you pay out, and what you keep.
In many restaurants, servers share part of what they earn with the people who help them: the bar, the bussers, the food runners and the hosts. This is called tipping out. There are two common styles. Some restaurants take a share of your tips, such as ten percent. Others take a share of your sales, such as a couple of percent of everything you sold, or a share of just the food or just the alcohol. The second style can cost you the same on a slow night as a busy one, which is why new servers are sometimes surprised by a short night. This tool works out each one for you. The rules differ by restaurant, so type in the ones you were given.
How it’s worked out
- For each person you tip out, give the percentage and say what it is a percentage of: your tips, your total sales, your food sales or your alcohol sales.
- Each tip-out is that percentage times the figure it applies to. For example, 7 percent of alcohol sales, or 10 percent of your tips.
- The tip-out total is all of them added together.
- What you keep is your tips minus the tip-out total. The tool also shows the total as a share of your tips and of your sales.
With 3,000 of sales (1,800 food and 1,200 alcohol) and 600 in tips, a 7 percent bar share of alcohol sales is 84, a 2 percent busser share of total sales is 60 and a 2 percent runner share of food sales is 36. That is 180 tipped out, and you keep 420.
Common mistakes
- Not asking how the tip-out works before you start. A share of sales costs you the same on a slow night as a busy one, so it matters which style your restaurant uses.
- Forgetting cash tips. Tips on cards and tips in cash both count towards what you tip out on, if the rule is a share of tips.
- Mixing up food and alcohol sales. Some tip-outs only apply to one of them, so use the right figure for each.
- Ignoring the shortfall. On a quiet night a sales-based tip-out can come to more than you earned. Check the result before you agree to a shift.
Questions
What is a normal tip-out?
There is no standard. Guides give ranges, such as a few percent of sales for support staff, or ten to thirty percent of tips in total, but restaurants set their own. Use the rules you were given, and ask if they are not written down.
Is tipping out the same as a tip pool?
No. Tipping out means you pass on a share of your own tips to other staff. In a tip pool, tips are collected together and divided among a group. The tip pool calculator works that out.
Can a restaurant make me tip out?
Rules differ by country and place. In some, employers can require tip-outs to staff who normally receive tips, but not to managers or owners. Check the law where you live and your written policy.
What if I leave the sales boxes empty?
A tip-out that is a share of tips works without them. A tip-out that is a share of sales needs the sales figure, so the tool reminds you.
Where the method comes from
Estimates only
These are estimates and general information, not legal, tax or employment advice. Tipping customs, tip-out and pooling rules, wages and tax on tips differ by country, state and restaurant, so use your own figures and your restaurant's written policy, and check the rules where you live.
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