Restaurant Tip Pool Calculator

Split the tips fairly, to the cent, and show your staff the arithmetic.

Paste a shift list: name, role, hours and the tips and sales from the shift. Pick a method: one pool by hours, role points, or server tip-out. The page shows what each person receives, what that is per hour, and downloads a payroll-ready CSV.

Shifts are read in this browser tab and never leave your device. Tip rules differ by state and by whether staff are paid under a tip credit; this page does the arithmetic, it does not tell you what is lawful.

1. Your shifts

A CSV or pasted spreadsheet range with a header row. Required: name, role, hours (6 or 6:30). Optional: date, card tips, cash tips (or a single tips column), sales (for tip-out).

Choose a CSV file …or paste the lines

2. Method and roles

How to split

Card fee taken from card tips (percent)

Tip-out percent of sales (tip-out method)

Tipped staff are paid under a tip credit

Roles: one per line as role,class,points (class is front, support, boh or excluded)

Choose a file or paste the shifts, then click Split the tips.

How it decides, and what it leaves out

Pool: card tips less the card fee (card tips only), plus cash tips. Tips recorded against excluded roles go into the pool.
Hours / points: the pool is shared in proportion to hours, or to hours times role points, in whole cents by largest remainder so payouts equal the pool.
Tip-out: each tipped person keeps their own tips (net of their share of the card fee) less the tip-out percent of their sales, capped at what they took in; the tip-out is shared among non-tipped roles by weighted hours.
Not decided: whether your pool is lawful in your state, whether kitchen staff may join, minimum wage and tip-credit compliance, overtime on tips, tax withholding, or what your staff agreed to. Treat warnings as prompts to check, not as findings.

Common questions

How do you split tips fairly between servers, bussers and bartenders?

There is no single legal formula. Common methods are one pool shared by hours worked, a points system where each role earns a weight per hour, or a server tip-out where servers keep their own tips less a percentage of sales that goes to support staff. This page runs all three on your own shift list so you can see what each one pays each person.

What is a points-based tip pool?

Each role gets a number of points per hour (for example server 1.0, busser 0.5, host 0.3). Each person's weight is hours times points, and the pool is shared in proportion. The page shows the payout and payout per hour for every person.

Can managers or owners take part in a tip pool?

Under the federal rule, employers, managers and supervisors may not keep any part of employees' tips. Roles you mark as excluded receive nothing here, and tips recorded against them are shared among staff. State rules can be stricter; this page does not decide that.

Can I deduct the credit card fee from tips?

Many employers deduct the processing fee proportionally from card tips and nothing else. Enter your fee percentage and the page takes it from card tips only, then shows the fee in the totals. Whether it is allowed where you operate is not decided here.

Do the payouts add up exactly?

Yes. The pool is split in whole cents using largest remainder, and the page shows whether the payouts equal the pool.