Tips and tip pools
Where a tip goes after checkout, why cash tips aren't paid twice, and how a pool splits across the team by a rule you set once.
2 min readUpdated August 15, 2026Owners · ManagersIncluded from Starter
A client adds $20 at checkout. That tip lands on the sale, attached to whoever did the work — and from there it flows into payroll on its own. You don't re-enter tips at payday; the till already knows. (How tips get onto a sale is Take a payment's story.)
On the pay period report, each person's Tips column carries what their clients left them. In the demo salon's current period that's $132.00 across the team — Bella's $72.90 of it sitting on top of her commission.
Paid once, not twice
Some tips never wait for payday — they're handed out in cash during the week. The day-by-day breakdown tracks those as Tips paid, and payroll subtracts them from the payout. The earned tip stays on the record; the money only moves once.
And whether tips ride the paycheck at all is per person: the Tip treatment on their compensation rule. Paid through payroll adds them to the total; Already paid and Direct tips show them without paying them — for teams whose tips are settled outside payroll entirely.
When tips are shared
Plenty of salons pool some tips — the front desk and the assistants earn them too, even when no card machine ever shows their name. A pool in RewireBox is two separate acts: a reusable rule for how to split, and a distribution of an actual amount for one period.
- 1
From Payroll, open Tip pools and press New pool.
- 2
Name it, pick the split — Equal split, By hours worked, By revenue or Custom weights — and tick the participants. Press Create pool.
- 3
On the pay period, press Distribute tips: choose the rule, enter the pool total for this period, press Distribute.
- 4
Re-generate the report. The allocations fold into each participant's Tips column, and their day-by-day view names the pool share so the number explains itself.
The split rule does the arguing for you: by hours rewards the people who were there, by revenue rewards the people who sold, and custom weights encode whatever agreement your team already has. Whichever you pick, the allocation is recorded per person — who got what is an answer, not a memory.
Common questions
Does the salon keep any part of a tip?
No. Tips pass through to staff — payroll's job is only to make sure each one reaches the right person's total, once.
A stylist took their tips in cash — are they paid again on payday?
No. Cash already handed out shows as Tips paid in the day-by-day breakdown and is subtracted from the payout, so the same tip can't arrive twice.
I distributed a pool and the report didn't change.
The report is a snapshot — a pool distributed after the last generate folds into the Tips column on the next one. Press Re-generate.
Can tips stay out of payroll entirely?
Yes. Set a person's tip treatment to "Already paid" or "Direct tips" and their tips are shown on the report for the record without adding to the total.
Related articles
- Take a paymentSales · From the chair to the till — starting a checkout, building the cart, adding a tip, and taking the money by cash, card or gift card.
- Run a pay periodPayroll · New period, Generate, review, Approve, Export — and why an approved period's numbers never change again.
- How pay is worked outPayroll · Commission, hourly, salary, tips — the maths behind the payroll report, and the line between what RewireBox computes and what your provider does.
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