Select Maintenance > System Settings > Gratuities to access this function. Then access Maintenance > System Settings > Revenue Center and assign at least one gratuity to the appropriate revenue center, as these two functions work together.

In the United States, it has long been a standard in the table service industry for restaurants to establish a company policy of adding a gratuity (automatic or not) to the bill for a defined number of guests. This practice helps ensure servers receive at least a minimum tip and are not under-tipped, especially when serving a large party.

Access Maintenance > Business > Store > Store Settings tab > Financials group and configure the parameters for gratuities at the global level under the ‘Add gratuity’ group bar. A manager can manually add the gratuity to a guest check using the established guidelines. Use the Gratuities function to implement gratuities when you need to accommodate separate gratuities based on the revenue center from which the transaction originates. For example, a gratuity for a catering function may need to be taxed differently than the gratuity for a large party that has come into your restaurant. Using this method, you can have the system automatically add the gratuity to the guest check or a manager can manually add the gratuity using the established guidelines.

In IRS Revenue Ruling 2012-18, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) clarified its stance on adding gratuities to a check, as they relate to wages or tip income. You can determine whether the system considers the monies received from gratuities as a tip or wages; however, this is only possible using the Gratuities function. The global options do not provide a means for reporting a gratuity as a wage. You can disable gratuities altogether and use the Suggested Tip functionality to encourage guests to tip their server appropriately.

Gratuity tab

Use the Gratuity tab to establish a gratuity as automatic or not, and to define the parameters that control gratuity amounts, including percentages, minimum number of guests, and more. You also establish whether a gratuity reports as tips or wages.

Group Bar: Gratuity

Name — Identifies the gratuity.

Minimum gratuity — Specifies the minimum gratuity for a guest check. When an employee rings up a check, the gratuity stays at the specified minimum until the calculated gratuity is greater than the automatic gratuity amount. Required Options: You must access Maintenance > Business > Store > Store Settings tab > Financials group and select ‘Enable automatic gratuity’ under the ‘Add gratuity’ group bar to enable automatic gratuity.

Force automatic gratuity — Automatically applies the gratuity to guest checks from any revenue center to which you assign this gratuity.

Minimum number of guests needed for automatic gratuity — Specifies the minimum guest count required to apply this automatic gratuity. For example, if you set the minimum number to ‘8,’ the entry of a guest count eight or greater causes the automatic gratuity to apply to the current guest check. Documented Version: POS v19.5.

Percentage — Specifies a percentage to apply for the gratuity or service charge, such as 15.00 to indicate 15%.

Amount — Specifies a flat amount to apply for the gratuity or service charge, such as $2.00 for a room service fee.

Gratuity text — Designates the descriptive text to print on the guest check for an automatic gratuity, allowing you to differentiate between multiple gratuities added to a guest check or gratuities defined for a specific revenue center. If you leave this option blank, ‘Gratuity’ prints on the check.

Tax type — Specifies the tax to apply to the automatic gratuity amount.

Apply menu item primary tax as gratuity tax — Calculates the gratuity tax to add to the guest check using the tax rates specified for the tax type associated with each item on the check. Use this option when you need to configure automatic gratuities at the revenue center level. When cleared, the system uses the tax type selected in ‘Tax type’ to calculate the gratuity tax using a flat rate. Required Options: You must select the Gratuities tab in Maintenance > System Settings > Revenue Center and assign this gratuity to the revenue center for which you are applying automatic gratuities. Related Options: 1) This option overrides the selection in ‘Tax type.’ 2) This option overrides the ‘Apply menu item primary tax as gratuity tax’ option located in Maintenance > Business > Store > Store Settings tab > Financials group under the ‘Add gratuity’ group bar.

Minimum number of guests before tax — Specifies the minimum number of guests required at the table before applying a tax on the gratuity.

Exclude gratuity from this category — Specifies the category of items to which you do not want gratuity applied, when ordered. When you modify a category, the change applies to all areas assigned to that category.

Print combined gratuity as — Designates the name to print on the guest check and voucher, when you combine the selected gratuity with the one you select in ‘Combine into.’

Combine into — Specifies the gratuity you want to combine with the selected gratuity to print with the name you defined in ‘Print combined gratuity as.’ Required Options: You must specify a gratuity name in ‘Print combined gratuity as’ to print when the gratuity is combined.

Exclude from employee tips — Treats the amount as a wage gratuity rather than as a tip for the employee. A wage gratuity reports similar to a service charge collected by the restaurant. Related Options: If you select ‘Force automatic gratuity,’ you must select this option to comply with IRS Revenue Ruling 2012-18. The IRS states that when a guest is forced to pay an auto gratuity and cannot change or delete the amount, the amount becomes a wage gratuity, not a tip, and must report similar to service charges.