Hey everyone,

I wanted to share something a lot of clients run into with tips and service charges in Mews POS, and how I would manage it in my property. Maybe it’s useful for you too!

Tips are always going to the staff. Sometimes you do it on a monthly basis, or a weekly basis. Sometimes the waiting staff is allowed to take the money out of the wallet at the end of the shift. If you are not doing this by waiters on a shift basis, you can go down to the “Here’s the tricky part” bit. I am explaining here if tips AND service charge are paid out to the staff, if it is only tips, it is the same flow. You just ignore the service charge bit.

In the shift reports, Mews POS shows service charges and tips together under one other.             

During a shift, you can also log deposits and withdrawals — so if someone takes cash tips out of the register, just record it as a withdrawal. (How to make a deposit/withdrawal from the cash drawer in Mews POS)

One thing to note: the tip amount in the report is only a total. It doesn’t split by payment method (cash, card, room, etc.), so you’ll only ever see the combined figure.

Now here’s the tricky part: Tips and surcharges are sent to Mews PMS into accounting categories. That means when your staff actually gets their tips, you need to also “remove” those amounts from Mews PMS so they don’t keep building up and stay on your account.

What you should do:

• Once a week or month, check your payouts (the best ways is the Sales report on pos.mews.com and filter for the period you need (Understanding the Sales report in Mews POS)
• Set up a paymaster account dedicated to these payouts.
• Have an additional service linked to the same accounting category as tips.
• Then we post the amount as a negative charge on that additional service and offset it with a negative cash payment.

That way, everything balances out nicely.

Pro tip: create a separate cash register in Mews PMS just for these payouts. That way your reception shift reports aren’t missing money and the bookkeeping stays clean.

Curious — how are you all handling tips and service charges in your properties?