Your tipping policy — write it, ask your team, keep the record

Write how tips are shared from a suggested policy, share the draft with your staff for their comments, publish it with a short summary of what they said, get a reminder when it's due for review, and answer a member of staff who asks for their tips record.

Since 1 October 2024, every venue in England, Scotland and Wales whose staff regularly get tips needs a written tipping policy its staff can read, and a record of how tips were shared, kept for three years. A member of staff can ask for their record, and for a request covering whole months the law gives you four weeks, beginning with the day they asked, to give it to them. From late 2026 (expected — the date isn't set yet) you'll also need to ask your staff for their views before your first policy and as part of every review (and it's good practice whenever you change it), share a summary of what they said, and review the policy at least every three years.

In Northern Ireland the rules are different — check them for your venue.

Tips in the Team area of the sidebar keeps all of this in one place. It comes with the Team area — the Complete plan, or the Team product (£25 per month) on any other plan — like the rota, and so does sharing tips by the hours people clocked. It isn't legal advice — the government's statutory code of practice on distributing tips fairly is the guide to follow.

Without the Team area, follow the government's statutory Code of Practice on fair and transparent distribution of tips (on GOV.UK) to write and share your tipping policy yourself. A policy you already wrote in ResoFlow stays where it is; you can still end a consultation you'd started and mark a requested tips record as sent — they're listed under Still to finish on the page, where the bell and the email for a tips record request take you.

Write the policy

The first time you open the page, pick how tips are shared at your venue — by hours worked, by role, equally, or another way — and ResoFlow starts you with a suggested policy: who shares the tips, how, when they're paid, card and cash tips, service charge, that nothing is kept back, and the record. Every heading and every word can be changed, sections can be moved or removed, and Add a section adds your own. Press Save draft to keep your changes. Nobody on your team sees a draft until you share or publish it.

Only people who can change the tipping policy (owners and admins by default — the "Write and publish the tipping policy" permission on Roles and permissions) can edit, share or publish it, and only when signed in with their own email — not with a staff PIN.

Share the draft with staff

When the draft is ready, pick the day comments close (at least a week away; two weeks is usual) and press Share the draft with staff. Everyone on your staff list with an email address gets one email with their own private link to read the draft and comment — the link works only for them, only for your venue, and stops working when comments close. Staff with no email read the draft and comment in the staff portal on the venue's devices. If someone replies to the email instead of using their link, the reply comes to your venue (your Settings → Messages reply address, else your venue's notification email, else the owner), never to ResoFlow.

While comments are open you can see each comment with the person's name, so you can follow up. Each person has one comment, which they can change until comments close.

If the new duty hasn't started yet you can still press Publish without asking — once it starts, ask your team first. To stop a consultation without publishing anything, press End without publishing: comments close, the draft is set aside, and every comment is kept. Sharing with ten or more people asks you to confirm it's you first, and a draft can be shared at most three times a day.

Publish it with the written summary

When comments have closed, change the draft if what you heard calls for it, then write the summary every member of staff will read: what the team said and what you changed — without naming anyone. ResoFlow starts the summary for you from the comments with no names in it, and warns you if a name is left in. Press Publish the policy and summary. Each published version is kept with its date, who published it and whether your team was asked first.

Your staff read the live policy, the summary and the date it was last updated under Tips in the staff portal. That includes the one-screen logins: a Team member (shifts and clock-in only), Door (scanner only) or Kitchen (order screen only) login can read the policy there too, comment on a draft you've shared and ask for their own tips record, just like any member of staff — they can't change the policy or see anyone else's record.

The three-year review

The first review is due within three years of the day you first published the policy — whether or not you asked your team that time. After that, each review is due no more than three years after the last one (the last time you published the policy after asking your team). Thirty days before, the owner gets a reminder in the bell and by email. To review it, open the policy, press Change the policy if anything needs changing, and share the draft with your team again — even if nothing changes, publish it with the summary.

When a member of staff asks for their tips record

In the staff portal, under Tips, a member of staff picks the first and last day they want and presses Ask for my record. The owner gets a bell and an email, and the request shows on Tips with the date to send it by — the last day of the four weeks beginning with the day it was asked.

The law's right to the record is for a period of one or more whole months, ending before the day of the request, and a member of staff can make one such request every three months. ResoFlow lets your staff ask for any days in the last three years, as often as they need — answering a request the law doesn't require is up to you.

ResoFlow never sends a person's tips record for you. Reports → Tips gives the tips customers paid by card through ResoFlow for those days (download the CSV). Tips taken on a card machine, and cash tips, aren't in ResoFlow — add them from your own records, send the record to your member of staff, then press Mark as sent. Requests are kept for six years.

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