A shared tip pool looks simple until the night ends. The jar is full, eight people are tired, and somebody has to say who gets what. Whatever method you pick, the team will compare it with what they expected, so the method needs to be easy to explain out loud.
This guide walks through one realistic Friday night with eight people and a pool of 1,284.60. We split it twice, once on hours alone and once on hours and weights, and look at what changes, who notices and how the odd cents are handled. You can follow along with the tip pool splitter and press "Load the Friday-night example" to see every number below on screen.
The two common ways to split
Hours only. Everyone who worked the shift shares in proportion to the hours they were on the floor. Someone who worked eight hours gets twice what a four-hour colleague gets. It is the easiest rule to state and the hardest to argue with, because the only input is the rota.
Hours and weights. Each role or person gets a points weight set by the owner. A bar lead might count as 1.5, a floor runner as 0.75, everyone else as 1. A person's points are hours multiplied by weight, and the pool is shared in proportion to points. This lets the split reflect responsibility or intensity without anybody inventing numbers on the night.
Neither method is "correct". The right one is the one your team understands and trusts before the shift starts. What matters is that the rule is fixed in advance, written down and applied the same way every time.
The team and the pool
Friday night, one service, one pool. The owner has already decided the weights, and the team knows them.
| Person | Role | Hours | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Maya | Bar lead | 8:00 | 1.5 |
| Leo | Bar | 7:30 | 1.25 |
| Ines | Floor lead | 8:00 | 1.5 |
| Sam | Floor | 7:45 | 1 |
| Dara | Floor | 5:00 | 1 |
| Tomas | Runner | 6:00 | 0.75 |
| Priya | Host | 4:30 | 0.75 |
| Kit | Kitchen pass | 8:15 | 1 |
The pool is 1,284.60, with no house share. Total hours are 55. Hours come straight off the rota as h:mm, so 7:45 is 7 hours 45 minutes, which is 7.75 hours. A common slip is typing 7.45 for a shift that ran 7:45. They are different numbers: 7.45 hours is 7 hours 27 minutes. The splitter shows how each box was read, so the slip is visible before it costs anyone money.
Split one: hours only
With hours alone, the sum for each person is their hours divided by 55, multiplied by 1,284.60. Maya works 8 hours, so her share is 8 ÷ 55 = 14.55% of the pool, which is 186.85. Priya works 4.5 hours: 4.5 ÷ 55 = 8.18%, which is 105.10.
| Person | Hours | Share | Paid |
|---|---|---|---|
| Maya | 8 | 14.55% | 186.85 |
| Leo | 7.5 | 13.64% | 175.17 |
| Ines | 8 | 14.55% | 186.85 |
| Sam | 7.75 | 14.09% | 181.01 |
| Dara | 5 | 9.09% | 116.78 |
| Tomas | 6 | 10.91% | 140.14 |
| Priya | 4.5 | 8.18% | 105.10 |
| Kit | 8.25 | 15% | 192.70 |
Notice that Kit, who worked the longest, earns the most, and that the two team leads earn the same as a colleague who worked the same hours. Nothing in this table reflects who was running the section.
Split two: hours and weights
Now the weights apply. Points are hours multiplied by weight:
- Maya: 8 × 1.5 = 12 points
- Leo: 7.5 × 1.25 = 9.375 points
- Ines: 8 × 1.5 = 12 points
- Sam: 7.75 × 1 = 7.75 points
- Dara: 5 × 1 = 5 points
- Tomas: 6 × 0.75 = 4.5 points
- Priya: 4.5 × 0.75 = 3.375 points
- Kit: 8.25 × 1 = 8.25 points
The total is 62.25 points. Each person's share is their points divided by 62.25, and the share is multiplied by the pool. Maya's sum is 12 ÷ 62.25 = 19.28%, and 19.28% of 1,284.60 is 247.63 and a bit more. The "bit more" matters, and we come back to it below.
| Person | Points | Share | Paid | Against hours only |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maya | 12 | 19.28% | 247.64 | +60.79 |
| Leo | 9.375 | 15.06% | 193.46 | +18.29 |
| Ines | 12 | 19.28% | 247.63 | +60.78 |
| Sam | 7.75 | 12.45% | 159.93 | -21.08 |
| Dara | 5 | 8.03% | 103.18 | -13.60 |
| Tomas | 4.5 | 7.23% | 92.86 | -47.28 |
| Priya | 3.375 | 5.42% | 69.65 | -35.45 |
| Kit | 8.25 | 13.25% | 170.25 | -22.45 |
The two leads gain about 61 each, the bar colleague gains 18, and the other five lose between 13 and 47. Tomas and Priya, with a 0.75 weight, take the biggest drops because their weight and their shorter hours push in the same direction.
What the comparison tells you
A weighted split moves money towards the roles you have chosen to value. It moves it away from everyone else by the same total. Nobody is paid more in aggregate: the 1,284.60 stays the same in both tables.
Before you adopt weights, ask three questions.
- Can you explain each weight in one sentence? "Leads carry the section and handle the cash-up" is a sentence. "Maya is just better" is not.
- Is the gap proportionate? A weight of 1.5 against 1 means a lead earns 50% more per hour. Small steps, such as 1.1 or 1.25, are easy to defend. Big steps need a reason the whole team accepts.
- Will it still look fair on a quiet night? The same weights apply when the pool is small, so check that the numbers still make sense with half the money.
A fair middle path is to use weights for only two or three groups and leave everyone else at 1. The fewer distinct numbers, the easier the rule is to remember.
The odd cents
The pool of 1,284.60 does not divide evenly, and neither do most pools. Maya and Ines worked the same hours at the same weight, so their exact shares are identical: 247.6337. Whole cents cannot be split between two people, so one of them has to get the extra cent.
Here is how the rounding works in the splitter.
- Nearest cent. Every exact share is rounded to the nearest cent. Maya's 247.6337 becomes 247.63, Ines's becomes 247.63, and the rounded amounts add up to 1,284.59. One cent is left over.
- Leftover rule. The leftover goes to the person with the biggest share. Maya and Ines tie, so it goes to whoever is listed first. That is why Maya is paid 247.64 and Ines 247.63.
- Always down. Every share is cut to the cent, which leaves a larger remainder, 0.03 in this example, and the splitter shows that remainder by name instead of hiding it.
Pick the leftover rule before you use it, and say it out loud. "The biggest share takes the odd cents" is clear. "It depends" invites a debate over a cent. If you would rather not give one person the whole remainder, the second setting hands it out one cent at a time to the people who lost the most to rounding. The cents are the same; only the recipients change.
One more detail: the two people with identical hours and weights differ by one cent in the paid column. That is the only way a whole-cent payout can work. The sheet shows the reason beside the amount so nobody wonders.
Adding a house share
Some venues keep a percentage of the pool for the house, for a team fund or a shared expense. Type it as a percentage and it is taken off the top before the team split. On this Friday, a 10% house share would set aside 128.46 and leave 1,156.14 for the eight people. The weighted payouts then scale down together: Maya's becomes 222.87 instead of 247.64.
Whatever you choose, say so before the shift. A percentage nobody was told about is the fastest way to turn a tip pool into an argument. The splitter shows the house amount as its own line in the table, on the sheet and in the CSV.
Several shifts, or a week
The 31 December rush rarely stands alone. You may have an early shift, a late shift and a midnight push, each with different people. There are two clean ways to handle it.
One pool per shift. Each shift has its own pool and its own list of hours. Every person's total is the sum of their shift amounts. This is best when the pools are counted separately and people work different services.
One pool for the week. You enter one weekly amount and every shift's hours and weights go into it. The splitter shows each person's total and how the week's pool divides across shifts by points. This suits a team that works together all week and wants a single weekly payout.
In both cases the rule for odd cents applies per pool, so the payouts always add back up to the amount you typed.
Make it easy to check
The best protection against disputes is a visible sum. For each person, show the hours, the weight, the points, the share and the amount. When someone asks "why is mine lower?", you can point to a line instead of retelling the evening.
The payout sheet from the splitter is built for this. It lists each person with their hours, weight and amount, and has two tick boxes beside every name: one for "Counted" when the cash is checked, one for "Paid" when it is handed over. There are no signature lines, only ticks, which keeps the end of a long night quick. A CSV with the same numbers is there if you want to keep the shift record.
A short checklist for the night itself:
- Agree the rule and the weights before service.
- Take hours from the rota, not from memory, and use h:mm or decimals consistently.
- Count the pool once, with a second person present.
- Enter the pool, run the split and read the odd-cent line aloud.
- Print the sheet, tick as you pay, and file it with the shift notes.
If your December plan also covers opening hours, the holiday hours sign maker puts your 31 December times on the door, and the sale margin calculator checks that your seasonal offers still leave a profit. Our guide to updating holiday hours everywhere covers the listings and signs.
Questions people ask
Should we split by hours only or add weights?
Start with hours only if the team has never used weights. It is the simplest rule and needs no explanation. Move to weights when roles clearly carry different responsibility, and introduce them before a shift, not after the money is counted.
What if someone worked a partial shift?
Enter the hours they worked. Hours are the only thing that changes their points, so a four-hour shift counts for exactly half of an eight-hour one at the same weight.
What does a weight of 0 mean?
The person is listed but earns no share, because their points are zero. Use it for someone who worked the shift but is outside the pool, or to keep a name on the sheet.
How do we handle a pool that is in whole units, such as yen?
Choose the currency in the splitter. Currencies without decimals are split into whole units, and the leftover rule works the same way with a smallest step of one unit.
Can we keep the numbers for next time?
Yes. Tick "Keep my entries on this device" and the text you typed is saved in your browser only. You can clear it at any time, and the CSV is there when you want a record outside the browser.