Free tool
Tip pool tracker
The question a tip record has to answer is not tonight's. It is the one that arrives months later: what was the pool, what was the rule, and does the arithmetic hold. This sheet keeps all three for every shift, with a check row proving the payouts add back to the pool.
What you get
- The tracker: one block per shift with date, pool total, split method, then a row per person with hours or shares and the payout. Opens in Excel, Numbers, or Google Sheets.
- The check row: each shift ends with the payouts totalled against the pool. If they do not match to the cent, the block is not done.
Pairs with the free tip pool calculator, which runs the split and handles the odd cents. This sheet is where the result gets kept.
Why the record matters more than the split
Most tip disputes are not about the rule. They are about whether the rule was applied, and by the time the question is asked, nobody remembers a Tuesday from four months ago. A sheet showing the pool, the method and the arithmetic for every shift settles it in one look. A pile of texts and mental math does not.
The odd cents deserve one decision, made once: when a split does not divide evenly, the leftover cents go to whoever was rounded down hardest. Written on the sheet, that stops being a nightly judgment call.
One honest limit: this tracks pooling arithmetic only. Tip credit and tipped minimum wage rules vary by state and city, and a spreadsheet is not the place to get them from. The operations glossary separates tip pool, tip out and tip credit, and tip pooling software covers the wider setup.
Or let the record keep itself
The Smooth Ops Tips module reads tips from Square, runs the split by your rule, and keeps the per-shift record automatically.