Big Red F, a Colorado-based restaurant group, operates 13 locations with four distinct dining concepts: Jax Fish House, The Post Chicken & Beer, Centro Mexican Kitchen, and West End Tavern. Managing complex tipping structures and tip pooling for both Front-of-House (FOH) and Back-of-House (BOH) staff across multiple locations presented significant challenges. With TipHaus, Big Red F has streamlined tip distribution, ensuring transparency, accuracy, and efficiency across their operations.
Executive Summary
Region:
Colorado
Business Type:
Multi-Concept Restaurant Group
# of Locations:
13
Interviewee:
Jesse Swanson, Operations Technology Manager; Dawn Ritchison, Payroll Manager
Problem:
Managing complex tipping across 13 locations with manual tip pooling was time-consuming and prone to errors, creating compliance risks and operational inefficiencies. The team also lacked ability to appropriately reward more experienced or higher-performing staff members.
Solution:
TipHaus streamlined Big Red F’s tip management by automating calculations and distributions, simplifying complex tipping processes, and saving valuable time. This solution also provided full transparency for both employees and management, enhancing trust and efficiency. With TipHaus, Big Red F was able to introduce tiered tipping, allowing tips to be distributed based on employees' experience and performance, further motivating and rewarding their team.
Background
Big Red F manages four restaurant concepts with 13 locations across Colorado. Their multi-location setup required a scalable, transparent solution for managing complex tipping and tip pooling. Previously, the group relied on intricate spreadsheets, which created risks for errors and consumed valuable time on manual calculations. This method required significant manual effort, making it difficult to ensure accuracy, especially with employees working in various roles. The need for a reliable and efficient system led them to adopt TipHaus.
"Implementing tiered tipping with TipHaus has transformed our approach to staff compensation. We're now able to reward our most dedicated and experienced team members appropriately, significantly boosting morale and retention. Before TipHaus, we relied on a complex, time-consuming spreadsheet, especially challenging across multiple locations. We always worried that if the person managing it left, the entire system could break. Now, with TipHaus, there’s no liability risk of breaking formulas or making costly errors."
Dawn Ritchison
Payroll Manager
Problem
Manual tip pooling was unsustainable for Big Red F’s multi-location setup. The complexity of calculating tips for FOH and BOH staff, along with unique roles and tip percentages, led to inconsistencies and compliance risks. Payroll managers spent hours on adjustments, and the dependence on spreadsheets left them vulnerable to formula errors and lacked a clear audit trail for compliance, creating further risks.
Solution
TipHaus has transformed Big Red F’s complex tipping processes by providing a seamless integration with their Toast POS, eliminating the need for manual data entry and significantly reducing errors. By automating and simplifying tiered tip pooling calculations for both front-of-house (FOH) and back-of-house (BOH) teams, TipHaus enables differentiated tip distribution based on staff experience and performance, ensuring equitable rewards and enhancing staff motivation. This innovation has allowed Big Red F to reward their most experienced and high-performing staff, fostering a motivated workforce and increasing staff retention. Additionally, TipHaus ensures full compliance with a clear audit trail, reducing legal risks associated with complex tipping and tip pooling practices.
With these improvements, Big Red F has seen substantial benefits: their payroll team now saves over 40 hours monthly on manual adjustments, freeing them to focus on other high-value tasks. Overall, TipHaus has empowered Big Red F to operate more efficiently, reduce errors, and maintain compliance with ease.
"With TipHaus, we save around $500 each month by avoiding overpayments—that’s nearly $6,000 per year across our current locations, and this number grows as we expand. This doesn’t even factor in the time saved from eliminating manual tip calculations or the potential legal costs we might face with spreadsheet-based methods. TipHaus also provides a clear audit trail, giving us added legal protection if we’re ever audited.”
Dawn Ritchison
Payroll Manager
Results
With TipHaus, Big Red F has transformed its approach to managing complex tipping and tip pooling, achieving greater operational efficiency and boosting team morale. By automating these processes and providing a transparent system, TipHaus has positioned Big Red F for growth while maintaining fairness and compliance across all locations.
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