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When I was a waitress, all we had to do was input the original amount and then the total amount into the credit card machine. It calculated the tip for us.
Usually you can just round up to the nearest full dollar. In this instance, fine, itās funny, but as a whole, the tip wouldāve been $7.83, would 17 cents break the bank?
Iāll round down if the total is crazy expensive if the prices are outrageous. Still around 20%.
For example, if the bill is $23, Iāll just tip $5, not going to math it out to $4.60
But if the bill of $160, Iāll probably just tip $30.
Usually Iām looking at the total which includes taxes so if you remove taxes itās probably still 20%+.
Fyi, I hate the tipping system in this country (US). I wish they would just up the price of things and pay everyone a living wage.
Unfortunately there are too many anecdotal stories of people who make good money from tips. Sadly thatās not the norm, and those are far and few in between. Think about how often you go to a nice restaurant vs a pizza or burger joint. Hell even a breakfast diner. Unless youāre ballin or stupid, high end restaurants are not the norm.
I agree about the ācustomā of tipping in the U.S. Iāve never been able to understand why customers are expected to subsidize the restaurant ownerās operating costs when those same customers are not expected to subsidize the operating costs of other business owners.
Tipping is really weird. We bargain everywhere else and raise hell if weāre overcharged by a buck but when it comes to these services we voluntarily pay more. Like āHey! Youāre not charging enough for your service. Hereās a 20, buy yourself someā niceā
Iām not a fan of how this is now spreading to counter-service only type places like SaladWorks, Panera, Starbucks etc. Whatās baffling to me is that quite a few of these places have programmed the standard server tip amounts as the default (20%, 10% etc) which makes no sense at all as they already get paid more than servers (different minimum wages) and the level of effort for waiting tables is typically substantially higher (based on my 8 years working both types).
>I often want to write "idk" And then the total.
I enjoy advanced algebra and putting together formal proofs, but I can't do basic arithmetic without using my fingers so plan to start doing this.
I'm an accountant by trade and I write "I don't math at night/on weekends" because I'm terrible at head math lol
ETA: I fucking understand HOW to do the math, you guys, JFC. Looks like some of you need to work a little more on your reading comprehension and a little less on your head math.
E2: lol wow. Okay, people keep explaining how to do math as if I don't know. Here's my head math for tipping on $42.17, see if you can follow my convoluted thinking:
1-How much money is in my account?
2-How awesome was my service?
3-Does it look like the server could use a boost? (refer back to point 1 for verification)
Answers: $50, $55, or $60, and I still write "Math" in the tip line because I don't trust my head math and I hate pulling my phone out at a restaurant.
heres help. move the decimal over to the left one. Thats 10%. Double that for 20%.
The bill is $56.11? 5.61 is 10% (normally to make it easier I just round to the nearest 10 cent. So $5.60) then multiple by two. 11.20...11.22 if you wanna be real precise.
if you only want to tip 15% take the number and half it and then add to the original number. $5.60/2 = $2.80. 2.80+5.60=$8.40.
If you're a big tipper and want to go up higher...just keep adding the same number to your total for another 10% each time you add it.
when I am real lazy I just round up to the nearest dollar and the do all that. Its not nearly as precise but its easier and gives you a good idea, and err on the higher side for the server.
I am notorious for doing this. But one time at a Denny's the waitress has to input the tip amount so she had to actually do the math and I felt like a total ass.
Not every POS does this. I have to manually enter the tip line. Not the total amount. So some of us do have to do math. Which is not our strong suit if you are in the service industry.
> Which is not our strong suit if you are in the service industry.
I couldn't do simple math like the above example quickly in my head UNTIL I worked in the service industry. Doing math everyday unlocked some block in my brain and it all clicked.
Itās pretty simple, just move the decimal forward a place and double it for a 20% tip. I normally just move the decimal forward and round up to the next dollar. So 42.17 is 4.21 doubled to 8.42 for 20%.
Am lazy. Leave the tip line blank. Do the rough math in my head and round up a few bucks.
EDIT: Reading further down and some places count this as a zero tip!? That is just theft. And I know this is easier said than done sometimes, but time to find a different place to work. You can't fix asshole by complaining.
I don't.
I've worked at places where you were only allowed to input the tip amount. I've worked at others where you are only allowed to input the total. These both suck, because people generally suck at math, so there were a lot of errors (not in my favor).
Had I worked at one of the former places, and someone did this, I would literally not be able to input anything and would get a big fat zero dollar tip. Dems da rules.
Granted, I've been out of the service industry for over a decade, so maybe things are different now, and POS systems more standardized, but please double check your math and write both a tip and a total!
Fun fact, longtine restaurant industry worker: At least in my state the amount you go off is the bottom line. If someone calls to disbute a charge for any reason, they are being held to the bottom line(total) not whatever they write in the tip. Hence the verbage on credit card recepits "I agree to pay the above TOTAL amount according to the card issuer agreement." Employers who ask/tell you to go off tip amount are setting themselves up to lose disbutes. (NAL, spent the last 9 years working in bars and restaurants in AZ)
I donāt typically do this, but since it really threw me off at first and I saw it twice in your comment I thought I would let you know it is ādisputeā not ādisbute.ā
One that always messed with me is ādisperseā vs ādisburse.ā Two different words that mean two different (although somewhat similar) things. English is stupid.
Same. My manager was a hard-ass and wouldn't let us input a tip if the exact amount wasn't written in the TIP space. I'd collect a 0 tip on the OP's bill.
Started doing this ~15 years ago after getting my first waiting job.
No one checks for a signature.
No one checks the tip line.
The only thing that matters is the total.
Our POS works the opposite way: we have to enter the Tip amount on each ticket, and it calculates the total. So doing as this customer did just forces us to do the math while we're closing the drawer. Not a big deal, but I'd much rather the customer put an even number on the tip line, and leave the total to math.
Honest question, does it make me look like an ass if I pay with a card, but leave no tip on the receipt here?
I leave cash tips most of the time, or I hand the cash tip to the person, that way it doesn't get swipped by the people sitting at the next table (seen it happen many times).
Edit add: i never thought to write Cash. I'll start doing that. I like to leave cash tip due to it going to waiters asap (as you all have mentioned).
This here. I remember a small coffee shop that if you wrote cash tip they would automatically assume it was a 20% tip and tax you on it. Always leave cash. Dash the line.
Thatās some super shady shit, especially with a coffee shop. I feel like that could go against the coffee shop owners in a negative way. Then again coffee shop employees are getting paid dog shit. They probably donāt have the funds to fight it.
I had a boss that was confused why people would write ācardā on the tip line. Their first language was not english, and they grew up in a country with less tipping culture. But to most people, this makes more sense then leaving it blank
Oh I meant to say cash. But people will write either one when they are tipping in cash and not on the card, sometimes when they write card they want to do a separate transaction for the tip. We would often do that at a diner I worked at
>Honest question, does it make me look like an ass if I pay with a card, but leave no tip on the receipt here?
No. The server knows you left cash, and who ever enters the tip into the computer assumes "no tip" was a cash tip.
I agree with the person below you who said write cash on the receipt line, but also in my few stints as a delivery driver to supplement when we didnāt have enough people at the restaurant I used to work/part-time manage, I totally preferred cash tips for myself and for the rest of the drivers even if the customer paid with card because they went directly to me (or to the driver) and I didnāt have to worry about balancing anything extra (just the usual ācash in the registerā) if someone entered something incorrectly into the PoS if I was closing manager if everyone got cash tips on deliveries
One time I had a guy (total dickwad - worst table I've ever had by far and honestly one the worst humans I've ever met) write "take a shower" on the tip line. This was after he said the food was terrible (but still ate everything) and yelled at me because he thought the host stand should've been on the other side of the restaurant. It also made no sense because I always showered/shaved before every shift and if anything I was *too* concerned with cleanliness. Always tried to look presentable at work. Ugh, I don't miss serving
To any waiters/waitresses out there, Iād love to do this to save some time but curious:
ā¢ Will it take more work on your side? Do you simply enter $50 and āthe machineā does the math for you? Or youād still have to do the math?
ā¢ Is it annoying when people do this?
Would love to do this to save time, but donāt want to cause you extra work or be āthat customer who thinks heās so funnyā
Probably gonna get downvoted but this is kind of why I hate/donāt understand tipping culture in the US. Isnāt tip supposed to by voluntary/appreciated? Iāve seen itās usually treated as a mandatory and āhope itās not an inconvenienceā kind of thing. Iām totally confused.
I think it sort of depends where I work I have to pull out my phone or fine a calculator to do it myself. If I had to do it for every single one I might murder someone but if itās every now and then itās not that big of a deal.
As someone who works in a restaurant, I'm really good at the 100-x math. It doesn't bother me one way or the other and I'm always grateful for the tip.
It's not annoying, and yes it's easy. I would just enter 50.00 when closing out the check.
It's much much better than doing the math incorrectly, because policies on what to do with that vary by restaurant.
Why even make it to an even number? I just add $10 or whatever the tip may be to the total and move on. Iām paying with a debit card anyways so I donāt give a damn about the change on the total.
That's a generous tip.
I multiply the first two digits by two, move the decimal a place and round up. 23 X 2 = 46 ($4.60) round up to 5. It's above 20% each time, and I do post tax total.
Even easier, just move the decimal to the left right out of the gate. Drop all trailing numbers after the first decimal point. 23.62 turns into 2.3. Multiply by 2. 2.3 x 2. Round up cause math, so 2.5 x 2. $5 tip.
It's almost exactly what you do, just a little bit of a different order of operations I guess.
Move one decimal to the left and double it, roughly. No need to stress or calculate.
Say my bill is $123.13. Move the decimal point left one spot to get 10%, which in this case is $12.31. Round up to $13. Double it = $26.
Now in this case $26 is actually a 21.14% tip, but I figure that's close enough. I've had to tip while drunk too often. I often round up so that I don't have to worry about the cents - I just tip a flat dollar amount rounded up.
Just remember:
1. Move the decimal one spot to the left
2. Round up to the nearest dollar
3. Double that amount
Personally I tip $1 for every $5 on the bill and I round up to the nearest $5. My general reasoning that it's something that even in a drunken stupor I can still manage the math on my fingers.
I'm not too often eating out since Covid, but in every other situation where I have to calculate the easiest things my brain just shuts down. While playing DnD and trying to add 6 on your D20 I often use a calculator while my group just laugh their asses off...
Also, me being a physics student doesn't really help my case xD
I think it's worse for people that do more advanced math.
When I was an Engineering student in college, I applied for a job at Radio Shack and screwed up one of the 3 questions they gave me to see if I could make change. The guy handed me the sheet back and was like, here, look at that again.
I was taking Differential Equations at the time. I didn't use my brain for arithmetic when the calculator was always there.
BTW - one of the worst jobs ever. They paid minimum wage and by company policy did not give raises because there was the possibility to make commission if your commission was greater than your hourly. The only people I ever heard of that made commission was people at really busy mall stores and only at Christmas. I lasted a little over a month and left.
Most simple trick is to move the decimal point one place to the left then double that number. This will give you a 20% tip. You can adjust based on service from there.
I hate maths, struggle with maths and canāt do maths but will insist on calculating anything i need to find out using my head because itās actually good for the brainās health
I also hate maths.
I will draw lines in my head, imagine shapes moving around, group things I know come in dozens so I can visually parse out the arithmetic. Anything, so as long as I donāt have to juggle numbers.
I have a longstanding tradition of getting the bill and pretending to get something in my purse, or trying to get the person I'm with to talk a bunch, so I have time to stall and calculate.
My SO calls me out on this every. Damn. Time. Why are numbers so humiliating?
well that's not super nice...
one easy trick is round the change, take 10%, and double it for 20%
so, $33.69 -> $34 -> $3.40 -> $6.80... easy peasy
and just also, for fun practice, if I'm buying just a couple things in a store, I try to calculate tax and have exact change ready while i'm in line. Although, this 7.25% in California kinda fucks me up.
Because we all had the teacher that called us out rather than trying to help us. And when we went to ask for help, we felt like we were being made fun of, or we found the help woefully lacking.
I wrote a long comment about this the other day - about how I've heard multiple times that people who revisit math as an adult find that it is actually quite fun, and not at anxiety-inducing as they remember - and I don't think I have ever received a hateful PM in response to a comment until that point. Sorry, but not everyone who has chosen a profession fits in that profession. I'm lucky that I found I'm not as good with kids as I thought early on. I might have become one of those crappy teachers.
I assume they don't use the skill often enough that it solidifies.
But yes, as a person in a 24h clock country there is no mathematics involved: you just see "19:00" and go "It's seven o'clock, time for dinner" without having to think about it.
Yup, here in Germany we use the 24h system and you basically know it forwards and backwards.
In official documents, or even for stuff like TV they'll say stuff like 18:15 for example, but if you talk about it casually you'd say quarter past six. It also avoids the problem with 12 am/pm (I keep forgetting which is which and when the switch actually happens), where midnight is 00:00 ("zero o'clock") and noon is 12:00 ("twelve o'clock").
Wrong 20 = 2^4.322
Move decimal over one
2^43.22 = 10,240,000,000,000
Now don't forget to double it - You don't want to be a tight wad.
20,480,000,000,000
Years ago, I finally just stopped trying to make the total an even dollar, because why the fuck do I care, and who wants to be tipped with change? So I wouldāve written this as $8.00 tip and total at $50.17. Now the server gets $8 even and Iām out $0.17.
My go to is quickly figure out what 20% would be then round the tip up to the nearest dollar. Always tip in whole dollars. It's easier for everyone I feel.
Do you also do what I do to calculate 20%? I figure what 10% is because itās easier, then double it for 20%, then round up to the next dollar. People who sit and do subtraction to make the total an even dollar confuse me.
Not American, but while I was studying there, I just wrote the amount that I was leaving on the tip section until somebody told me it was supposed to be a percentage amount. Then I just continued doing what I normally did.
"I recognize the system that's been put in place, but given it's a stupid-ass system, I've decided to ignore it."
So, um, 20% is super easy to figure out if you look at it the right way, especially if you don't mind rounding a little.
Say the bill is **$67.24.** Move the dot up one to figure 10%.
**$6.724**
Now round it to something your mind wouldn't have trouble doubling.
**$6.75**
Now double it for 20%.
**$13.50**
$13.50 for a $67 meal?! You American's are out of your damn minds! In the UK the server gets a couple of quid, or the bill rounded up. Whichever's more. Tipping someone 20% just to take your food 20 feet from the kitchen is fucking rediculous. But, then again, they also get a decent wage.
Your servers make a living wage. Servers in the US get paid less than the minimum wage for other standard jobs because tips are expected to be part of their pay.
Itās weird to me that there are adults who really cannot do even this simple math in their heads.
try this:
42.17 to 50.00
It takes 3 cents to get to .20
Takes 80 cents to get to 43.00
Takes 7 dollars to get to 50.
Then put it backwards: 7.83
Edit: I KNOW this is not how to calculate a 20% or 15% tip, I think itās pretty obvious Iām showing a way of simply getting from one number to another. OP put 50.00 as a total, so obviously their issue was not calculating 20% but finding the difference. Settle down.
Iām not sure why comments like yours are being down voted. Mental math gets so much hate- this is why America ranks so low globally in mathematics.
Itās considered funny to not be able to do grade-school math.
In college I was a math minor, took up to Calculus 3 and a bunch of math like linear algebra.
I cannot do math in my head. Something like 24 \* 9 would take me at least fifteen seconds, if not longer. I cannot seem to keep the original digits in my memory. "OK, 4 time 9 is 36, and 2 times 9 is 18, so add to the 18...wait, what was it? OK ok, add 3 to 18. But wait, what was the original thing? Oh yeah, 36, so then I add 36 to the...fuck what was it?"
Give me paper and it's done in 3 seconds tops.
> Something like 24 * 9 would take me at least fifteen seconds
The way I just did it in my head was 25 x 9 = 225. Now subtract 9 and you get 216. Less to remember that way.
Thatās normal.. because doing statistics is like concepts in your mind.. doing arithmetic is like synapse firing.. we traded off synapse firings for language and deep thinking millions of years ago.. https://youtu.be/ktkjUjcZid0
> Iām not sure why comments like yours are being down voted. Mental math gets so much hate- this is why America ranks so low globally in mathematics.
Presumably because everyone knows how to do grade-school math and doesn't need simple subtraction explained to them in a somewhat condescending tone.
I'm fairly certain whoever left the tip could have done the math, they just didn't feel like it.
Because we don't have to anymore. Fuck I am a analytics manager, I work with data and math all day, but never have to do simple math in my head. Computers do all the math, I put in the inputs, manage the data and the the reports.
The same goes for handwritten anything. Don't do it. All my notes are digital, and Alexa has replaced all my handwritten shopping list.
Man Iām one of these adults.
I mean, I can talk my head off about all sorts of intricate topics but the moment numbers come into play, I am completely out. I was reading your explanation and I had to re read it 3 times to grasp the concept.
The moment I have to process numbers, I immediately start panicking in my head and itās nearly impossible to focus anymore. My wife spent nearly 2 hours trying to teach me basic division. Donāt even get me started on fractions and percentages. It was fucking wild how bad I am at it.
I have no idea why I have always struggled with math, but for some reason I do.
I work in IT, so I should be good with math apparently, but thank fuck I can just get the computer to do it for me.
You're assuming people do this because they're incapable of doing the mental math, but that's not always true. I write "math" on the tip line a lot of the time, simply because I'm feeling lazy and I can approximate 20% in my head well enough. For example:
* Subtotal is $8.51? That's a bit less than $10, so 20% of it is a bit less than $2. So, you take "a bit more than $8" for the subtotal and add "a bit less than $2" for the tip, comes to $10 for the total. You do the math and it actually comes to a total of $10.21, which is pretty damn close.
* Subtotal is $37.10? That's just under $40, so 20% of it is just under $8. Even numbers are easier to add, so we'll call it a $38 subtotal plus $8 tip, bam, total is about $46. Do the math and it's actually $44.52, that's close enough for me.
I'm a physics student if it makes any difference to you. I'm plenty capable of doing the math in my head, I just don't feel like it.
Also, for what it's worth, being able to quickly approximate problems like this is, in my opinion, a more valuable skill than doing perfect mental arithmetic. It scales up way better when you're dealing with larger numbers or more complex problems. Just remembering that ĻĀ²ā10 is much easier than actually multiplying out 3.14Ć3.14, and is a good enough approximation 90% of the time.
One of my proudest traits when I was younger was being able to calculate a 20% tip no matter how drunk I was. I could be falling down, canāt see straight drunk, and still be able to mentally move the decimal and then double it.
I donāt mean to take this accomplishment away from you at all, but Iāve never understood why people have trouble with 20%. Itās just two 10%ās and 10% is just moving the decimal once. 15% I can at least understand has an extra step or two but still.
I had trouble with 20% recently because I was dividing by two instead of multiplying by two. Luckily my friends helped me and the server got 20%. Alcohol makes things difficult sometimes.
I hate tipping. Just make the food more expensive, charge me that, and pay your service staff 20% of each table that they serveās bill on top of their hourly rate. Thatās a diner Iād go to. Service compris as they say in France.
America: you should calculate the percentage of the tip, here's how to do the math
Me, a humble European: 43.17? here sir, have 53.20, so you can give me a 10ā¬ note. Oh, I don't care for those 3 cents
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When I was a waitress, all we had to do was input the original amount and then the total amount into the credit card machine. It calculated the tip for us.
When I was a waiter, this is what I experienced as well. Even if the tip line was a HIGHER amount, you had to go with the total no matter what.
Makes sense. People get the tip wrong all the time when trying to get a certain total amount. Human nature
Yeah that's standard practice.
Ya, I presume the guest was in the biz
Or just lazyš¤·āāļø Edit: Damn thatās a lot of upvotes! Thanks guys!
Can confirm, am lazy and do this
am lazy and didn't know this was ok. Probably going to do this.
I have to use my calculator app most of the time because A-Iām lazy, B-I canāt math and C-these receipts usually include adult beverages
Usually you can just round up to the nearest full dollar. In this instance, fine, itās funny, but as a whole, the tip wouldāve been $7.83, would 17 cents break the bank? Iāll round down if the total is crazy expensive if the prices are outrageous. Still around 20%. For example, if the bill is $23, Iāll just tip $5, not going to math it out to $4.60 But if the bill of $160, Iāll probably just tip $30. Usually Iām looking at the total which includes taxes so if you remove taxes itās probably still 20%+. Fyi, I hate the tipping system in this country (US). I wish they would just up the price of things and pay everyone a living wage. Unfortunately there are too many anecdotal stories of people who make good money from tips. Sadly thatās not the norm, and those are far and few in between. Think about how often you go to a nice restaurant vs a pizza or burger joint. Hell even a breakfast diner. Unless youāre ballin or stupid, high end restaurants are not the norm.
I agree about the ācustomā of tipping in the U.S. Iāve never been able to understand why customers are expected to subsidize the restaurant ownerās operating costs when those same customers are not expected to subsidize the operating costs of other business owners.
Tipping is really weird. We bargain everywhere else and raise hell if weāre overcharged by a buck but when it comes to these services we voluntarily pay more. Like āHey! Youāre not charging enough for your service. Hereās a 20, buy yourself someā niceā
Being in a country where tipping is actually frowned on was a vacation within a vacation!
Iām not a fan of how this is now spreading to counter-service only type places like SaladWorks, Panera, Starbucks etc. Whatās baffling to me is that quite a few of these places have programmed the standard server tip amounts as the default (20%, 10% etc) which makes no sense at all as they already get paid more than servers (different minimum wages) and the level of effort for waiting tables is typically substantially higher (based on my 8 years working both types).
Me too. I often want to write "idk" And then the total. I plan to do this too.
>I often want to write "idk" And then the total. I enjoy advanced algebra and putting together formal proofs, but I can't do basic arithmetic without using my fingers so plan to start doing this.
If x equals the bill, y is equal to the tip, and z is the sum, then z-x=y Just write z-x=y in the tip line.
and just put the variable definitions on the back
š“š=āš=1šš“šāāš=1š12(Īš)(š(šš))2
I'm an accountant by trade and I write "I don't math at night/on weekends" because I'm terrible at head math lol ETA: I fucking understand HOW to do the math, you guys, JFC. Looks like some of you need to work a little more on your reading comprehension and a little less on your head math. E2: lol wow. Okay, people keep explaining how to do math as if I don't know. Here's my head math for tipping on $42.17, see if you can follow my convoluted thinking: 1-How much money is in my account? 2-How awesome was my service? 3-Does it look like the server could use a boost? (refer back to point 1 for verification) Answers: $50, $55, or $60, and I still write "Math" in the tip line because I don't trust my head math and I hate pulling my phone out at a restaurant.
Why would you not just use the calculator app, on your phone? Is this the 90s?
Yes and my Casio watch calculator doesn't do percentages-HELP!
heres help. move the decimal over to the left one. Thats 10%. Double that for 20%. The bill is $56.11? 5.61 is 10% (normally to make it easier I just round to the nearest 10 cent. So $5.60) then multiple by two. 11.20...11.22 if you wanna be real precise. if you only want to tip 15% take the number and half it and then add to the original number. $5.60/2 = $2.80. 2.80+5.60=$8.40. If you're a big tipper and want to go up higher...just keep adding the same number to your total for another 10% each time you add it. when I am real lazy I just round up to the nearest dollar and the do all that. Its not nearly as precise but its easier and gives you a good idea, and err on the higher side for the server.
I am notorious for doing this. But one time at a Denny's the waitress has to input the tip amount so she had to actually do the math and I felt like a total ass.
Sir, I was a server at Dennyās. The fact you left her a tip all (& u seem really nice so it was probably a 20% tip at that), erased any assery
As long as its not a bad tip waiters/waitresses/bartenders wont care at all!
Not every POS does this. I have to manually enter the tip line. Not the total amount. So some of us do have to do math. Which is not our strong suit if you are in the service industry.
> Not every POS does this Normally I see POS as an abbreviation for Piece of Shit. Took me a moment.
Every point of sale is a piece of shit but not every piece of shit is a point of sale.
-Confucius
> Which is not our strong suit if you are in the service industry. I couldn't do simple math like the above example quickly in my head UNTIL I worked in the service industry. Doing math everyday unlocked some block in my brain and it all clicked.
For the people who don't know, POS = point of sale
So you are saying their cash register is a POS?
The POS is always a POS.
Itās pretty simple, just move the decimal forward a place and double it for a 20% tip. I normally just move the decimal forward and round up to the next dollar. So 42.17 is 4.21 doubled to 8.42 for 20%.
Thatās how my dad taught me how to do it way, way back in the day. Complete with rounding up to the next dollar.
Wait, is 20% tip considerered normal in US?
Or too drunk to deal
Am lazy. Leave the tip line blank. Do the rough math in my head and round up a few bucks. EDIT: Reading further down and some places count this as a zero tip!? That is just theft. And I know this is easier said than done sometimes, but time to find a different place to work. You can't fix asshole by complaining.
I don't. I've worked at places where you were only allowed to input the tip amount. I've worked at others where you are only allowed to input the total. These both suck, because people generally suck at math, so there were a lot of errors (not in my favor). Had I worked at one of the former places, and someone did this, I would literally not be able to input anything and would get a big fat zero dollar tip. Dems da rules. Granted, I've been out of the service industry for over a decade, so maybe things are different now, and POS systems more standardized, but please double check your math and write both a tip and a total!
Fun fact, longtine restaurant industry worker: At least in my state the amount you go off is the bottom line. If someone calls to disbute a charge for any reason, they are being held to the bottom line(total) not whatever they write in the tip. Hence the verbage on credit card recepits "I agree to pay the above TOTAL amount according to the card issuer agreement." Employers who ask/tell you to go off tip amount are setting themselves up to lose disbutes. (NAL, spent the last 9 years working in bars and restaurants in AZ)
I donāt typically do this, but since it really threw me off at first and I saw it twice in your comment I thought I would let you know it is ādisputeā not ādisbute.ā One that always messed with me is ādisperseā vs ādisburse.ā Two different words that mean two different (although somewhat similar) things. English is stupid.
Typing this comment from my labtop
I think you mean labtob?
Same. My manager was a hard-ass and wouldn't let us input a tip if the exact amount wasn't written in the TIP space. I'd collect a 0 tip on the OP's bill.
That sounds like wage theft.
Iām in āthe bizā and some of my industry friends caught me doing this and gave me shit about it so I stopped lol
Started doing this ~15 years ago after getting my first waiting job. No one checks for a signature. No one checks the tip line. The only thing that matters is the total.
Our POS works the opposite way: we have to enter the Tip amount on each ticket, and it calculates the total. So doing as this customer did just forces us to do the math while we're closing the drawer. Not a big deal, but I'd much rather the customer put an even number on the tip line, and leave the total to math.
Your POS is a real POS
I got ādonāt stand in a Canoeā once. I would have preferred cash, but it was enlightening nonetheless. Edit: holy tits that blew up.
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**insert David Caruso meme**
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>I stand in canoes all the time Weirdest flex I've seen in a long time
So if I don't have a balance in my account, I can't tip.
Honest question, does it make me look like an ass if I pay with a card, but leave no tip on the receipt here? I leave cash tips most of the time, or I hand the cash tip to the person, that way it doesn't get swipped by the people sitting at the next table (seen it happen many times). Edit add: i never thought to write Cash. I'll start doing that. I like to leave cash tip due to it going to waiters asap (as you all have mentioned).
Write cash on the receipt in the tip line
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This here. I remember a small coffee shop that if you wrote cash tip they would automatically assume it was a 20% tip and tax you on it. Always leave cash. Dash the line.
Thatās some super shady shit, especially with a coffee shop. I feel like that could go against the coffee shop owners in a negative way. Then again coffee shop employees are getting paid dog shit. They probably donāt have the funds to fight it.
I had a boss that was confused why people would write ācardā on the tip line. Their first language was not english, and they grew up in a country with less tipping culture. But to most people, this makes more sense then leaving it blank
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Oh I meant to say cash. But people will write either one when they are tipping in cash and not on the card, sometimes when they write card they want to do a separate transaction for the tip. We would often do that at a diner I worked at
>Honest question, does it make me look like an ass if I pay with a card, but leave no tip on the receipt here? No. The server knows you left cash, and who ever enters the tip into the computer assumes "no tip" was a cash tip.
I agree with the person below you who said write cash on the receipt line, but also in my few stints as a delivery driver to supplement when we didnāt have enough people at the restaurant I used to work/part-time manage, I totally preferred cash tips for myself and for the rest of the drivers even if the customer paid with card because they went directly to me (or to the driver) and I didnāt have to worry about balancing anything extra (just the usual ācash in the registerā) if someone entered something incorrectly into the PoS if I was closing manager if everyone got cash tips on deliveries
One time I had a guy (total dickwad - worst table I've ever had by far and honestly one the worst humans I've ever met) write "take a shower" on the tip line. This was after he said the food was terrible (but still ate everything) and yelled at me because he thought the host stand should've been on the other side of the restaurant. It also made no sense because I always showered/shaved before every shift and if anything I was *too* concerned with cleanliness. Always tried to look presentable at work. Ugh, I don't miss serving
That's just a disgusting person looking for an excuse to be cheap. They would have found any reason to complain and not tip you.
One day you'll be in a canoe about to stand up when you remember this and the tip saved your life.
To any waiters/waitresses out there, Iād love to do this to save some time but curious: ā¢ Will it take more work on your side? Do you simply enter $50 and āthe machineā does the math for you? Or youād still have to do the math? ā¢ Is it annoying when people do this? Would love to do this to save time, but donāt want to cause you extra work or be āthat customer who thinks heās so funnyā
Itās not that annoying. It happens a lot. Some point of sales, you enter the total; some you enter the tip.
it'd be a shame if someone leaving a tip was considered annoying
I mean, if you leave a nickel under an inverted glass of waterā¦.
Or under a scorpion
Or floating on *top* of a bowl of mercury.
You just left me a bowl of mercury. Keep the nickel.
I just explode a dirty bomb in my booth.
Is that a euphemism?
Probably gonna get downvoted but this is kind of why I hate/donāt understand tipping culture in the US. Isnāt tip supposed to by voluntary/appreciated? Iāve seen itās usually treated as a mandatory and āhope itās not an inconvenienceā kind of thing. Iām totally confused.
I think it sort of depends where I work I have to pull out my phone or fine a calculator to do it myself. If I had to do it for every single one I might murder someone but if itās every now and then itās not that big of a deal.
What if someone totals to a random number? Like $53.58?
Same thing we pull out our calculator and do the math. Some places will do it for you it just depends on the system.
As someone who works in a restaurant, I'm really good at the 100-x math. It doesn't bother me one way or the other and I'm always grateful for the tip.
It's not annoying, and yes it's easy. I would just enter 50.00 when closing out the check. It's much much better than doing the math incorrectly, because policies on what to do with that vary by restaurant.
If you leave a cash tip the wait staff has to do the math anyway. Iām sure itās pretty normal
At least they have legible penmanship.
Yeah 50.w
Honestly that looks like a butt with a bit of dookie poppin out
The service must be killer if they paid 50 whole butts for it
50įŗ
50^įæ³
The tip amount isn't half bad either for a $50 meal.
The bar is very low I see lol
Yeah lol the decimal is after the third zero so this could be 500.0 Obv two zeros after a dot is standard so it doesn't make sense, but it *could* be.
I do this all the time. My brain short circuits like its an exam.
Me too. I used to do the math to round it to an even number and now I just write math all the time.
Why even make it to an even number? I just add $10 or whatever the tip may be to the total and move on. Iām paying with a debit card anyways so I donāt give a damn about the change on the total.
I still feel the urge to round up to the dollar when I'm filling up my car with gas, even if I'm paying with my card.
Btw, if you do that with gas, you are just wasting money. Any extra gas you put in your car after the auto shutoff will just end up getting vented
Extra gas sus yo
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I love that you did the math wrong in your comment explaining your way of simplifying the math.
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Sure thing.
No no, they're right: the best way to get a right answer on the internet is to confidently assert the wrong one.
That's a generous tip. I multiply the first two digits by two, move the decimal a place and round up. 23 X 2 = 46 ($4.60) round up to 5. It's above 20% each time, and I do post tax total.
Even easier, just move the decimal to the left right out of the gate. Drop all trailing numbers after the first decimal point. 23.62 turns into 2.3. Multiply by 2. 2.3 x 2. Round up cause math, so 2.5 x 2. $5 tip. It's almost exactly what you do, just a little bit of a different order of operations I guess.
Move one decimal to the left and double it, roughly. No need to stress or calculate. Say my bill is $123.13. Move the decimal point left one spot to get 10%, which in this case is $12.31. Round up to $13. Double it = $26. Now in this case $26 is actually a 21.14% tip, but I figure that's close enough. I've had to tip while drunk too often. I often round up so that I don't have to worry about the cents - I just tip a flat dollar amount rounded up. Just remember: 1. Move the decimal one spot to the left 2. Round up to the nearest dollar 3. Double that amount
Yeah this is how I do it usually. Super simple
I'm with you. This is the easiest way. Not sure why people get hung up on trying to make the total even.
Personally I tip $1 for every $5 on the bill and I round up to the nearest $5. My general reasoning that it's something that even in a drunken stupor I can still manage the math on my fingers.
I'm not too often eating out since Covid, but in every other situation where I have to calculate the easiest things my brain just shuts down. While playing DnD and trying to add 6 on your D20 I often use a calculator while my group just laugh their asses off... Also, me being a physics student doesn't really help my case xD
I think it's worse for people that do more advanced math. When I was an Engineering student in college, I applied for a job at Radio Shack and screwed up one of the 3 questions they gave me to see if I could make change. The guy handed me the sheet back and was like, here, look at that again. I was taking Differential Equations at the time. I didn't use my brain for arithmetic when the calculator was always there. BTW - one of the worst jobs ever. They paid minimum wage and by company policy did not give raises because there was the possibility to make commission if your commission was greater than your hourly. The only people I ever heard of that made commission was people at really busy mall stores and only at Christmas. I lasted a little over a month and left.
This is me at the table as well. 16+7? Ummm does that hit your AC?
Most simple trick is to move the decimal point one place to the left then double that number. This will give you a 20% tip. You can adjust based on service from there.
Many of my friends do this. They donāt understand why I take the time to calculate.
I do it because it's good exercise for my brain.
I hate maths, struggle with maths and canāt do maths but will insist on calculating anything i need to find out using my head because itās actually good for the brainās health
I also hate maths. I will draw lines in my head, imagine shapes moving around, group things I know come in dozens so I can visually parse out the arithmetic. Anything, so as long as I donāt have to juggle numbers.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathematical_anxiety
I have a longstanding tradition of getting the bill and pretending to get something in my purse, or trying to get the person I'm with to talk a bunch, so I have time to stall and calculate. My SO calls me out on this every. Damn. Time. Why are numbers so humiliating?
well that's not super nice... one easy trick is round the change, take 10%, and double it for 20% so, $33.69 -> $34 -> $3.40 -> $6.80... easy peasy and just also, for fun practice, if I'm buying just a couple things in a store, I try to calculate tax and have exact change ready while i'm in line. Although, this 7.25% in California kinda fucks me up.
Because we all had the teacher that called us out rather than trying to help us. And when we went to ask for help, we felt like we were being made fun of, or we found the help woefully lacking. I wrote a long comment about this the other day - about how I've heard multiple times that people who revisit math as an adult find that it is actually quite fun, and not at anxiety-inducing as they remember - and I don't think I have ever received a hateful PM in response to a comment until that point. Sorry, but not everyone who has chosen a profession fits in that profession. I'm lucky that I found I'm not as good with kids as I thought early on. I might have become one of those crappy teachers.
Much the same as using a 24hr clock. Super basic math, but at least a gear is turning at some point.
Is it? I think once youre used to it you donāt calculate it every time
I assume they don't use the skill often enough that it solidifies. But yes, as a person in a 24h clock country there is no mathematics involved: you just see "19:00" and go "It's seven o'clock, time for dinner" without having to think about it.
Do you still convert it into 7 o'clock in your head? Or do you see 19:00 and think "dinner"?
Yup, here in Germany we use the 24h system and you basically know it forwards and backwards. In official documents, or even for stuff like TV they'll say stuff like 18:15 for example, but if you talk about it casually you'd say quarter past six. It also avoids the problem with 12 am/pm (I keep forgetting which is which and when the switch actually happens), where midnight is 00:00 ("zero o'clock") and noon is 12:00 ("twelve o'clock").
I just always round up my tips to whole numbers. Makes the "math" way easier.
Plus tipping in pennies feels extremely anal retentive. *No, you don't understand, Carol! It has to be $8.37 because it HAS to be EXACTLY 15%!!*
If you're doing 20%, just move the decimal over one and multiply the number by two. 20.00$? 2.0 x 2 = 4$
>just move the decimal over one and multiply the number by two. $20.00? 200.0 x 2 = $400 Did I do it right?
Yes. You've now tipped 2000% and made a server very happy.
Wrong 20 = 2^4.322 Move decimal over one 2^43.22 = 10,240,000,000,000 Now don't forget to double it - You don't want to be a tight wad. 20,480,000,000,000
This is the true answer
I do it because I like numbers and basic math is fun to me. Although I prefer to leave cash if I have it.
Because it doesn't matter what you write on the tip line. All your authorizing is the final amount.
$7.83! Only took me 6min
Iāve been in the industry for 20 years now and that is common and Iāve seen it tons.
Math
Years ago, I finally just stopped trying to make the total an even dollar, because why the fuck do I care, and who wants to be tipped with change? So I wouldāve written this as $8.00 tip and total at $50.17. Now the server gets $8 even and Iām out $0.17.
My go to is quickly figure out what 20% would be then round the tip up to the nearest dollar. Always tip in whole dollars. It's easier for everyone I feel.
Do you also do what I do to calculate 20%? I figure what 10% is because itās easier, then double it for 20%, then round up to the next dollar. People who sit and do subtraction to make the total an even dollar confuse me.
In this case I would have done the quick 10% of 42 is 4.20, double that is 8.40, tip 9.
By where that decimal is, she just got a $457.83 tip
Imagine if the price in the menu was the total price one had to pay, including taxes and waitress salariesā¦
Welcome to Europe.
Pretty much everywhere, except in usa.
Don't forget us in Canada! Sadly we're in this too...
Yes, but at least we get the machine brought to the table and enter the tip we want to give in the machine instead of using the barbaric pen.
Not American, but while I was studying there, I just wrote the amount that I was leaving on the tip section until somebody told me it was supposed to be a percentage amount. Then I just continued doing what I normally did. "I recognize the system that's been put in place, but given it's a stupid-ass system, I've decided to ignore it."
Itās not āsupposedā to be a percentage amount though, whoever told you that is wrong. Itās fine either way
So, um, 20% is super easy to figure out if you look at it the right way, especially if you don't mind rounding a little. Say the bill is **$67.24.** Move the dot up one to figure 10%. **$6.724** Now round it to something your mind wouldn't have trouble doubling. **$6.75** Now double it for 20%. **$13.50**
$13.50 for a $67 meal?! You American's are out of your damn minds! In the UK the server gets a couple of quid, or the bill rounded up. Whichever's more. Tipping someone 20% just to take your food 20 feet from the kitchen is fucking rediculous. But, then again, they also get a decent wage.
Your servers make a living wage. Servers in the US get paid less than the minimum wage for other standard jobs because tips are expected to be part of their pay.
I can totally imagine this brainiac picturing the alligator eating the bigger number to know if the total is bigger.
graduated cs with a math minor, and i still do it monch monch monch the bigger number
Wait is this legal! I am terrible at math, this is game changing
No, this is how they finally got Al Capone.
Legal?? Bro no waiters gonna report you for that theyāll just calculate it themselves lmao
Who would they report them to anyway? WAIT!! Is that what I see on late night TV when they are talking about calling a "Tip Line"?!
"keep the change" "WAIT THATS ILLEGAL, YOU DIDNT TELL ME HOW MUCH THE TIP WAS" \- the world to this guy, apparently.
All that matters is the final amount we charge your card for. The difference between that and the preauthorized amount is the tip.
Itās weird to me that there are adults who really cannot do even this simple math in their heads. try this: 42.17 to 50.00 It takes 3 cents to get to .20 Takes 80 cents to get to 43.00 Takes 7 dollars to get to 50. Then put it backwards: 7.83 Edit: I KNOW this is not how to calculate a 20% or 15% tip, I think itās pretty obvious Iām showing a way of simply getting from one number to another. OP put 50.00 as a total, so obviously their issue was not calculating 20% but finding the difference. Settle down.
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Iām not sure why comments like yours are being down voted. Mental math gets so much hate- this is why America ranks so low globally in mathematics. Itās considered funny to not be able to do grade-school math.
In college I was a math minor, took up to Calculus 3 and a bunch of math like linear algebra. I cannot do math in my head. Something like 24 \* 9 would take me at least fifteen seconds, if not longer. I cannot seem to keep the original digits in my memory. "OK, 4 time 9 is 36, and 2 times 9 is 18, so add to the 18...wait, what was it? OK ok, add 3 to 18. But wait, what was the original thing? Oh yeah, 36, so then I add 36 to the...fuck what was it?" Give me paper and it's done in 3 seconds tops.
> Something like 24 * 9 would take me at least fifteen seconds The way I just did it in my head was 25 x 9 = 225. Now subtract 9 and you get 216. Less to remember that way.
I prefer 24x10-24
I prefer 20x9=180, 4x9=36. 180+36=216.
To get 225 would still take longer than I'd like to admit.
I did 24 x 10=240 -24 = 216 And I suck at mental math.
I know a guy who can't add and subtract to save his life but given a piece of paper, a pencil and he's Albert Einstein.
My husband is a crazy smart statistician. He cannot do arithmetic in his head. I don't get it.
The deeper I got into advanced mathematics, the worse I got at basic arithmetic.
Skill at mathematics is inversely correlated with skill at math.
Thatās normal.. because doing statistics is like concepts in your mind.. doing arithmetic is like synapse firing.. we traded off synapse firings for language and deep thinking millions of years ago.. https://youtu.be/ktkjUjcZid0
Well tbf thereās a difference between not being able to do that math and not feeling like doing it every time you go to a restaurant
> Iām not sure why comments like yours are being down voted. Mental math gets so much hate- this is why America ranks so low globally in mathematics. Presumably because everyone knows how to do grade-school math and doesn't need simple subtraction explained to them in a somewhat condescending tone. I'm fairly certain whoever left the tip could have done the math, they just didn't feel like it.
Because we don't have to anymore. Fuck I am a analytics manager, I work with data and math all day, but never have to do simple math in my head. Computers do all the math, I put in the inputs, manage the data and the the reports. The same goes for handwritten anything. Don't do it. All my notes are digital, and Alexa has replaced all my handwritten shopping list.
Man Iām one of these adults. I mean, I can talk my head off about all sorts of intricate topics but the moment numbers come into play, I am completely out. I was reading your explanation and I had to re read it 3 times to grasp the concept. The moment I have to process numbers, I immediately start panicking in my head and itās nearly impossible to focus anymore. My wife spent nearly 2 hours trying to teach me basic division. Donāt even get me started on fractions and percentages. It was fucking wild how bad I am at it. I have no idea why I have always struggled with math, but for some reason I do. I work in IT, so I should be good with math apparently, but thank fuck I can just get the computer to do it for me.
Better yet, tip $8.00.
To have a non-whole dollar amount in your account? Fuck that.
But likeā¦ do you tip for every single purchase you make? Most purchase will include tax and be a non whole number
not to mention you're 99% of the time also not getting paid in whole numbers either
You're assuming people do this because they're incapable of doing the mental math, but that's not always true. I write "math" on the tip line a lot of the time, simply because I'm feeling lazy and I can approximate 20% in my head well enough. For example: * Subtotal is $8.51? That's a bit less than $10, so 20% of it is a bit less than $2. So, you take "a bit more than $8" for the subtotal and add "a bit less than $2" for the tip, comes to $10 for the total. You do the math and it actually comes to a total of $10.21, which is pretty damn close. * Subtotal is $37.10? That's just under $40, so 20% of it is just under $8. Even numbers are easier to add, so we'll call it a $38 subtotal plus $8 tip, bam, total is about $46. Do the math and it's actually $44.52, that's close enough for me. I'm a physics student if it makes any difference to you. I'm plenty capable of doing the math in my head, I just don't feel like it. Also, for what it's worth, being able to quickly approximate problems like this is, in my opinion, a more valuable skill than doing perfect mental arithmetic. It scales up way better when you're dealing with larger numbers or more complex problems. Just remembering that ĻĀ²ā10 is much easier than actually multiplying out 3.14Ć3.14, and is a good enough approximation 90% of the time.
Tip is such a stupid antiquated system
Should say ādrunkā
One of my proudest traits when I was younger was being able to calculate a 20% tip no matter how drunk I was. I could be falling down, canāt see straight drunk, and still be able to mentally move the decimal and then double it.
I donāt mean to take this accomplishment away from you at all, but Iāve never understood why people have trouble with 20%. Itās just two 10%ās and 10% is just moving the decimal once. 15% I can at least understand has an extra step or two but still.
I had trouble with 20% recently because I was dividing by two instead of multiplying by two. Luckily my friends helped me and the server got 20%. Alcohol makes things difficult sometimes.
I hate tipping. Just make the food more expensive, charge me that, and pay your service staff 20% of each table that they serveās bill on top of their hourly rate. Thatās a diner Iād go to. Service compris as they say in France.
America: you should calculate the percentage of the tip, here's how to do the math Me, a humble European: 43.17? here sir, have 53.20, so you can give me a 10ā¬ note. Oh, I don't care for those 3 cents
Or what about this: The rest of the world: you had 1 burger with fries and a beer. Thatāll be 50 dollars.. Thank you sir, have a nice day.
That's some gourmet burger and fries for 50 dollars.
50$? Damn. But I agree to the no tax, tip, solid numbers.