Instant Payments 101: What Every Restaurateur Needs to Know

Instant payments are having an identity crisis.

These days, a lot of technologies are masquerading as instant payment solutions or platforms. That’s primarily because there’s a lack of understanding or agreement as to what “instant” really means. (Case in point: Over a third of consumers claim to have used instant payments, even though the methods they use don’t even support real-time payments, according to PYMNTS.com research.)

We’ll refrain from referring to Webster’s, but suffice it to say: the definition of instant has gotten stretched and softened to the point where it’s frequently used in a way that’s misleading, or even #fakenews.

It’s a problem for a lot of industries, but especially for the restaurant and hospitality space. These employers understand the importance of instant payments for their employees, and they seek out the best ways to make it happen — often without realizing that the methods they’ve chosen aren’t actually instant, after all.

So: here’s a breakdown of what instant payments really are, what they’re not, and why they’re so important for restaurant teams.

What are instant payments?

Instant payments are the immediate transfer of funds from one party to another. For restaurant employers, that means the moment money leaves your hands is the same moment your employees receive it.

Cash is the “OG” of instant payments, and it’s still the greatest visualization of what real-time actually means. When you hand your employee a dollar bill, there’s no waiting, no holds, no delays: it immediately becomes theirs.

Unfortunately, as payments have gone digital, what’s categorized as “instant” has gotten a little cloudy. The bottom line is that just because a payment is digital or automated does not mean it’s instant.

If you’re evaluating instant payment methods for your restaurant, keep in mind:

Confirmation is not payment. Instant confirmation is a major culprit when it comes to confusion around instant payments. Once a digital payment has been initiated, it’s not unusual for both the sender and the recipient to receive an immediate notification that they’ve been debited or credited a certain amount. But an email, text message or phone notification doesn’t mean the transaction has actually been completed (or even initiated!).
“Next business day” isn’t instant, either. Along those same lines, instant payments — by definition — shouldn’t come with a waiting period, whether it’s 2 a.m. or Christmas Day.
Instant means instant for sender and recipient. On a digital payment platform, once the sender hits “send” or “submit,” they can essentially move on. It may not matter if there’s a lag time between the initiation and completion of the transaction. But for employees waiting on the other end, it can be a source of major frustration or anxiety if you don’t know when you’re going to get access to your funds.
Access is a big part of the equation. Speaking of access to funds, we’d argue that it’s only an instant payment if it’s available for use immediately following the transaction, without unexpected fees or waiting periods.

Why are instant payments important?

Simply put: your people are your greatest asset — and that’s especially true in the restaurant space.

Generally speaking, restaurant employers genuinely care about their teams. They want their workers to be successful and happy. And of course, successful, happy employees are also great for your bottom line. Why?

Keeping your employees happy is one of the best ways to keep your customers happy, too. There’s a lot of focus on delighting customers, and without question, that’s critical in the restaurant business. But delighting your employees is equally, if not more important. They’re the ones who interact with your customers day in, day out; they have a lot of power over the customer experience. .
Satisfied employees stick around. That means lower turnover, and less time and fewer resources funneled toward non-revenue generating activities — i.e., recruiting and training new employees.

Instant payments are “low-hanging fruit” when it comes to taking care of your employees in a way that benefits them and your business. That’s because:

They’re in it to get paid daily. Hospitality workers are some of the hardest-working people around. Even if they’re passionate about their jobs, it can be mentally and physically taxing work. Part of the appeal is the fact that they can get paid their tips on a daily basis. Unfortunately, cash shortages due to increasing credit card transactions have made that more of a challenge. Some restaurants have switched to payroll or prepaid cards: but the former means they don’t get paid daily, and the latter means they have to wait for transfers and/or pay exorbitant fees. And (excuse our French) that kind of sucks for employees who expect and deserve to get access to their earnings after each shift.
They deserve financial security. For many employees, getting paid right away is more than a perk; it’s a necessity. There are mouths to feed and bills to pay, and especially with shifts getting cut during Covid, instant payments are more important than ever.

Transparency matters. Restaurant managers are no strangers to tip disputes. Lag time between work and payment can lead to drama about who earned what. Instant payments go a long way in eliminating those questions (and ultimately, in building a culture of trust).

How to choose an instant payment method

For restaurant employers who are looking into instant payment methods, our advice is simple: be a skeptic when you see the word “instant.”

Some digital payment solutions throw that word around, but often, there are caveats. Many of these solutions require you to load payments onto a prepaid card — and while that might feel “instant” for the employer, it’s certainly not the case for employees.

There may be a limited number of retailers or institutions that accept those cards, and if employees try to relocate funds to their bank, it could take up to 5 business days. Plus, many of those transactions come with unexpected, predatory fees.

Instant (cashless) payments should pass this test:

Funds immediately debited from sender’s account
Funds immediately available to recipient
Money placed in or tied to recipient’s central banking account
No unexpected fees

There are a lot of hidden problems with cash payments, especially when it comes to tipping out your employees. But cash’s biggest virtue is that it’s truly instant — which means it’s a great litmus test when you’re evaluating instant payment technology. Ask yourself: Is the method I’m considering as fast and seamless, for both parties, as handing over a dollar bill?

And if the answer is no, then it’s probably not instant — and you’ll be missing out on the most powerful benefits that true instant payment solutions have to offer.

People live paycheck-to-paycheck

Not just some people are living paycheck to paycheck. Most people are.

That’s right: around 64% of U.S. consumers are just getting by. Even more shocking, 51% of consumers who earn over six figures are still living paycheck to paycheck, despite their higher tax bracket.

It’s a major reason why employees need access to their earnings sooner rather than later. The pressure of watching your bank account slowly drain in the two weeks between payday is putting a lot of pressure on people, leading to a much greater demand for instant payments than ever before.

Instant payouts are now table stakes

A PYMNTS study found that people of all ages prefer to be paid out immediately, as well as some other interesting statistics:

When given the choice, 68% of respondents said they would opt for an instant pay out
40% of gig workers surveyed were willing to pay a fee for an instant disbursement
81% of respondents were willing to switch jobs to an employer that offers instant access to earned wages and tips

It’s safe to say instant payouts are becoming the expectation for today’s modern workforce. But not all instant payouts are created equal.

Consumers are much more likely to engage with an instant payout system if they aren’t required to share their bank account and routing numbers and can access funds with just their debit card credentials. Why? It’s faster, more convenient, and feels more secure.

Instant payouts and tip management: a perfect use case.

Instant payout innovation has come at the perfect time for the restaurant industry, which is struggling more than ever with the hassles and cost of cash.

If you’re in the restaurant biz, then you know: Most consumers pay with credit cards these days, not cash. That means there’s rarely enough cash on hand to pay out tips at the end of a shift. But employees still want and need instant access to their tip earnings.

Enter: instant payouts. Offering employees the option to receive their tip earnings directly to their bank of choice, the second their shift ends, can go a long way in improving employee satisfaction and ensuring their financial security.

But instant payouts are more than a work perk for employees. The operational benefits for employers range from reduced administrative burden and significant time savings to stronger compliance and streamlined reporting.

Modernizing your tip management strategy: 5 best practices

There are three key components to your tip management strategy:

Tip pool policy: How are you divvying up tips among your staff?
The payout method: How are you distributing those payments?
The systems and tech: What are you using to facilitate those payments?

Under the current circumstances, restaurant operators are under immense pressure to bring their tip management into the future.

5 best practices for tip management

Based on our experience working with restaurant operators across the country, we’ve found that these five practices are the perfect recipe for building a successful tip management system.

Determine the right model and method for your restaurant, based on your location and tech stack
Get a written tip policy (and get it legally approved)
Solicit employee feedback in a structured way
Leverage technology for efficiency, accuracy, and compliance
Don’t over-complicate (but do over-communicate!)

Tip management solution must-haves

When seeking a new tip management solution, make sure you carefully vet each system to see if it really meets your needs, or if it’ll be just as frustrating as cash. Here are a few suggestions for what should be on your checklist:

Instant payouts
Direct to bank of choice
Availability of employee funds
Payroll option
Integrations
Simple implementation + onboarding process
Around-the-clock customer service

Big emphasis on strong customer support teams. Restaurants and bars don’t have “typical” business hours, so neither should your tech support.

Bar Louie automates payouts with Kickfin

In a recent case study, we took a deep dive into our partnership with Bar Louie, a chain with over 60 locations that took advantage of our new integration with Toast. They made the switch from cash payouts to Kickfin’s instant, direct-to-bank payouts and haven’t looked back.

Two-minute tip-outs

Before Kickfin, managers spent an average of 45 minutes per shift working through Bar Louie’s complex tip out policy and counting cash. The tip pooling rules were important to them — it’s what makes the entire staff feel like they’re getting their fair share.

Using the Kickfin Toast integration, Bar Louie was able to automate the tip pool calculation process and send tips straight to employees in under two minutes – a potential annual savings of 15,000 labor hours across all locations.

>> See more customer success stories

Do you want to see these kinds of cost-saving results at your business? Let’s talk. Get a demo of Kickfin and see why restaurant owners and employees alike trust us to manage their tips.

Product and Company News

New Tip Calculation Features You Don’t Want To Miss

Big news: Kickfin’s best-in-class tip calculation tool has some exciting new bells and whistles.

If you’re already using Kickfin’s tip pool calculator, then you know how much time and hassle you’re saving by automating everything. (And if you’re not? Head over to our tip pooling software page to see how it works!)

As we partner with more restaurants to bring their tip management into the future, we’re continuing to innovate our product so we can address their biggest pain points.

In this case, that means enhancing our tip pooling features so you can auto-calculate tip amounts even for the most complex tip pool or share policies.

Check out a few of our latest features that will make tip calculations easier than ever.

🕺 Splitting large party tips

If your restaurant often hosts large parties, you know that the tip share can get confusing. Say one server is taking care of a party of 40 with a bartender assigned to only make drinks for that party. Meanwhile, the server has a few other two-top tables that are getting drinks from the main service bar. At the end of the night, how do you ensure that the large-party bartender gets their fair share of the tip out (without spending an hour on your phone calculator)?

Kickfin can now automate that process for you, alleviating questions from your event bartender and saving time and effort on the part of your managers.

📲 Seamless POS integrations

Kickfin is partnering with the top POS systems to integrate seamlessly with your existing restaurant tech — including Toast, Heartland, Shift4 and more.

DID YOU KNOW? Kickfin integration users get access to new product features first, like our new tip-out transparency tool — which allows your staff to log into their Kickfin accounts and see exactly how their tips have been split between team members. An added layer of visibility can go a long way in cultivating trust (and eliminating those pesky tip disputes).

💸 (Re)Allocation of manager tips

We’re always listening to feedback to improve the Kickfin experience, and this one goes out to all of our restaurant partners who asked us to streamline the manager tip reallocation process.

>>Learn more about managers and tipping laws

In most cases, managers are not allowed to earn tips since they are salaried employees. But we all know that managers often step in and take care of tables to help servers get out of the weeds. Well-meaning guests will most likely leave a tip, not knowing that the manager technically can’t accept them — so where does that money go?

Kickfin now features a default pool, where tips “paid” to a manager are automatically redistributed to tipped staff based on your restaurant’s tip policy.

🤓 Improved labor data accuracy

We all know how easy it is for an employee to forget to clock out after a long shift. And sure, they aren’t going to get paid for a 16-hour overnight shift, but when payday comes around, those extra hours create a nightmare for your payroll team.

With Kickfin, all employees are required to be clocked out in order to finalize payments — so you’ll catch the labor data mistake long before your payroll team has to sort it out.

🔑 Even better security

We’re committed to protecting your business (and your employees’ hard-earned money), so we’re adding an extra layer of security for certain transactions.

You can now enable double approval of payments that meet certain conditions:

First payment for new employees
Employees getting their first payout in X number of days
Employees receiving more than X payouts in a 24-hour period.

With these extra guardrails in place, you can always be sure that the right money is going to the right person. Reach out to our support team to configure your custom security measures.

Using Kickfin is a win-win for operators, managers, and employees alike. Restaurateurs save on cash delivery and labor costs, managers shave hours off their workload, and servers have the same instant payment that they’re used to — without the hassle and uncertainty of cash.

Want to learn more about Kickfin? Let us show you the ropes with a 10-minute demo!

Hiring, Training and Retention, Restaurant Management

Kickfin Announces Integration with Toast

You heard it here first: 2024 is the year of integrations.

First up — Toast! A trailblazer for cloud-based restaurant management technology, Toast is a favorite POS system for restaurants, food trucks, and bars. You probably know them best for being the first to create handheld POS devices, drastically changing the entire restaurant ecosystem. To make life easier for their customers, Toast partnered with Kickfin to create an integration that makes tip pooling, tip distribution, and calculation smoother.

As restaurant tech innovators ourselves, this partnership is the perfect fit for Kickfin.

Our goal at Kickfin is always to save time for managers, prevent loss for operators, and create more financial freedom for hospitality employees through pioneering technology that digitizes many of the analog processes that the restaurant industry is built on.

As a member of the Toast Partner Ecosystem, we’ll be able to deliver our product to Toast customers and modernize their tip management systems with ease. Using technology that they’re already familiar with, Toast customers can reap the benefits of Kickfin with minimal ramp-up upon implementation.

“No two restaurants split tips the same way, but invariably, it takes too long and involves too much risk,” said Justin Roberts, the co-CEO of Kickfin. “This integration allows for the utmost customization with a near-zero learning curve — truly the best of both worlds for restaurants that want to save time, reduce labor costs and make life easier for their team.”

And one of their partners is already enjoying the ROI with Kickfin. Bar Louie takes great pride in making tip distribution equitable for all of their employees, so they rely on a complex tip pooling system to ensure fair pay. Prior to using Kickfin, managers at each of their 60 locations spent 45 minutes at the end of every shift to make calculations and divvy out funds to all of their servers. Now, they’ve streamlined their tip-out process with Kickfin — and managers are doing the same work in less than a minute! That’s an annual average of 15,000 hours saved across their entire chain.

>> Hear more Kickfin success stories

After implementing Kickfin, managers can spend their time on what matters most: delivering excellent customer service. That means more table touches, more support for your staff, and more time to focus on server training.

With managers spending more time on the floor (instead of counting cash in the back), you’ll see better customer reviews, better service, and increased sales — all from digitizing your tip-outs with Kickfin.

We’re excited about our new partnership with Toast and the opportunity to make digital tipping a reality for their customers. For restaurants who aren’t using Toast, don’t worry! We look forward to providing similar integrations across the restaurant tech industry.

Want to see these results for yourself? Find out how to become a Kickfin integration partner or check out a demo of our platform.

Product and Company News

Kickfin Makes Inc.’s List of Top 10 Fastest Growing Companies in the Southwest

No growing pains here!

We’re thrilled to announce that Inc. listed Kickfin in their list of the top 10 fastest growing companies in the Southwest. (In fact, we earned the #1 spot in the software category and were listed as #9 overall!) We’re honored to be included alongside innovative companies that are making a big difference in our region.

Inc. measured Kickfin’s growth from 2020 to 2022 — which wasn’t an easy time for the restaurant industry, to say the least. In spite of the challenges posed by the pandemic, restaurant concepts across the country embraced Kickfin’s technology.

As a group, the 2024 Inc. honorees averaged 136% growth and created 17,606 new jobs over a two-year period. Individually, Kickfin grew by a whopping 1,304% (yes, really!).

We want to recognize and thank both our amazing customers and the Kickfin team for being part of our success story and allowing us to be a part of theirs.

Our Customers

For years, restaurants manually calculated and paid out cash tips — despite the increasing hassle and liability those old-school methods entail. It’s not because operators are tech-averse; there simply wasn’t a good way to automate the process that didn’t create new friction or require new workarounds.

That’s precisely why we developed Kickfin. Of course, we’re proud of what we built and the team behind it (more on that below). But we owe a great deal of our success to the customers who trusted us enough to give Kickfin a shot — especially those early adopters who are now some of our longest-standing customers.

There’s a leap of faith involved when you partner with a vendor and layer in new technology, particularly when it impacts something as important and sensitive as how you pay your people. We don’t take that lightly, and we are incredibly grateful for the opportunity to serve each and every customer who’s been on this journey with us.

>> Hear from our customers about their experiences with Kickfin

Our Team

Every person on our team wholeheartedly believes in our mission and vision for the future. In short: we’re here to make the tip management process insanely easy for everyone so that paying out your people is (almost!) as great as getting paid.

As backstory: Our co-founders, Brian and Justin, came up with the idea for Kickfin while dining out together and noticing that an armored car was dropping off cash. They asked why a restaurant would need a cash delivery when most patrons pay by card; the manager explained the cash was needed to pay out tips at the end of the shift. The inefficiency (and expense, and risk…) of that process was a lightbulb moment for Brian and Justin.

They set out to build a team who not only understood the problem, but could think critically and creatively about a solution — and bring it to life.

From sales and marketing to product and support, every Kickfin employee has had a hand in the growth and success of our company, thanks to their passion for our purpose and their commitment to being best in class.

We’re proud of what we’ve achieved thus far, and we’re excited to continue collaborating with our customers, innovating on their behalf, and taking Kickfin to the next level together. Onward and upward!