The Ultimate Guide to Restaurant Tip Management

Restaurant tip management can be confusing and time-consuming, especially if your restaurant has a large staff. Differences in state laws regarding employee wages and tipping, as well as the overall increase in credit card usage, further complicate how tips are shared with your employees.

If you own or run a restaurant, you’re responsible for creating an in-house tipping system that’s fair to both your front-of-house and back-of-house staff members — as well as your customers.

Read on to learn everything you need to know about managing tips in your restaurant — or click here to schedule a demo with our team to hear more about how Kickfin can help manage your restaurant’s tips.

Understanding tips and wages

Federal law requires that everyone employed in the U.S. be paid at least $7.25 per hour. Many states have minimum wages higher than the federally-mandated minimum. However, due to the long-standing practice of tipping, many states have instituted lower paid minimum wages for employees expected to supplement their income with tips. Paying a wage lower than $7.25 to tipped employees helps your business save money, but is not legal in every state and situation.

For example, according to the U.S. Department of Labor, it’s legal to pay tipped employees in Alabama as little as $2.13 per hour if the employee earns at least minimum wage by the time tips are factored in. However, in Washington, D.C., establishment owners must pay tipped employees a full wage of $8.00 per hour, regardless of tips earned. This wide variation makes it important to consult with a local employment lawyer versed in your state’s laws when establishing your restaurant’s tipping system.

What is a tipped minimum wage?

The federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour, with many states implementing higher minimum wages. However, employers can pay employees who regularly receive tips a lower direct hourly wage, known as the tipped wage. A tipped wage is typically lower than the standard minimum wage and is set by law. The rationale behind these laws is that tips employees receive make up the difference between the rate the employer is paying and the minimum wage.

For the tipped minimum wage system to be valid, an employee must actually earn at least the state’s minimum wage after tips. Most businesses accomplish this by requesting that employees report tip earnings at the end of each shift. The business then adds together the total amount of money the employee has earned in tips versus an hourly wage and divides this figure by the number of hours the employee has worked. If this calculation reveals that the employee did not earn minimum wage, the employer must supplement their income.

What is a tip credit?

A tip credit is the extra money an employer must pay to an employee to make up the difference between the tipped wage and the state’s minimum wage.

Let’s take a look at an example of a situation where an employer might need to supplement a tipped minimum wage. Imagine you manage a restaurant in a state where the tipped minimum wage is $5 an hour and the standard minimum wage is $10 per hour. After working a 40-hour week, one of your employees reports a total tip-out of $180.

However, if your state has a minimum wage of $10 per hour, this means that any of your employees who work at least 40 hours must receive at least $400 in total compensation ($10 per hour). If an employee only earns $380 between wages in tips, you would need to make up the difference by including an extra $20 tip credit in the employee’s check.

If the employee earns more than minimum wage when calculating tips plus wages, no action is taken. For example, you can’t reduce an employee’s wages to $0 if they earn more than minimum wage in tips alone.

How to collect tips

There are a variety of ways your restaurant can accept tips from customers. Some of the most common ways to collect tips include:

Cash: Cash is the most straightforward way to accept tips. Each employee may keep the cash they collect on each check, or pool tips together to split among the staff.
Credit cards: Many customers prefer to put their tips on the credit card they use to pay for their meals. Accepting tips via credit card is convenient for customers, but will require calculation via your in-house system to pay them out correctly.
Third-party payment apps: Some establishments ask individual employees to create payment accounts with third-party payment apps, like Venmo and CashApp.

Employees are allowed to independently collect tips with their user codes. These tips are usually treated as cash for reporting purposes, making this method unsuitable for establishments that pool tips.

Many modern point of sale (POS) systems or terminals used in restaurants have the functionality to suggest tip amounts to customers during the payment process. If using these systems, ensure your tip recording and reporting system complies with local regulations.

How do you combine cash and charged tips?

If your restaurant receives both cash and charged tips, it’s essential to have a clear process in place to handle and distribute them appropriately. This requires keeping a careful record of all tips received — regardless of whether they’re in cash or on a credit card. Most POS systems include a mechanism to collect this information automatically as it’s entered, but you may want to keep an additional backup record.

Store cash tips securely and separately from other funds to ensure accurate accounting and distribution. Establish a process where employees can safely deposit their cash tips in designated envelopes or containers, and have a standing protocol around who can access funds and how. It can be helpful to keep cash tips locked in a manager’s office until distribution.

There are a few options for disbursing credit card tips to employees. You can pay out credit card tips in cash to employees at the end of the day, but this requires taking credit card tips from the restaurant’s cash reserves, which may be limited during slow seasons. You can also include credit card tips on each employee’s wage check.

However, this strategy may require spending more resources on accounting and billing to ensure all employees are fully compensated.

And, keep in mind: Many hospitality employees are drawn to the industry because of the promise of daily payouts. Putting tips on payroll can be hard on your staff, especially if they’re accustomed to nightly tip-outs and have to start waiting days or weeks to receive their tip earnings.

A cashless tip distribution solution can be a helpful tool in streamlining and simplifying the process of distributing tips, especially when combining cash and charged tips. With a cashless solution, charged tips can be directly deposited into individual employee accounts or a centralized tip pool, reducing the need for manual handling of cash or checks. This also reduces the chances of making a costly mistake when distributing employee tips and calculating wages.

Ways to distribute tips to your employees

“Tipping out” refers to the service industry practice where employees who receive tips share a portion of those earnings with other employees who provide a service or support role during the customer’s experience. For example, while servers might directly receive tips, house rules might establish that servers tip out a small percentage of the tips they collect to the back-of-house staff or hosts who do not collect tips.

Not every establishment tips out, with some electing to pay higher wages to non-tipped employees. These are some of the most common tip division and redistribution strategies to consider for your restaurant:

Individual employee tips

The easiest method to handle tips is to allow each employee to keep the tips that they individually earn. Only tipped-wage employees are required to earn tips, so this method empowers those interacting directly with customers to keep the tips that they collect. However, this method benefits only individual tipped employees and may lead to uneven earnings across your staff.

Tip pooling

Tip pooling is a practice common in the service industry where a portion of the tips received by employees is combined into a common pool and then distributed among a group of eligible employees. Rather than keeping individual tips, employees contribute a portion of their earnings to be shared among the team.

Typically, a predetermined percentage or formula is used to allocate the pooled tips among the eligible employees. This is usually based on employee roles and contributions to the overall customer service experience. Some establishments tip out the same percentage to all employees, while others devote a larger percentage to the individuals collecting the tips.

The purpose of tip pooling is to foster teamwork, incentivize collaboration, and ensure all employees involved in providing excellent service receive a fair share of the tips — even if they don’t directly interact with customers or receive individual tips.

However, tip pooling may also foster contempt amongst employees, particularly if employees earning minimum wages receive the same percentage of tips as tipped-wage employees. That’s why it’s important to weigh the pros and cons for your team, ensure your policy is fully compliant with tip pooling laws, and create a culture of communication and feedback channels so you can understand what’s working and what’s not.

Percentage-based tip-outs

Percentage-based tip-outs involve distributing a specific percentage of the total tips earned by an employee to other individuals or groups. By dividing tips by varying percentages, management can ensure that tipped employees receive a larger percentage of their tips while also keeping things fair for non-tipped employees crucial to the customer experience.

For example, let’s say your restaurant has a 20% tip-out policy and a server earns a $100 tip. In this case, the employee will be required to distribute 20% of their tip ($20) to non-tipped employees. Depending on your restaurant, this may include hosts, prep cooks, bussers, and other qualifying employees. The remaining 80% of the server’s tip ($80) is theirs to keep.

Point system tip-outs

Some establishments use a points-based tip-out system. In a points-based tipping system, rather than distributing a percentage of the total tips, a certain number of points are allocated to each employee, and these points are used to distribute the tips among the team.

Let’s take a look at another example using a $100 tip. If your restaurant uses a point system, you might assign a server 50 points, a bartender 30 points, and a busser 20 points. In this example, points correlate to percentages, so a server would keep $50 of the tip. Accordingly, the bartender would receive $30, while the busser receives $20.

Points-based tipping systems allow for a more customized and flexible distribution of tips, considering the different roles and contributions of the employees. The allocation of points can be based on factors such as seniority, job responsibilities, or performance evaluations, enabling a more nuanced approach to distributing tips among the team.

Tax and reporting obligations

The IRS has specific regulations regarding tip reporting, withholding, and taxation. Failing to comply with these requirements can result in legal and financial consequences.

As a business owner, it’s crucial that you take steps to keep tips and payouts in order. Following these tips can help you stay on the right side of the law:

Keep accurate records: Keep detailed records of all tip income, including cash and charged tips. Document tip allocations, distribute tips promptly, and maintain accurate records of tip pools and distributions. This documentation will be valuable in case of audits or employee inquiries.
Implement clear and consistent policies: Establish written policies on tip reporting, allocation, and distribution. Ensure employees understand these policies and provide regular reminders or training sessions to reinforce compliance. This will help prevent disputes with employees, especially those collecting tips.
Educate employees on their responsibilities: Train your staff on the IRS requirements for tip reporting and explain the importance of accurate record-keeping and reporting. Encourage employees to report their tip income correctly and provide them with resources or guidelines to do so.

Remember that as the business owner, the responsibility to maintain financial records falls on your shoulders. This is one area where a cashless tip management system can be majorly beneficial.

How software makes restaurant tip management easier

Even the most organized business owners can find themselves confused when managing dozens of tipped employees. Software, including tax reporting software and POS management systems, can make the process of tracking payouts and income easier. In particular, a cashless tip management system can provide a host of benefits to employers and employees themselves.

Enhanced accuracy and transparency: Cashless systems provide accurate tracking and recording of tip transactions. This helps ensure that tips are distributed correctly and transparently and minimizes the risk of human error that can lead to lawsuits and claims of improper employee payments.

More convenient for employees: Cashless tip distribution allows employees to receive their tips directly in their bank accounts or digital wallets, offering flexibility and convenience. With a growing consumer trend toward digital payments, some employees prefer the ease of non-cash payouts.

Increased efficiency: Cashless systems streamline tip distribution. Instead of manually handling cash, the system automates the process, saving time and reducing administrative burdens. Employees also don’t need to worry about the risk of loss and theft that comes with carrying cash.

How Kickfin helps with restaurant tip management

Kickfin really helps restaurant managers with facilitating the cashless disbursement of tips to eligible employees. Fewer and fewer customers pay for transactions with cash — which is why so many managers find themselves running to the bank on a daily or weekly basis because the safe is empty, and there’s not enough cash to pay out tips.

With Kickfin, you’re able to track your tipped employees’ earnings through your normal POS, and quickly total their tipped earnings at the ends of their shifts. Then, with the touch of a button, you can distribute their tips to them electronically, without having to count cash or stuff envelopes. And your employees’ tips hit their accounts instantly.

Click here to learn more about Kickfin and how our cashless tipping solution can work for you

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Industry Trends

How the 2024 Presidential Election Could Affect Taxes for Tipped Employees

It’s an election year, in case you haven’t heard! 😉 This one has major implications for tipped employees — specifically, when it comes to taxes.

It’s no secret that our Democratic and Republican candidates are running on very different platforms. But when it comes to tip regulations, Vice President Kamala Harris and Former President Donald Trump actually both support reducing taxes on tips.

A little context on taxes and tips

We’re just going to state the obvious: For the average American, tax reporting can be pretty, pretty confusing. For the millions of employees working in tipped occupations — well, that creates another layer of uncertainties.

(Do I have to report my tips? Do have to report my cash tips? Will anyone know if I don’t report my tips? What happens if I don’t accurately or fully report what I earned?)

Historically, there’s been a trend of hospitality employees underreporting cash tips to prevent higher tax burdens. And while this may reduce what employees owe Uncle Sam in the moment, there can be downsides: e.g., if they find themselves eligible for unemployment, if they’re trying to qualify for an auto loan or mortgage, etc.

However, that urge to underreport could be relieved in the near future, given the tax code changes both of our presidential candidates have proposed. The TL;DR: Both Trump and Harris have voiced their intention to relieve some of the burden on tipped workers in restaurants, bars, hotels, and other service positions.

Here’s a quick summary of each candidate’s plan, as well as some potential impacts for restaurant employees.

Trump’s plan for tipped employees

Trump shared his plan to reduce tipped income tax burden at a rally in Las Vegas — fitting for a city that’s built on the gig economy. Nevada is home to the highest concentration of tipped employees who work in the many hotels, casinos, and restaurants that millions of tourists flock to annually.

During the rally, the former president announced that he would make tipped income exempt from federal income tax, stating it would happen “right away” when he takes office.

Since speaking at the rally, Trump has not yet clarified what this would mean for tipped employees. Many servers want to know if this is an exemption just on federal income tax or if the proposal includes payroll taxes (social security and Medicare).

Harris’s tip tax proposal

Harris also took the opportunity to speak on her tipped income policy while visiting Nevada. Much like Trump, she knew she’d have a captive audience when it comes to tipped earnings.

Her proposal promises to exempt tipped income from the federal income tax, but she has made clear that tips will still be subject to payroll taxes. While not yet confirmed, campaign insiders say Harris is considering placing some guardrails on her plan — like a caveat that the tax exemption only applies to employees earning less than $75,000 per year.

Is one plan better than the other?

In short: probably not. (Most service and hospitality workers do not earn above the $75,000 threshold that’s been suggested by the Harris campaign.) So either way, servers, bartenders, and hospitality staff can expect to see a lower tax burden during the next administration.

But what does that look like in practice?

Most tipped employees aren’t receiving their tips on payroll — they’re walking out of every shift with their earnings for the night, deduction-free. Instead, the taxes are paid on payroll out of their hourly earnings, which is why many servers get $0 paychecks every two weeks. With a reduced tax burden, most servers will see the difference in higher paychecks.

On the other hand, economists are wary of the impact of eliminating taxes on tips, citing the reduced funding for social security and Medicare. And with so much negative sentiment around “tipflation” these days, experts also speculate that a reduced tax burden may result in even more hesitance at the tip screen.

Increasing minimum wage

We’re closely following campaign promises about an increase to the minimum wage — especially in regards to the tipped minimum wage and the tip credit.

Minimum wage earners have been eyeing an increase, noting that the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour hasn’t increased since 2009, and servers, bartenders, and other tipped employees have been earning $2.13 per hour for over 30 years. An increased minimum wage paired with the reduced tax burden could make a major difference for service workers trying to keep up with the rising cost of living.

In the Harris camp, removing tax on tips is just part of the plan to take some pressure off service workers. While Harris hasn’t shared a detailed plan for bumping up the minimum wage, she has indicated that she would support an increase.

In previous election cycles, Trump stated that he would consider a minimum wage increase, but he has not shared his opinion on the matter during the 2024 presidential campaign.

Of course, we’re a ways out from any real policy changes actually shape — but if you’re looking to make your tip management process less taxing in the interim (see what we did there?), Kickfin is here for you! Check out how you can use Kickfin to auto-calculate tip pools and send payouts directly to employees’ bank accounts in seconds.

Restaurant Management

Top 4 Ways to Protect Your Restaurant from Cash Shrinkage

No matter what industry you work in, there’s always a risk for shrinkage and theft. Ninety-five percent of all businesses experience theft in the workplace, and up to 75% of employees have admitted to stealing from their employer.

Most of the time, it’s not intentional or malicious. For restaurants, it could be something as innocent as giving your friends a free drink or asking the kitchen for food and neglecting to ring it in.

But when you have a lot of employees handling cash day in and day out, it can be very tempting for someone to take advantage of systems and pocket extra money at your expense. To make matters worse: because cash is hard to track, it can be tricky for operators to put their finger on exactly what’s happening — at least, before it starts to impact your bottom line.

While cash shrinkage can jeopardize your business, operators do have the power to protect their restaurants. Ultimately, it comes down to having the right processes, systems and partners in place.

Here are 4 things you can start doing today to protect your restaurant from cash shrinkage.

1. Create a culture of trust with employees

Most people want to come to work, do their best, and make an honest living. Creating an environment where your employees trust you with their earnings should encourage them to also be responsible with company assets, including cash.

Of course, it starts with doing your due diligence when building out your team. That means interviewing new hires in person, asking the right questions, and always checking references.

But the fact of the matter is that even good people can make poor decisions, especially when they’re struggling. As an employer, there are things you can do to keep your staff from ever getting to a place where they feel the urge or need to steal. That includes:

Paying a fair and competitive wage
Paying wages on time, in full
Giving people instant access to their earnings
Offering employee benefits and perks if possible
Adhering to federal, state and local labor/wage regulations, especially as they relate to tips

Bottom line: If you show that employees you take their financial well being seriously, it can foster an environment of mutual respect, making employees less likely to consider theft as a reasonable (or justifiable) option.

2. Minimize cash touchpoints

It’s simple. Less cash on hand = less opportunity for cash shrinkage.

In the unfortunate case that a high-ranking employee is stealing from your restaurant, cash tip outs make it much more difficult to catch and trace. Anyone with access to cash registers and safes has the opportunity to take a few extra bills — and you may not notice until well after the cash is pocketed and spent.

Instead of locking up cash and making only a few employees responsible for the massive task of paying out tips, take advantage of new technology that eliminates cash from the tip out process. Fewer people will need to manage cash, which adds one extra layer of security against theft.

Bonus: cashless tipping vendors like Kickfin give your employees more flexibility with their earnings. They can opt for tips to be sent directly to their bank or to have them put on their payroll check, empowering employees to make their own financial decisions.

3. Create a digital paper trail

The trouble with cash is the inability to track it. Half the battle is realizing that the cash is missing; and once you know it’s gone — well, now what?

Digital gratuity management software makes it easy for restaurant operators to create a digital paper trail for all tip payouts. You’ll be able to identify any improper payments, who they went to, and who authorized the payout — removing a major security soft spot.

Not only will you feel more secure, but your loyal employees will thank you for making tip outs much easier.

4. Select a secure tip management partner

Removing cash-on-hand is a great first step, and it should make any potential theft traceable back to the person responsible. But wouldn’t you rather prevent theft before it happens?

If you’re ready to bring your gratuity management into the future, make sure to thoroughly vet your options — because not every digital tip out software has strong protections against theft.

That’s why Kickfin has optional guardrails that can mitigate your risk of employee theft.

Maximum tip amounts: Limit the amount that can be issued in any individual payout.

Role policies: Create policies to limit who can receive payments by role type, and limit who can send payments to themselves.

Multi-factor authentication: Set your own rules to require MFA at any point, whether at every login or once a month.

Payment interval approval: Trigger a requirement for second approval for an employee’s first payment or their first payment in a determined number of days.

Payment velocity approval: Trigger a requirement for second approval when an employee receives a determined number of payments within a certain interval.

For our POS integration partners, Kickfin can also put guardrails around your tip calculation policies to prevent fraud. While we offer the ability to send payments through manual entry, spreadsheet upload, or using our tip calculation software, integration users can disallow manual and upload payments to prevent any ad hoc payouts.

Integration users can also lock in their tip calculation rules, so that only certain users can make changes to the calculation policy.

How Kickfin helps in the event of fraud

Even without the temptation of cash in the safe, where there’s a will, there’s a way.

If you find yourself in a regrettable situation with an employee, your tip management partner should be there to back you up. Thankfully, our platform tracks each payout which will help you identify irregularities and the source of the problem.

The Kickfin team will always be there to support our partners who experience security breaches.

Check your Kickfin security settings

Do you want to make sure you have the most up-to-date protections on your Kickfin account? We’ve got you covered. Reach out to your Kickfin customer support team to ask about a free security audit, where we’ll go over your current settings and offer guidance on how to minimize your risk.

Not yet a Kickfin user? Find out more about our platform and security settings with a demo today.

Restaurant Management

4 Ways to Save on Restaurant Labor Costs with Kickfin

In the restaurant industry, profit margins have always been tight — and these days, they’re only getting tighter.

Running a restaurant is a labor intensive business. You need a strong back of house team to push out food, front of house workers to greet and care for guests, and managers to keep everyone in check. Naturally, labor is one of the most significant expenses for restaurant operators. In order to keep costs reasonable for customers, even a slight overage on labor can break your budget — but thankfully there are levers you can pull to reduce labor costs.

If you want to secure your business’s financial future, you’re going to need to streamline scheduling practices and keep a close eye on labor costs… without frustrating employees who want more shifts.

Don’t worry: you can turn to traditional wisdom, sales forecasting, and emerging restaurant technology to make sure that you stay on budget.

Here are a few ways you can save on labor costs at your restaurant:

1. Rethink the schedule

Obviously, the most straight-forward way to cut labor costs is to reduce the number of people you schedule on a given night.

We get it — you don’t want to see hour-long ticket times and poor guest experiences. But you might not need as many folks on the line or servers on the floor as you think — at least, not all the time.

Staffing and scheduling isn’t a perfect science, but there are some tactics operators should test if they’d like to “right size” every shift — including:

Analyze your daily schedule. Don’t make assumptions about your peak times and slow periods. Analyze sales trends and let the data be your guide.
Anticipate seasonal trends. If you’re in a college town, don’t wait until your servers are twiddling their thumbs in July to implement a new summer schedule.
Let your seasoned staff shine. Your veteran employees likely thrive on those super busy nights when they’re running on pure adrenaline (and earning way more in tips). Consider giving more experienced workers more responsibility — assuming they’re willing and able — and you might be able to get away with fewer people on a shift here and there.

>> Learn about scheduling software that helps you manage labor and engage with employees

2. Assess and address productivity

Are you making the most of the team that you already have? There are a few ways you can identify your highest-producing employees and make the most of their success:

Evaluate employee performance. Most employees want to be successful; observe your team and analyzes things like sales per labor hour, table turnover rate, and tip volume to get a sense of your strongest players and those who could use more training (and bonus: this can reduce turnover and boost team morale)

Provide incentives. Create a fun bonus system that rewards strong performance and high levels of productivity. You can use data from the previous data point to set goals.
Cross-train employees. Training your staff to handle multiple roles – or hiring folks with vast service experience – offers flexibility for scheduling and can reduce your need for additional hires.

3. Don’t pay employees to wait for their tips

No, we’re not saying to cut all of your servers early (no matter how much they ask).

But, you can send your servers on their way much quicker when they don’t have to wait around for managers to count out cash tips. Once they’ve finished their sidework, servers can clock out and see their digital tips sent directly to their bank account, instead of hanging around on the clock waiting for the shift manager to do their check outs.

4. Prevent labor overages before they happen

Most restaurants simply can’t afford to pay overtime for staff. But sometimes your full-time staff creep toward 40 hours of work without anyone noticing…and suddenly you’re paying 1.5x what you expected for a single worker.

This, too, goes back to proper scheduling policies. Give yourself a bit of wiggle room for the employee who clocks in 10 minutes early or often takes a long time on sidework by never scheduling anyone for more than 38 hours each week.

5. Pay close attention to clock-outs

People make mistakes, and tired servers often leave their long double shift without clocking out for the night. Usually, they’ll realize their mistake and call the store to have someone clock them out (still adding extra time to their shift).

But sometimes, the clock keeps running all night, and no one notices until it’s time to process payroll. Two weeks later, your admin team is spending way too much time correcting clock-outs so that you don’t end up paying for 8 extra hours of work.

Try using technology that puts guardrails in place to prevent any clock-out mistakes before they happen. Kickfin doesn’t allow you to process and pay out tips until an employee is clocked out, so managers can make sure everyone is clocked out at the proper time.

(We also have some other exciting new features that can make your life easier!)

Not only can Kickfin help you reduce labor costs, but we’re ready to simplify your entire tip management process. Reach out to us to learn more about our instant tip calculations, integrations, and smarter tipping solutions.

Restaurant Management

How to Get Your Restaurant Ready for Football Season

Football is back! Whether you’re rooting for your alma mater or just hoping to see massive sales at your restaurant, it’s an exciting — but often stressful — time of year.

If your restaurant has at least one TV, you’re going to have some customers asking you to switch it to ESPN. And if you’re running a sports bar … it’s officially crunch time. Expect your tables to be full (and harder to turn) and your staff to be running on pure adrenaline as the restaurant fills up with fans hoping for a bite to eat.

You probably know the drill: hire more staff, add more servers to game day schedules, and manage your inventory with hungry fans in mind. But if you want to get the most out of football season, get game-ready for some of the busiest weekends of the year with our tips for a successful season.

Consider a game day menu

When your restaurant is at full capacity with hungry football fans, you might want to consider a limited menu for the weekends in order to keep wait times down. Shorten the food menu down to shareable apps, best sellers, and items with the simplest prep so that your kitchen isn’t lined with tickets at halftime.

At the bar, don’t limit your customers to certain cocktails — but consider the power of suggestion and list out some easy-to-batch cocktails that will keep your service bar out of the weeds.

**Make sure they can watch their game**

Is there anything worse than a group of die-hard fans walking in to see their team play — only to realize you don’t have the right subscription service to stream it? Next thing you know, some guy has commandeered the remote to sign into his YouTubeTV account.

Before that embarrassing situation arises, check your cable listings and subscription services to see if you’re missing any important channels. You’re probably going to need to upgrade in order to show games that aren’t carried in your market. Here are just a few channels you might need:

ESPN+
Hulu + Live TV
Peacock
NFL Sunday Ticket
YouTubeTV or cable
Netflix (yep — Netflix will be streaming a few NFL games this year)

If viewing options are limited, or you don’t have enough screens to air multiple games at once, make sure you’ve got a strong wifi connection (free, of course) so that your guests can watch on their phones — or more importantly, talk smack to their fantasy league.

Offer game day deals

Now that you’re logistically ready for the season, it’s time to draw in the customers. Make your restaurant the place for fans to gather by offering drink specials and deals on appetizers.

Leverage social media to get the word out about your game day deals. Consider paying to boost a post or running a giveaway for people who share a post about your game day specials.

Plan for Post-Game

You don’t want the restaurant to empty out as the clock runs down. Entice fans to stay and celebrate (or lick their wounds) once the game ends by extending deals. That could mean a discount for fans of the winning team or an extra-long happy hour.

Pay out your employees — quickly.

After a long game-day shift, your servers and managers are going to be more tired than usual. Let them head home early by using Kickfin to pay out tips instantly. We take care of all of the tip calculations and send tips directly to servers’ bank accounts in seconds, so your exhausted team members don’t have to wait to put their feet up and rest.

Want to see our instant digital tip outs in action? Get a demo of Kickfin today.