Rock N’ Roll Sushi Trades Tip Cards for Kickfin’s Digital Tipping Platform

About the company

Eric Robison owns all of the Rock N’ Roll Sushi franchise locations in Georgia, opening his first in 2018.

Atmosphere

No California Rolls here. Rock N’ Roll Sushi draws inspiration from rock music and culture. You’ll find interesting sushi rolls like the Punk Rock Roll — and of course, rock music at all of their locations.

Number of locations

Eric Robison owns 7 locations, but Kickfin also serves 21 other Rock N’ Roll locations.

Service type

FSR, Franchise

“One of the biggest benefits of switching to Kickfin is that we don’t have employees questioning their money or worrying about when their tip cards will be ready. [Employees] are confident knowing that money is going to just flow into their accounts.”

Christina Antizzo

Director of Human Relations
Rock N’ Roll Sushi

Key Results

  • Up to 2 hours saved, daily. Admin can quickly upload tip outs to the Kickfin platform, reducing their weekend tip distribution time from four hours to an hour and a half.
  • Simplified transition. All seven locations seamlessly implemented Kickfin with the help of the customer success team. 
  • Employees save money. Employees previously had to pay $1.50 in transfer fees every shift, on top of the cost of transferring money from their tip cards to their bank accounts and ATM fees.
  • Account replenished daily. Rock N’ Roll no longer has to float large sums to their tip-out account on a weekly basis. Kickfin keeps their account sufficiently funded day to day.

Meet Christina.

As Director of Human Relations for all of the Georgia franchise Rock N’ Roll Sushi restaurants, Christina wears many hats. Between recruiting, onboarding, and tip distribution to over 80 employees, she basically has a hand in everything HR.

Trying out cashless tipping

At Rock N’ Roll Sushi, we’ve always been cashless. Originally, we paid tips on payroll, but we were looking for a more streamlined option. We started working with a different cashless tipping platform, which wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t as user-friendly nor as streamlined as Kickfin. We had to issue Visa cards to all of our employees, which made things pretty complicated for them. They had to move money around and pay fees to get the tips into their bank accounts to pay bills. 

We weren’t looking to switch from our pay card provider and were kind of complacent when it came to our tip program at the time. We didn’t even realize there could be an easier process, but once we found out about Kickfin, there was no question about switching over. 

We found out that corporate Rock N’ Roll Sushi locations were using Kickfin, so we started looking into it. We checked out an info session and spoke with a few people at Kickfin to dig in deeper. We ultimately decided to make the switch—which went so smoothly. The transition was so effortless with no residual issues or anything like that. 

Administrative issues

One thing that really stood out to me was the ease of adding new employees. When we had a new employee ready to get on the floor and start earning tips, we had to set them up with a new tip card, upload their ID, and have them activate their account. We may not have had cards in stock or run into other issues, so sometimes this process could take up to two weeks, which not only left them without pay but also created a frustrating administrative process. 

If a new employee had gone two weeks without activating their tips cards, we would have to go back at that point and look at their tip earnings and input each day’s tips into their account. Now, I can send new employees a Kickfin invite and start inputting their tips immediately. If for some reason that employee doesn’t get around to activating their account for a few weeks, the money is sitting in a sort of limbo account, ready for them to access. I no longer have to parse through 14 days of tip-out reports and can just run my normal tip-out distribution process instead.

I went over everything with my managers and explained to them how much more efficient Kickfin would be, both for the company and for employees. That’s easy to say since it’s saving them time and money too. Using tip cards, employees were charged $1.50 per transfer to their tip card, and from there, they’d be hit with ATM fees or fees to transfer tips into their bank accounts. With Kickfin, they’re saving at least a dollar if not more each shift, which meets our goal of keeping more money in employees’ pockets. Everyone loves it.  

It was really simple because I’m the only one who pays out tips. Our managers don’t have to worry about it at all. With the tipped employees, we had no issues either. We just send them the invite via text or email, and it takes only about a minute to set up their accounts. And then boom, they have tips going straight to their bank accounts. We had really no issues and no complaints. 

Visibility into tipping

One of the biggest benefits of switching to Kickfin is that we don’t have employees questioning their money or worrying about when their tip cards will be ready. Once they’re set up, they’re confident knowing that money is going to just flow into their accounts. Before, there would be a lot of confusion about the tip cards and visibility, but now we don’t even have technical issues enrolling people with Kickfin.  

We do mention it when recruiting because one of the first things servers will ask is how they’ll be paid. It’s a determining factor for a lot of people in the service industry, whether they’re paid in cash daily, on payroll, or digitally. Servers don’t care about the hourly rate because tips are how they really make a living. It helps us sell them on working at Rock N’ Roll when we tell them their tips will go directly to their bank accounts after each shift. 

Money & time saved

Another huge plus for me was the amount of time I saved. With our previous gratuity management platform, I had to manually enter each employee’s tip amount for the day. It was time-consuming, but also nerve-wracking. God forbid, I’m off by a line and pay tips to the wrong person, so I was constantly double and triple-checking my work. Now, I can upload a spreadsheet to Kickfin, which not only cuts down on mistakes but also the time it takes me to input tips. It went from three or four hours of work down to now about an hour and a half to input tips for all seven locations. 

On a company level, Kickfin has also made a huge difference in our cash flows. Before switching to Kickfin, we would have to deposit funds into our float account on a weekly basis for all of our locations, which could mean a $40,000 withdrawal every Monday, because it’s hard to anticipate how much we’ll need to tip out each week. Some locations are busier than others, and obviously, some weeks are busier, too. Some weeks we’d have to reach out and ask them not to replenish the account because we still had too much sitting there. Other times, the float account would be empty by the time the weekend rolled around, so employees would have to wait until our account was replenished to access their tips. 

Now with Kickfin, we pay out our tips, and then our float account replenishes every single day to bring us back up to $5,000. We never have to worry about having enough (or too much) money sitting in the float account and we don’t have to make huge cash allotments to pay our workers as we balance the budget. I don’t even look at our float account anymore because I know I don’t have to worry about it. 

The transition team

When you’re making a big transition to a new platform, you always have fears and ask yourself, “Is this going to screw everything up? Am I going to have technical difficulties?” And I take it seriously because this is our employees’ livelihood, so you want it to go as smoothly as possible to not interfere with their pay. I normally would have been more stressed, but they would get back to me even with the silliest questions. We had a location that wasn’t quite open yet during our transition, but it would be ready very soon. We had a direct line of contact about this location, and basically, the Customer Success team just needed to know when we’d want the funds. We reached out once it was ready, and just like that, we were able to pull funds and pay employees. I’ve been more than satisfied with the service from Kickfin. 

The bottom line. 

“I definitely credit the Kickfin transition team for being so accessible along the way. Anytime I had a question, I would get a response within five minutes, or I could call customer support to talk through it. The follow-up has been nothing short of excellent.”

Christina Antizzo

Director of Human Relations
Rock N’ Roll Sushi

You might also be interested in

You heard that right — Kickfin has added yet another partner to our ever-growing list of POS integrations!

RPOWER POS has joined the list of leading POS systems that now integrate with Kickfin so users can fully automate tip calculations and payouts. 

RPOWER is a trusted name in the restaurant industry known for its handheld devices, online ordering capabilities, and robust reporting. RPOWER’s dedication to staying on the cutting edge of restaurant tech makes the integration with Kickfin a perfect match! 

With the RPOWER-Kickfin integration, restaurant operators can: 

  • Easily build out highly complex tip policies 
  • Calculate tip outs based on roles, shifts and hours worked
  • Distribute tips directly to employee bank accounts 
  • Establish an electronic “paper trail” for every tip out

( …and more. Dive into the latest Kickfin updates for the full scoop.)

Like all of our integration customers, when RPOWER users activate the Kickfin integration, they’ll have access to our robust Customer Success team (at no extra cost!). We’re here 24/7 to review and build out your tip policy within the platform, so you’ll be up and running in a flash.

Collaboration with Riot Hospitality Group

This integration was especially exciting because we worked hand-in-hand with one of our longstanding customers, Riot Hospitality Group, to ensure the integration checked every box — and that it could handle their complex tip pooling policies. 

“Kickfin has been an outstanding partner to Riot Hospitality Group for years,” said J Goldin, the systems director for RHG. 

“They had already helped us go fully cashless, which eliminated a lot of risk for our teams. When we decided to completely automate tip payouts, they were a natural choice to help with that as well. We worked hand in hand with Kickfin and RPOWER to ensure the system could handle the intense complexity of our rules, while still being incredibly easy to use for our operators.”

Untitled design - 2021-04-29T114014.973
“Kickfin is easy to implement and easy to use. If you’re thinking about trying it, you’ll be glad you did.”

As our co-CEO Justin Roberts puts it, this integration is a “no brainer for RPOWER users who understand how valuable their managers’ time is.”

RPOWER users, we’re ready for you! Schedule a demo to learn how you can activate your integration. 

(Not an RPOWER user but want to take advantage of these time-saving features? See if Kickfin is integrated with your POS!) 

We kicked off 2025 with some major (!) updates to our Tip Calculator features.

It was a big release, and we’ll break it all down for you here — but the big headlines are:

  • More integrations
  • More speed
  • More flexibility

If you’re not already using Kickfin — or if you haven’t integrated Kickfin with your POS to automate tip calcs just yet — this is for you! Read on to see how you can use Kickfin’s newest tip calc features to un-clunk your tip pooling process. 

More integrations, coming right up

We’re continuing to roll out integrations with the leading POS systems, giving restaurant teams the power to auto-calculate tip pools and shares in a matter of clicks. 

(Side note: Kickfin only builds direct POS integrations — not using a third-party solution! — which streamlines your tech stack and keeps your costs lower.)

We were thrilled to add RPOWER to our growing list of integrations, which already includes Toast, Square, SkyTab, SpotOn, PAR and more.

If you’re an RPOWER user and you’re not yet a Kickfin customer, request a demo and we’ll show you the integration in action!

Handle autograts with ease

For servers and bartenders handling large parties, autograts can be great — but for managers, they can turn into a logistical nightmare. Now, Kickfin can help with that…

With this latest release, you can break tips and autograts into separate categories with their own set of rules for distribution. You have the flexibility to manage autograt tip splits completely separate from regular tip outs, so you can fairly reward a hardworking server-bartender-busser trio for a job well done on a 30-top.

Tips & Autograts Broken Out on Tip Data Page

Tips & Autograts Broken Out on Review Screen

With this new set up, you’ll also get more transparency in reporting. You’ll be able to see the breakdown of tips and autograts collected by each user in your reporting dashboards (more on that later!).

Include cash tips in your distributions 

You heard that right — we can now distribute shares of cash tips digitally, directly to your employees’ bank accounts. Instead of doing the math on cash tips by hand, you can easily add cash to your tip pool, and we’ll calculate the share among employees for you. 

Important note: cash distributions aren’t available for all of our integration partners. Contact us for more info. 

Advanced Tip Rules (for even the unruliest policies)

Think your tip policy is extra tricky? Don’t worry — we’ve seen ‘em all. And there aren’t many Kickfin can’t handle, thanks to our Advanced Tip Rules feature.

If you have Advanced Tip Rules enabled, we’ve added a few new capabilities so you can further customize your tip share while we take care of the complicated math behind the scenes. Here are just a few examples of the new features we’re rolling out. 

Not using Advanced Tip Rules? Reach out to us if you’d like to enable these features. 

Per Segment Tip Sharing

We’ve been calculating tip shares on a check-by-check basis. For example, if you have servers sharing a percentage of tips with bussers, we would only calculate and deduct that percentage if a busser was working at the time that a check was processed. We call this Per Check Tip Sharing

Now, we’re introducing Per Segment Tip Sharing, which gives you the option to deduct a tip share from every check processed during a shift. Let’s go back to our example — servers sharing a percent of tips with bussers. With Per Segment Tip Sharing, we would deduct a percentage of the server’s tip for every check processed, even if the busser gets cut two hours before the server. 

Split Evenly 

Would you prefer that all of your support staff take home an even share of their tip pool? We can now make that happen.

Previously, our tip shares entered a pool and were divided among beneficiaries based on how many minutes they worked during a shift, which we call splitting by Time Worked. With our new product update, we’re introducing the Split Evenly option, which enables you to send an equal part of a tip share to every beneficiary that worked within a segment. 

More accuracy 

In the past, cash autograt payments were lumped in with credit card autograts and credit card tips, resulting in credit card fee deductions on cash transactions. But that is no more! 

Now we’re able to deduct credit card fees only where they apply, so you’ll no longer see credit card fee deductions attached to cash autograt transactions. 

Plus, we’ve gotten even better at math. With our new update, we can prevent rounding errors, so our tip disbursal should match the tips collected in your POS to the penny. 

Revamped and expanded reporting 

We added new reporting views to give you more insight into each pay period, individual pay sets, and tip calculations. Here’s a quick look at your new pay period report with expanded filters:

Main Pay Period Report - Filter Bar Expanded

You’ll notice that there are now separate columns for tips and autograts, but you can still view the gross amount earned (tips + autograts = gross).  

And it doesn’t stop at the main reporting page. You’ll see this more detailed reporting when you look at individual employee pay period reports, review a specific pay set, or export the information from any of your reporting dashboards. 

We know this is a lot of new information to take in — but we’ve got you covered with our full Product Release Recap. Simply log in to Kickfin, click on your name in the upper left corner and select “Support” to access that portal. 

Not using Kickfin? Dying to get rid of your old-fashioned gratuity management system? Drooling over these new features? We’d love to have you. Reach out to us today to see how our platform could save you time and money.

Do you start getting heart palpitations when you see a large party reservation in your section? This one’s for you.

Maybe your restaurant is a local go-to for corporate dinners, milestone celebrations, and birthday parties…or maybe you regularly get blindsided with 20-top walk-ins when you least expect it. 

As every hospitality pro knows, no matter how prepared you are, managing large parties can be tricky. But if you do it right, it can be a fast track to large tips. 

So the next time a 20-top bachelorette party drops in and “forgot to make a reservation:” no need to hyperventilate! We’ve got the tips and tricks that can keep you sane throughout a large party — and hopefully help you reel in a well-deserved tip. 

4 Tips for Staying Organized 

When your 25+ top walks in, getting overwhelmed can lead you to drop the ball on service and hospitality because, hey — you’re just trying to get right right food, to the right person, as fast as possible. But your guests can pick up on when you’re frazzled or frustrated, which can impact their experience (as well as your tip).  

Here are a few ways to stay organized and calm throughout service.

1. Get (a little more) familiar with your POS

Every POS system is different, but most have come quite a long way in terms of features and flexibility. There are likely bells and whistles on your POS that you might not use every day, but that can make managing large parties much more seamless.

So use all that tech to your advantage. Set aside time for some extra training or research to understand what your POS is capable of, so that it’s all muscle memory the next time you have a large group sitting in your section. 

For example, here are just a few things you should know about your POS as it relates specifically to large parties:

  • Is there a max number of ways you can split a bill evenly? 
  • How many checks can you create on each table? 
  • How many ways can you split a single item? 
  • Do you need manager permission to add auto-gratuity? 

2. Assign seat numbers

The only way to stay sane when dealing with a large party is to assign seat numbers — and stick to them. 

You should assign seat numbers starting with your first guest on the left and continue around the table moving counterclockwise. As you put in the first round of drink orders, your POS should allow you to assign items to a seat number. Even if guests move to different seats throughout the meal, stick to their original seat number. 

Sure, it’s tedious — but these numbers will be your saving grace when someone asks you for another drink or when they want to split the check by family. No matter how in the weeds you are, take the time to add seat numbers. You’ll thank us later.

When they ask for 15 separate bills, you can just drop each seat number into a new check and print. No need to go back and ask, “who had the fish?”

3. Don’t trust your own memory 

As a server, it’s normally a crowd-pleasing flex to take everyone’s order from memory. But when you’ve got 17 people depending on you to make grandma’s 97th birthday lunch a success: Pull out your server book

Not only are you bound to forget something, but your guests may not feel entirely comfortable either. If they’re worried you’re going to forget they want their sauce on the side, they may be less inclined to ask questions about specials or which dishes are your favorites. And if guests feel like they have to stick to the basics, you’re missing out on all of your upselling opportunities. 

Just for the night, don’t be a hero: write down everyone’s order!

4. Bring in some help 

Depending on how many guests you have at one table, you might need more help than normal — and there’s no shame in that.

If you’re aware that a big party is on the books, coordinate with your team ahead of time. For example, see if you can have an assigned busser or bartender on call to help you keep drinks filled, tables clean, and guests happy.

Wowing Your Guests 

To secure the huge tips that come with large parties, you’ll have to go above and beyond. 

  • Be ready to make suggestions. Being knowledgeable about the menu always reflects well. Explain your specials in detail, offer drink pairings, and accommodate guests with special requests. This is your shot to upsell and increase the bill! 
  • Keep the drinks flowing. No one wants an empty glass. Send bussers around with pitchers to top off waters, and always be ready to grab another round of cocktails. 
  • Stay in contact with the kitchen. Give the chefs a heads up that you’re going to put in a large order so they can prepare accordingly. With more preparation, they’ll be able to get the whole table’s food out in a timely manner. No long waits for everyone to receive their food! 
  • Pre-bus as much as possible. Keep the table neat and tidy, so they have rooms for multiple rounds of appetizers, drinks, and dessert. 
  • Use your seat numbers. You shouldn’t have to serve entrees as if it’s an auction. Instead of announcing each dish to ask, “who had the burger?” you should be able to reference their seat number and pass each entree to the right guest. It’s a simple way to show your serving prowess (and speed up the serving process!). 

Even with a crowd at your table, you can go above and beyond on service. Your guests will take notice and show their gratitude on the tip line (more on that later).

Splitting the Bill

You’ve made it through most of the craziness of a large party — but now it’s time to settle the bill. Before everyone closes out their tabs, you might have to navigate a few sticky situations. 

Who’s paying? 

It’s always awkward to stand next to the table while people fight over who’s taking care of the bill. Here’s what you can do to alleviate some tension:

  • If someone offers to pay early on in the meal, take them up on it. Go ahead and keep their card so you can run it before the arguments start. 
  • When 3 different people want to pay for the meal, offer to split the bill evenly. They probably won’t take you up on it, but your suggestion should get one of the parties to acquiesce. 
  • Ask how checks will be split at the beginning of the meal to avoid the awkward card dance at the end. You’ll also have an easier time splitting items if you know ahead of time! 

To auto-grat or not to auto-grat

Do you want to make sure you get your full 20% tip after a big table runs you ragged? Or would you rather take the risk in hopes that you’ll get an even bigger tip? 

If your restaurant has an auto-gratuity policy for large parties, some servers prefer to take the sure thing and hope that your guests feel inclined to give you an extra thanks on top of it. Most guests aren’t offended and even appreciate that they don’t have to do any math — but make sure that they’re expecting the service charge. A simple line like, “We have already included a 20% gratuity in accordance with our large party policy,” goes a long way. 

When you have a really fun rapport with a table, it might be the right time to forgo the auto-grat and let your guests decide how much they’d like to thank you. Keep your guests in the know, too! Some may assume that you included gratuity and skip the tip line altogether. 

Either way, steel yourself before you look at their final bill. You might be surprised when customers leave less than you expected, or you might be treated to a heavier-than-average tip. 

Tipping out 

After it’s all said and done, your manager may have a tip out policy for supporting bussers and bartenders who assist with large parties. Make sure you know what to expect to take home after tipping out your team. 

And managers, Kickfin makes large party tip outs easy. Make sure that your event bartender gets their fair share of server tip outs, without spending hours with your calculator. 

>>Learn more about Kickfin’s newest tip calculation features

Whether you’re hosting a graduation party or taking care of a corporate holiday dinner, be ready to handle it with the same care and attention you give to a two-top — and let the big tips roll in! 

We’re thrilled to announce that Kickfin made the Deloitte Technology Fast 500™ list, a ranking of the 500 fastest-growing technology, media, telecommunications, life sciences, fintech, and energy tech companies in North America.

How Kickfin stacks up

Overall, 2024 Technology Fast 500 companies achieved revenue growth ranging from 201% to 153,625% over the three-year time frame, with an average growth rate of 1,981% and median growth rate of 460%.

Our 2,144% revenue growth earned us the 65th spot on Deloitte’s list. It’s another exciting milestone for Kickfin — but more importantly, it’s a meaningful validation of our mission to take the clunk out of tip management, so payouts are faster, smarter and safer for every restaurant team we serve. 

Based on Deloitte’s ranking, Kickfin is:

  • The highest-ranked restaurant tech company on the list
  • The *only* tip management company on the list
  • Austin’s fastest-growing tech company

Growth driven by product innovation, demand for automation

Kickfin was the first digital end-to-end tip management solution on the market — and with more than $2 billion payouts to more than 250,000 restaurant employees, we continue to be the largest and top-ranked.

Why?

It comes down to working the way our customers work — and not the other way around. Not only do we automate the tip pooling and payout process for thousands of restaurants and bars; no two tip policies are alike, so we’ve built a solution that gives them the flexibility and customization they require.

With more than $2 billion payouts to more than 250,000 restaurant employees, Kickfin continues to be the largest and top-ranked tip management software on the market.

That’s a big reason we’ve focused on building direct, robust integrations with the leading POS systems on the market. So far, we’ve rolled out integrations with Toast, SkyTab, Oracle, PAR, Heartland and Square — and the list continues to grow.

“In recent years, digital tip management has become table stakes,” said Justin Roberts, Kickfin’s co-founder and co-CEO. 

“Operators now understand the significant efficiencies to be gained by eliminating manual tip-out processes. It’s no longer a question of ‘if,’ but ‘how.’ As a direct result of our commitment to innovation and customer success, we’re thrilled to see more and more restaurants select Kickfin to modernize their tip management.”

A big thank-you to our customers who trust us with their payouts, to our partners who support, collaborate (and integrate!) with us, and of course, every member of the Kickfin team.

About the Deloitte 500

Now in its 30th year, the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 provides a ranking of the fastest-growing

technology, media, telecommunications, life sciences, fintech, and energy tech companies — both public and private — in North America. Technology Fast 500 award winners are selected based on percentage fiscal year revenue growth from 2020 to 2023.

In order to be eligible for Technology Fast 500 recognition, companies must own proprietary intellectual property or technology that is sold to customers in products that contribute to a majority of the company’s operating revenues. Companies must have base-year operating revenues of at least US$50,000, and current-year operating revenues of at least US$5 million. 

Additionally, companies must be in business for a minimum of four years and be headquartered within North America. 

Ready to take the next step?

See how brands like Walk-On’s, Marco’s, Bar Louie and more are automating tip pooling and payouts with Kickfin. Schedule your 10-minute demo today

See Kickfin in action!