Meet Tony & Tip4
Tipping and tronc management solutions that drive more tips, save your business money, and keep your staff happier — all while keeping you fully compliant with the law.
Visit Tip4 →25% reduction from RRP on admin fees for all registered Save British Pubs members.
More tips. Less admin. Full compliance.
Tip4 provides tipping and tronc management solutions designed specifically for hospitality businesses. Their mission is simple: help you drive more tips, save money on National Insurance contributions, and ensure you’re fully compliant with an increasingly complex legislative landscape — all while making your staff happier.
The Employment (Allocation of Tips) Act 2023 changed everything. What was once a matter of good practice is now a legal obligation — and the penalties for getting it wrong fall squarely on the employer. Tip4 removes the compliance headache and replaces it with a system that works for your business, your staff, and your bottom line.
Did you know that collecting and paying tips the right way saves your business 15% in National Insurance contributions, and saves your staff 8% in NIC too? Your enterprise competitors are already doing this. Tip4 is here to democratise it.
Everybody wins Reduce your compliance headaches, save your business money, pay your staff more. The right tipping system is genuinely good for everyone — employer, employee, and customer.
Five things every pub owner must understand about tipping law
The legal landscape around tips changed significantly in October 2024. Tony shares the five things that every hospitality operator needs to have in place right now.
Your written tipping policy is now a legal document. Since October 2024, every UK business that receives tips must have a written tipping policy explaining how tips are collected, distributed, and who qualifies. Staff can request a copy at any time and you are legally required to provide it. If you don’t have one, you are already non-compliant.
Service charges are tips. Full stop. Whether a customer pays a voluntary service charge, a discretionary service charge added to the bill, or leaves a cash or card tip — all of it falls under the same rules. It must be passed to staff in full, fairly, and with proper records. There is no administrative deduction allowance.
“Fair” has to be documented, not just intended. The legislation requires tips to be distributed fairly but does not define what fair means — that is left to the employer to determine and justify. This must be stress-tested for anti-bias and discrimination, and rechecked every three years under the Employment Rights Act from October 2026.
Staff can request three years of tip records. Your staff have the right to request detailed records of how tips were collected and distributed going back three years — including amounts, allocation, and payment dates. If you cannot produce that information on request, you are exposed to an Employment Tribunal claim.
Getting it wrong risks a Tribunal, not just a fine. The enforcement mechanism is your own staff. Any worker who believes their employer has not complied can bring a claim to an Employment Tribunal, which can award compensation of up to £5,000 per instance — with no cap on the number of claims that can be brought.
Everything you need, in one system
Tip4 isn’t just a compliance tool — it’s a complete tipping and tronc management platform designed to make your operation better.
RoundUp Feature
Increases tips by up to 30% through smart prompting at point of payment.
NIC Savings
Save 15% employer NIC and 8% employee NIC by processing tips correctly through the system.
Compliance Built In
Policy creation, tip allocation, and record-keeping all handled for you — ready for any Tribunal.
Split Tables
Split tables evenly, unevenly, by item, or use the on-device calculator — every scenario covered.
Surcharge Passthrough
Optional: pass the card surcharge for tips to the customer, protecting your margin.
24/7 Staff Access
Staff can access their data and tipping policy around the clock, meeting their legal entitlement.
Multi-Site Ready
Manage multiple sites, multiple businesses, and agency staff all through one platform.
Logical User Access
Granular access controls ensure the right people see the right information — GDPR compliant.
Know the law. Stay protected.
Tipping legislation is complex and evolving. Here are the key pieces of legislation every UK pub owner needs to know about — Tip4 helps you navigate all of them.
Employment (Allocation of Tips) Act 2023
The landmark legislation requiring all UK businesses to pass tips to staff in full, with a written policy and full record-keeping. In force from October 2024.
ACAS Code of Practice on Tipping
Statutory guidance on how to comply with the Tips Act, including what a fair distribution policy looks like in practice.
HMRC Guidance on Tips & Service Charges
Tax treatment of tips, gratuities and service charges — essential reading for understanding NIC savings and payroll obligations.
Employment Rights Act 2025
Strengthens tipping compliance requirements further, including mandatory three-year review cycles for tipping policies. Live from October 2026.
Equality Act 2010
Tipping distribution policies must not discriminate. Anti-bias checks must be built into your tronc model and documented.
Payment of Wages (Amendment) Act 2022
Ireland’s equivalent legislation requires businesses to be in the payment flow and split tips at source. Tip4 supports Irish operations fully, including the NIC rate change from October 2026.
25% Off Admin Fees
for SBP Members
Tip4 pricing is bespoke — based on your specific requirements, headcount, and whether you need PAYE processing, payment integrations, or additional modules. Typically charged on a per-month, per-headcount basis plus any one-off setup costs.
For all registered Save British Pubs members, Tip4 is offering:
Reduction from RRP on all admin fees Applies to ongoing monthly administration fees. Speak to Tony directly to get a bespoke quote for your pub — no obligation.
No hard sell. No one-size-fits-all pricing. Just honest advice.
Compliance isn’t optional anymore — but it doesn’t have to be painful
Since October 2024, every pub in the UK has legal obligations around tips. The question isn’t whether you need a tipping system — it’s whether yours is up to the standard the law now requires.
Tip4 removes the complexity, protects you from Tribunal risk, and — crucially — actually makes you and your staff more money in the process. The NIC savings alone often cover the cost of the system.
As an SBP member, you get 25% off admin fees. Speak to Tony and find out what it would cost — and what it would save.
Pubs have always been at the heart of the hospitality industry — and the people who work in them deserve to be paid properly and fairly for the service they give. The Tipping Act finally gives them that protection. But it also puts obligations on employers that many simply aren’t aware of yet. Tip4 exists to make compliance simple, and to make sure that doing the right thing also makes good commercial sense for the business.
