Tip Method Overview

Tipping methods

Tip adjustment and inline tipping are two methods of accepting tips. Depending on your solution type and business type, only one method of tipping may be available. 

• Inline Tipping
  Through the payment terminal, the customer can add a tip by selecting the preset tip suggestion or they can add a custom amount to the transaction prior to finalizing the sale.
  
• Tip Adjustment
  The tip prompt is bypassed at the time of the transaction, to which a tip line will be printed on the receipt. The tip is written on the receipt by the customer. The transaction must be adjusted to add the tip before batch settlement. 

Important reminders about tipping:

• Debit cards are processed as credit (Signature Debit) and tip adjustments for debit card sales must be completed at the time of the sale and cannot be adjusted later. 
• If the transaction has settled, the tip cannot be changed. 
• When using tip adjustment, transactions will need to be manually batched out each day after the tips are adjusted.
• If your business is set up for automatic batch out at a set time each day, you must complete your tip adjustments prior to the batch time or your transactions will settle without a tip.

NOTE:
Inline tipping is the only tip option for the Essentials Light solution.

Business types that allow tip adjustment

Not all businesses may use the tip adjustment option per payment network rules. Tip adjustment is only available to businesses with specific Merchant Category Codes (MCC). The payment networks only allow these Merchant Category Codes (MCC) to be enrolled in tip adjustment:

NOTE: 
If you are using Point of Sale Solution and are an allowed business type, you can choose whether to have inline or adjusted tipping. For other solutions, your tip method is determined during onboarding.

Finalizing tipped transactions

When using inline tipping, the tip is added during the sale by the customer and then the transaction is finalized at the point of sale. No additional actions are required, the transaction is ready to settle. Inline tipped transactions still require a batch at the end of the business day to clear the terminal memory, but transactions will move into the settlement process throughout the day. 

When using tip adjustment, after the customer provides the tipped receipt back to you, you can "adjust" or add the tip to the transaction. Each transaction is a preauthorization for the amount before the tip is added. Sales are not complete until a tip amount is added to each transaction.  Once the tip is adjusted, the transaction is ready to settle and can cleared in the batch. 

If transactions require a tip adjustment and you attempt to manually batch, a warning that there are unadjusted transactions appears to give one last opportunity to add tips to the transactions. Once the transactions are finalized in the batch, a tip cannot be added at a later time.