A guest can tip an employee, outlet, or department. That selection remains the canonical destination of the tip even when the distributable employee portion is shared among several people. Understanding the difference between the guest payment, employee allocations, wallet readiness, and bank settlement makes payout questions much easier to diagnose.

The Full Lifecycle

Guest chooses an employee, outlet, or department and pays
    ↓
Stripe processes the guest payment
    ↓
Aplauso records the canonical tip and calculates financial amounts
    ↓
The exact destination's saved rule creates employee allocations
    ↓
Eligible dividends become employee wallet obligations
    ↓
The payout pipeline verifies wallet and Stripe readiness
    ↓
Stripe and the employee's bank process an eligible payout

Step 1 - Guest Payment (Stripe Charge)

When a guest pays through Webkiosk, Stripe processes the selected payment method. The resulting tip keeps the exact canonical recipientType and recipientId. An outlet or department is not replaced by an arbitrary employee.

Processing fees are deducted at this stage (see Aplauso Fees and Pricing for the current rate schedule).

Step 2 - Aplauso Calculates Allocations

Aplauso's financial engine calculates the distributable employee amount and its beneficiaries:

  • An employee tip remains with that employee by default, or follows that employee's optional saved sharing rule.
  • An outlet or department tip follows its own optional position-group rule, or its equal-split default.
  • No rule is inherited from a parent and no guest request supplies a split.
  • The allocation records identify employee beneficiaries without changing the canonical destination or linked rating.

Step 3 - The Employee Wallet

An employee wallet shows earnings allocated to that employee:

  • Available balance - eligible funds that can be withdrawn
  • Pending balance - allocations still awaiting payment or payout readiness
  • Transaction history - the employee's allocations, dividends, withdrawals, and payout status

For a collective outlet or department tip, the employee wallet represents that employee's allocation. It does not turn the original tip into an employee tip.

Step 4 - Requesting a Withdrawal

When a balance is available and the employee's payout account is ready, the employee can request a withdrawal from Wallet. The payout service rechecks balance, account, environment, and idempotency before initiating the Stripe operation.

An accepted request is not the same as completed bank settlement. Use the recorded withdrawal and payout status when troubleshooting.

Step 5 - Bank Settlement

Stripe and bank processing times vary by country, connected-account state, available payout method, risk review, weekends, and bank. Check the withdrawal record and Stripe status instead of promising a universal arrival time or bank statement descriptor.

Payout Timing for Managers

Authorized managers can review tip, allocation, wallet, and payout state in Business → Finance. Keep these concepts separate:

  • Business tip totals count canonical tips once.
  • Employee earnings come from employee allocations or dividends.
  • Payout status describes movement of an employee's eligible balance.

Frequently Asked Questions

"Why can a tip appear in Business before an employee can withdraw it?" The canonical tip, payment state, employee allocation, wallet availability, and bank payout are separate lifecycle stages. A completed earlier stage does not imply every later stage is complete.

"What happens if an employee forgets to withdraw?" The wallet continues to show the recorded balance. Availability and payout eligibility remain subject to the current wallet and Stripe state.

"Does a connected employee account mean that employee was the guest's tip destination?" No. A connected account is a payout rail for an employee beneficiary. The canonical destination may be that employee, an outlet, or a department.

Next Steps