When a guest tips a department, outlet, or a group of employees at once, Aplauso automatically splits and routes the tip to each relevant employee's wallet according to your configured distribution rules. This is called tip splitting or dividend distribution.

When Does Splitting Apply?

Splitting applies when a guest tips through:

  • Department QR code (k.aplauso.io/d/{departmentId}) - shows all on-shift employees
  • Outlet QR code (k.aplauso.io/o/{outletId}) - shows all on-shift staff for a location
  • Multi-recipient selection - the guest explicitly selects multiple employees and splits a tip

Individual tips (via personal QR code k.aplauso.io/{shortCode}) always go to that employee only.

Split Models Available

1 - Equal Split

The tip is divided equally among all active/on-shift employees in the department or outlet.

Example: A $20 tip to a 4-person housekeeping department → $5 per employee.

2 - Weighted Split (by Role)

Employees are assigned weights based on their role or seniority. Tips are distributed proportionally.

Example: A lead housekeeper gets 1.5x share, associates get 1x share. A $28 tip with 1 lead + 2 associates: Lead gets $12, each associate gets $8.

3 - Custom Allocation

An admin specifies exact percentages or dollar contribution per employee or sub-department. Useful for complex team structures.

4 - Guest-Directed Split

The guest sees a list of on-shift employees and drags a slider to allocate the tip themselves. The guest decides who gets what portion.

Configuring Your Split Model

  1. Go to Manage → Departments → [Department Name] → Tip Distribution.
  2. Select your split model from the dropdown.
  3. For Weighted Split, assign multipliers to each role category.
  4. For Custom Allocation, enter the percentage for each employee or group.
  5. Save.

The configuration takes effect immediately for future tips.

How Aplauso Calculates and Routes the Split

When a split tip payment completes:

  1. Aplauso calculates each employee's share based on the configured split model.
  2. For each share, Aplauso creates a separate Stripe transfer to that employee's Connected account.
  3. Each employee's Wallet balance is credited independently.
  4. Each employee sees the tip in their own Transaction History with the split calculation noted.

The guest sees a single payment confirmation regardless of how the split is processed behind the scenes.

On-Shift Management

The split only distributes to employees who are marked as on-shift at the time of the tip. To manage who's on shift:

  1. Go to Manage → Departments → [Department Name] → On Shift.
  2. Toggle employees on or off for the current shift.
  3. Or use shift scheduling / HR integration if your venue uses automated shift management.

Best practice: Set up a quick daily habit for the department head to mark who's working. Tips only go to active-on-shift employees.

Minimum Share Threshold

Tips below a minimum threshold per recipient (default: $0.50) are not distributed to avoid Stripe micro-transfer fees. The full tip is instead allocated to the highest-weight employee or evenly recalculated across fewer recipients. This threshold is configurable in your department settings.

Reviewing Split Distributions

To review how a specific tip was split:

  1. Go to Manage → Tips and find the transaction.
  2. Click View Split Details - you'll see each recipient's share, the split model used, and Stripe transfer IDs.

Employees can also see their received share in their own Wallet → Transaction History.

Next Steps