Card machine with tipping function UK

Who cares about this

UK hospitality (restaurants, pubs, gastropubs, cafés), salons / barbers, taxis / private hire, food trucks, mobile services where tipping is part of the service culture.

UK acquirers that support it

• Dojo (industry-leading hospitality tipping flow)
• Square (configurable tip prompts)
• Stripe (Stripe Terminal SDK supports custom tip flows)
• SumUp (basic tipping)
• Zettle (basic tipping)
• Tyl (tipping flow available)

UK acquirers that don't (or with limits)

• Some legacy terminals do not support customer-facing tip prompts. Worldpay and Barclaycard hardware revision matters.

How it works

Customer is presented with tip percentages (typically 10/12.5/15%) on the customer-facing screen before approving the transaction. Customer can also enter a custom amount or skip. Tip is added to the transaction total; settlement may be configured to split tip-portion to staff via a separate ledger.

Watch outs

• Tip-handling rules vary by acquirer, some treat tip as separate income, some as part of the overall transaction.
• Tronc rules in UK hospitality (2024 Tipping Act) require tip distribution to staff to be transparent and fair; ensure your acquirer supports the audit trail.
• Contactless tips above £100 limit need PIN entry on the terminal.