Cafe payroll for the counter: the tips land on the card reader, pool into one jar, and split by the hours each barista worked. WageTime carries the pool into the run and puts each share on the right check.
None of these is a table-service problem. They’re the standing conditions of running a counter on part-time crews whose pay is mostly tips off a card reader, and each one is either a shift lead’s midnight math or a rule you didn’t know you were bending.
Almost every tip now comes in on the card screen or the app, drops into one pool, and has to be divided by the hours each person worked. Do it on a legal pad after close and the split is a guess; do it late and you’ve missed the rule that says the tips belong on the paycheck by payday.
Pay full minimum and skip the tip credit and the tips ride on top of the wage. That’s the moment your bakers and kitchen can legally share the pool, and the moment a shift lead with real authority legally cannot. Get the membership wrong and the whole pool is exposed.
About two in three baristas work part-time, most are students, and the average one is gone inside a year and a half. Every term brings new availability, new hires, and new W-4s, keyed in between rushes for someone who might leave at finals.
A roster of part-timers whose hours swing with the class schedule is the exact case the ACA look-back was written for. Miss the measurement and a barista who averaged full-time hours becomes a penalty you first hear about in January.
The flagship and the second location each sit in their own LLC and EIN. Generic payroll answers with an account per shop and a consolidation spreadsheet the bookkeeper keeps by hand.
WageTime carries the pooled card and app tips into the run and splits the jar by the hours each barista worked: one pool, divided in proportion, each share landing on the right check with the right taxes.
Replaces the legal-pad tip split a shift lead does after close, and the hope that the hours came out even.
WageTime runs the pool the way a no-credit house is allowed to: with full minimum paid and no tip credit, tips ride on top of the wage, and federal law lets bakers, kitchen, and prep share one pool with the baristas.
| Person | Full minimum paid | In the pool |
|---|---|---|
| Maya R.Barista | Yes | In pool |
| Devon K.Barista | Yes | In pool |
| Theo B.Baker · back of house | Yes | In pool |
| Sam W.Dishwasher · back of house | Yes | In pool |
| Nora B.Shift manager | Yes | Excluded |
Replaces the pool that quietly included a shift lead, and the guess about whether the baker was allowed in.
Cafe rosters run two-thirds part-time students and turn over about half again every year, so WageTime treats churn as the normal case: self-onboarding from the new hire’s own phone, with the ACA math running in the same place.
| Employee | Avg hrs/wk | Flag |
|---|---|---|
| Maya R.Part-time student · on track | 22.4 | Part-time |
| Devon K.Part-time · on track | 19.1 | Part-time |
| Priya S.Part-time · crossed 30 hrs | 31.6 | Offer coverage |
| Theo B.Full-time baker | 38.0 | Covered |
Replaces the onboarding hour between rushes, and the ACA measurement nobody ran until a penalty notice explained it.
Starting with 2026 W-2s, qualified tips are reported separately, and it lands squarely on cafe crews: baristas are named on the government’s list of tipped occupations. WageTime’s included year-end W-2s carry the new reporting.
| Employee | Qualified tips | W-2 status |
|---|---|---|
| Maya R.Occupation code · Barista | $9,840 | Reported |
| Devon K.Occupation code · Barista | $8,120 | Reported |
| Priya S.Occupation code · Barista | $4,360 | Reported |
| Jonah T.Occupation code · Barista | $6,290 | Reported |
Replaces the year-end scramble to reconstruct which dollars were tips, on a form that now asks for them by name.
Full-service payroll is $10 a month per person paid that month, plus $50 a month per company, with unlimited runs. No long-term contracts, no per-run charges.
Off-cycle runs and bonuses cost nothing extra. No long-term contracts; cancel anytime.
Example: 50 people paid × $10 + $50 company = $550 for the month
HR & hiring, onboarding, PTO, time tracking, benefits, and workers’ comp are optional add-ons, priced separately when you’re ready.
See a demoThe pooled tips run as a pool structure: the week’s card and app tips land in one jar and split in proportion to the hours each person worked, and tip earning codes carry each share onto the right check. Top-ups are computed by state if a slow week leaves cash wage plus tips under the minimum. Bring one week’s tips to the demo.
Yes. When you take no tip credit and everyone earns full cash minimum, federal law lets one pool include back-of-house staff like bakers and kitchen, alongside the baristas. Managers, supervisors, and owners can never take a share. In WageTime the pool is configuration, so you set who is in and at what weight, and the manager stays out. Bring your split to the demo.
Baristas are named on the government’s list of tipped occupations, so it applies to your crew. Starting with 2026 W-2s, qualified tips are reported separately in Box 12 code TP with a Treasury tipped-occupation code, and a barista under the income limit can deduct up to $25,000 of qualified tips (tax years 2025 through 2028). FICA still applies, and automatic gratuities are excluded.
Students self-onboard from their phone before a first shift, term waves onboard in bulk, and leavers close out through the bulk termination wizard. Because part-time hours swing with the class schedule, ACA look-back measurement tracking runs from payroll hours and flags anyone who averaged full-time, with 1095-Cs generated and e-filed. Weekly pay costs nothing extra, since runs are unlimited.
One login covers both companies. Each cafe files under its own EIN with its own federal, state, and local returns, deposits included, and you pull results per shop or for the group at once. A weekend 1099 musician or a roasting contractor runs alongside your W-2 baristas. The next location is another company in the same login, not another payroll vendor.
$50 per month per company, plus $10 per month per person paid that month. No long-term contracts, cancel anytime. A single cafe paying 18 people comes to $230 for the month: $50 for the company base plus $180 in per-person fees. Runs are unlimited, so off-cycle final checks and weekly pay cost nothing extra. Switching is full-service and paid; we’ll scope it on the demo.
The card-tip total, the hours everyone worked, and the two baristas who gave notice at finals. Twenty minutes with a payroll specialist on a live demo cafe: you’ll watch a tip pool split by hours, a new hire self-onboard, and a final check run off-cycle.
Book a 20-minute demo