Running out of cash to pay daily credit card tips
Restaurants collect most customer payments electronically, leaving them without enough physical cash on hand to pay out daily tips. This forces owners to make frequent, large bank runs to withdraw thousands of dollars or abandon daily cash payouts altogether.
What the numbers show
Counted from the threads quoted below. How we count
- This comes up 197.8× more often in r/restaurantowners than across the site as a whole.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
Found another way around this?
Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.
- 1transitioning credit card tips to regular payroll checksDid this help you?
- 2using daily digital tip payout cards or platformsDid this help you?
- 3frequently visiting the bank or ATM to withdraw large sums of cashDid this help you?
- 4keeping large amounts of cash in an on-site safeDid this help you?
- 5Getting local currency out of an ATM at the destination airportDid this help you?
- 6Ordering foreign currency through a bank branch or mail service before departureDid this help you?
- 7Tipping in US dollars at resortsDid this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“It’s been years since we brought in enough cash to cover cc tips. I got tired of going to the bank and pulling 5-10k out of our checking for servers to get cc tips. I also hated having that much cash in a safe.”source ↗
“I do not like this system, it takes all our cash.”source ↗
“I have an issue with repeatedly going to the bank to pull cash to use in the store.”source ↗
“I simply don't have the cash on hand to do that.”source ↗
“We don’t have enough cash sales to do this so we just cut them a check at the end of the week.”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
- 5How to pay for POD orders when Etsy holds your earnings
- 5When should I prioritize cash savings over retirement contributions?
- 5How much of my savings should I use for a down payment?
- 3How to keep cash safe at home without an expensive safe
- 91How to decide whether to invest excess savings or keep them in an HYSA
- 6Why do clients take 30, 60, or 90 days to pay invoices?