How fees and pooling work

EasyTips is operated by Elysian Spark LLC. This page explains, in plain language, what happens to a tip after a guest pays.

The two fees

Every card payment carries two fees:

• Processing fee. What the card network and Stripe charge to move the money — about 2.9% plus 30¢ per payment. We show the estimate before payment and record the actual amount afterwards.
• Platform fee. What EasyTips charges to run the service — 5% of the tip, with a minimum of 25¢.

Who pays them

Each organization picks one of three options, and the tip page says which one applies before the guest pays:

• Guest covers the fees. The guest sees the tip plus the fees as the total and can choose to cover them. The member receives the full tip amount.
• Organization covers the fees. The guest pays exactly the tip amount. The organization is billed for the fees each month.
• Member covers the fees. The guest pays exactly the tip amount. The fees come out of the tip before it reaches the member. Some states limit this option; the organization is responsible for following those rules.

Direct tips and pooled tips

• A direct tip goes to one person. It lands in that member's wallet and becomes available to withdraw after the organization's availability delay (seven days by default).
• A pooled tip goes to a team. It is held in the team's pool for that shift until a manager or team leader allocates it by the team's rule (equal shares, hours worked, points, or a manual split). If nobody allocates it by the organization's deadline, it is split automatically by the same rule. Members can see how each allocation was calculated.

Withdrawals

Members withdraw from their wallet to a bank account or debit card through Stripe. A standard withdrawal is free and takes one to three business days. An instant withdrawal, where available, carries Stripe's instant payout fee and is shown before confirming.

Refunds

If a guest's payment is refunded or disputed, the tip is reversed. For a pooled tip that was already allocated, the reversal is spread across the members who received it.