Payments
How Restaurants Can Reduce Time Spent Splitting Bills
Splitting the bill is slow because it happens at the worst moment — when the table wants to leave — and it usually means arithmetic, several trips with the card machine and a total that never quite adds up. It gets faster when guests choose their share on their own phones, when staff can collect a bill in parts without recalculating it, and when the system, not a person, keeps track of what is still owed.
Why splitting takes so long
- Someone has to work out each share, often from a printed bill.
- The card machine goes round the table once for every person.
- Shared dishes, a bottle of wine and different tips make every share different.
- Cash and cards get mixed, and change has to be counted.
- Once some people have paid, nobody is quite sure what is still owed.
The common ways to split
| Split | How it works | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|
| Equal shares | The total divided by the number of people | Rounding — the last share has to take the remainder |
| My own orders | Each person pays for what they ordered | Dishes one person ordered for the whole table |
| A set amount | Someone pays a chosen amount towards the total | Keeping track of what is left |
| A part of the bill | Someone pays, for example, a third of the total | Tips added on top of the share |
| One person pays | The host pays everything | Nothing — it is the fastest split |
Let guests split on their own phones
When guests ask for the bill on their phones and choose the split there, the arithmetic is done before anyone comes to the table. Nobody at the table needs a calculator, and staff arrive knowing the amounts, so the bill is collected in one visit.
More on how this works: what pay-at-table is.
When staff collect the bill
- Collect in parts against one total, so each payment reduces what is left.
- Offer an even split for a chosen number of payers, and let the last payer cover the remainder.
- Record how each part was paid — cash, card or other — and the tip on its own line.
- Close the table only when the balance is zero, or record clearly what was not collected.
Small rules that save minutes
- Decide before service how you split shared dishes, rather than at the table.
- Set a maximum tip, so a mistyped amount cannot go through.
- Keep every order of the table on one bill, so a late round of drinks is not missed.
- Make sure two members of staff cannot take the same payment twice from two devices.
The bill is the last step of a faster table turnover.
Splitting the bill with Thmenu
With Thmenu, a guest asks for the table's bill from the menu, can add a tip, and chooses the split — the whole bill, only what their own phone ordered, an equal share, a percentage or a set amount. Staff are notified with the table, the amount and the chosen split. Where you take card payments through Stripe, a guest can also pay for their own order by card when placing it. At the counter, the Cashier Station lets staff split a table evenly, collect a custom amount or the remaining balance, and close the table once it is settled. Each part is recorded as cash, card or other, with its tip; if another device takes a payment at the same table, the amounts refresh instead of being counted twice. Splitting is by share, not by individual dish.