Customers tip, you track, techs get paid
Pool Founder lets customers leave a tip for their technician in three places: the service report email after a visit, the invoice pay page, and the customer portal. Tips are charged to the customer's card and land in your Stripe account; the Tips page (under Billing in the sidebar) tracks what each technician is owed and lets you mark tips paid out once you've paid them through payroll.
All three tipping surfaces are off by default — turn on the ones you want from the Tips page. Tipping requires online payments: your Stripe account must be connected and onboarding complete.
Turn on tipping surfaces
Open Tips in the sidebar. The Tipping Settings card has one switch per surface — each is independent and applies immediately:
| Surface | What the customer sees |
|---|---|
| Service report emails | A "Leave a Tip" button in post-visit maintenance service reports. |
| Invoice pay page | An optional tip selector when a customer pays an invoice online. |
| Customer portal | A "Leave a Tip" button on visit history in the customer portal. |
Tips are never surcharged. Even if you pass processing fees on invoices, no fee is ever added to a tip — you absorb the card fee, and the Tips page tracks how much that costs you.
Changing tipping settings and marking payouts requires the tips:manage permission — see roles and permissions.
What the customer sees
The "Leave a Tip" buttons in service report emails and the portal open a branded tip page with your logo and brand color, headed "Leave a tip for {technician's name}". The customer picks a preset — $5, $10, or $20 — or taps Other and enters a custom amount from $1 to $200.
- If the customer has a card on file, they can tip with one tap ("Tip $10 with Visa ••4242") — or enter a different card.
- Tips are card only — no bank/ACH payments — and tipping never saves the card.
- On the invoice pay page, the "Add a tip for your technician" section uses the same presets and custom amount. The tip rides on the same payment as the invoice and shows as its own "Tip" line in the total. It's only offered when paying by card.
- After tipping, the customer sees a thank-you screen from the technician; if a tip is later refunded, the tip link shows it was refunded.
Track what techs are owed and mark payouts
Once tips come in, the Tips page shows four stat tiles — Owed to Techs, Collected (30 days), Card Fees Absorbed (30 days), and All Time — plus two lists:
- Owed to Techs groups unpaid tips by technician, with each tip linking to the visit it came from. Pay the tech through your payroll, then click Mark $X paid out — this is bookkeeping only; no money moves in Pool Founder.
- History lists paid-out and refunded tips. Clicked the button too soon? The undo button on a history row moves the tip back to owed.
- Refunded tips show a "Refunded" badge with the amount struck through — they never count as owed.
Tips and your numbers
Tips are pass-through gratuities: they're kept out of revenue and profit math everywhere. In profitability analytics, the technician table shows tips in their own column, separate from the profit each tech generates. The card fees you absorb on tips are tracked on the Tips page's "Card Fees Absorbed" tile.
Frequently asked questions
Does the customer pay a processing fee on tips?
No — tips are never surcharged, even if you pass processing fees on invoices. You absorb the card fee, and the Tips page shows how much that has cost you in the last 30 days.
Do tips count toward job or technician profitability?
No. Tips are pass-through gratuities and are excluded from revenue and profit. Technician profitability shows them in a separate Tips column.
How do technicians actually receive their tips?
Tips land in your Stripe account with your other payments. You pay the tech through your normal payroll, then click "Mark $X paid out" on the Tips page to record it. There's an undo if you mark one by mistake.
Can a customer tip with a bank account (ACH)?
No — tips are card only. Customers with a saved card can tip with one tap; otherwise they enter card details on the tip page.
Is there a limit on tip amounts?
Yes — tips can be between $1 and $200. The tip page offers $5, $10, and $20 presets plus a custom amount.