This article explains how tipping is set up on your Adyen payment terminal and how tips appear in your Smeetz point of sale (POS), orders and receipts.
1. What is terminal tipping?
With terminal tipping, your customers can add a tip directly on the payment terminal when they pay by card at your POS.
The tip is added on top of the order amount and charged in the same card transaction. Smeetz records it separately from the payment, so you can track how many tips you collect.
👉 Good to know
Tipping is available for card payments on the Smeetz POS app with an Adyen payment terminal.
Tipping is set up per terminal. You can turn it on for some terminals and keep it off for others.
No taxes are applied to tips.
Tips are calculated on the amount excluding taxes.
2. Set up tipping in Adyen
Tipping is configured in the Adyen Customer Area, not in the Smeetz back-office. Smeetz implementation team takes care of this setup with you.
To configure asking for a tip amount from your Customer Area:
Log in to your Adyen Customer Area.
Optionally, switch to the merchant account, store, or terminal that you want to configure tipping for.
Go to Devices > Device settings > Payment features > Tipping.
Under Tipping options, select + Add.
In the Tipping options dialog:
At Tipping mode, select one of the following:
Shopper enters tip amount: the shopper enters a custom tip amount on the terminal screen.
Shopper selects predefined tips: the terminal shows predefined tip options for the shopper to choose from.
At Currency, select the currency the tipping settings apply to.
If you selected Shopper selects predefined tips:
For each tip option, enter a value and select a Format: Amount or Percentage.
Select + Add an option to add more tip options. You can define a maximum of four options.
Optionally, turn on Show calculated percentage amount to show the tip amount associated with percentage options on the terminal screen.
Keep the standalone tipping disabled.
Select Save.
To stop accepting tips on a terminal, go back to the same page and turn tipping off.
3. Take a payment with a tip at the POS
Add the products to the basket in the POS as usual.
Select Card as the payment method.
The terminal shows the tipping screen. The customer selects a percentage, a fixed amount, a custom tip, or no tip.
The customer completes the card payment.
✅ The terminal charges the order amount plus the tip in one transaction. For example, an order of CAD 10.00 with a CAD 1.00 tip is charged CAD 11.00.
👉 How percentage tips are calculated
The percentage is calculated on the amount before taxes.
It applies to the amount paid in the current payment, not the full order value. For example, if part of the order was already paid online, the tip is calculated only on the amount the customer pays at the POS.
The terminal can show the amount the percentage is calculated on, so your customer can check it before choosing.
4. Where you see your tips
You can follow the tips at every step: on the POS, in the back office, on receipts and invoices, in the staff gratuity report and in your journal entries.
In the POS
The order shows the payment and the tip on separate lines.
At sales closure, you see the total amount of tips collected through card payments during the session.
The closure receipt includes the tips received.
In the back-office
📌 How to access: Orders > select an order
The order overview shows the total, the balance and the tips collected for the order.
Each tip appears as a tip line below the card payment it belongs to.
On receipts and invoices
Receipts and invoices show an extra tip line.
The total charged is the payment amount plus the tip.
Staff gratuity report
📌 How to access: Analytics > Accounting > Staff gratuity report
Tips are recorded in a dedicated, immutable report. Each entry contains:
Payment method used for the tip
Collected by: the POS user logged in when the tip was processed
POS: name and ID
Terminal: name and ID
Paid booking amount: the amount actually paid at the venue, excluding the tip, not the original booking total
Tip amount
Tipping reconciliation in journal entries
Tips are not revenue for the organizer. They are money collected on behalf of staff, so they are recorded in the liability account 2060 Tips payable and never in a revenue account. Tips are also excluded from taxes.
When a tip is collected
Debit: payment method account (for example, card clearing)
Credit: 2060 Tips payable
When a tip is refunded
Debit: 2060 Tips payable
Credit: payment method account
Example: a customer pays 50.00 at the terminal, including a 5.00 tip.
45.00 is posted to revenue and taxes as usual
5.00 is credited to 2060 Tips payable
The balance of 2060 Tips payable shows the total amount owed to staff. Paying out tips to staff is handled by the organizer on their own and is not recorded in Smeetz journal entries.
5. Cancel or refund a payment with a tip
Cancellation
Once a payment with a tip is completed, the tip cannot be cancelled, neither from the POS nor from the back-office. This works the same way as any other completed payment.
Refund from the POS
A refund from the POS only covers the order amount. The tip is not refunded. For example, if the customer paid CAD 10.00 plus a CAD 1.00 tip, the POS refunds CAD 10.00.
Refund from the back-office
To refund a tip, use the back-office. When you edit the order, the card payment and the tip are listed separately, so you can refund:
the card payment only
the tip only
both
⚠️ Refunds are sent to the terminal that took the original payment. Make sure this terminal is still active and connected. If the terminal was replaced or removed, contact Smeetz support before you refund.
6. Fees on tips
Tips do not carry a separate fee for the organizer. The payment fee is applied to the total amount paid, tip included.
7. Limitations
A payment is needed to add a tip. The customer can only tip as part of a card payment. You cannot take a tip on its own, for example on a fully discounted order or on an order that is already paid.
Tips are calculated on the current payment. Percentage tips are based on the amount being paid now before taxes, not the full order value.
Card payments only. Tips are not available for cash or other payment methods.
Smeetz POS only. Terminal tipping is available on the Smeetz POS desktop and web versions that use the new order logic. It is not available on the kiosk, the back office or the legacy POS desktop app.