Watch: How to collect a tip at checkout in SalesThumb (0:43)
Tipping is normalized in detail and mobile services. If you don't ask, you don't get. SalesThumb's tip prompt is built into checkout and the customer portal invoice — there's nothing to turn on.
Where the tip prompt shows up
Three places, all live by default — but they don't all use the same buttons:
- Invoice → Collect payment → Record — when staff record a cash, check, ACH, financing or other payment on an invoice, the Record tab shows percentage tip buttons above the amount: None / 15% / 18% / 20% / Other. The Charge card and Terminal tabs don't have a tip row — for a card payment with a tip, use Pay here or Send link so the customer pays on their phone and picks a tip there.
- Customer portal invoice — when a customer pays their invoice from their phone, the same None / 15% / 18% / 20% / Other row appears, labeled "Add a tip — the whole tip goes to your tech."
- Photo-gallery "Leave a tip" — customers can send a standalone tip straight to the tech from the public photo-gallery link for the appointment, separate from paying an invoice. This one uses flat dollar presets — $5 / $10 / $20 / $50 — plus a custom-amount field, not percentages. There's no percentage option and no "None" button, since the whole point of that page is an optional standalone tip.
You can change the percentage buttons (3 to 8 of them) and whether Other shows at Settings → Payments → Tip options; that applies to both the staff Collect payment dialog and the customer's invoice pay page. The photo-gallery dollar presets and the wording are fixed.
Note: Quick Sale (/app/quick-sale) is a separate flow with its own free-text dollar "Tip (optional)" field — it does not use this preset row.
Who the tip goes to
A tip from any of these three surfaces is recorded against the technician on the appointment — the whole amount, no split or routing rules. If you want to divide tips across a crew or pool them for the shop, that has to happen outside SalesThumb (cash envelope, a manual payroll adjustment, etc.) — there's no in-app tip-splitting or allocation setting today.
Where to see tip totals
- Reports → Tips Report — shows tip totals per staff member, broken into paid-out vs. not-yet-paid-out.
- Reports → Payroll Summary — includes a Tips column and is the one tip-related report with a CSV export.
Staff-side tip buttons are only on the Record tab (cash, check, ACH and other recorded payments). Card tips come from the customer's own pay page — the Charge card and Terminal tabs don't add one.
Industry norms
Tipping norms vary a lot by service and market — track your own in Reports → Tips Report.
If you're tint or PPF and worried about looking gauche — the "None" option is right there as the first button, so no customer feels pressured into tipping.
Tipping and tax
Tips are taxable income to the tech who receives them and are wages, not shop revenue — payroll-tax-handled on your end. Talk to your accountant about how your state handles tip reporting for 1099 vs W-2 techs.