A pay-period check for your personal tip log
Before comparing a personal shift history with other records, check which dates, amounts and hours you entered. Start with one completed shift you can explain.
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Define what you are checking
A payment arriving this week may relate to work recorded last week. If you enter both as new earnings, a personal log can look larger than the work it represents. Keep the shift date and the payment date distinguishable before comparing totals.
Valorem publishes TipStash, which records personal tips, hours, wages and tip-outs. This guide is an arithmetic and record-checking exercise. It does not determine pay entitlements or provide tax, payroll, legal or financial advice.
One shift, two different totals
Consider a fictional six-hour shift on October 6. Every amount below uses the same imaginary currency. There are no work expenses, taxes or other deductions in this example. The tip-in is an additional amount that has not already been included in cash or card tips.
- Base pay: 6 hours × 12 = 72.
- Tips recorded: 45 cash + 85 card + 10 tip-in = 140.
- Retained tips: 140 − 20 tip-out = 120.
- Base pay plus retained tips: 72 + 120 = 192 before taxes and expenses.
Explain when the money arrived
Now assume the 10 tip-in was received in cash, the 20 tip-out was paid from cash, and neither card tips nor base pay arrived that evening. Cash remaining from these entries is 45 + 10 − 20 = 35. The remaining 157 consists of 85 card tips and 72 base pay.
If the 85 card amount arrives on October 9, it settles an amount already attributed to the October 6 shift. For this personal earnings view, do not add it again as October 9 tip income. Record the payment timing separately in your notes, if useful.
These assumptions are specific to the example. Your workplace may distribute tips differently. Ask what each figure represents rather than forcing a statement or payment into a field with a different meaning.
Check each entry before the total
Choose the period you intend to review, then work through the saved shifts. Use the same date convention for an overnight shift. Keep an unresolved difference visible until you can explain it.
- Completeness: are any shifts still drafts or missing hours?
- Duplication: was a later payout entered again as new earnings?
- Tip-ins: are they additional, or already included in cash or card figures?
- Tip-outs: was the same amount subtracted more than once?
- Hours and wages: do they belong to that shift and that job?
- Currency: have records in different currencies been kept separate?
Use the app for the underlying record
TipStash’s iPhone and iPad listing describes live and past shifts, editable history, draft stashes, notes and CSV import and export. It also describes a pay-period start day and preserving each shift’s own wage and currency. These features can keep the entries behind your review together.
When checking an exported file, verify its dates and headings, then compare one known shift with the app. Keep a copy of the original file. Do not assume importing the same history twice will automatically detect every duplicate.
Write a question you can resolve
An unexplained difference is a reason to check sources, not proof of an error by another person. Make the question precise: which shift, which amount, and whether the figure describes earnings or a payment received. Compare like-labelled amounts and keep relevant supporting records.
A personal log remains separate from employer records and any documents required for your situation. If the issue involves official payroll, tax treatment or employment rights, use the appropriate qualified guidance.
Should I replace missing hours with zero?
No. Leave the shift incomplete until you can enter the correct hours. Zero hours cannot support a meaningful hourly calculation.
Should my shift total equal the cash in my pocket?
Not necessarily. In the example, some earnings arrive later. Check payment timing and the exact amounts included before comparing.