tip-pool-split

---
name: tip-pool-split
description: Builds the allocation that divides a shift's pooled tips between the workers who earned them, using the factors the statutory Code of Practice on Fair and Transparent Distribution of Tips actually names, and writes down why each person got what they got so the split can be defended later. It works from a roster and a tips total, not from a manager's feel for who worked hardest, and it will not let one factor (seniority, a favourite, who closed the till) swallow the whole pool. Use before you divide tips between front of house and kitchen, before you set a split ratio for a new site, or whenever a worker asks why their share was smaller than someone else's shift.
---

# The tip split you can show a tribunal

You give this the roster for the period, the total qualifying tips received, and which factors you use to vary shares. You get back one allocation per worker, the factor that drove each variation, and a note of anything the Code requires that your current method is missing.

## What it does

1. **Starts from the legal baseline: every qualifying tip is payable in full, with no deduction taken out first.** Section 27D(2) of the Employment Rights Act 1996, as inserted by the Employment (Allocation of Tips) Act 2023, makes qualifying tips allocated to workers "payable" by the employer, and section 27C(6) disregards any deduction made by the employer or anyone else when working out the amount the customer paid. The pool to split is the gross amount customers left, not what is left after costs.
2. **Picks the factors from the Code's own list, not an invented one.** The statutory Code says at paragraph 22, "Employers should use a clear and objective set of factors to determine the allocation and distribution of tips," and paragraph 23 gives the illustrative set: role type, basic pay, hours worked, performance, seniority and length of service. The skill only varies a split using factors from this list or ones you can justify in the same terms, and it records which one applies to each person.
3. **Checks the split against unlawful discrimination before it checks against anything else.** Paragraph 24 of the Code requires employers to avoid unlawful discrimination, including indirect discrimination, in how tips are allocated. A split that happens to disadvantage one protected group, even unintentionally, through a factor like "closing shift only" is flagged for review rather than issued.
4. **Logs the consultation and review the Code expects.** Paragraph 25 asks employers to consult workers on the allocation method, and paragraph 26 asks for it to be reviewed regularly. The output records the date the method was last discussed with staff and the date it was last reviewed, so a stale split that nobody revisited is visible rather than hidden inside a spreadsheet.
5. **Separates site-level pools from each other.** Acas guidance states that tips are distributed between workers at the place of business where they were received, not pooled across sites, so a multi-site operator gets one allocation per site, never one blended total.

## Then it checks

1. The pool total matches the gross qualifying tips for the period, before any deduction.
2. Every factor used in the split appears on the Code's illustrative list or has a written justification against paragraph 22's "clear and objective" test.
3. No factor, alone or in combination, produces a result that tracks a protected characteristic rather than the stated factor.
4. A consultation date and a review date are recorded for the method in use.
5. No site's tips have been pooled with another site's tips.

Any check fails: name it, redo that step once. Failed twice: say what is wrong and stop.

## Rules
- Public information only. Never invent a fact, a number or a quote.
- Anything sent in someone's name says whose name it is.
- Never allocate tips by a factor that is a proxy for a protected characteristic, even if it is dressed as a performance measure.
- Never deduct card processing costs, breakage, till shortfalls or any other business cost from the pool before splitting it.
- This is a working document for the owner to check against their own payroll and for their solicitor or Acas to check where discrimination risk is unclear. It is not legal advice.

## Built from
- Employment Rights Act 1996, Part 2B, section 27D, as inserted by the Employment (Allocation of Tips) Act 2023 c.13, https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2023/13, Royal Assent 2 May 2023, read 4 November 2026: the duty to pay qualifying tips in full, behind step 1.
- Department for Business and Trade, "Code of Practice on Fair and Transparent Distribution of Tips", https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/distributing-tips-fairly-statutory-code-of-practice/code-of-practice-on-fair-and-transparent-distribution-of-tips-html-version, published 29 July 2024, in force 1 October 2024, read 4 November 2026: paragraphs 21-26 on fairness factors and consultation, behind steps 2, 3 and 4.
- Acas, "Tips and service charges: what the law says", https://www.acas.org.uk/tips-and-service-charges, read 4 November 2026: the single-site distribution rule behind step 5.

# tip-pool-split

## You are given
A roster for the period: one row per worker with name, role, basic pay rate, hours worked, length of service and site. The total gross qualifying tips received at that site for the period, before any deduction. The list of factors the owner wants to use to vary shares, each mapped to one of the Code's illustrative factors (`role type`, `basic pay`, `hours worked`, `performance`, `seniority`, `length of service`) or marked `other` with the owner's written justification. The date the allocation method was last discussed with workers, and the date it was last reviewed. Any previous allocation log.

## Produce
Write into a `./tip-pool-split-output/` folder:

1. `allocation.csv` with columns: `row_ref`, `worker_name`, `role`, `site`, `hours_worked`, `factor_applied`, `factor_category`, `share_percent`, `amount_allocated_gbp`. `row_ref` is W0001 upward. `factor_category` is exactly one of `role type`, `basic pay`, `hours worked`, `performance`, `seniority`, `length of service`, `other (justified)`. `amount_allocated_gbp` across all rows for one site must sum to the pool total for that site, to the penny.
2. `pool-reconciliation.csv` with columns: `site`, `pool_total_gbp`, `sum_of_allocations_gbp`, `difference_gbp`, `deductions_found`, `deductions_description`. `difference_gbp` must be `0.00`. `deductions_found` is `yes` or `no`; any non-zero deduction found anywhere in the supplied figures is listed in `deductions_description` and flagged first in `gaps.md`.
3. `discrimination-screen.csv` with columns: `factor_applied`, `protected_characteristic_correlation_suspected`, `evidence`, `verdict`. `verdict` is `pass` or `review needed`. Flag a factor if the rows it benefits or disadvantages cluster by an obvious characteristic visible in the supplied roster (for example, entirely one age band, one site's only part-time staff).
4. `consultation-review-log.csv` with columns: `method_description`, `last_consulted_date`, `last_reviewed_date`, `months_since_review`. If `last_consulted_date` or `last_reviewed_date` is missing, record it as `not supplied` and flag it in `gaps.md`.
5. `gaps.md` - a numbered list of: any deduction found before allocation; any factor not on the Code's list with no written justification; any discrimination screen marked `review needed`; any site whose pool was mixed with another site's; any missing consultation or review date; any reconciliation difference that is not `0.00`.

## Rules
- Codex counts, matches, checks and records. It never decides the split method, never invents a factor, and never decides whether a correlation amounts to unlawful discrimination.
- Never deduct card processing costs, breakage, stock loss or any other business cost from the pool before allocating it.
- Every amount is calculated to the penny from the supplied figures, never estimated or rounded until the final row.
- Two or more sites are never combined into one pool, even if the owner supplies them in one file.
- Use British English, GBP and DD Month YYYY dates. No em dashes in any file you write.
- Every file ends with this line: this is a working document prepared for the owner to check against their own payroll and for their solicitor or Acas to check where discrimination risk is unclear. It is not legal advice.

## Return
The absolute path of each file written and the row count of each CSV. The pool total and the sum of allocations for each site, and confirmation the difference is zero. Every factor used, mapped to its Code category, and any factor marked `other` with its justification. Every `discrimination-screen.csv` row marked `review needed`, in full. The consultation and review dates found, and which were missing. The `gaps.md` item count.