Running an allocation and paying staff on time

An allocation shares out all the tips for a period, such as a week or a month, between the people who worked in it. Fairpool works out each share from hours × role weight. Every penny goes to workers: any odd pennies go one at a time to the people closest to the next penny, so the total always matches.

By law, you must pay tips by the end of the month after the month the customer paid. This is the pay-by date. Tips from any day in June must be paid by 31 July.

Your venue page and Dashboard show when the oldest tip still waiting must be paid. If an allocation covers tips from more than one month, its pay-by date is the earliest tip's, so the later tips get less time than the law allows. Keep each allocation within one calendar month. If a period runs past a pay-by date, or the date has already passed, Fairpool asks you to confirm before it allocates or publishes, and the allocation shows as overdue until you pay it: pay those workers immediately.

1. Make sure every tip and every shift for the period is recorded.
2. On the venue page, find Run a pool.
3. Choose the From and To dates. Most venues use one calendar month, or the dates of their payroll period.
4. Press Allocate this period.
5. Check the draft that opens. It shows each person's hours, weight and share, and a total that always equals the pot.
6. If it's right, press Publish allocation. If something is wrong, press Discard draft: its tips go back to waiting, so you can correct the hours or weights and allocate again.

Nobody else sees a draft: workers' private links, the payroll CSV and the records export only show published allocations. A draft still holds its tips, so publish or discard it promptly.

Fairpool takes every tip in those dates that hasn't been shared out before. Each tip can only be shared out once.

Good to know: Check hours and weights before you publish. Fairpool doesn't let you change or delete a published allocation.

1. On the allocation page, press Download payroll CSV. A CSV is a simple spreadsheet file that opens in Excel or Google Sheets.
2. Send it to whoever runs your payroll, or enter the amounts yourself. It lists each worker's share, role, hours, weight and pay-by date, and shows who is an agency worker.
3. Pay every share by the pay-by date.
4. Enter the date you paid in Paid on (it starts as today) and press Mark as paid. This stops the reminders and shows workers that their share has been paid. The date goes in the payroll CSV and records export as the payment date.

Tips are paid on top of wages. They never count towards the National Minimum Wage.

Allocations that are overdue, or due within 7 days, appear at the top of your Dashboard under Tips to pay out. Fairpool also emails the organisation owner a reminder until they're marked as paid. Owners can turn these emails off with Email me reminders on the Account page.

• “No unallocated tips in this period”: there are no tips in those dates, or they've already been shared out. Check the dates.
• “No worked hours in this period”: log the hours first.
• Marked as paid by mistake? Open the allocation and press Undo: mark as not paid.
• Found a mistake after publishing? You can't edit the allocation. Talk to the worker, pay them anything they're owed and record it as a correction (see below). Never ask a worker to pay tips back.

A published allocation is a legal record, so it never changes. If an employment tribunal orders you to revise it or to pay workers, you settle a claim, or you find a mistake, record each extra payment on the allocation instead. A tribunal can order payments to workers who didn't bring the claim, so you can choose anyone on the venue's team, not just the people in the allocation.

1. Open the allocation and find Corrections and top-ups. Only the organisation owner can record one.
2. Choose the worker, the amount to pay on top of their share, and the reason: Tribunal order, Settlement or Error correction.
3. Add the tribunal case number as the reference, if there is one, and the date the order or settlement says to pay by.
4. Press Record payment, pay it through payroll, then press Mark as paid next to it. Anyone in your organisation can mark a payment as paid, as with an allocation. If that was a mistake, press Undo: mark as not paid and the reminders start again.

Payments can only be added. If a revised allocation would give someone less, the law says they never have to pay the difference back. Each payment appears as its own row in the payroll CSV and records CSV, labelled for example Adjustment (tribunal order), and on the worker's private link and statements. Unpaid ones are in the owner's reminder email from 7 days before their pay-by date. Each payment is kept for 3 years after it's paid (and the allocation with it), however old the allocation is. You can record them even if your plan has ended, but not at an archived venue: unarchive it first.