Payroll services for restaurants

Restaurant payroll lives and dies on tips handling. Get the tronc right and staff keep more of what diners leave while the business saves employer NI; get it wrong and you face both HMRC and the Tipping Act.

What makes restaurants payroll different

• The Tipping Act. All qualifying tips, including card gratuities, must be allocated fairly to workers by the end of the following month, with a written policy and records.
• Tronc through payroll. Tips paid via an independent tronc escape employee and employer NI entirely (tax is still due). On a typical service-charge pot this is a material saving; it requires a separate tronc PAYE arrangement most generalist bureaus cannot run.
• Split shifts and variable hours. Lunch and dinner services create split-shift patterns that rota systems must pass to payroll cleanly.
• Kitchen porter to head chef pay spread. Minimum wage compliance at the bottom, salary-sacrifice pensions at the top – one payroll has to do both well.

What to look for in a provider

Ask whether the provider operates tronc schemes itself or partners with a troncmaster, how it ingests rota data, and whether weekly runs cost extra. The employer cost calculator shows what each hire really costs with NI and pension on top.

Pricing follows the wider market – see what outsourcing costs (£4 – £10 per employee per month fully managed) – but sector add-ons matter more than the headline rate, so always compare like-for-like quotes.