thread Re: Self-serve ordering - How to manage service charge in Payments Troubleshooting

Self-serve ordering - How to manage service charge

petersmith — Sun, 21 Sep 2025 12:07:05 GMT

The new Self-Serve Ordering feature is great for minimizing staff contact with customers in our cafe. One thing I haven't been able to work out is how to manage tips or service charge. For pickup we naturally don't make a service charge but for eat-in customers we have an optional 10% service charge.

Two problems: ideally we'd like the service charge to be automatically added to the bill by default - but the customer needs to be able to opt out or amend. Failing that, how can the customer add a tip before paying? We don't want them leaving cash on the outside table when they leave.

Re: Self-serve ordering - How to manage service charge

tranguyen — Mon, 28 Sep 2020 11:54:08 GMT

Hi @petersmith, thanks for your post! You can set this up from the Advanced Settings within the Pickup & Delivery tab on your Dashboard.

Here, you can Enable order tipping at checkout and set the default tip amount to 10% of the total order.

At checkout, customer will be able to see the option to Change tip and adjust the amount as they wish or opt out of it by selecting Not Now.

I hope this will do what you need!

Re: Self-serve ordering - How to manage service charge

petersmith — Mon, 28 Sep 2020 13:16:17 GMT

Clearly the best answer, Tra. But I guess this setting applies to pickup and delivery as well as self-serve? I'm slightly reluctant to presume a tip for pick up so it would be best if there could be separate settings for each fulfillment method.

Re: Self-serve ordering - How to manage service charge

tranguyen — Mon, 28 Sep 2020 14:34:19 GMT

Thanks for reaching back out @petersmith! Self-serve order is technically considered delivery since you're still delivering items to customers' tables. The tipping will apply to both pickup & delivery order so I definitely see the benefits of having separate settings for each fulfilment method to make things more flexible. But hopefully this will do for now!

Re: Self-serve ordering - How to manage service charge

kimmicahsuk — Tue, 31 Aug 2021 15:33:05 GMT

Hi Peter

I'm still confused by 'tipping'. We're based in the UK and just need to know how the customer can add 'custom amount' of tip to checkout?

How do I send a note to the team at Square, can't find that information either?

Thanks in advance

Frustrated Square cafe owner!!

Northumberland - England, United Kingdom

Re: Self-serve ordering - How to manage service charge

tranguyen — Tue, 31 Aug 2021 16:17:24 GMT

Hey @kimmicahsuk, just stepping in here! The feature has changed slightly. Now, you'll need to head to Settings > Checkout (or if you have more than one site, Share Settings > Checkout). Under Checkout experience, you can edit customer inputs and enable order tipping.

Tipping will only apply to pickup, delivery and self-serve orders. You can choose to setup a default tip amount as well.

At checkout, customer will see the tip automatically apply. If they wish to change or enter a custom amount, they'll need to click Change tip and select Custom to enter the amount they wish.