How to Set Up Digital Tipping in Your Salon
Enable cashless tipping and let your team earn more, without the awkward conversation
In this guide
Cash tips are disappearing. As more clients pay by card or phone, salons that don't offer digital tipping are leaving money on the table, and their team members are feeling the pinch. Yet many salon owners hesitate to bring it up at the counter, worried it feels pushy.
Digital tipping removes the awkwardness entirely. After an appointment, clients find a simple prompt with preset tip amounts behind the 'Leave a review & tip' button on their appointment in your online booking portal. There's no pressure, no conversation, and no fumbling for change. The tip is paid on a secure checkout page, straight to your payment account.
This guide walks you through setting up digital tipping in Bella Booking, from connecting your Stripe account to tracking tip revenue across your team.
Why digital tipping matters
Fewer clients carry cash than ever, so a card-friendly way to tip usually means more tips reach your team. When clients see a simple prompt with suggested amounts, they're far more likely to leave a tip than when they have to calculate it themselves or dig through their wallet.
For your team, tips can represent a meaningful portion of their income. Making it easy for clients to tip digitally is a retention tool for your best people.
- •Clients who pay by card tip more frequently than those paying cash
- •Suggested amounts remove the mental arithmetic that discourages tipping
- •Digital tips are automatically recorded: no more lost or disputed cash tips
- •Transparent tip tracking builds trust between salon owners and team members
If you're concerned about clients feeling pressured, remember that tipping is entirely optional. The prompt sits quietly behind the 'Leave a review & tip' button, and clients who don't want to tip simply move on. Most clients appreciate the convenience.
Enabling tipping and connecting Stripe
Digital tipping in Bella Booking works through your connected payment account. If you're already accepting card payments through Bella Booking, you're most of the way there.
- 1Navigate to **Settings > Payments** in your Bella Booking dashboard
- 2Ensure your Stripe account is connected. If not, click **Connect Stripe** and follow the prompts
- 3In the **Tipping** section, set **Tipping** to **On** and apply the change
- 4Make sure client reviews are available on your plan. The tip prompt is part of the review-and-tip flow, and reviews are a Professional-plan feature
Once enabled, clients reach the tip prompt through the 'Leave a review & tip' button on a completed appointment in your online booking portal. The tip is paid on a secure checkout page as its own small transaction. No saved card is needed, and nothing changes about how you take payment for the service itself.
Processing fees apply to tips
Your payment provider's standard processing fee applies to tips like any other card payment. If you pass processing fees on to clients, the fee is added on top of the client's tip charge and your team member receives the full tip amount; otherwise the fee comes out of the tip.
How tip amounts work
The tip prompt offers three preset amounts ($5, $10, and $20) plus a custom field for any other amount. Fixed presets keep the decision quick: most clients tap one and move on, without the mental arithmetic that discourages tipping in the first place.
The custom field covers everything else: the generous regular after a big colour service, or the client who wants to round to a specific number. Whatever they choose, the amount is paid on a secure checkout page and recorded against the appointment and team member automatically.
The presets are deliberately simple. If clients ask about tipping in person, the easiest answer is that they can tip any amount from their appointment page, no cash needed.
Team member opt-out and multi-member appointments
Not every team member wants to participate in digital tipping. Some prefer to keep things simple, and in certain roles (reception, management), tipping may not be appropriate. Bella Booking lets individual team members opt out.
- 1Open the team member's profile from **Team** and edit it
- 2Switch **Accept tips** off (the toggle appears once tipping is enabled for the business)
- 3When a team member has opted out, they aren't offered in the tip prompt for their appointments
Multi-team-member appointments
When an appointment involves multiple team members (say, a colourist and a stylist), the client sees each of them in the tip prompt and can tip each person individually. Tips always go to the specific team member the client chooses. There's no pooling or splitting to configure.
Tracking and reporting on tips
Every tip is automatically recorded against the appointment and the team member who provided the service. This means you never need to manually track or reconcile tip amounts.
Where to view tip data
- •**Appointment detail**: shows the tip amount alongside the service total
- •**Tips summary report**: tips over any date range, grouped by team member
- •**CSV export**: export the daily Tips summary to CSV (filter to one team member first for per-person figures)
Use the Tips summary report to monitor tipping trends over time. If you notice a dip, it might be worth checking that reviews and tipping are still switched on, so the 'Leave a review & tip' button is appearing for completed appointments.
Run the Tips summary report monthly and compare tip percentages across team members. It can reveal which stylists are delivering experiences that clients want to reward, useful insight for coaching and recognition.
Key takeaways
- ✓Digital tipping removes the awkwardness of asking for cash tips
- ✓Connect your Stripe account and switch Tipping on in Settings > Payments. It takes under five minutes
- ✓Clients pick a $5, $10, or $20 preset, or enter their own amount, and pay on a secure checkout page
- ✓Individual team members can opt out with the Accept tips toggle if tipping isn't appropriate for their role
- ✓All tips are automatically tracked, with a Tips summary report whose daily view exports to CSV
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Last updated: 2026-08-03