16 Service Charges
A service charge is an amount added to sales transactions, oftentimes for services rendered. Some service charges may be paid in full or in part to an employee, in the form of a charged tip, service charge, or automatic service charge. This also includes fees not paid to employees, such as a cover charge, banquet set up fee, room rental, or the sale of a gift certificate.
Percentage service charges are calculated on items through association with a service charge itemizer. The value of Amount service charges is determined by configuration. Percentage and Amount service charges may have a preset value where the percentage or amount is predetermined in the configuration. Alternately, Percentage and Amount service charges may have an open value where the operator determines the percentage or amount.
Each menu item can post to one of sixteen service charge itemizers. The configuration of each service charge determines which itemizer totals to calculate against. For example, food menu items may post to one service charge itemizer, beverage items to another, and retail items to a third. In this instance, an 18% service charge uses the service charge itemizers of the food and beverage items and not of the shirt when calculating the service charge amount.