Victory Burger, part of the acclaimed Ethan Stowell Restaurants group in Washington State, has significantly boosted operational efficiency and staff satisfaction by automating its tip management process. With a complex tip sharing and tip pool and over 10 tipped employees working daily, TipHaus eliminated manual cash handling, reduced legal liability, and saved the business over 100 hours per month in paid labor, time previously lost to post-shift tip-outs and on-the-clock calculations.
20+ Hours
saved per month, in payroll processng time for the company
100+ Hours
of paid labour hours saved per month across our location.
90%
fewer tip-related questions from staff, keeping them well informed
Washington State
1 (part of Ethan Stowell Restaurants, a 20+ location group)
Fast-Casual / Craft Burger Bar
Nico Salakar, General Manager
Victory Burger’s manual tip process required 10+ tipped employees to stay on the clock up to 20 minutes each night to count and distribute tips, wasting valuable labor time, increasing liability, and frustrating staff.
By automating tip pooling, simplifying payroll, and enabling real-time tip transparency through the free TipHaus app, Victory Burger drastically reduced wasted labor, boosted team morale, and ensured legal compliance.
Reduce tip calculation time by 80% while eliminating manual errors and discrepancies—ensuring accuracy and legal compliance
Calculate your ROI
Victory Burger is a Spokane-based craft burger bar operated by Ethan Stowell Restaurants (ESR), a celebrated Pacific Northwest restaurant group, known for its chef-driven concepts, from fine dining to casual eateries. With over 20 locations, ESR is focused on scaling smart, using technology to simplify operations and enhance team culture.
Before implementing TipHaus, Victory Burger managed its tip payouts manually using spreadsheets. Bartenders and servers each spent around 20 minutes per night counting cash and waiting for their tip payout, adding up to over 3 hours per day across 10 tipped employees, or around 100 paid labor hours per month.
Without automated tip management, the payroll processing would require about 5 hours each week, often done late at night, manually reconciling tip data and exporting it for payroll.
As Ethan Stowell Restaurants continued to open up more locations, it became clear that these manual processes were no longer sustainable. The team also recognized a need to better support staff by offering a transparent, reliable system that showed employees exactly how their tips were calculated, helping them feel valued and confident in the process.
We’re growing fast, and any system we can automate or streamline, we do, especially if it works great with our existing tech stack and smoothly integrates with our POS, Toast.
Nico Salakar
General Manager
Victory Burger turned to TipHaus to modernize tip management and integrate seamlessly with their existing tech stack, including Toast POS.
With TipHaus, the entire tip pooling system was automated based on time-of-sale data, allowing the team to split tips fairly between front and back-of-house roles using job codes. The custom export feature now generates payroll-ready files in under 1.5 minutes per week, compared to the 5 hours per week it used to take prior to TipHaus.
Staff were also given access to the free TipHaus employee app, enabling real-time transparency into how tips are calculated and distributed.
This new system not only saved hours of time, it also significantly reduced legal liability, removed human error, and eliminated employee frustrations over unclear tip breakdowns.
TipHaus makes us a better employer by providing tip transparency to our staff. Now, everyone has access to their tip breakdown through the free employee app. No more late-night math, and no more employees waiting around 20 minutes just to get tips paid. With 10+ tipped employees each day, those 20 minutes of waiting post shift really add up. TipHaus is a no-brainer for any growing business.
Nico Salakar
General Manager
By implementing TipHaus, Victory Burger eliminated a costly and time-consuming manual tip payout process, reclaimed over 100 paid labor hours per month, and strengthened trust across its team. As part of Ethan Stowell Restaurants’ broader growth strategy, TipHaus is helping Victory Burger stay compliant, reduce liability, and become a more attractive workplace for hospitality professionals. For restaurants scaling smart, TipHaus is the competitive edge.
