Splitting the bill - from a waitress’s POV.

[MazDazzle]

If you’re out for a meal in a large group and you want to pay individually, how do you go about it?

I’m a waitress in a smallish bistro. It’s a nice place and we do our best to accommodate our customers. We had a table of 23 last night: starters, mains, pudding and some sides, plus cocktails and coffee. Instead of asking for the total bill, each person came up to the til one at a time and asked to pay for what they had.

I had to listen patiently while each person tried to remember what they had. It’s a long process; I had to log in/out multiple times for each customer, shut down screens, open new ones, trawl through the very long bill trying to find each item, create a new table for each customer, cut and paste it to a new bill... this is before we get to the cash/card payment. 23 times!

It took a good 3 mins per customer, so for over an hour the restaurant floor was one person short. It happens all the time and both the restaurant owners and staff are sick of it.

WIBU to say ‘Sorry, we’re unable to make up individual bills, but I’m happy to print out multiple copies of the total bill and provide a calculator. Each person can pay by cash/card, whichever is easiest.’

Would you think it was rude if a waitress said this to you?

The quickest option is to do as you said, tell them it's fine to split the bill but they need to calculate the amounts themselves and tell you how much is going on each card/cash payment. Then all you have to do is take all the payments and add it up at the end to make sure they paid the full amount.

The best "customer is always right" option is to just keep doing as you have been doing.

The business owner needs to weigh up the two options between having a waiter tied up for so long vs. potentially annoying the customer(s). Not really for you to worry about, OP.

I think a lot of people would be grateful if the policy was to ask if people wanted separate or together bills at the beginning.
It gives those who don’t eat or drink much the chance to say without sounding tight.And everyone orders what they want knowing what’s happening at the end.

You have to accommodate your customers I'm afraid. If you don't you run the risk of bad reviews and or losing their custom.

If 23 people each pay (let's say) £30 for their then that's almost £700 and surely justifies one waitress being off the floor for a while?

That said I don't think its unreasonable to ask large groups up front how they intend to pay so it puts you in a better starting position.

I used to work in a busy central London restaurant and there was always someone who worked Thurs / Fri / Sat to deal with big groups and bill splitting [they had other duties of course but main role was to deal with the type of situation in the OP!]

Another issue which often arises when customers do this is that there’s items left to pay that no one has claimed.

And as the night goes on and more drinks are consumed, everyone gets a bit hazy remember who had what.

remembering

You could offer groups a 5-10% discount if payment is made in cash or through just one card. Carrot instead of a stick.

Twenty of us went for a Thai meal. When we booked, we said that we would be paying individually.

When we sat down the waiter said: 'You want individual bills, is that right?' We said Yes.

When bringing bottles of wine to the table, the waiter asked: 'Whose bill shall I add this to?'

At the end of the meal, we each received our own bill. I can't tell you what a relief it was to end the evening without the fuss of 'splitting'. Couples handed over two bills for payment, singles paid their own.

It can be done. We are definitely going back.

I know it gets some on mn in a spin but I always pay my own bill when I’m out and every restaurant I’ve been to big and small (corporate and family establishments) has accommodated this request

OP YANBU. As a diner this also gets on my tits. It seems a very British thing to nit pick over the bill, down to who had the 3 olives. Tedious doesn't even cover it!

I think what you've suggested is fine. I go out in a group and we split the bill between everyone after adding a tip. If someone has had significantly more than someone else they genera offer to pay the majority of the tip. I don't associate myself with asshats that want to quibble about who had a coffee etc. I would add that I'm probably on the losing side 90% of the time but I don't meet up with friends or family to try to score on the bill.

OP "Another issue which often arises when customers do this is that there’s items left to pay that no one has claimed."

but that's why you do it at the start. So literally every item that is ordered is allocated to a diner.

If 23 people each pay (let's say) £30 for their then that's almost £700 and surely justifies one waitress being off the floor for a while? It took between one hour - an hour an a half to ring through one table’s bill! I think that’s excessive.

But I completely agree, we don’t want to risk upsetting customers and getting bad reviews. That’s why I’m canvassing opinion on here.

I’ve been a waitress on and off for over 15 years. When I first started, no one did this.
But it’s becoming increasingly popular. I wonder if it’s becasue most restaurants are chains nowadays?

Of course it’s common every restaurant I’ve been to big and small (corporate and family establishments) has accommodated this request

Not all billing systems will easily accommodate allocating separate bills for people dining at the same time. I don’t think it’s too hard to just work it out yourself, but then I’m an ex- waitress.

Where I use to work we would ask when ordering if they are going on one tab or a multi order. Then when we put each order through it would be for the same table but with multi order printed on the ticket, once the the last starter/main was ordered there message changed to multi order finish and the chef would cook all the dishes for that table to come out at the same time. Guess then each tab would have a name of a person so when they ordered extra drinks etc it would go on that tab and at the end of the night each tab just needed to be settled by the individual .

I'm wondering what your POS looks like here. It's quite common to split bills in N. America, but they usually ask at the beginning if you want separate bills. I like this because there's always some CFer who expects everyone else to sub their booze, expensive meal and desserts.

I can't stand people who pay all separate. Why can't one person pay then the others give that person the money after

HypatiaCade that’s an interesting idea!

TheOtherPam we recently had a booking for 15 people who said they’d like 4 individual bills at the point of booking. We were able to do this. It all had to go through as one check for the kitchen purposes, but I kept track of who had what.

It’s when customers come up at the end of the meal that it’s diffucult. Also, keeping track of 4 bills was okay, 23 would be a bit trickier.

What don’t you understand it’s not hard
I pay my share, either card or cash and it’s always been easily accommodated

We always had tills that would let you split easily onthe system and also go Dutch x however many people but I imagine it is hard when you don’t have that function!

Thegoodandbadlife that system sounds better than ours. When we next update our software, it’s definitely something we’ll look into, especially if the trend of wanting individual bills continues.

This thread is making me feel anxious just imagining the faff OP.

I don’t think it’s unreasonable for you to just say to customers: “Sorry, the system won’t let us do individual bills, we can only allocate one bill per table. Here’s your table’s bill - hope you enjoyed the meal!”

Your customers will cope!

You say it happens all the time,you need to change your bill system in that case

I would never dream of asking for this to be done. Every single time I have been out as a large group this is discussed before we start and agreed. Usually it is a case of just dividing evenly. Occasionally I have been out where one or two people want their bill to the penny and for the most part the rest of us just suck it up as part of the average.

Cash all in a pile and one or two cards offered is what I would expect

One scenario where I have requested bills for each person is when I was travelling as part of a large group for work purposes. Without this we would not have been able to claim our expenses and over the period of time. Appreciate this was a bit of a pain though. (there were usually around 8-12 of us)