It’s extremely important to take good care of your restaurant barter partners and part of that is making sure you leave appropriate cash for tip/tax. When you are paying with $10 increments of script issued by a barter exchange, figuring out exactly how much you should leave in barter and how much should be in cash can get a little complicated. A while back I posted some instructions on (what I thought was) a good way to calculate the tip. I have a new and MUCH BETTER, SIMPLER rule of thumb. Check it out:
- Always overpay for the meal in barter
- Leave 3 times the tax in cash
That’s it! Is that easy or what!!?? Here’s a practical example: Let’s say you get your bill and your total is $28 for the meal plus $2.24 tax.
- Pay $30 in script (overpaying the $28 meal bill)
- Leave around $7 in cash (approx 3 times the tax)
The only exception to this rule is if the bill is only slightly over a ten dollar increment. For example, if the bill was $32, I would then leave $30 in script (not overpay) but when it comes to leaving the cash I’d leave 3 times the tax PLUS the $2 I didn’t pay in barter. BUT….if you want to keep it simple, you are ALWAYS safe to overpay the meal in barter and triple the tax in cash.
OK….say it with me people: Overpay the meal in barter and triple the tax in cash!!!
Barterfanatic.com 
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