How to fill it in
One sheet a month, one line a day you work. The columns follow what IRS Publication 531 asks you to keep: cash tips, card tips your employer pays you, what you got from a pool or from coworkers, and what you tipped out and to whom (IRS). Hours and sales aren’t on the IRS list, but they let you check your pay and your tip-out.
| Day | Hours in–out | Sales | Cash tips | Card tips | From pool | Tip-out paid | Paid to (names) | Kept |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fri 3 | 10:30–10:00 | $1,270.00 | $96.00 | $164.00 | — | $38.10 | Ana (busser), Luis (bar) | $221.90 |
That Friday double, with a 3% tip-out on $1,270 in sales, leaves you $221.90. Write it before you leave, with the check-out slip in your hand: by the next morning you won’t remember the cash.
At the end of the month
- Add up each column in the total row. “Kept” is the number that matters.
- Report it to your employer by the 10th of the next month if it’s $20 or more at that job.
- Keep the sheet with your tax records, with the check-out slips if you have them. The IRS’s general rule is 3 years after you file.
- In January, add up the twelve sheets and hold the total up to your W-2. Between 2025 and 2028 it also backs up the No tax on tips deduction.
Prefer typing to writing? The spreadsheet version adds up the months for you. More on what to log, and why, in how to keep a tip log for taxes.
Or let the app keep it
When you clock out, you add cash, card and your pool share in PayJar; it takes off the tip-out by your rule, works out what you kept, adds up the month and the year by job, and exports it all to Excel or CSV, free. No sheet to lose in an apron pocket.