Getting started

Before you begin

You need a Square account with Square Team set up, so your staff clock in and out through Square. That's it. Better Tips never changes anything in Square — it only reads your timecards and payments and does the math.

Step 1: Sign in

Go to better-tips.com and sign in with your Google account. There's no separate password to create. The first time you sign in, Better Tips creates a workspace for you.

Step 2: Connect Square

On your team settings page, click Connect Square. Square asks you to approve a read-only connection, then sends you back. Better Tips asks to read your locations, team members, timecards and payments — nothing more, and nothing it can change. You can disconnect at any time from the same page. See Connecting Square for the full list.

Step 3: Pick a pay period

Open the By location view. Pick the location, choose the start and end dates of the pay period you want to close, and click Run report. Better Tips includes every closed timecard at that location whose shift started inside those dates, along with every card payment taken during those shifts. (A shift that's still open adds no hours yet, but it does take part in the tip split until you run the report — so close any forgotten clock-outs first.)

Step 4: Read the numbers

The report shows one row per employee: hours worked, card tips earned, the fee Square charged on those tips, net tips, and total pay. The totals row adds up the whole team at that location. Reading your report walks through every column and where each figure comes from.

If you want to see how one person's numbers break down shift by shift, switch to the By employee view, pick a team member and run the same dates.

Step 5: Export for payroll

Click Export CSV to download a spreadsheet with one row per employee plus a totals row. It opens in Excel, Numbers or Google Sheets and imports into most payroll tools. That's the whole process — most owners do it in under five minutes once a pay period.