⚠️ Available on request for restaurants outside Québec. Québec availability will follow once MEV certification is complete. Interested? Contact your sales representative to have it enabled.

Large parties, banquets, room service: sometimes you need a charge added to the bill automatically instead of relying on the guest. Virtuo lets you define a service charge or a mandatory gratuity, attach it to a revenue center, and have the POS apply it by itself when a check reaches a minimum amount or a number of covers — or leave it for the server to add by hand.

Service charge or gratuity? Pick the right one first

	Service charge	Gratuity
Where the money goes	Your revenue	The server's tip
Taxable	Always	Your choice — except in Québec, where it's always taxable
On the check total	Included in the total	Shown separately and due on top of the total
On your reports	Sales & Revenue → Service fees	Sales & Revenue → Tips and Gratuity

Only one of the two can be on a check at a time. A guest can still add a voluntary tip on top of either.

1. Create the charge

In the back office, open Service Charge & Gratuity, pick the Service charge or Gratuity tab, then Create service charge or Create gratuity.

Name — for your own reference. Servers only see it if the POS asks them to choose between a service charge and a gratuity. It isn't printed on the receipt.
Rate — a percentage. Leave it empty and the server types the percentage on the POS each time. An automatic charge must have a rate.
Taxable / Non-taxable (gratuity only) — Québec locations are locked to Taxable. Elsewhere, check the rules that apply to you before choosing Non-taxable: in some places a gratuity the guest can't refuse has to be taxed.
Discount treatment — After discount (default) or Before discount. Québec locations are locked to After discount.
Product categories — the rate applies to the subtotal of the selected categories only. Apply to all product categories also picks up any category you create later. Gift cards, surcharges and delivery fees are never part of the base. Delivery fees themselves are set up on the delivery platform (UEAT, for example), not here — see External Ordering (UEAT).
Application condition — Apply to all checks, Minimum spend or Minimum covers. Minimum spend is measured on the selected categories, after discounts and before tax.
Trigger — Automatic — applied when condition is met or Manual only — server must add it explicitly.

2. Attach it to a revenue center

Go to Revenue Centers, open the revenue center and open its Service Charge & Gratuity tab. Pick one Service charge and one Gratuity, or None. Nothing applies on the POS until this step is done, and each revenue center can carry one charge of each type.

3. Set up covers (if a charge depends on them)

Go to Ordering Methods, open the method (table service, for example) and look for Covers Configuration:

Automatically set cover count based on number of seats (default) — covers follow the seats in use; servers don't enter anything.
Default cover count regardless of seat count — every order starts at 0 covers or 1 cover and servers adjust it.
Prompt for number of covers when starting a new order — the POS asks before anything is rung. The prompt can't be skipped.

4. Give the right roles permission

In POS Roles and permissions, three permissions matter: Add/Edit service charge, Add gratuity and Edit number of covers. Without the first two, adding, changing or removing a charge on the POS asks for a manager's PIN. Automatic charges apply without any permission. Worth setting up on your manager roles before the first busy night, not during it.

What happens on the POS

Automatic charges appear in the cart as soon as the condition is met and disappear if it stops being met — items voided below the minimum, for example. They're re-checked whenever items, prices or covers change, and once more at Pay or Print.
If a revenue center has both an automatic service charge and an automatic gratuity, the POS asks once when the table is opened: Both a service charge (…) and a mandatory gratuity (…) apply. Which would you like to add? — Service charge or Gratuity. If you don't want servers making that call on every table, make only one of the two automatic.
To add one by hand, open the Payment screen and use the Service charge or Gratuities tab. If the charge has a rate it's applied right away; if not, a keypad asks for the percentage.
Greyed out? The revenue center has no charge of that type, none of the items on the check are in its categories, or the condition isn't met yet. A minimum-covers charge that isn't met shows no message — the tab is simply greyed.
To remove one, tap the trash icon beside the line on the Payment screen. A removed automatic charge stays visible, struck through, with a + to put it back — and it won't re-apply itself for the rest of that order.

Covers on the POS

In table mode the seat strip shows a Cov. button with the current count. Tap it to open Enter number of covers. The count can't go below the highest seat that already has items, and the maximum is 999. Covers also cap how many seats a server can open on that table, and a transfer to another table refuses seats above the destination's cover count.

Covers print on the check and show on your readings as Covers, Covers served and Average sale per cover. They don't feed back-office reports.

Refunds

A full refund credits everything, charge included. On a partial refund by items, the service charge is refunded in proportion to the items you refund. The gratuity is not — it only comes back if the tip line itself is refunded.

On your readings and reports

Reading, Extra Fees section: Service charge, Gratuity (Taxable), Gratuity (Non-Taxable).
Reading, Taxes section: Taxable Fees is the service charge plus any taxable gratuity and taxable surcharge; Non-Taxable Fees is the non-taxable surcharge. A non-taxable gratuity is a tip, so it appears in neither.
Payments by method count the gratuity in the tips column, and Tips and Gratuity on the end-of-shift report includes it.
Back office Sales & Revenue: the service charge is in your sales under Service fees; the gratuity is listed as Gratuity (Taxable, Included in tips) or Gratuity (Non-Taxable, Included in tips) and in Tips and Gratuity. It's never part of your settled revenue.

Québec

A gratuity is always taxable and is declared to the MEV-WEB as a fee, so it shows as Frais de service on the receipt — never as a tip. Discount treatment is always After discount.

If you see one of these messages

Service charge requires a minimum amount of $50.00 to be applied. / Mandatory gratuity requires a minimum amount of $50.00 to be applied. — the subtotal of the charge's categories is below the minimum you set. Add items, or lower the minimum in the back office.
Adding a service charge requires manager authorization (also Modifying the service charge…, Removing the service charge…, and the same three for a gratuity) — the logged-in role doesn't have Add/Edit service charge or Add gratuity. A manager enters their PIN, or you grant the permission to the role.
This manager does not have the required permission — the manager who entered the PIN doesn't have it either.
The target table has 4 covers, so seat 5 can't be used — raise the covers on the destination table before transferring.
The minimum value is 3. / The maximum value is 999. — on the covers keypad: you can't set fewer covers than seats already in use, or more than 999.

💰 Service Charge & Mandatory Gratuity