Dining out with friends or colleagues often involves splitting the bill – a common practice that can vary based on the group’s preferences. Some may opt to divide the total bill equally, while others prefer instead to pay only for the items they ordered. As more hospitality operators adopt loyalty programs, vouchers, and gift cards, the operational complexity of splitting a bill has increased significantly over the years.

To help you understand how technology can help streamline and simplify this process, as well as provide an enhanced customer experience, Zonal’s Customer Success team explore some of the ways our technology can facilitate the process of splitting the bill.

Splitting the bill

When processing a payment on the POS, there are 3 primary methods for splitting a bill on an open account:

Even Split: divide the total equally among all parties.

Itemised Split: splitting the account by individual items.

Visual Split: allocate items based on items consumed.

The table below outlines each method, provides example scenarios, and highlights key considerations to keep in mind.

Now that we’ve covered the three primary ways for splitting a bill, its important to consider how additional systems like loyalty cards, rewards, vouchers, promotions, discounts and deposits can impact the process.

The table below outlines how the split bill functionality within Zonal’s POS operates when these systems have already been applied to the Aztec account, detailing how each scenario is managed during the split.

Definitions

We know too well that terminology can often be confusing, so to help with the above tables, we’ve listed some definitions.

• Account: An account is a guest-specific record used to track purchases, payments, and outstanding balances for charge or credit transactions.
• Bill: A bill is a detailed statement of charges for products or services rendered. It includes: line items (products/services sold), quantity and unit price, tax and service charges (if applicable), and Total amount due.
• Deposit: A deposit refers to a partial prepayment made by a guest to reserve goods or services. It is often used in: Bookings or even Pre-orders. The deposit is typically deducted from the final bill when the transaction is completed (unless you have automated redemption).
• Loyalty Reward: A loyalty reward is a benefit or incentive given to returning customers as part of a loyalty program. These can include: Points earned per purchase, discounts on future purchases or even free items after a number of visits or purchases.
• Voucher Code: A voucher code is a unique identifier (usually alphanumeric) used to redeem a specific offer or promotion. These can include: Customer-Specific Promotions (e.g., birthday voucher), Monetary discounts (e.g., £5 off a bill).
• Promotion: A promotion is a temporary marketing offer intended to boost sales or attract customers. Examples include: Buy One Get One Free (BOGO), Flash sales, Limited-time bundle deals or Seasonal offers
• Discount: A discount is a reduction in price offered on a product or service. It can be: Percentage-based (e.g., 20% off), Fixed amount (e.g., £5 off) or Applied to specific items, categories, or the entire bill.

Built for ease of use, iServe Plus empowers staff members to efficiently take
orders and payments from any location within your venue, enhancing speed of
service, accelerating order processing, and facilitating quicker table turns. By
minimising staff visits to the bar and kitchen, iServe Plus allows your team to
focus more on delivering exceptional customer experiences.

Built for ease of use, iServe Plus empowers staff members to efficiently take
orders and payments from any location within your venue, enhancing speed of
service, accelerating order processing, and facilitating quicker table turns. By
minimising staff visits to the bar and kitchen, iServe Plus allows your team to
focus more on delivering exceptional customer experiences

iServe is Zonal’s handheld ordering solution for hospitality staff, helping to save
time, eliminate errors, and provide speedier service by allowing you and your
team to take orders digitally and send them directly through to the kitchen or
bar without needing to re-key the order at a fixed terminal.

Fully integrated with Zonal’s digital ordering management platform, our kiosk
integration provides you with a flexible solution to help reduce queues, speed
up service, and meet guests’ demands for convenience with quick and easy
ordering journeys. Available through select hardware partners.

Part of the Zonal family, Airship is a powerful CRM, purpose-built for
hospitality. Centralise your customer data, build a better picture of who your
customers are and how they interact with your business, and deliver targeted,
more effective marketing campaigns that drive revenue.

Consolidate your business intelligence into one single view. Dimensions+ is Zonal’s suite of additional reporting tools, enabling you to combine various data sources, such as accounting, payroll, and customer feedback, within one platform to create bespoke views and dashboards. Requires a Power BI Pro license.

Zonal Delivery is our cost-effective and user-friendly platform for managing
delivery service providers, offering seamless integrations with the three
major online ordering and delivery services, and simplifying multi-channel
and multi-unit menu management. Easily manage your online deliveries
and streamline your operations, making it an ideal solution for efficient and
hassle-free order handling.

Available as both a fully branded app and web ordering platform, Zonal’s
Order & Pay solution allows you to offer increased convenience and
flexibility for guests, whilst increasing spend-per-head and saving staff
time. Tight integration with our EPoS eliminates the need for your team to
spend time re-keying orders, or updating product availability when items go
out of stock, eliminating additional operational overhead.