“Separately or together?” – The question of how to pay for table service in a restaurant seems to be increasingly divisive. Recently, the topic even made it into the tabloids because a restaurateur from the district of Esslingen in Baden-Württemberg complained about the additional time required for billing and informed his customers on the menu that it was “not possible to split the bill for organizational reasons”.
One table one bill
Internationally, it is not always customary for the restaurateur to split the total bill between several guests at a table. Depending on cultural customs, the total amount of a restaurant bill is taken by one person at the table or simply divided “by head” by the number of guests. However, the exact breakdown of the total bill is usually the responsibility of the guests themselves, who then calculate their shares among themselves, for example via an app, and settle them directly if necessary.
Right to separate invoices
In Germany, every guest concludes their own contract with their order and therefore has the right to receive an individual invoice. A blanket ban on issuing separate invoices is therefore not legally permissible.
The request on notices or in the menu for “one total invoice” is therefore permitted, but in case of doubt, a restaurateur will have to issue each guest with an individual invoice.
Split function for easy sharing
In practice, the additional organizational effort of splitting a large table party into several bills can be quite challenging and time-consuming for service staff. This is especially true if orders are not booked separately in advance and guests cannot remember exactly what food and drinks they have consumed at the end of a long evening. It is therefore advisable for restaurateurs to request payment in advance when opening a table in order to avoid stress when finalizing payment.
Technically, however, splitting can usually also be carried out retrospectively. Modern POS systems offer intelligent split functions that can be used to quickly and precisely allocate and bill each item to a guest or seat. Of course, you can also use our bluepos® POS software to conveniently split invoices in your catering business at any time, settle them via different financial channels or assign all order items to locations or customers in advance.
By the way: Separate invoices with multiple payment transactions often have positive side effects for service staff, as they benefit from higher tips.
