Free interactive tool

Tronc Calculator

Model how a service charge pool lands in your team's pockets — split across front and back of house, per head and per hour worked.

Your tronc pool

£4,000
How the pool is divided between eligible team members.
60%
Back of house receives 40%.
Editable — set this to the current employer NI rate for your payroll. Used only for the comparison below.

Distribution

Hours-based
FOH per person
£0
£0.00 / hour
BOH per person
£0
£0.00 / hour
Front of house pool—
Back of house pool—
——
£0

Estimated annual employer NI difference versus paying the same amount as wages through payroll.

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Before you rely on this

What a tronc actually has to do

A tronc is a separate arrangement for distributing tips and service charge among staff, run by a "troncmaster" who decides the allocation independently of the employer. Operated properly, it changes how the payments are treated for National Insurance — which is why the structure matters as much as the split.

Money paid to staff as ordinary wages carries employer National Insurance. Tips distributed through a correctly operated independent tronc are treated differently. The figure above estimates that difference at the rate you enter — it is an illustration of scale, not a filing position.

UK rules require qualifying tips to be passed to workers without deduction and distributed fairly, with a written policy and records kept. "Fairly" does not mean "equally" — but it does mean you need a defensible basis, which is exactly what the distribution basis above is modelling.

No. It is a planning illustration using the figures you enter, and it does not account for your specific contracts, scheme rules or circumstances. Rates and rules change. Get your scheme reviewed before you rely on any number here — that is a conversation we are happy to have in a demo.