Who we are
Tips.cx is a small software business building tip pooling and tip record tools, operated by Patrick Gardner. Patrick Gardner is responsible for the personal information described in this policy. In this policy, "we" and "us" mean Tips.cx and its operator. You can reach us at hello@tips.cx.
The free tip pool calculator
The calculator on our home page runs entirely in your web browser. The tip amounts, hours, names and weights you type are not sent to us or anyone else.
To save you retyping, the calculator remembers some settings in your browser's local storage on your own device: the names in your list and their order, role weights, the rounding choice, whether role weights are on, and the last clock-in and tips-start times used in the "tips start" helper. It never stores tip amounts or hours. We cannot see this information. You can remove it with the "Clear saved names" link under the calculator, or by clearing your browser's site data.
Tips.cx accounts (invite-only beta)
If you have a Tips.cx account, as an owner or a manager, we store:
- your name, email address, role (owner or manager), and when you last signed in;
- your password, stored only as a one-way hash that cannot be turned back into the password;
- your business's name, time zone and settings.
Tip records
A Tips.cx account keeps the records its owner and managers enter: locations, staff names, which locations staff work at and their default weights, and for each shift the date, label, total tips, each person's hours, weight and payout, who logged it and when, and any void and its reason.
The business that uses Tips.cx decides what goes into its records and is responsible for telling its staff that their names, hours and tip payouts are recorded. We use these records only to provide the service to that business: showing them, totaling them and exporting them when asked. We don't sell them, share them for advertising, or use them for any other purpose.
Staff who use a location's staff link don't have an account. When they tap their name, that name is recorded as who logged the shift. Anyone with the link and the location's store PIN can do this, so the name is a label, not a verified identity.
Usage counts
To learn whether the public website is useful, we keep simple daily totals: how many times each public page was viewed, how many page views led to a calculator result, and how many people joined early access from each page. These are counts only. They contain no IP addresses, no cookies or device identifiers, and nothing you typed into the calculator. Visits from automated programs that identify themselves (such as search engine crawlers) are not counted. App pages and staff links are never counted.
Early access sign-ups
If you join the early-access list, we store:
- your email address;
- your business type, if you choose to give it;
- the page you signed up from and the date and time;
- a one-way, salted hash of your IP address. We use this only to limit repeated sign-up attempts from one connection; it cannot practically be turned back into your IP address.
We use your email address only to tell you when Tips.cx opens. We don't sell, rent or share it for anyone else's marketing. Records of sign-up attempts used for rate limiting are deleted after one hour.
Sign-in protection
To stop password and PIN guessing, we count failed sign-in, password reset and store PIN attempts. Each count is stored with a one-way, salted hash of the email address, connection (IP address) or location involved, never the address itself, and is deleted after 24 hours.
Emails
We send only the emails the service needs: account invites, manager invites and password reset links. They are sent from noreply@tips.cx through our hosting provider's mail service. We don't send marketing email from the app.
Cookies and storage on your device
We use these cookies, all strictly for how the site and app work:
- tipscx_theme remembers whether you chose the Night or Day theme on the public site. It lasts one year.
- tipscx_csrf is a random security token that protects our forms from forged submissions. It lasts seven days.
- tipscx_session keeps you signed in to the app. It ends when you sign out, close the browser, or go 30 minutes without using the app.
- tipscx_device is set only if someone sets a quick PIN on a device. It holds a random token, stored on our side only as a hash, and lasts 90 days from the last use. The PIN itself is stored only as a one-way hash.
- tipscx_staff is set when someone unlocks a staff link with the store PIN. It lasts up to 15 minutes, or until the shift is saved.
The app also remembers a few choices in your browser's local storage: the last location you logged for, the last label used at each location, and the clock-in and tips-start times in the "tips start" helper. It never stores tip amounts or hours there.
We don't use advertising, analytics or tracking cookies, and we don't track you across other websites or build a profile of you.
Server logs
Like nearly every website, our web hosting provider keeps standard server logs, which include the IP address, browser type, the page requested and the time of each request. These logs are used to keep the site running and secure, and are kept according to the hosting provider's practices. We don't use them to identify or profile visitors.
Third parties
The site and app load no third-party scripts, analytics, advertising, social media widgets or externally hosted fonts. We share personal information only with service providers who help us run Tips.cx (our hosting and email provider, DreamHost, in the United States), or when the law requires it.
How long we keep information
- Account details and tip records: for as long as the account is open. During the beta, the owner can ask us at hello@tips.cx to close the account and delete the business, its people and all its records.
- When a manager is removed or a staff member is deactivated, their name stays on the shifts they were part of, so the records stay complete.
- Early-access emails: until you ask us to remove yours, or until we no longer need the list.
- Nightly backups of our database are kept for 14 days, so deleted information disappears from backups within 14 days.
Security
The site and app are served only over HTTPS. Passwords, PINs and emailed sign-in links are stored only as one-way hashes. (Staff links are stored as they are, so the owner can copy them at any time; each one only works together with its store PIN, and the owner can replace it at any time.) The database is stored outside the public part of the web server, and each business can only ever see its own records. No system is perfectly secure, but we take reasonable steps to protect what we hold.
Your choices and rights
You can ask us to show you, correct or delete the personal information we hold about you by emailing hello@tips.cx. If your information is in a business's tip records (for example, as a staff member), we'll pass your request to that business, since it decides what its records contain. Depending on where you live, you may have additional rights under local law, and we will honor them.
Children
Tips.cx is a tool for businesses and their staff. It is not directed at children under 13, and we don't knowingly collect their personal information.
Changes to this policy
If we change this policy, we will update the date at the top of this page. If a change is significant and we have your email address, we will tell you by email before it takes effect.