What are split checks?
Split checks are the divisions of bills into multiple options, which can be between customers or payment methods. Customers sometimes prefer to share the costs of a particular product or service. This can happen in a restaurant when people want to pay for their own dishes. Likewise, they may also want to split the payment into different payment options (split tenders), such as paying the bill half by credit card and half by debit card.
Why do people split checks?
This usually depends on personal preferences in specific situations. Customers want to find the most convenient way to make a payment.
For example, a group of friends may want to share the bills after having dinner in a restaurant, as they prefer a fair share. Likewise, split checks also happen among business partners or acquaintances, when people want to avoid overpaying or underpaying.
Similarly, customers may also want to choose multiple payment options for one bill. In many cases, they don’t want to exceed the credit limit and avoid paying too much by debit cards. Therefore, customers like this often prefer to pay only a certain amount for each type of payment.
How do businesses process split checks?
In the past, companies used to have a ‘no split checks’ policy or limit the number of splits. Nowadays with the help of point-of-sale systems, the process has been simplified. It helps the staff to split the bills according to customers’ requests without any manual calculation. It also allows payment by multiple options, such as cash, credit/debit cards or gift cards.
To avoid any ‘crashing halt’ that may happen, for example, at the end of the meal, companies still need a clear split check policy from the beginning. These can include only allowing splitting with bills above a certain price, or the maximum number of splits, etc.
