For many restaurants, tip payouts have historically been a cash-heavy process. But as payment habits shift away from cash, operators are rethinking how to distribute earnings to employees while reducing operational complexity.

For Florida-based 2B Hospitality, which operates popular restaurants including Bella Brava and Stillwaters Tavern, managing nightly tip payouts across multiple locations was becoming increasingly difficult. After implementing Branch, the company replaced cash tip payouts with daily digital deposits, improving transparency, simplifying operations, and giving employees fast, seamless access to their earnings.

We interviewed Don Nguyen, Controller at 2B Hospitality, to learn how the expanding hospitality group successfully moved approximately 200 employees across its four restaurants to receiving tips through Branch. This transition eliminated nightly cash handling and manual reconciliation for the organization.

The Challenge: Managing Cash Tips at Scale

Historically, 2B Hospitality paid servers both cash and credit card tips in cash at the end of every shift. While common in the industry, the process created logistical challenges as the business grew.

Managers were responsible for:

• Handling and securing large amounts of cash
• Calculating tip shares manually
• Using spreadsheets alongside the POS system
• Distributing tip payouts at the end of each shift

According to Nguyen, the system worked—but it was increasingly inefficient and risky.

“We were handling cash tips every night. As we grew, it became harder to manage the logistics and the amount of money moving through the restaurants.”

Tip sharing created additional complications. Employees such as bussers and hosts often couldn't collect their portion of tips immediately, sometimes waiting until their next shift—or even the end of the week—to receive them.

“Sometimes people had to come back the next day or even the next week just to collect their tip share.”

The team began looking for a solution that could simplify the process while keeping things easy for employees.

Discovering Branch

Nguyen first encountered Branch at the National Restaurant Association Show in Chicago in May 2025. The experience immediately stood out.

“Honestly, it was one of the most pleasant demos I’ve ever had.”

The Branch team walked through the platform and showed how quickly payouts with Branch worked. After having Nguyen set up a Branch account, they pushed out a $1 payment directly to his account.

“They said, ‘I’ll send you a dollar.’ And seconds later, the dollar showed up in my account.”

Seeing the speed and simplicity of the platform firsthand convinced Nguyen that Branch could solve the company’s cash handling challenges.

“Whenever something happens that fast, you think—was that real? But it worked exactly how they said it would.”

Implementing Branch Across Four Locations

After evaluating the platform, 2B Hospitality implemented Branch in December 2025 across four restaurants.

The rollout covered about 200 front-of-house employees, who now receive their tips through the Branch App. The timing initially made Nguyen nervous because the implementation happened during the busy holiday season.

“I don’t like introducing new technology during our busiest time of year. I was worried about burdening managers during a marathon stretch of service.”

But the rollout turned out to be surprisingly easy. “If I could go back in time, I wouldn’t have worried so much. It ended up being the most seamless implementation we’ve ever done.”

Nguyen implemented the first location himself and quickly replicated the setup across the other restaurants. “Once I got through the first one, the rest were easy. It was honestly the most seamless process.”

Fast Tip Access for Employees

Today, servers receive their tips immediately after completing their checkout process. Rather than collecting cash or waiting for tip distributions, funds are deposited instantly into their Branch account.

“As soon as a server finishes checkout, their tips are deposited before they even leave the restaurant.”

Employees can:

• Track their earnings in the Branch App
• Use their Branch debit card
• Transfer funds to their personal bank accounts
• Access a deposit account with fee-free options if they choose

The quick onboarding process also made adoption easy. Most employees were able to set up their accounts using a simple QR code.

“Employees sign up in minutes. I’ve never seen anything so seamless.”

Operational Improvements

Moving away from nightly cash payouts has significantly simplified restaurant operations.

Reduced Cash Handling: Managers no longer need to count, secure, and distribute large amounts of cash each night.

Built-in Transparency: Branch provides a clear audit trail of all payments, making tip tracking far easier.

Faster Workflows: Managers no longer need to manually calculate or distribute tip shares.

Simpler Reporting: Tip payout data exports directly into their accounting workflows.

“There’s a full audit of every transfer. There are no questions about where the money went. From a reporting standpoint, everything exports directly into our employee system. That makes backend reporting much easier.”

Strong Employee Adoption

Nguyen expected some employees to resist moving away from cash. Instead, the response was overwhelmingly positive.

“Whenever change happens, people usually push back. But employees thought it was awesome.”

Many employees appreciated not having to carry large amounts of cash at the end of a shift. The ability to see earnings digitally has also helped employees track their finances: they can see exactly what’s coming in, track their spending, and move money to their bank account.

Nguyen believes that improving the employee experience ultimately benefits the business as well.

“If your employees are happy, you’re going to run a good restaurant. Guests matter, but your employees are the ones running the place.”

Security and Control

Security was another important factor when evaluating the platform.

Nguyen wanted to ensure employees would have control over their accounts and cards.

Branch provided several safeguards, including:

• Multi-factor authentication
• Card controls in the mobile app
• The ability to instantly freeze a lost card

“If someone loses their card, they can turn it off right in the app. That was really important to me.”

The Result

Today, Branch powers tip payouts for hundreds of employees across four 2B Hospitality restaurants. The transition has:

• Eliminated nightly cash handling
• Reduced administrative work for managers
• Increased transparency for tip distributions
• Given employees instant access to their earnings

Nguyen says the system has been one of the most successful operational tools the company has implemented.

“This is one of the best systems we’ve ever used.”

Looking Ahead

While Branch is currently used for tip payouts, Nguyen sees additional opportunities in the future.

“Right now we use it for tips, but the platform could easily support other payroll workflows if we decided to go that direction.”

For now, the biggest benefit has been simplifying tip management while giving employees faster access to their earnings.

“Branch solved a lot of operational headaches while making life easier for our staff.”

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