Tips Setup for Cova Users

This guide shows you how to enable the Tipping feature at checkout so that customers can choose to leave tips for staff

Note: This setup guide is for Cova POS users only. If you are using another POS system, please refer to our general guide: Tips Setup (Enable Tipping).

Getting Started

1. Configure Tips SKU in Cova
2. Configure Tips in Buddi
   

A Non-Stock SKU in Cova is required to communicate sales containing tips (POS x Buddi). This is similar to the process of Setting up Delivery for Cova Users.

If you are using both features (Delivery + Tips), create a separate Master Product for each SKU.

Step 1: Configure Tips SKU in Cova

1. Follow the steps in this article to Create a Non-Stock Product in Cova.
2. Set the price of this SKU to the highest amount you are willing to receive as a tip. This acts as a limit, so to play it safe, you can set it high (e.g. $100) to ensure larger tips can be accepted.
    

If you are unable to create the Non-Stock SKU product, contact Cova Support at 1-844-667-2682 (ext. 1) for assistance.

Step 2: Configure Tips in Buddi

1. Sign in to the Admin Portal > go to Store Settings > Online Menu: Payments.
2. Check 'Allow customers to tip on orders for this store'.
3. Enter three 'Default Tip Amounts' to display at checkout (e.g. 10%, 15%, 20%).
4. If you want to enable Tips for Delivery orders only:
   Check 'Hide tipping for Pickup type orders'
5. Copy + paste the Cova Product ID from the Tips SKU in your COVA Catalog.
   Video: How to Retrieve the Cova Product ID
   
6. Hit 'Save'.
   
   

Taxes on Tips

Buddi does not support charging taxes on Tips. If taxes are being applied to Tips in your Cova setup, you’ll need to update tax settings to make the Tips SKU non-taxable in Cova. This prevents order total mismatches and ensures the sale can be successfully tendered in the POS.

How to Create a ‘No Tax’ Category in Cova:

1. Go to the Tax Categories page in the Cova Hub.
2. Create a new tax category called No Tax (or similar).
3. Assign no taxes to this new tax category.
4. Assign the Tips product/SKU to this new tax category.

For detailed steps, see Cova’s help article: How to assign Taxes to Products.
 

Best Practice

Before making this feature live on your menu, run test orders to ensure order totals match between Buddi and Cova.

• Mismatched order totals can result in an integration error like this:  Message from Cova: The payment accepted could not be accepted because [$] is the expected payment amount.