Say hello to thankyü
New tipping app helps staff earn more tips and get paid faster, helping employers mitigate National Insurance
thankyü is a new tipping app which helps hospitality, gig, and service workers earn more tips, get paid faster, and take home a greater share of their income, while helping employers avoid National Insurance contributions on tips.
Hospitality businesses face a triple hit in April of National Insurance for employers increasing to 15%, Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Business Rates Relief being reduced from 75% to 40% and the National Minimum Wage increasing to £12.21 an hour.
The National Insurance increase alone means a café earning £20,000 in tips a year may have to pay NIC of £3,000 from April 6th.
But British Fintech-for-good start-up thankyü has developed the first decentralised peer-to-peer tipping platform, powered by payments tech pioneer Viva.com and Mastercard Move.
thankyü uses an NFC (Near-Field Communication) band called the ‘TipTap’ which allows customers to tip by tapping the band with their phone, taking them straight to the tipping account for the server or service team serving them.
Customers, who don’t need to download thankyü to tip, enter the amount they’d like to give, provide a star rating and the the tip is sent into the server or service team’s thankyü personal wallet in the app and settled into their bank account every Tuesday, or sooner if they want.
The TipTap bands can either be worn by staff or placed discreetly across service areas like tables, menus, or till points. Tips can also be received by scanning an in-app QR code or printed QR codes on display.
Payments are managed by Viva.com, powered by Mastercard Move’s money movement capabilities.
The thankyü app can be downloaded for free in app stores now and the first 1,000 people to download get a free TipTap band.
Unlike traditional systems with complex, costly integrations into payroll or EPOS, thankyü is a fully independent, peer-to-peer tipping platform that:
Lets staff keep 100% of their tips
Offers faster, direct payouts to each worker’s personal wallet
Eliminates employer liability for National Insurance on tips
Provides digital records to support tax returns and credit checks
Is quick to deploy — no hardware, no admin overhead, no integrations required
Tips are received by our TipTap band or an in-app or POS QR codes that customers scan to tip
Built for Teams — with Individuals at the Centre.
Whether staff work in a café, bar, kitchen, salon, or spa, thankyü is designed for real teams and real people — many of whom work multiple jobs or shift across venues.
At its core is the thankyü wallet: a secure, personal account that stays with the individual — no matter where they work, or how many teams they’re part of.
This gives users full control over their income, while supporting smooth and transparent team collaboration.
Here's how thankyü works:
Tips are collected via shared QR codes or TipTap bands placed discreetly across service areas like tables, menus, or till points — with or without being worn.
Funds are automatically distributed to team members’ wallets — fairly and clearly.
Teams access everything via the thankyü Connect dashboard, with options to split tips equally or by hours worked.
Staff can be part of multiple teams, with income tracked and paid separately for each location.
Team members can choose to share tips via a function called Circles, while always retaining full ownership of their earnings.
Payouts are made every Tuesday.
thankyü reduces disputes, boosts morale, and strengthens team culture — while remaining fully compliant with HMRC and the Tipping Act.
The thankyü system has been trialled in Hull’s Nibble café to help waiting staff collect tips electronically and the Polar Bear Music Club in Hull, where gig-goers can ‘tap-to-tip’ performing musicians after their sets. It’s available to download and use for free in the app store now.
thankyü was designed to help employees and employers following Government legislation that came into force last October. The Employment (Allocation of Tips) Act 2023, also known as the Tipping Act, requires employers to all share tips, gratuities, and service charges fairly and transparently with their employees. The Government claim it will see an extra £200 million back in the pocket of workers.
Before the act, tips were often collected centrally when the bill arrived and then distributed up to 60 days later by the employer, sometimes with very little transparency or a fair representation of the service provided.
The thankyü app allows tips to be collected by hospitality and service staff and keep them in their own personal wallet and, if they wish, share them with fellow employees, family or friends or transfer them to their own bank account.
thankyü keeps a full record of earned tips.
Employees with the thankyü app can also enter a free weekly prize draw in the app to earn £50 to top up their account. This is part of thankyü’s commitment to supporting these workers.
thankyü is simple to use. Employees download the app for free from the Apple and Google Play stores, set up the account and they’re good to go, and employers have access to the free employer dashboard.
Users can choose from two plans
thankyü Now – a simple, pay-as-you-go plan with a small platform fee
thankyü Freedom – a flat-rate monthly subscription with 100% cashback on fees, a free TipTap band, and a tastecard (worth £79.99/year)
Teams get free access to the thankyü Connect portal — a compliant, transparent, and easy-to-use dashboard to manage pooled tips.
thankyü founder Gerard Toplass, a successful technology entrepreneur with 20 years’ experience in building technology and services businesses, said he was driven to develop the platform to give hospitality service staff and musicians a better deal and the respect they deserve.
He said: “The hospitality and service industry is under huge pressure. Tips can make up to 40% of someone’s income, but they’re harder than ever to collect in a cashless world.
“Customers want to tip but only if they know the right person gets the money.
“That’s the trust thankyü provides.”
“That’s why we created thankyü. We want to ensure staff have the ability to keep up to 100% of their tips so they can earn more money and get paid faster. We want to treat hospitality and service staff as the key workers they are.
“For employers, thankyü is safe and secure and compliant with HMRC and the Tipping Act. It reduces the administrative burden of managing cash tips, will help staff recruitment and retention and saves them paying National Insurance as the tips go straight to the server.
“So for workers, it’s about fairness, speed, and control and for employers, it’s about simplicity, compliance, and retaining great people.
“Beyond the technology, thankyü is part of a broader mission: to promote financial inclusion, fairness, and visibility for the workers who keep hospitality, music, and service sectors running.
“We're building a purpose-led platform that elevates service workers as the key workers they truly are — giving them the tools to earn more, feel valued, and take control of their financial future.”
Anna Lamb, (above) founder and owner of the Nibble Café in Hull, who are using thankyü said:
“I started Nibble in 2016 to serve nearby office staff for breakfast and brunch but we've now doubled in size. We've got an outside area as well and some great customers.
“But on April 6th we face an increase of National Insurance to 15% and that’s going to be hard for us.
“Currently we take tips through the handheld PDQ machine and people can add a percentage or a custom amount. We then add that up every day and like collectively add it up at the end of the week, which is then declared through payroll and it goes into the wages.
“But we have to pay National Insurance on those tips so with the NI rise, if we collect £20,000 in tips, we have to pay £3,000 on top in National Insurance contributions.”
“I’ve always wanted a system where we could cut out the middleman so the staff could get the tips directly without NI being taken off and thankyü seems to be the answer.
“What I love is that it's just direct. The staff can manage their own app. For me, it's less admin time because at the moment, we're manually having to add things up in the day, add it up at the end of the week. Whereas thankyü just does everything for you.
“I think the TipTap band is really fantastic and convenient. It’s a great incentive for staff to continue to deliver excellent service.
“A lot of people don't always have cash on them so this is a nice and really fast way of saying thank you to your server.”
Rose Barker, (above) director of the Polar Bear Music Club and musician in Hull band O’Phantom, said:
“The Polar Bear is a music club and bar in Hull. It was owned by a national company just before Covid in 2020. It closed down during the pandemic and then a group of us brought it back through crowdfunding and through the generous donations of people in Hull.
“We're in one of the most deprived areas in the country so we have this ethos that music should be free for everybody and that's something that we really try and strive for every day.
“So having a donation bucket is just one of the ways that we try and offset those rising costs because we want to keep it free for everyone. But not a lot of people have physical cash these days.
“thankyü is perfect for us as we can offer it to the bar staff to earn more tips and for musicians to get more donations. There's lots of red tape around tipping through businesses, so having something that’s simpler really works for us.”
“We’ve set up a TipTap band on our seven-foot Polar Bear Steve so if people like the band they’ve seen, they can go tip the bear and we can send the money on to the musicians.
“Having the tipping band on the bear is going to really encourage people to give us more tips. He's already a main feature of the venue and people love to take photos with him. So having an extra way of interacting with him is only going to attract more people to help us out.”
The thankyü app can be downloaded for free in the Apple and Google Play app stores now.
For more information, images and interviews, email david@larkinpr.co.uk or sara@larkinpr.co.uk or call 00 44 (0)7974 089006.