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Operator Guide

Run your venue.
From one screen.

Everything you can do as an operator on The CS — team, comms, clock-in, tips, compliance — explained in the order you'll use it.

00 · Start here

⚡Your dashboard

Sign in at certainlyours.com and you land on the operator dashboard. The strip at the top — Reviews · Tips · Team — shows your live numbers. Tap any pill in the navigation to jump between sections. The ☰ menu (top corner) holds everything else, including this guide.

01 · Team

👥Build your team

Your team is the list of professionals connected to your venue. Connected pros see your Wall, receive your Comms, and appear in your tip distributions.

Invite someone who already uses The CS

  1. Open Team from the dashboard.
  2. Under Invite a Professional, type their email in Send by email and tap Send — or copy your team invite link and send it yourself.
  3. They get the invite by email (and in their app) — one tap to accept. If the email can't be sent, the dashboard tells you; use the link instead.
  4. Once accepted they appear in your team list automatically.

Invite someone new to The CS

  1. Send their email the same way — The CS detects they don't have an account yet.
  2. They receive a branded email invite with a one-tap Accept & Create Account link.
  3. The moment they finish signing up, they're on your team. No second step.

Roles & groups

Drag or assign members into role groups (Bar, Floor, Security, Kitchen…). Groups power one-tap broadcasts in Comms. You can resend a pending invite or remove a member from the same screen.

✦Email invites expire after 7 days (the email shows the exact date); your shareable team link lasts 30 days. A pending invite can be resent at any time from the Team screen.
✦Your first 60 days are free for a team of up to 10. To add an 11th person, choose a plan (Team 10, Team 30 or Team 60) from Account → Your plan. Plans are bought on certainlyours.com.
02 · Comms

✉Message your team

Comms is your direct line to every connected professional — one to one, or broadcast to a whole role group.

Send a message

  1. Open Comms from the tab bar.
  2. Tap a team member to open the thread — or tap a role group (e.g. Bar) to message everyone in it at once.
  3. Type and hit send. Attach photos or record a voice note with the icons next to the input.
✦Messages they haven't seen yet are marked on your side — you always know who's up to date.
✦Scheduled messages and custom groups are kept on the device you made them on. A scheduled message only sends while The CS is open on that device (or shortly after you next open Comms there).
03 · The Wall

✦Post to the room

The Wall is your venue's feed. Briefings, menu changes, dress codes, shout-outs — post once, the whole team sees it.

Make a post

  1. Open the Wall section and tap ✦ Post to the room.
  2. Pick a post type: Announcement, Task, Media or Late call (you can pin a post to the top).
  3. Write your caption, attach an image if you want, tap Publish ✦.
✦Team members can react and mark posts as Seen — so a pre-service brief doubles as a read-receipt list.
04 · Clock-in

📲QR clock-in & attendance

No fobs, no paper. Your dashboard shows a Venue Clock-In QR that refreshes itself every few minutes so it can't be screenshotted and reused.

On shift day

  1. Show the Venue Clock-In QR on your screen (or print the day's code).
  2. Staff scan it with their app on arrival — that's a clock-in.
  3. They scan again when leaving — clock-out. Hours land in Attendance automatically.
  4. Only people on your team can clock in, and if you've saved your venue's location the scan is checked on our server to be at the venue (about 100 m).
✦The Attendance panel shows Today and Week views — tap ↺ to refresh on the spot.
05 · Tips

💷Tips, your way

Customers scan a QR to tip and review. Your team votes on how tips are shared, and The CS keeps the written policy, the votes, the signatures and every payout as your record. Tipping is always optional; guests pay the tip plus the card fee (1.5% + 20p, shown before paying).

ModelHow it works
DirectThe tip goes straight to the professional the customer chose, into their own Stripe account.
Team poolTips are collected through Stripe into the Certainlyours (Get Certain Ltd) platform Stripe balance and shared in equal shares between everyone on your team who worked that period, on the agreed payout day.
ProportionalCollected the same way as the team pool, then shared by hours worked from clock-in records — more hours, bigger share — on the agreed payout day.

If nobody clocked in for a period that has tips in the pool, they're split equally across your active team. A team member who hasn't connected their bank yet has their share held in their name until they do. Payouts usually reach their bank 2–3 working days after the payout is made.

Set it up once

  1. Save your venue profile — your venue handle is made from your venue name automatically and activates your Tip & Review QR.
  2. Start a team vote on the tipping model. At least half your team must answer and the winning model needs a majority of answers; the team then signs the policy and you countersign it.
  3. Print or display the QR. Customers scan → tip the team → leave a review, in one flow.
✦Pool distributions, staff responses and any disputes are all logged — that record is your Tips Act audit trail.
06 · Reviews

★Venue reviews

Every customer who scans your QR can leave a venue review and mention the professional who served them. Reviews appear in your dashboard under Venue Reviews, and staff mentions feed each professional's own profile and trophies.

07 · Compliance

🛡Compliance, done for you

The CS keeps three records for you: the tipping policy your team signed, the staff consultation record, and the tip distribution records.

The flow

  1. Each document is created once its record exists — the policy and consultation record after a team vote, the distribution log after the first team-tip payout.
  2. Review and accept them in the Compliance section. Once accepted, a document isn't changed; any later change is saved as a new version in its revision history.
  3. Tap Ask staff to read & sign to message your team. Who has signed the policy shows under Tipping Policy → team status.
✦The dashboard shows whether you have a written tipping policy and whether the team vote is open. Card payments are handled by Stripe (PCI DSS Level 1). Keep your records for at least 3 years — Export Package and Email to me send you the same stored documents.
08 · Sub-admins

🔑Extra manager logins

Each venue has one login today. Extra manager logins are set up on request — email founder@certainlyours.com (or tap Request an extra manager login under Account → Team logins) and we'll set it up with you. Please don't share your password.

09 · Integrations

🔌Connect your existing tools

From the Integrations section: roster import from RotaCloud, Planday, Deputy or a CSV (imported people get an invite to accept — nobody is added to your team without accepting); Square tip records (beta); Epos Now (beta, set up with us); Fourth on request. Every key is checked with the provider when you connect. Card-terminal tips are a record only — they're paid through your till, not through Certainlyours.

10 · Account

🏛Venue profile & settings

Keep your venue name, address and contact up to date in Account — your venue handle (made from your venue name the first time you save) powers the tip QR, and your saved profile is what professionals see when you invite them. Your venue doesn't connect a bank: each team member connects their own. Password resets are self-service from the sign-in screen.

11 · Quick fixes

🧭If something looks wrong

SymptomFix
Numbers look stalePull down to refresh, or tap any ↺ icon.
A member says they can't see the WallCheck they show as active in your Team list — resend the invite if pending.
Tip QR says "no venue handle"Save your venue profile in Account — the handle is made from your venue name.
Signed in on the wrong account☰ menu → Sign out, then sign back in.
Want the app on your home screenOpen certainlyours.com in your phone browser → Share → Add to Home Screen.
CERTAINLYOURS.

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