Pay-forward and gift credits: how the treat-a-table feature actually works
Short answer
Pay-forward lets a guest pay for a treat aimed at a specific table or a named person rather than themselves, creating a credit your staff can apply to that recipient's ticket without exposing either side's private details unless both agree to reveal them. It's opt-in per restaurant and off unless you turn it on. Because the money moves through the same checkout as any other order, talk to whoever does your books about whether to recognize it as revenue at purchase or hold it until it's actually redeemed — the product doesn't make that accounting call for you.
What actually happens when a guest uses it
A guest picks pay-forward as the fulfillment path at checkout and names who the treat is for — a specific table number, or a person they identify by name — instead of ordering for themselves. When that order completes, it creates a credit for the amount paid, tied to that target. Staff see it and can apply it to the recipient's actual ticket. It's a genuinely different shape than a normal order: the person paying and the person eating aren't the same person, and the product is built around that gap rather than pretending it isn't there.
Privacy is the point, not an afterthought
The feature is explicitly built so a payer can cover something for a table without either side's contact details or table information being handed to the other by default. A recipient can be asked to accept the treat before it's applied, and separately asked whether they consent to the payer being identified to them, or whether they're open to giving feedback back. None of that is forced — a restaurant that wants a simpler, fully anonymous version of this can leave those reveal options off, and a restaurant that wants more connection between payer and recipient can turn them on. It's opt-in at the restaurant level in the first place, meaning none of this exists on a site until you specifically turn it on.
Redeeming a credit, and what happens to what's left over
Once a credit exists, staff apply it to the recipient's actual order and mark it applied, which zeroes out whatever balance remained. There's no expiration date built into the feature — the product doesn't quietly time a credit out on its own. That means an unclaimed credit from three months ago is still sitting there unless you decide otherwise; if you want a house policy on stale credits — a cutoff, a manual write-off, whatever makes sense for how you run things — that's a policy you set and enforce yourself, not something the software does for you.
Accounting: ask your bookkeeper before you assume
Here's the part worth being precise about rather than guessing at: the payment for a pay-forward order runs through your own Stripe checkout at the moment the payer completes it, exactly like any other online order. Whether that should be recognized as revenue immediately, or held as a short-term liability until the recipient actually redeems it, is genuinely a judgment call — this functions a lot like a small prepaid gift, and how you'd normally treat that on your books is the more relevant question than anything specific to this feature. Bring it up with whoever does your books rather than assuming either treatment is automatically correct.
Tax still applies the normal way
Whatever gets ordered when a credit is redeemed is still prepared food or drink sold in Texas, taxed the same way as any other ticket: 6.25% state sales tax plus up to 2% in local city, county, transit, and special-purpose district taxes, for a maximum combined rate of 8.25%. Pay-forward doesn't create a separate tax category — it changes who's paying and who's eating, not how the sale itself is taxed.
Promoting it without overselling it
Pay-forward works best when guests actually know it exists — a line on the menu or checkout, a mention from staff, a table tent near the register. It's a small, human feature, and the restaurants that get real use out of it tend to talk about it plainly rather than treating it as a marketing gimmick: a way to treat a friend's table, or cover dessert for the couple who just got engaged two tables over, without either side having to manage the awkwardness of who's paying for what.
Questions
How does a guest actually use pay-forward?
At checkout, a guest picks pay-forward as the fulfillment path and names who it's for — a specific table, or a person they identify — instead of ordering for themselves. Completing that order creates a credit tied to the amount paid, which staff can then apply to the recipient's ticket.
Does the recipient know who paid?
Only if both sides agree to it. Reveal is controlled per credit, and a recipient can choose to consent to being identified to the payer or not; by default, the arrangement is built to route the treat without exposing either side's contact details or table information to the other. It's also opt-in at the restaurant level — off unless you specifically turn it on.
Can a credit be applied to more than one order, or does it expire?
There's no built-in expiration date on a credit — the product doesn't automatically time one out. Staff mark a credit as applied when it's used, which zeroes out the remaining balance. If you want a policy for stale, unclaimed credits, that's something you set and enforce yourself; it isn't handled automatically.
How should a pay-forward purchase show up in my books?
The payment for a pay-forward order runs through your own Stripe checkout exactly like any other order, at the moment the payer completes it. Whether that should hit your books as revenue right away or sit as a short-term liability until the recipient actually redeems it is an accounting judgment call — this is functionally similar to a small gift purchase, so it's worth a conversation with whoever handles your books rather than assuming either treatment automatically.
Sources
- Texas Comptroller — Sales and Use Tax — checked 2026-08-30
Take the order yourself
Pickup, delivery inside your own ZIP zone, a dine-in order from the table, or a treat bought for another table — one cart, paid into your own Stripe account, with no commission on the ticket.