Two things go wrong when a bill is split, and both of them are money.
The first is the centavo. ₱1,000 across three people is ₱333.333… each. Round every share down and the total is ₱999.99 — a centavo short of money that genuinely exists, and somebody has to cover it. Round up and you have invented two. So every share is floored here and the leftover centavos go one each to the largest fractional parts. The shares always sum to the bill, and the page names who paid the extra centavo.
The second is VAT. In the Philippines, displayed prices already include it. Add 12% on top of a menu total and you have charged it twice. So it is not added here — it is backed out of the total so you can see it: ₱120 inside ₱1,120, not ₱134.40 on top.
And the service charge is computed on the food, not on the tax.
Usually not. Displayed prices in the Philippines are required to include VAT already, so adding 12% on top of a menu total charges it twice. This tool defaults to treating the prices as VAT-inclusive and backs the VAT out to show you what portion of the bill it is — ₱120 inside ₱1,120, not ₱134.40 on top. Turn the checkbox off only if you know the prices are quoted exclusive of VAT, which is normal for a corporate invoice and unusual on a restaurant menu.
Before. The service charge is a percentage of the items; VAT then applies to the items and the service charge together. Doing it the other way round — charging service on a VAT-inclusive figure — inflates a ₱1,000 bill by about ₱12, and it is the step people get wrong when they check the receipt by hand.
Because some bills do not divide. ₱1,000 across three people is ₱333.333… each, and rounding every share down to ₱333.33 leaves ₱999.99 — a centavo short of money that genuinely exists, which somebody at the table has to cover. So the shares are allocated by largest remainder: everyone is rounded down and the leftover centavos go one each to the largest fractional parts. The shares always add up to the bill, and the page names who took the extra centavo rather than leaving an unexplained difference.
It is shared by everyone, which is what a plate in the middle of the table means. The alternative — refusing the row — would quietly drop its amount from the bill, and that is the one error nobody would notice until the total came up short.
No. The tip is added after everything else and is not taxed. A service charge is not a tip either — it is part of the bill, it is taxed, and how much of it reaches the staff is between the restaurant and its employees.
This reproduces the arithmetic on a receipt; it does not rule on it. Whether a service charge is properly imposed, and how it must be distributed to staff, is governed by the Labor Code and is outside what a calculator can tell you.
Runs entirely in your browser; nothing is transmitted. Philippine menu prices already include VAT, so VAT is shown as part of the bill by default rather than added to it. This reproduces the arithmetic on a receipt — whether a service charge is properly imposed is a matter for the Labor Code, not a calculator. Nothing you type here is sent to our servers — the calculation runs entirely in your browser.
