$50,000 missing from one group amid problems with digital ‘wallets’ used to hold staff gratuities
Restaurants across B.C. say thousands in staff tips have vanished from a third-party payment system, leaving operators scrambling to cover payroll and demanding answers from the company involved.
Several businesses that relied on Everyday Payments — a platform used to collect tips and disburse wages — say the service abruptly stopped distributing funds, and that substantial amounts of money appear to be missing from accounts workers depend on.
Eric Griffith, who owns Alta Bistro and Alpha Cafe in Whistler, told Global News he realized something was wrong when he logged in last Wednesday.
“We’re missing $4,550,” he said. “But I thought, ‘OK, this has to just be an error. They’ll resolve it. They must know that this has happened.’ Well, the emails go out, try to contact support, whatever, and it was just no response until the weekend.”
As more owners compared notes, it became clear his case was not an isolated glitch.
“Monday, there was a press release from the company, which is what they emailed us as well, saying there’s some type of compliance issue, we’re working through it, and there’s a reconciliation — but no answers to any questions as to why this happened,” Griffith told Global News. “What is the intention? When is the money coming back?”
Payroll system for gratuities
Everyday Payments is marketed as a tool for “delivering real-time employee payouts,” used by businesses in hospitality, food service, beauty, wellness and other commission‑based industries. It runs on the AnyDay platform, linking an employer portal with a mobile app and payment card to manage and distribute earnings, says Global News.
Griffith said his restaurants adopted the service because it simplified tracking and paying out gratuities, saving time on administration and giving workers more immediate access to their earnings.
"This piece of technology was very useful and working well, absolutely well,” he said. “The staff were happy. I was happy because I was saving time, and also it was just easy.”
Another operator, Matthew Upton of The Broken Seal in Squamish, told Global News his restaurant is out roughly $12,000 in tips — an amount he described as a major blow.
“It’s huge,” he said. “That’s over two weeks’ worth of payroll. It’s half of what our ends is. It’s a huge effect for us.”
It’s very concerning, Upton said in the report. “The hospitality industry is not an easy industry to be in, and when there’s unknowns, we have such small margins, so keeping as much money in our bank account is the most important thing. So when you have large amounts come out, it’s definitely daunting, for sure.”
$50,000 missing for one B.C. restaurant
Ian Tostenson, president and CEO of the BC Restaurant & Foodservices Association, told Global News he has been inundated with messages from members about missing funds.
“I have just read two emails in the last five minutes,” he said. “One restaurant group lost $50,000, one restaurant group is out $15,000 — one’s in Prince George, one’s in Vancouver.”
In one Vancouver case, he said, nearly seven figures disappeared from the digital account where Everyday Payments holds staff gratuities.
“This is really, really serious, and there’s a lot of concern in the industry, because these funds go into a third party for the purposes of paying out and distribute the gratuities to our hard-working employees,” Tostenson told Global News. “I think this is in the millions of dollars, to be perfectly honest with you. This is really serious.”
Recently, an Ontario restaurant owner who took $40,000 from the employee tip pool while a worker in Europe received $23,037 was ordered to pay $16,259 to two servers who challenged the distribution scheme.
Company mentions ‘service interruption’
Global News reports that when it first contacted Everyday Payments, it received a form message saying the company was “inundated” and that card creation and loading had been “temporarily paused” while it worked with DC Bank “to resolve a service interruption affecting new card loads.” The notice said existing cardholders could continue using their cards but that “additional loads cannot be processed at this time.”
In a later emailed statement to Global News, a spokesperson said the company is reviewing concerns related to “a short transition period at the end of January, during which operational adjustments were implemented to move the platform to a fully prefunded processing model.”
“During this period, some merchants experienced delays or changes in the timing of debits and loads,” the statement said. “Importantly, funds were not removed from merchant accounts or cardholder wallets other than through established funding and settlement processes.”
According to Tostenson, the problems surfaced after a corporate merger involving Everyday Payments, and there is confusion among restaurateurs about who is accountable: “The question that everybody wants to know is, where is my money?”
Police reports have been filed in Whistler and Prince George, according to Global News, but restaurants say they still haven’t received clear explanations from the company or a firm timeline for when any missing gratuities will be restored.
