Tip-pooling service Everyday Payments is a jointly owned subsidiary of Toronto-based XTM and Edmonton-based Everyday People Financial Corp.Nam Y. Huh/The Associated Press
XTM Inc., which co-owns a payment processor facing complaints about millions of dollars’ worth of missing restaurant tips, has failed to pay more than US$200,000 owed to a Kansas staffing company after a U.S. court judgment.
The Bank of Canada and the B.C. RCMP are investigating complaints that Canadian restaurants are missing millions in gratuities from digital wallets registered with the payment processor, Everyday Payments.
The tip-pooling service is a jointly owned subsidiary of Toronto-based XTM PAID-CN and Edmonton-based Everyday People Financial Corp. EPF-X. The platform’s owners, meanwhile, are at odds over who has custody over merchants’ funds.
The money owed to the Kansas company is another indication of financial strain at XTM, whose service purportedly makes it faster and simpler for restaurants to pay out gratuities to their staff.
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Ian Tostenson, president and chief executive officer of the British Columbia Restaurant and Foodservices Association, said last week that he had received complaints from at least 50 restaurants in B.C. and Alberta that money was missing from their digital wallets at Everyday Payments. Mr. Tostenson said he calculated a multimillion-dollar loss and suspects hundreds of restaurants across Canada are affected.
Tony Elenis, president and CEO of the Ontario Restaurant Hotel and Motel Association, said restaurants in that province have also been affected.
Meanwhile, the Restaurant Association of Nova Scotia has advised its members of a growing number of reports of “account discrepancies” and “delayed access to funds” from restaurant operators using the Everyday Payments platform.
Kansys Staffing Group, the small firm involved in the U.S. court judgment, is owned by Ashley Ogren and her husband. It had several contractors doing software development for Denver-based payment company QRails Inc. before the latter was acquired by XTM in 2023, Ms. Ogren said.
“Once XTM took over, that is when they stopped paying our invoices,” she said.
Ms. Ogren said her company spent US$60,000 on legal fees and had to pay the contractors out of its own funds.
In August, 2025, a United States district judge ordered XTM and QRails to pay Kansys Staffing Group US$201,477.44, plus post-judgment interest as it accrues, according to a U.S. court document.
As of Jan. 29, Ms. Ogren said, XTM owes her company US$213,477.10.
XTM CEO Marilyn Schaffer told Ms. Ogren that her company is in financial distress and that she is unable to make payroll, according to e-mails provided to The Globe and Mail by Ms. Ogren.
“We are so broke we use ChatGPT for legal,” reads a Jan. 28 e-mail from Ms. Schaffer to Ms. Ogren.
“I couldn’t make payroll Nov. 28 and trying now to liquidate more of my assets to pay it,” Ms. Schaffer wrote on Dec. 9.
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Someone responding from a phone number associated with Ms. Schaffer declined to comment for this article, saying in a text message, “I’m working around the clock for stakeholders and hope to have more of an update shortly.”
In financial statements filed Dec. 1, XTM said it had an accumulated deficit of $71.4-million and that its financial condition indicates “the existence of material uncertainties that may cast significant doubt over the ability of the company to continue as a going concern.”
The company also disclosed that it had been contacted by the Ontario Securities Commission regarding “disclosure deficiencies” in its reporting for 2024 and the first quarter of 2025.
XTM said its financial statements for those periods “were the subject of a continuous disclosure review” by the securities watchdog, and that as a result the fintech would have to restate certain balances and disclosures in those statements.
Contacted by The Globe, the OSC said it “does not comment on the status, nature, or existence of any reviews or investigations” as a general policy.
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Everyday People Financial disputed a statement provided by XTM to The Globe last week, calling it “factually incorrect.”
On Feb. 6, The Globe corresponded via text message with a phone number associated with Ms. Schaffer, and received responses from someone who said they were managing Ms. Schaffer’s inbox while she was in legal meetings.
“Note that as of Dec. 1, 2025 XTM has had no care or control of bank accounts or funding,” the person wrote, providing a link to an October, 2025, press release.
The release states that as part of a new agreement, Everyday People Financial would be taking on “full operational management, compliance oversight and technology administration of XTM’s Canadian network branded card and digital wallet programs.”
However, Everyday People Financial said that while it manages and administers the Everyday Payments platforms on behalf of XTM, it is “not the legal holder or custodian of merchant or cardholder funds.”
“The settlement accounts have at all times remained XTM Inc. accounts,” reads an e-mail from Shannon Donogh to The Globe on behalf of Everyday People Financial.
It said wallet balances on the platform were adjusted on Jan. 28 to reflect the amount of actual cash available in the settlement accounts held in XTM’s name.
“This adjustment aligned displayed wallet balances with the funds then available in those accounts based on reconciliation data,” the company said.
Everyday People Financial said XTM’s statement that it has no control over bank accounts is incorrect.
“XTM Inc. has, and continues to hold, all merchant funds,” the company said.
“Any questions relating to amounts reflected on the platform before January 28, 2026, including the source or use of those funds, are more appropriately directed to XTM Inc.,” it added.