One of the core philosophies we live by at Quicken Loans is “simplicity is genius”—the simplest things are often times the cleverest ideas.

An ordinary guest check tray serves a simple purpose: To hold your restaurant bill, money and change. While dining at BD’s Mongolian Barbecue last weekend, I discovered that their guest check tray is a clever little gadget that not only holds your change, it also has a built in customer satisfaction survey and a calculator for determining the tip. It’s a simple idea, and it probably doesn’t cost much to make, but it begs the question: Why didn’t someone else think of this before now?

It’s doesn’t exactly take a degree in quantum mechanics to mentally figure out a 15 or 20 percent tip on a bill, but for those of us who are more mathematically challenged than others, it’s a nice tool to have on the table. Nice thinking, BD’s!