How to split trip expenses with friends

On a trip the paying is uneven by nature: one books the flat, another fills the tank, a third pays for dinner because their card worked. Nobody minds — until the last evening, when the receipts are gone and the sums are guesses. The fix is not a better calculation at the end. It is writing each expense down the moment it is paid.

Set it up before you leave

You already have a Telegram chat for the trip. Add the SplitKit bot to it and send /split: the bot posts a link to the group's expenses, and everyone opens it with one tap. Nobody installs anything or signs up.

Pick the currency of the trip when you create the group. A group has one currency; amounts are not converted.

During the trip

Whoever pays, records it. The amount, what it was for, and who it was for. It takes less time than putting the card back.

Take a photo of the receipt instead of typing: the total is recognised on the phone and put into the form. Check it — recognition can be wrong. The photo itself is not sent anywhere or kept.

Say who took part. The boat trip three of you went on is split among three, not among all. This is the one thing that cannot be repaired from memory later.

The bot announces each new expense in the chat, so nobody is surprised at the end.

The group screen: your balance, who pays whom, and the expenses

On the last evening

Open the group. Everybody sees their balance and a short list of who pays whom — not a transfer for every dinner, but a few payments that make everyone even.

"Pay" opens PayPal with the amount filled in, the other person's Revolut page, or the details for a bank transfer. You confirm the payment there and mark the debt as paid in the group.

Good to know

SplitKit does not move or hold money. A debt marked as paid is a record, not a transfer.
One trip, one currency. If you paid for something in another currency, enter it in the currency of the group at the rate you agree on, or keep a second group.
A record cannot be edited; a wrong one is deleted and entered again.
Everyone in the group needs Telegram.
A PDF report of the whole trip is part of Pro.

Up to 3 groups of your own are free, and you can join other people's groups without a limit. Open SplitKit in Telegram.

More: how to work out who owes whom and splitting a bill when the shares are not equal.