An app that helps streamline complex math involved in splitting expenses | Spliit
Caption: Micheile Henderson on Unsplash
Recently a group of us went to Scotland on a weekend getaway. While we were there, most of us paid to behalf of all of us. And despite this fact, when it came to the end of the trip, not a single discussion was required to determine who owed who how much money!
Let’s rewind a little bit ⏪⏪⏪ … let me take you back to a lunch shared by the same group of friends about a year ago to the day.
The birthday lunch debacle
Once upon a time, a group of 10 of us gathered to have lunch for a friend’s birthday. On the menu was fish and chips from a nearby chip shop.
Unbeknownst to us, the chippy only accepted cash. This meant that we had to pool our resources to make the purchase for all of us. Three of us with cash gave all of it to the chippy.
After the dust settled and our bellies were full, I noticed a friend of ours hunched over writing something on a table. I went over to check what she was upto.
Since some people contributed an uneven amount, splitting the expenses wasn’t as easy as dividing the total amount equally. Working out who owed who how much money was a challenging task.
It took three of us about an hour to finally figure out the math.
Enter Spliit
After we reached our destination in Scotland, a similar situation was unravelling. We had just booked a taxi to our Airbnb when again, unbeknownst to us, the taxi only took cash.
Cash from three people pooled together was enough to pay for the taxi. This meant working out who owed who was going to be complex math.
That’s when I looked for an alternative solution. One that would take care of the headache for us. I turned to the platform of my choice when it comes to finding software, Alternative To. I searched for an alternative to Splitwise, a popular service for sharing expenses and found an open-source alternative, Spliit.
Spliit was built by Sebastien Castiel and contributors. Sebastien wanted a free and open-source alternative to Splitwise. This came after Splitwise limited the number of expenses you can log per day 1.
And so, I created a group for our trip and added a list of all the people from our group. The app was accessible through a website negating a need for any installs. It also asks for your name to be selected from the list the first time you open the website. It then saves this information the next time you visit the same link.
This allowed each person the ability to add expenses. When adding an expense, you can:
- name the expense
- Enter the amount paid
- Who it was paid by
- Who it was paid for
- Notes
- Receipts
This meant the taxi ride that was unequally paid by 3/9 of us for 7/9 of us was as simple as entering an expense record for each person who paid along with an amount and an indication of who it was paid for. This meant the calculation time for who owes / was owed money was instantaneous!
I took responsibility for ensuring the records on Spliit were accurate. Therefore, moments after we arrived, when two separate groups decided to go on two separate visits to the grocery store (talk about mis-communication!), we were able to log them and not worry about money owed.
At the end of the trip, the Balances tab told us the exact amount each person owes / was owed. It was also clever enough to work out the best strategy to settle the amount, minimising the need for paying small amounts to each person.
This is the reason why I highly recommend Spliit!
Other recommendations from the week:
- AMAMA by Crumb: A great Alternative Rock album.
- Politics on the edge by Rory Stewart: An inside look at British politics.
- The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom: One of the best exploration games I have ever played.
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