How xplit works

1. Make a trip and add the people

Open the app and press New trip. Call it something you will recognise in a year, like Lisbon, October. Then add the people: Ana, Ben, Chloé, Dan. A name is all that is needed. Add myself puts you on the list with one press, and anyone you add becomes a friend you can pick again on the next trip.

You do not need an account for any of this. The trip lives in your browser until you decide otherwise.

2. Record what gets paid

Friday evening, dinner for four, Ana pays 96.00. Make an activity called Friday dinner, tick the four names, and add a transaction: 96.00, paid by Ana. That is the whole entry. Everyone's balance moves at once: Ana is owed 72.00, the other three owe 24.00 each.

Saturday, the boat. Only Ana, Chloé and Dan go; Chloé pays 182.40. New activity, three names, one transaction. Ben's balance does not change, because he was not on the boat.

Two shortcuts save a lot of typing over a weekend. If you have a receipt but no idea yet which activity it belongs to, add it to the trip with just the amount; it waits on the Transactions tab until you place it. And if someone kept a list in a spreadsheet, Freeform edit lets you paste the rows in, one transaction per line.

3. Adjust the shares where they were not equal

Equal shares are the default, and most of the time they are right. When they are not, give someone a fixed amount. Say Dan only had a starter at Sunday lunch: open the activity, set Dan's share to 12.00, and the rest of the bill is divided equally among the other three. A person who paid but was not there, like a parent paying for the kids' boat trip, is simply credited for what they paid.

Refunds are negative amounts. The deposit on the apartment that came back on Monday is -150, paid to whoever received it.

4. Watch the balances

The Participants tab shows two numbers for everyone: what they paid, and where they stand. A positive balance means the group owes them; a negative one means they owe the group. Each number is a link. Press what Ana paid to see the transactions behind it, or press her balance to see the activities she was part of and her share of each.

The trip's total, the amount per person and the number of activities sit at the top, with a small chart behind each. If any transaction is still unplaced, the Transactions tab says so in red, and the balances are marked as not final until you sort it.

5. Settle up

On Monday, open Who owes whom. It lists the transfers that make everyone even, and there are as few of them as the balances allow: Ben pays Ana, Dan pays Ana a little and Chloé a bit more, and that is it. Three payments instead of the twelve possible pairs.

If two of the travellers share a wallet, a couple say, drag one onto the other to make a group. The group settles as one, for the sum of its members' balances. When the money has changed hands, export the trip as a web page or as plain text and send it round, so nobody has to take your word for it.

6. Share it, or keep it to yourself

A trip that stays in your browser is fine for a weekend. To have it on your phone as well, or to let the others see and add to it, sign in with Google or Apple. Everything you entered comes along. Then make an invitation link for the trip and choose what it grants: a look at the numbers, or full access. Send the link; people who open it sign in and join. You can change their access, remove someone, or replace the link at any time.

A few things worth knowing

• It works offline. The browser holds a full copy of your data and syncs when the connection is back.
• Undo is one button away, and it says what it will undo.
• xplit never moves money. It tells you who owes whom, and the paying back is between you and your friends.
• The questions and answers cover currencies, privacy and the rest.