How to split expenses on a group trip
A group trip has dozens of payments: the rental someone booked months ago, fuel, groceries, a boat trip half the group took. Split them as you go and the last day is a two-minute conversation instead of an evening with a calculator.
Before you leave
Sort out two things while everyone is still excited. First, one currency for the trip: if you are travelling abroad, decide whether the balances are kept in your home currency or the local one, so nobody converts in their head halfway through. Second, what counts as shared. Accommodation and transport usually are. Meals often are. Souvenirs and anything one person buys for themselves are not.
Big costs paid before the trip, like the rental or flights booked together, belong in the same record. They are often the largest amounts, and the easiest to forget.
During the trip
Record each cost on the day it happens: the amount, who paid, and who it was for. The last part matters most on a trip. Not everyone does every activity, and not everyone drinks. Leaving someone out of a cost they skipped is not being petty; it is what keeps the trip fair for the person who is quietly paying for things they did not use.
Resist settling every evening. Money moving back and forth all week is how mistakes happen. Keep recording, and settle once.
A worked example: a long weekend in a cabin
| Person | Paid | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Alex | $890 | $300 |
| Bea | $120 | $300 |
| Chris | $160 | $300 |
| Dana | $0 | $270 |
The cabin, fuel and groceries come to $1,080, so $270 each. Dana does not drink, so the $90 bar tab is $30 each for the other three. Alex is up $590; Bea is down $180, Chris $140 and Dana $270. Those add up to zero, and three payments settle the whole trip.
Step by step
- Pick the trip currencyOne currency for every balance, decided before the first payment.
- Include costs paid before the tripThe rental, the flights, the deposit: record them with everything else.
- Record each cost on the dayAmount, who paid and exactly who it was for.
- Leave people out of what they skippedA shared cost is shared only by the people who took part.
- Settle once, at the endWork out each balance, then pay the person who is owed in as few transfers as possible.
Things that trip groups up
- Cash payments. They are the ones nobody records. Note them straight away, even roughly.
- Someone joining late or leaving early. Leave them out of the nights they were not there, not out of the whole trip.
- Card fees and exchange rates. Agree up front whether bank fees are shared or carried by whoever chose the card.
- The "I'll sort it out later" pile. Receipts in a pocket are lost by day three. Record and throw away.
Run the trip in Splendo
Splendo is a free app for recording shared costs. Make a group for the trip, add everyone by name, and record each cost with who paid and who took part. On the last day Splendo shows each balance and suggests who pays whom. Friends who do not have the app can still be in the group.
Start in your browser with no app and no password, just a sign-in code by e-mail, or use the iPhone app, which also handles unequal splits and costs in another currency, converted at the rate of the day you enter them. Splendo records the money; you pay each other yourselves.
Planning the trip in Splitwise already? The Splendo iPhone app can import a Splitwise group export (CSV) as a new group, balances included.