Show HN: IOU – Split shared expenses

I find it really helps me as I HATE talking about money and asking for it (even when I'm owed it). This way I never feel like I'm paying in more than he is and he doesn't feel like he is paying in more than me. Some months he "pays" his portion of the rent by just buying all the groceries or buying something else we both agreed on getting and it all evens out. Because of this we rarely have to actually settle up but when the balance gets out of wack by like $500 one of us will just venmo the other one and record it in splitwise.

We also try to keep the interface very simple, and it works offline.

Personally I find the per-bill itemised expense part of Splitwise essential, being able to split a receipt into it's items and then charge particular participants for only certain items. Uploading images of receipts to each bill is also essential imo.

[1] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=splid.teamturt...

Why?

In the UK, it is common for grocers like Tesco, ASDA, or Sainsburys which offer grocery delivery to require a £40 minimum for an order. It is quite hard to hit that minimum with a week's worth of groceries and ordering groceries for longer than a week is less useful because meat & veg expires. Therefore, it would be nice to be able to split a grocery delivery with flatmates or with the flat across the hall. There is a coordination challenge here.

It would be nice if I could sign up for an account, my flatmate could sign up for an account, we could link our accounts and then we could add stuff to the same Tesco cart--with a record of who had ordered which groceries and who owes whom when someone hits the "thats enough groceries in the cart. please deliver" button.

I suggest adding "Note" field on a "Item" that could be used for an extended description. The current "Description" field seems to be a single line, and is truncated on some of the views - it is really more of a "Title" than "Description".

i also like https://github.com/spiral-project/ihatemoney which is opensource and goes with a mobile app.

My two recommendations: Don’t forget the more seniors in terms uf usability. I think the flow should focus on adding expenses quickly on the first screen as you want to do this on the fly.

Secondly: as you are from Switzerland I proposed exactly that idea while I was working for post to postfinance to get 50k startcapital, but did not get it. I guess if you come with this UI and say youll build a interface to their payment system (twint 2Dbarcode) you might get some funding. Cheers

It was such a hasslr that I decided to set up a transaction log (person A paid X for Person B for item Y) in Google sheets instead, which automatically tracks debts per combination of persons.

It's so much easier since I can parse and note down a receipt within one minute, compared to doing calculations in my head and writing the debts down in an App.

Edit: After giving splitwise a quick look, it also doesn't solve my grocery debts problem.

Ex. 1: Alice owes Bob $10. Bob owes Alice $5. So Alice really just owes Bob $5

Ex. 2: Alice owes Bob $10, Bob owes Charlie $5, and Charlie owes Alice $5. This can also be reduced such that Alice just owes Bob $5.

We use it to track who owes who and who is up next to buy lunch. https://github.com/famish99/cuenta

So far I have two issues with your solution:

1. It doesn't accept my email address. Looks like the pattern is way too strict and doesn't allow any new TLDs.

2. The use-case I most often see Splitwise used for is trips abroad with friends. In this situation, expenses are often recorded while no internet connection is available and synced later. I'm not sure if IOU supports this, I haven't tried it.

This is perfect. Breath of fresh air. I will use it the next time I need it!

Lately I've been using a local app on my phone, which I find more reliable (no need for data or reliance on a website) but of course it doesn't allow for collaboration with others.

One is does not though is adding and removing people. IE, you rent a house but you might squeeze two more people in at the last minute. Then you need to edit all previous ledger items to make their split even.

When creating a participant, why require an email, though, instead of making it optional?

I'd wager that most people will use this on mobile, and therefore share this via WhatsApp or some other IM client. Adding an email then becomes a pointless burden.

Also, clicking on the same tab again also causes annoying friction.

Disclaimer: I have not had my morning caffeine yet.

What is a pot?

When should I create multiple pots?

- Works offline - Syncs with friends - No registration needed - All currencies supported - PDF and CSV export - It's FREE to download!