How to Track Who Owes What in Group Expenses
Splitting expenses with friends, roommates, or travel groups doesn’t have to be awkward or confusing. This guide shares exactly how to track who owes what in group expenses, avoid misunderstanding, and settle debts easily using the modern expense splitting app Split Patron.
You can start by downloading the Split Patron app on
Why is Tracking who owes what so Hard?
Group expenses sound simple until they aren’t.
You go on a weekend trip with your friend. One person books an Airbnb, while another does the groceries. Another person in the group pays for the gas, and someone else pays for the trip food.
At the end, everyone says, “We’ll settle later.”
You go back from the trip to your daily life, and later never comes.
Instead, you’re left with credit card histories, WhatsApp group conversations, and receipts screenshots buried under the chat, and you keep scrolling.
This is why exactly some friendships, roommate situations, and group ties run into tension – not because of money itself, but because of the mess of the management.
This is where a proper expense-sharing app like Split Patron comes into action.
Real Life Scenario of Split Patron
In awkward situations like above, this is exactly where Split Patron comes into the picture. With split patron, you can create a group, share it with your friends, start adding expenses, manage your receipts, and settle up in no time, all within one platform.
Once you download the app, one user creates a group, and everyone else joins with a QR code or a share code.
After the group is created, you can start adding expenses. Expenses could be split by different types.
1. All EQUAL – In this expense type, all users share the explicit weight equally. Any users who join the group after the expense is added will also owe for the expense. You can always change this behavior to other split types.
2. EQUAL SELECTED – In this expense type, all selected users share the expense equally. This means users are locked in when the expense is created, and any new user who joins the group after the expense is created does not get any share of this expense. You can always edit expenses and select any new users.
3. AMOUNT – You can enter a custom expense split to match the total expense. Any new users do not share the expense until you edit it.
4. PERCENTAGE – You can enter a custom percentage split to match 100 percent. Any new users do not share the expense until you edit it.
Once expenses are added, you can get a total settle up description of the group. The Settle up screen shows a summary of who owes what. You can easily record a payment by clicking the + icon on the settle up screen.
In addition to expense management, Split Patron also offers the ability to manage tasks and chat within the app. Tasks are basically a list of chores or actions that some users are responsible for. You can assign tasks to any users but the guest users.
You can add one line per task to add tasks to a bulk and assign them to one user.
The chat functionality lets users keep all the trip-related conversations in one place.
You can add guest users to a group to track expense activity for users who are not yet using the app. Any signed-in users could add expenses and payments on behalf of guest users. Premium users can link guest users to real users through the membership screen.
