Split Bills & Group Expenses Offline

October 25, 2026·2 min read

Most bill-splitting apps require every roommate, partner, or travel companion to install an app, verify an email or phone number, and accept cloud tracking just to divide a dinner tab.

When one person is happy to keep the ledger—scanning group receipts on a trip and sharing the final summary in a group chat—Receipt Scanner’s Split Bill mode handles the math locally in your browser with no sign-up and no server.

Setting up a shared group or trip book

1. Open the Book Switcher in the header and create a New Book (for example, Goa Trip or Apartment Utilities), choosing Trip or Project or General and your primary currency.
2. Open Book Settings and toggle Split Bill on.
3. Add each participant’s name and mark one person as Self so personal budget and insight views know which share belongs to you.

Four ways to split a scanned receipt

Whenever you scan a paper or PDF receipt (or enter an expense manually) into a split-enabled book, the review form shows Split details:

• Equally: Divides the receipt total evenly across everyone ticked for that bill, handling cent rounding cleanly so shares always sum to the exact receipt total.
• Exact amounts: Assign specific amounts when one person ordered something separate.
• Percentages: Useful for recurring household rent or utility splits (for example, 60% / 40%).
• Shares (ratios): Divide costs by weight (such as 2 shares for a couple and 1 share for a solo traveller) without calculating percentages yourself.

Select Paid by to record who actually paid the merchant.

Settling up in the fewest transfers

Instead of everyone paying everyone else back per meal, open Insights for that book and check the Settle Balances panel:

1. Net balances: See each participant’s total paid, total share owed, and net balance.
2. Suggested transfers: Receipt Scanner simplifies the group’s IOUs into the minimum number of transfers needed to bring everyone back to zero.
3. Share via chat: Copy the plain-text breakdown (or export a CSV spreadsheet showing paidBy and splitShares) and paste it into WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram, or iMessage.
4. Record settlements: As people pay each other back, log a Settlement so remaining balances stay accurate for the rest of the trip.

Back up multi-day trip ledgers

Because there is no cloud sync, your device holds the group’s ledger. Install Receipt Scanner to your home screen before a trip so offline scanning works on flights and Safari does not evict storage, and export a JSON backup periodically—see keeping local browser expense records safe.