Splits with people

What it's for

Splits are for the everyday shared spending that doesn't fit neatly into one person's budget: rent and utilities with a roommate, groceries and restaurants with a partner, a weekend trip with friends.

Instead of running a spreadsheet or trusting memory, you log each shared expense once and ZenExpenses handles the math.

How it works

Each split has three pieces:

• Who paid: The person who fronted the money.
• How much: The total amount of the expense.
• How to split: Equally among everyone, by share, or by exact amount per person.

ZenExpenses adds it all up across the month and tells you who owes whom — and how much — so a single transfer settles everything.

Ways to split

• Equal split: Divide the amount evenly across everyone involved. Best for groceries, takeout, and group dinners.
• By share: Assign weights — useful when one person uses more (e.g., a roommate with the larger bedroom pays a bigger share of rent).
• By exact amount: Specify what each person owes when the split isn't proportional (e.g., one person ordered more at a restaurant).
• Single payer: Track an expense without splitting it — useful for personal items mixed in with a shared bill.

Kept separate from your bank

Splits live in their own section. They don't touch your imported bank transactions or affect your category totals, so your personal spending breakdown stays clean even when half of last month's restaurants were shared.

When the group settles up, you can record the transfer however you like — there's no required workflow tying you to a particular payment app.

Common scenarios

• Roommates: Rent, utilities, internet, shared groceries. Set recurring entries for fixed monthly costs and add one-offs as they happen.
• Couples: Track shared spending without merging finances. Settle weekly or monthly with one transfer.
• Trips: One person books the rental, another pays for gas, a third covers dinner. Log each, settle once at the end.
• Recurring shared subscriptions: A streaming plan, a family phone bill — record the split once and reuse it each month.

Tips for clean splits

• Log it the same day: The longer you wait, the harder it is to remember who paid for what.
• Settle on a regular cadence: Weekly or monthly is usually enough — small balances accumulate without drama.
• Be explicit about exclusions: If you grabbed something personal during a shared grocery run, split only the shared portion.
• Keep notes short but specific: "Costco — groceries + paper towels" beats "Costco run."