Track Spending

User Guide Home

Record and Edit Expenses For An Activity

Use the Spending tab to record expenses that will be shared with the group, either using the default sharing arrangement you set up with the Activity, or a custom sharing.

Spending List
Spending List

View an existing item: Tap the transaction to view from the Spending List.

Search for a specific item: enter a few characters of either the description or payee of the transactions you want to view.  The Spending List will be filtered to show only the items that contain those characters.  To restore the Spending List, click the Cancel button to the right of the search bar.

Delete an existing item: Select Edit at the top of the scrolling list, then press the delete icon (red circle) next to the transaction to delete.

Add new Spending: click the New Spending button at the bottom of the screen.  When adding new spending, you can provide any or all of the following:

SpendingDetailsLongFor: a description of what the spending was for.  Examples would be “Lunch at the Beach” or “Rental Car”.

Amount: If using multiple currencies, use the amount for the currency you used for the transaction.  Use the Tip Calculator CalculatorIcon to help calculate the total amount when a tip is involved.

Date. Date and time of the transaction, defaulting to the current date and time.  There is no need to enter an exact time – all reporting is done on date only.

Category.  This is just a way to group transactions.  If you want to add a category or change an existing category name or icons, you can edit the category List in Settings.

Paid By: Select the participant that paid for this transaction.  If more than one participant paid, show each as a separate Spending transaction.

Shared By: This defaults to “All”, which means that each participant will get allocated the share specified when the Activity was set up.  Most of the time this is what makes sense. To over-ride this, tap the Shared By row.  Choose Custom to enter specific amounts for each participant.  Choose Auto to allocate automatically to a subset of participants. Choose All to allocate automatically among all participants.   The Transaction Total can be edited here as well.

An Auto or All allocation will update share amounts automatically if the transaction amount changes, or participants are added or removed.

When using Auto or All, enable “Use as the default for future transactions” to save time if future transactions will use the same sharing scheme.

Paid to: the payee name and address.  As you type the field will display a matching previously-used payee.  Tap Done on the keyboard to accept.  When a payee is matched, the address and category are filled for you as well.

Get Location / Discard Location:  Recording the location for transactions is a fun way to record your spending on a map, and also a way to retrieve the payee name and address (if available).  Tap the Get Location button to get the coordinates of your current location, and fill in the Paid To and Address fields if this available,   The button will highlight while any matching location information is found.  The Paid To and Address may change several times while the GPS in your device gains accuracy.  When you are satisfied with the result, tap the button again to turn off geolocation.

ChooseOnMapChoose Location / Edit Location:  To add location data other than your current location, tap the Choose Location button.  Using the map, you can drag the pin to the desired location, or search for city, address, or name.  For example, in Paris type “Louvre” and tap the Search button to find the location and fill in the Paid To and Address.  The location search favors sites near your current location – so if it is necessary, add a city or country to your search.  For example, outside Paris, type “Louvre Paris”.

Currency / Exchange Rate: If the currency for this transaction is different than the Activity’s default currency, select the correct currency here, and fill in an exchange rate, which is the rate to convert from the transaction currency to the Activity’s default currency.  Tip: You can select the currencies to be displayed in Settings/EditCurrency List.  Touch Get Rate to get the current rate from openexchangerate.org (requires a network connection).

Note: Tap to add a free-form note.

Receipt: Tap this row to add a receipt image from the device’s camera or photo library.  Devices without a camera will offer only the photo library option.  Receipts images are converted to a limited resolution and standard size, to optimize data storage.  This optimization is set so that a typical full-sheet hotel bill will be readable, but small type may be fuzzy.

Attachment: Tap this row to add an attachment.  Attachments are supported for pdf files, text files, most image and audio files, Word files, Excel files, and Powerpoint files.  Note: Attaching very large files can impact performance, especially when using cloud storage.  

Next – Tracking Payments

Easily track shared expenses in any group activity – a vacation, club, shared rental and more.