Frequently asked questions

Allotti is for splitting expenses with other people: who paid for what and who owes whom how much, without spreadsheets or mental arithmetic.

Today, in the beta, you get this part: groups, shared expenses, balances, activity and notifications. Budgeting comes later. You sign in with your email and a code or with Apple or Google, and the app is in Italian and English. It's for people aged 18 and over.

A group keeps the expenses of several people together: a house with roommates, a trip, a couple. Anyone in the group can be added to any of its expenses, and the group shows how much it cost you and who needs to pay whom.

An expense can also be recorded outside groups, with someone among your people: for example a loan or an occasional dinner. Or you can keep it just for yourself.

Balances stay separate: one for each group and one outside groups. Once an expense is saved, its group can't be changed.

When you record an expense, under the amount you see who it's split between and who paid. With Modifica (Edit) you choose how to split it:

• Equal parts: €30 between three people, €10 each. This is the default.
• Parts: whoever has the double room pays two parts, the others one. Anyone with zero parts is left out of the expense.
• Percentages: for example 60% and 40%.
• Amounts: you enter how much each person owes.

More than one person can have paid, each with their own amount.

If the receipt has different things on it, split it into lines: at the supermarket the household groceries between everyone, the shampoo just for you. Each line has its own split.

In a group a new expense starts from the group's split, which you change in the group settings. Changing it on one expense doesn't change the group's.

When the cents don't divide exactly, the extra cent goes to one person only: €100 between three people is €33.34, €33.33 and €33.33. The total always adds up.

A refund is money coming back for an expense: a return at the shop, a cancelled flight, an insurance payout. Tap +, choose Rimborso (Refund) and then the expense it belongs to.

The refund is split like the expense, and everyone's share goes down. If you received the money, the others' share belongs to them: if you get €60 back for a dinner split half and half with Giulia, €30 is Giulia's. A refund can't be more than the expense.

Money someone gives you to square up isn't a refund: for that there's Salda (Settle up).

Both are on the person's page: tap their name on the Home screen or in the group.

Salda (Settle up) records a payment between two people, in cash, by bank transfer or any other way. The app doesn't move money: you make the payment yourselves and record it here. It counts straight away and without confirmation; the other person gets an alert. If it doesn't look right to them, they can delete it. In a group another member can record it too: for example Pippo records that Giulia gave Davide €50. If you have expenses in several groups, the payment clears the oldest expenses first; you can also split it proportionally or group by group.

Abbuona (Write off) is for when someone owes you money and you decide to let it go, in full or in part. The balance goes down without any payment. Only the person who is owed the money can do it, and the other person gets an alert.

In a group of three or more people, Semplifica (Simplify balances) reduces the number of payments: instead of everyone paying everyone, the app works out who pays whom in as few steps as possible.

Example: Pippo owes Davide €718, Davide owes Giulia €50 and Giulia owes Pippo €18, which is three payments. With Simplify balances Pippo gives Davide €668 and Giulia €32: two payments. Nobody gives or gets more than before, only who to changes. The expenses stay as they are.

It's on in every new group. Any member can turn it off or back on in the group settings, and the others get an alert.

Yes. Each group has its own currency, chosen when you create it, which then doesn't change.

An expense can be recorded in another currency, for example in Swiss francs in a group in euros. The app converts it into the group's currency with the European Central Bank exchange rate for the day of the expense, and the group's balances stay in its currency.

If you have groups in different currencies, on the Home screen the totals are added up in your base currency at today's rate, with the word "circa" (about) next to them. Tap them to see the amounts currency by currency.

An expense can only be seen by whoever paid it and the people it's split between, even inside a group: an expense that's only yours, in a group, can only be seen by you.

If the expense has several lines, everyone only sees the lines that concern them, with a total made of those lines. For example, if you pay for a TV half and half with Giulia and a phone just for you on the same receipt, Giulia sees the TV and not the phone.

Receipts, photos and PDFs, can only be seen by people who can see the whole expense, plus whoever uploaded them: a receipt would also show the hidden lines. Comments and the edit history follow the same rule.

Nobody else sees your email, your personal expenses or the contact details of the people you've added.

In the group, under people, enter the email or phone number of the person you want to invite, or tap Invia un link (Send a link) or Codice QR (QR code) and enter their name: this creates a link just for that person, which you send however you like or let them scan. Outside a group, use the person icon at the top right of the Home screen.

There's also an open link for several people: Link e QR in the group, or Condividi un link (Share a link) and Mostra il QR (Show the QR code) from the Home screen. Whoever opens it joins the group, if there is one, and becomes your contact.

Whoever opens the link on their phone installs the app, signs in with their email and finds the group and the expenses they're in already there. You also become contacts. We never write to people who don't use the app: you send the invitation.

The link for one person and the open link for several people, with its QR code, are valid for 10 days. Both can be turned off sooner. If the link for a person invited with just their name expires, the person disappears from the group and you get an alert with Rimanda il link (Send the link again), which gives another 10 days.

Until they sign up, a person invited with just their name stays "pending" and can't be added to expenses. If you add them with their email or phone number, though, you can add them straight away.

To add someone who already uses the app to an expense outside groups, you need to be contacts. From the Home screen tap the person icon and enter their name, email or phone number: they get a contact request, which they can accept or decline. The same happens if someone who isn't among your contacts adds you to a group: you join when you accept.

When you enter an email or a number, the app never says whether that person has signed up: you only find out if they accept. Whoever sends the request doesn't see a refusal, and after a few refusals they can't send more for a while. Whoever opens one of your links, on the other hand, becomes your contact straight away.

Trovabile per nome (Discoverable by name) is off until you turn it on, in Profilo, Il tuo account (Profile, Your account). If you turn it on, people who use the app can find you by searching your first and last name. With your exact email they can send you a request even if it's off.

Everything other people do that concerns you is in Attività (Activity), the first item in your Profile.

Push notifications are chosen type by type in Profilo, Notifiche (Profile, Notifications). By default, for example, the ones for payments received and contact requests are on, the ones for expenses added by others are off. Turning off a notification doesn't remove anything from Activity. On iPhone, push notifications only arrive after you've given permission.

By email we only write to you, besides the code and your account, about contact requests and when someone you still have balances with deletes their account. You turn them off in Profilo, Notifiche, under "Anche via email" (Also by email), or from the link at the bottom of every email.

Yes. Right after you save an expense, for a few seconds there's Annulla (Undo) at the top: the expense disappears as if you'd never recorded it.

After that, an expense can be deleted by anyone who can see all of it, with Cancella la spesa (Delete expense) in the details. It leaves everyone's totals and balances, the people involved get an alert, and it stays in the list crossed out: you open it, tap Ripristina (Restore) and the balances go back to how they were. If the expense only concerned you, or only you paid it, it disappears from the lists: you find it again in Movimenti (Transactions), choosing the Cancellate (Deleted) filter in the search, and restore it the same way. Right after deleting it you also find it in Attività (Activity): tap the item, the expense opens and you tap Restore.

A payment recorded with Settle up is deleted and restored the same way, by either of the two people, with an alert to the other. A write-off can only be deleted and restored by whoever made it.

Tap your avatar at the top to open your Profile, then Il tuo account (Your account), and at the bottom of the page Cancella l'account (Delete account). We email you a code to confirm it's really you.

From the confirmation you have 14 days to change your mind: just sign in to the app again and tap Tieni l'account (Keep account), or use the link in the confirmation email. In the meantime nothing changes for anyone else. After 14 days the deletion is final.

We delete your profile, your email and the expenses that only concern you. Expenses shared with others stay, because they're needed for their balances, but without your name.

If you still have open balances, the people involved get an alert when the deletion becomes final and have 90 days to settle them. After 90 days the app closes any balances still open with a write-off and stops showing them. This only applies inside the app: it doesn't change any arrangements between you outside the app. Better to settle them first.

All the details are on the Delete your account page, in Italian for now.

No. You write the entries yourself, like any other expense. Allotti does not connect to your bank.

Yes. The budget works without groups too: you write the expenses and each envelope goes down by what you spend.

The account used for an expense is seen only by whoever paid.

A place for the money of an expense: what you put in minus what you spent. You always see what is left. If To assign goes below zero, you spent more than you had assigned: Allotti tells you, so you can fix the envelopes.

We only keep what the app needs: first name, last name, email, what you write and the people you add. The data is on servers in the European Union. We don't sell your data, we don't show ads and we don't use tools that follow you across different apps and websites.

To get a copy of your data, write to privacy@allotti.eu from your account's email address. Everything else is in the privacy policy.

If the sign-in code doesn't arrive, check your spam folder. The code is valid for 10 minutes: if it has expired, ask for a new one from the app.

For anything else write to us at help@allotti.eu, ideally from your account's email address. Tell us which phone you use and, if you can, add a screenshot. In the app you'll find us under Profilo, Assistenza (Profile, Support).