Split expenses without messing up the budget
When you pay for someone, or someone pays for you, other people's money must not end up in your budget. Allotti keeps it in two separate lines, To pay back and Owed to you, and the Budget only counts the net of everyone.
To pay back and Owed to you in two sentences
To pay back: the money you set aside to repay what others paid for you. It cannot be assigned or spent; if it is not enough, To pay back stays red and shows how much is missing.
Owed to you: the money others owe you for what you paid up front. It is not available: it goes back to To assign when it arrives.
The Budget counts the net of all people and all groups: debts minus credits. If the net is in your favour you only see Owed to you, if it is in favour of others you only see To pay back, and if it is zero you see neither.
A worked example with the November numbers
| Day | What happens | People | Budget |
|---|---|---|---|
| 15 November | A €120.00 dinner paid by you and split three ways | Marco owes you €40.00, Giulia owes you €40.00 | Owed to you €80.00 |
| 20 November | Marco pays for petrol on the trip, €60.00 split in half | Marco owes you €10.00 (40.00 minus 30.00), Giulia owes you €40.00 | Owed to you €50.00 |
| 22 November | Giulia pays back her €40.00 | Marco owes you €10.00, Giulia is settled | Owed to you €10.00 |
The People section tells you who has to pay whom. The Budget only counts the net of everyone: if Giulia owes you €40.00 and you owe someone else €30.00, People shows two balances and the Budget just one, Owed to you €10.00. To pay back stays at zero.
Edge cases
- Forgive. If you forgive what someone owes you, they are settled, Owed to you goes down and the cost lands on the group's Forgive line. No money comes into the account. You can only forgive what is owed to you.
- People who do not use Allotti. Someone without the app works like everyone else: the net is only calculated on your side. The reminder does not reach them from Allotti, but you can copy the message and send it yourself.
- Different currencies. A group balance is in the group's currency, a person's net in your budget's currency, at the rate of each transaction's day.
- A credit coming back. The money paid back to you goes into To assign like any income. If you owe someone else at that moment, To pay back stays red until you cover it.
- To pay back in the red. If the money set aside is not enough, People still shows how much you owe and below it writes how much you have set aside and how much is missing.
Where to see it in the app
On a computer, open People: at the top you find To pay back and Owed to you, below it the table with each person's balance and, for each one, the groups, the shared transactions and the actions Record payment, Remind and Forgive.