What a tab is, and starting one

A tab collects many bills between the same people, such as a weekend away or a shared flat, and settles them as one. Each bill is split as usual, and the tab keeps one balance for each person across all of them, in the currency it settles in. Nobody pays bill by bill: each person pays what the tab says, once. Starting a tab, and joining one from its shared link, needs an account.

How to start a tab

1. Press the create button in the middle of the bar and choose New tab, or press Tabs in the bar and then New tab.
2. Under Name, type a name or press one of the names suggested under it: the town you are in, the month, the group the tab is started in, or one of your earlier tabs. Leave it empty and the tab is named as the field suggests. The town is offered only when your browser already allows your location, or when you press Near me.
3. Under Settles in, leave your home currency or choose another. Bills in the tab can be in any currency; balances are kept in this one. You can change it until the first payment is confirmed.
4. Under People, you are listed as Owner. In Search or add a name, tick the people you have shared with before, or type a new name and add it.
5. Press Create tab. The tab opens, with its link ready to share.

A name you type puts that person on the tab by name, with no account. To let people join with their own account, open the tab's menu and press Share link (see The people on a tab).

How to find your way round a tab

The bar at the foot of a tab has the tab's views: People, Activity, Bills and Balances, with Add to this tab in the middle. People shows how many people are on the tab, Bills how many bills there are, and Balances how many payments wait for you to confirm.

Above the bar, three figures stay in view: Tab total, every bill that counts so far; Your share of them; and where you stand, You owe, You're owed or Paid up.

Beneath the bills, Photos and places shows the tab's Gallery and Map: the photos on its bills and where they were, leaving out any bill you archived. Each opens the gallery or the map of the tab alone. See The gallery and The map.

The menu button at the top opens Settings and Share link.

How to use the Tabs list

1. Press Tabs in the bar. Every tab you are on is listed, under the day each last changed.
2. Read a row: its mark (open, settled or closed), its name, and what you owe or are owed in it, or what it has spent in all when you are paid up. A dot after the name means something in it waits on you.
3. Press Open, Settled, Closed or Archived to narrow the list, or the search button to search by the tab's name or the names of its people.

An archived tab is listed only under Archived, or when you search for it. You archive a tab, or unarchive it, from its Settings.

Worked example: the Lisbon weekend

Maya starts a tab for a weekend in Lisbon with Priya and Tom. She names it Lisbon weekend, chooses euros under Settles in, ticks Priya and Tom, and presses Create tab. Sam joins partway through the weekend.

By the end, four bills count: the Airbnb, a taxi, dinner at Ramiro and a coffee at Heathrow, bought in pounds. Brunch is still being set up, so it does not count yet. At the foot of Maya's tab, Tab total reads 377.40, Your share 117.80, and You owe 21.80: Maya paid for the dinner, but her share of everything is more than that.

In Maya's Tabs list, Lisbon weekend is marked open, with the 21.80 she owes.

If something stops you

• "Sign in to start a tab". A tab keeps balances between people over time, so it needs an account. Press Sign in.
• Create tab cannot be pressed. No currency is chosen yet: choose one under Settles in.
• "Connect to start a tab". Starting a tab needs a connection. A tab you have opened before can still be read offline.
• There is no Add to this tab. The tab is closed, or you are on it through your own link with no account.