GroupTab

How to split a dinner bill by item, with tax and tip

Splitting evenly is easy, but it isn't fair when one person had a salad and another had the steak and two cocktails. Splitting by item is fairer: each person pays for what they ordered, and shared plates are split among the people who shared them.

Add the items from the receipt below, pick who had each one, and add the tax and tip.

Who's at the table

What was ordered

  • $
  • $
Tip, % of food before tax

Now collect it: one link, see who's paid, both sides confirm.

In the tab, you can also

  • Add every other expense as it happens: dinners, drinks, rides.
  • Split each one evenly, by exact amounts, or leave people out.
  • Rename it, add people, or change anything later.

How tax and tip are shared

Tax and tip follow what each person ordered. If your food was a third of the bill before tax, you pay a third of the tax and a third of the tip. That way nobody pays for someone else's lobster.

The tip here is a percentage of the food before tax, rounded to the nearest cent, and the calculator shows the amount so everyone can see it. If your group tips on the total after tax instead, enter a slightly higher percentage.

Shared plates and the odd cent

A shared plate is split evenly among the people who had it. When it doesn't divide evenly, the leftover cents go one each to the first people on the list, so every share adds up to the exact bill. GroupTab uses the same rule inside a tab.

When the whole trip is a string of dinners

On a trip, dinner is one expense of many. Turn the bill into a tab and each person's exact share goes in as one expense. Then keep adding the rest of the trip, and the tab boils everything down to a short list of payments at the end.

GroupTab keeps everyone's Venmo and Cash App in the tab, so paying is one tap with the amount already filled in, and both sides confirm when it arrives.

Questions

Should we split evenly or by item?

If everyone ordered about the same, an even split is simpler. If orders differ a lot, or someone didn't drink, splitting by item is fairer.

Is tip calculated before or after tax?

Here it's a percentage of the food before tax. If your group tips on the total after tax, raise the percentage a little to match.

Who pays the restaurant?

Usually one person pays the bill. Add it to the tab with each person's share, and everyone pays them back with Venmo, Cash App or cash.