Before you leave: create the trip and set a budget
Create an Owely group for the trip and share the invite link or code in your group chat, so everyone joins before you go. Costs paid in advance, like the rental deposit or flights booked together, can go in straight away.
If you have agreed on a spending target, set it as the group’s budget. The Budget view shows how much has been spent, how much is left and which categories are taking the most, which makes it easy to spot when the restaurant line is running ahead of plan.
During the trip: add expenses as they happen
The habit that makes trip splitting painless is adding each expense right away, while the receipt is still in your hand. Enter the amount, who paid and who it was for, pick a category such as Hotel, Flights, Taxi & Uber or Restaurant, and take a photo of the receipt.
Everyone in the group can add expenses, so the person who paid can record it themselves. The group’s activity feed shows what was added, edited or deleted, which keeps everybody on the same page without a running commentary in the group chat.
Not everyone joins every activity
Trips rarely involve the whole group doing everything together. When three of five friends book a kayak tour, only those three should share the cost. When you add the expense, select just the people who took part.
| Person | Pays |
|---|---|
| Ana | $50.00 |
| Ben | $50.00 |
| Cleo | $50.00 |
| Dev | Not included |
| Eli | Not included |
| Total | $150.00 |
For costs that are shared unevenly, such as a rental where one couple takes the room with the view, use shares or exact amounts so the split reflects what the group agreed.
Spending in another currency
Owely supports 20 currencies, including the US dollar, the euro, the British pound and the Canadian and Australian dollar. Pick the trip’s currency for the group, then record each expense in whatever currency you actually paid. Owely converts it at the day’s exchange rate, adds the group’s bank fee (2% unless you change it), and keeps the rate on the expense so it never changes later.
For card payments abroad, the simplest approach is to enter what the card was actually charged in your home currency once it appears on your statement. That is the number that matters when you settle.
After the trip: settle with fewer payments
When you get home, open the group’s Balances tab. Owely nets out everything each person paid and owes, then suggests who should pay whom. Because the suggestions work from each person’s overall balance, a group of five needs at most four payments to square up, instead of everyone paying everyone back for each meal.
Record each payment in Owely once it is made, in full or in part, and the balances update for everyone. When every balance reads zero, the trip is settled.