Entering Bills that are split

Aaren Joy

How should I enter bills in my expenses if I split them with a roommate but all the transactions come from my bank account?

DannyB

@Aaren Joy

Is your purpose for splitting the expense transaction so you can ensure your roommate’s reimbursements cover their share of the bill? Or to match the reimbursement with the bills? Or so that you can see your personal actual expenses in a given month?

As @Coach Natalie points out you can split a transaction that download from your bank. You can also add tags to each split and you can create a Watchlist using tags.  You could create tags for you and your roommate or just your roommate depending on how/what you want to track.  When the data for a given shared expense downloads you can then split the expense between yourself and your roommate using unique tags for each split.  Your separate Watchlist will capture only that part of the bill expense designated for you and another Watchlist will capture the part for your roommate.

You could also set up an Income category that you can assign to your roommate’s reimbursements to and this will allow you to see the total reimbursements for the month.

DannyB

Hi @Aaren Joy  Happy New Year.

That's an interesting question.

• How do you keep track of your shared expenses?
• Does your roommate reimburse you with a one time payment at some point during the month?
• Or does you roommate reimburse their half as each expense is paid?

Here's a couple of ideas you might want to consider:

1. Don't worry about splitting the expenses in Simplifi and instead set up your roommate's payments to you as recurring income so you can track it as part of your monthly income.
2. When you pay an expense set up a refund for your roommate's portion of the expense and when your roommate's reimbursement shows up in your bank account register, if it doesn't automatically match it, you can then match it up with the refund entry.

There are certainly some creative ways to accomplish what you are asking and perhaps others will chime in soon.

Coach Natalie

Hello @Aaren Joy,

Thanks for posting your inquiry to the Community!

Please take a look at @DannyB's response above, as he asked some questions that will allow us to get a better idea of how you handle your financial situation, as well as provided some great suggestions for you to try. 

I'd also suggest adding your vote and feedback here for a Spouse/Couple/Roommate mode. 

Please let us know so we can best assist!

-Coach Natalie

Aaren Joy

My roommate pretty much sends me money randomly throughout the month. I wish there was a way to just change or split the transaction in my transaction history.

Coach Natalie

Hello @Aaren Joy,

Thanks for posting back!

You may consider using the same Expense Category for the money that your roommate is sending you as you did when paying the various bills. Doing so will offset the outflow of money with the money coming in from your roommate. 

For example, this is the method I use when going out to eat with a friend where we split the bill -- I pay for the meal using the Category of "Restaurants", and when my friend sends me money, I also categorize that income as "Restaurants". This allows me to see the net total of what I actually paid for that item, and it works very well for me. 

You can also split transactions, as well as edit the Category of the transactions that download from your bank(s). We have a Managing Transactions article available here that goes over how to edit and split transactions. 

Others may come along with additional suggestions, but I hope this helps in the meantime!

-Coach Natalie