How OpenLedger works

Tap +, type the amount and what it was for, and pick who was there. The payer is you unless you change it.

Someone not on the list? Type their name to track against a placeholder, or their email to also send an invite. Splits are even by default; switch to exact amounts, percentages, or shares.

Invite link: every placeholder has one on their page. Copy it or email it. When they sign in through it, the whole history attaches to their account.

People: friends appear first, with separate sections for people who have not joined and other ledger connections. Hide someone from suggestions without changing your shared history. Type a name to see suggestions from your existing connections, or add anyone by exact @handle or email. Tap a person in a group to open their profile and add them as a friend. Cancelling or declining a request prevents another request between those people for seven days. Once they accept you can add each other to anything, no invite needed. Set your own handle in Settings.

Invite links: on a group's People tab or in Group settings, make a link that lasts 30 minutes up to forever, for 1 to 100 people or no limit, and drop it in the chat. Anyone who signs in through a working link joins. Group settings lists every link, who made it and who joined through it; whoever made one, or an admin, can turn it off.

Inbox, the bell at the top right (with a count when something needs you), has these parts. Needs you lists everything waiting on your answer: a payment someone says they sent you, a request to pay, an expense waiting for your OK, a friend request, a request to claim a placeholder, or history to claim, each with its buttons right there. New is what others added that already counts, where you can say Looks right or Not right. Waiting on others (folded) holds expenses, payment requests and payments you sent that they haven't answered yet, and Friend requests you sent holds the friend requests still waiting. The badge on Inbox counts exactly what's in Needs you.

If a placeholder is the same person as an existing friend, its creator can open the profile and choose Attach ledger to an existing friend. That friend must confirm “This is me” before the history moves. Requests expire after seven days. Declining changes no balances, and attaching history never accepts an expense that was waiting for an OK.

This identity claim is for the same person joining the app. It does not transfer another person’s debt.

Open a group and you're in its expenses, with your balance on top. Tabs: Expenses, Balances (who owes whom, with a button on your lines; a payment between two people clears exactly their line) and People (with invites and invite links). The speech bubble by the group's name opens its chat. Balances are always between two people; a group just organises them. Owe several people? Pay everyone on Balances settles them all in one go.

Only some of the group going? Start a trip (or an event, or shared bills) from the group page. Its splits are between just its people, and everyone in the group can see its expenses and balances. General, at the top of the list, shows everything, trips included, each expense tagged with its trip; pick a trip to see only that one. Someone not in the group yet? Type their name or email under Who's in? and they join the group too. Trips show in the group's list (under the group in the sidebar on a computer, where tapping the group's icon folds them away; behind General ▾ on a phone).

New trips go under General. Admins arrange the list like a Discord server: tap the group's name, then Arrange trips, then drag trips up and down, into categories ("Trips", "Bills", whatever suits), or into Archived when they're over (drag one back out to bring it back). Rename trips and categories, or add and delete categories. It's one list for everyone in the group and changes nothing about who's in a trip or its money. The ⚙ beside a trip opens its settings, where its people can rename or archive it, whoever started it or a group admin can tick Who's in, and once everyone in it is settled, whoever started it (or an admin) can delete it. Its expenses stay in General and the group log.

To add, use the + button (Add expense on a computer): on a group's page it starts in that group, or the trip you have open. More ways to add under the form has recurring plans, receipt links, bringing in balances, and Add several for the post-trip receipt pile.

Use Archive to clean up your group or People lists. Archives are private to you. Restore them from the Archived section; balances and review/payment requests remain available. Hiding only changes suggestions.

Open Group settings (tap the group's name at the top of its page, or the ⚙ by General) to tap the picture or name to change them (then Save changes), manage members and invite links, archive the group, or leave it. Active members can manage the shared group. Removing someone keeps their history and pauses affected subscriptions.

Set one up from Add (“Happens every month?”) or a group's page; your plans are listed on Home. Choose a monthly or yearly price, the next renewal date, who pays the provider, and an even or custom split. You can include people who have not joined yet.

Automatic mode creates each renewal as an expense; manual mode lets the organizer record it when due. Each renewal counts like any other expense: at once between friends and in a group, otherwise once each person accepts their share. The monthly/yearly summary is a forecast, not an outstanding debt. Actual balances and payments remain in each person’s ledger.

Any participant can pause a plan; the organizer can edit/resume or cancel it. Paused periods are skipped when you choose a new next date. Removing a group member or a block pauses affected renewals. Archiving alone does not pause subscriptions. Month-end dates retain their original day when a shorter month ends.

The app never charges a card or transfers money. Cancel the provider’s service separately if you no longer want it. Existing renewal records remain unchanged when you edit or cancel a plan.

If you owe: pay however you normally do (Pay opens Venmo, Cash App, PayPal or Messages for Apple Cash with the amount filled in, for whichever of those they added in Settings; their Zelle email, phone or QR code shows for copying into your bank), then mark as paid. The other person confirms it arrived, and only then does the balance move.

If you're owed: request payment from their page. Reminders are limited to one per week and never at night for them; they can mute reminders and you can't override it.

In a group, who pays whom is worked out from everyone's totals, so it takes fewer payments: if Alex owes Ben $10 and Ben owes Cara $10, Alex just pays Cara $10. Nobody's total changes, the move shows on both people's statements, and the group log records it. It's free and on by default; a group admin can switch to pair by pair in the group's settings. Each trip is worked out on its own.

Who pays whom only changes when that saves a payment, so a small edit doesn't reshuffle everyone. A pair with a payment marked but not yet confirmed, or an open payment request, stays as it is until that's done.

It settles pair by pair instead while someone who hasn't joined yet is owed money (they couldn't confirm a payment arrived; invite them and it switches over), when some balances can't be combined, and in groups that ask for each person's OK.

Between friends, in a group you're both in, or with a placeholder you made, a new expense counts right away. The other person gets an email and can tap Looks right to add a ✓ you both see, or Something's off to dispute it. Both work without signing in, and nothing waits on them.

It waits for their OK instead when you turn on Ask them first (under More options when adding it), when the group asks for each person's OK (a setting group admins choose), when you don't share a friendship or a group, or when whoever added it joined the group by link in the last week. Those shares say Waiting for OK and wait in Inbox, where each person accepts or declines their own, with an optional explanation. Waiting and declined shares stay out of balances and payment requests.

Claiming a placeholder attaches its history: what its creator tracked appears on one screen, where you can say it all looks right at once or dispute any line. To correct an amount or share, void the original and add a replacement.

From Add (or a group's page), choose Split a receipt, enter what you paid (or tap Scan a receipt and take a photo: it reads the total for you, and the photo isn't kept) and share the link in your group chat. Friends open it with no account, pick or type their name, and tap I was there: it splits evenly among everyone who did.

Already know who was there? Tap a group to pick everyone in it (then tap off whoever wasn't), or pick people one by one, type in anyone new, and press Save as expense. It's split evenly right away, like Add expense, with no link to share.

Want each person to pay for what they had? Open Add items, tax and tip: a scanned receipt's items are already there; otherwise enter the items, tax, tip and any service charge or discount, and the total printed on the receipt so it checks the lines add up. Then friends tap what they had; a shared item splits evenly among whoever claimed it, and each person sees their exact total with tax and tip. They can pay you right away and tap I paid; you confirm the money arrived, as with any payment.

You don't have to press Finalize: once every item is claimed, everyone has tapped That's my total, and anyone you listed has tapped in, the receipt records itself after 10 quiet minutes (a late tap starts the wait over). Press Finalize to record it sooner, or turn it off on the receipt to always do it yourself.

When everything's claimed, finalize it: anything left over you split, cover or give to someone, and it becomes one expense with everyone's exact share. People who confirmed their total get a ✓. You can reset the link at any time so old copies stop working.

Dispute an entry from the statement and it drops out of the balance for both of you immediately — no permission from whoever added it. A share waiting for an OK never counts or locks on its own. For everything that counts, the dispute window closes 30 days after the other person first views it. Only the person who raised a dispute can restore the charge; either person can remove it.

Void your own mistakes; a reversal is recorded, nothing is deleted. Export CSV on any person's page shows every line and a running total.

Tap on someone's page to set your name for them; it's private and their own name shows underneath. You only ever see people you share something with. Block from the bottom of a person's page stops them adding you to anything new; balances stay.

Open someone in People to see your shared balance, requests and history. Their profile only shows what you share with them. Nicknames and profile notes are private to you.

Upload, crop, replace or remove your own profile picture in Settings. People connected to you through a friendship, group or ledger can see it; blocked people cannot.

On a phone, use Home, People, Add, Groups, and Inbox along the bottom. On desktop, the sidebar has Home, Inbox, Activity, Add expense and your balances, with Settings and Help at the bottom. Pin someone with the pin on their row in People or on their page. Drag one person onto another (or one group onto another) to make a folder of them, then name it; drop more onto a folder to add them. A folder holds people or groups, not both. Edit beside the search reorders what's pinned. Activity is the record of what happened: search it, or filter by expenses, payments, requests or friends, by you or others, or by person.

Passwords have a Show/Hide button. Group archiving and member removal update the current screen. If an update is ready, reload before submitting a change; unsaved inputs will clear. If an error occurs after submitting, check whether the change was saved before trying again.

Sign in with a password or an emailed link. New accounts verify their email first, then can add a password in Settings. If you forget it, choose Reset password to receive a one-time email link and choose a new password. You stay signed in on that browser for 90 days. On a phone, if a link opens inside your mail app, choose “Open in browser” first so your normal browser is the one that's signed in.