Expense Sharing Glossary

The running total of what a person owes or is owed within a group at any point in time. A positive balance means you are owed money; a negative balance means you owe money.

Example: If you paid ₹900 for a shared dinner and your share was ₹300, your balance is +₹600 until the others pay you back.

An algorithm that calculates the minimum number of payments needed to settle all balances in a group. Instead of 6 people making 15 payments back and forth, debt simplification might reduce it to 4 or 5 transactions total.

Example: A owes B ₹200, B owes C ₹200 — debt simplification resolves this as A paying C directly, skipping B entirely.

Dividing a shared cost evenly among all participants regardless of what each person consumed or used. The simplest and most common split type.

Example: A ₹1,200 electricity bill split equally among 4 flatmates = ₹300 each.

A collection of people who share expenses together — e.g., flatmates, a travel group, or a couple. All expenses within a group are tracked together, and each member sees their net balance.

A shared cash pool where everyone contributes a fixed amount upfront. One person (the treasurer) uses the kitty for shared purchases. Common on group trips for frequent small expenses like cabs, water, and snacks.

Example: 5 friends each contribute ₹2,000 to a trip kitty. The treasurer pays for shared costs from this pool. At the end, any remaining balance is refunded or used for a final treat.

The overall amount a person owes or is owed after all expenses in a group have been accounted for and offsetting amounts cancel each other out. This is the number that matters when it's time to settle up.

Technology that reads text from images. In expense apps, OCR is used to scan printed receipts and extract item names and prices automatically. FairShare uses AI-enhanced OCR for higher accuracy on Indian receipts.

Dividing a cost proportionally based on an agreed factor — room size, usage, income, or number of days stayed — rather than equally. More fair when contributions or benefits differ.

Example: A larger bedroom takes 60% of the rent; the smaller bedroom takes 40%.

A bill that repeats on a regular schedule — monthly rent, weekly groceries, annual subscriptions. Expense apps like FairShare can auto-log recurring expenses so you never forget to track them.

The act of paying back the money owed within a group to bring everyone's balance to zero. In FairShare, "Settle Up" opens your UPI app with the exact amount pre-filled, making payment instant.

India's real-time interbank payment system, operated by the NPCI. Allows instant money transfers between bank accounts via apps like Google Pay (GPay), PhonePe, Paytm, and BHIM using a VPA (Virtual Payment Address) like name@upi.

FairShare uses UPI deep-linking to open your preferred UPI app with the payee and amount pre-filled — one tap to complete the payment.

A unique identifier used in UPI payments, formatted like an email address (e.g., rahul@okaxis). Acts as a proxy for your bank account — you share your VPA instead of your account number.