BillshareWhat this is

How to split a restaurant bill by item

Splitting by item means everybody pays for what they ordered. You go down the receipt line by line, put each line on whoever had it, divide a shared line between the people on it, and then spread the tax, the tip and any service charge over everybody in proportion to what they ordered.

That last step is the one most tables skip, and it is the one that decides whether somebody who had a salad and tap water helps pay for a bottle of wine they never drank.

How to do it

01Start from the receipt, not the totalA total cannot be split by item, because it has already thrown away the only thing you need. Keep the itemised receipt, or photograph it before it goes.

02Go round the table one person at a timeAsk one person what they had and put those lines on them, then move to the next. This is faster than reading out each line and waiting to see who owns up, because people remember their own order and nobody remembers the line above.

03Put a shared line on everybody who had someA bottle of wine between two people is half each. If one of them had a glass and the other had the rest, give them uneven shares of that line rather than pretending it was even.

04Spread the tax and the tip in proportionSomebody who ordered a fifth of the food owes a fifth of the tax and a fifth of the tip. Dividing those equally quietly hands part of the expensive orders to whoever ordered least.

05Check that the parts come to the totalAdd up what everybody owes. If it does not come to exactly what was printed, something has been rounded away or a line has been left on nobody.

A worked example

Three people have dinner. Anna has a salad. Ben has the ribeye. Cleo has the pasta. Ben and Cleo share a bottle of wine, which Anna does not drink. The receipt also carries a tax line and a tip line, which nobody ordered.

Every figure below is worked out by the same code this app splits real bills with, so what you are reading is what it would actually say.

The receipt
Caesar saladAnna	$14
RibeyeBen	$38
PastaCleo	$19
Bottle of wineBen and Cleo	$52
Tax	$11
Tip	$20
Total	$154

What it costs the person who ordered least

The three columns are the same dinner divided three ways: by item with the tax and tip spread in proportion, by item with the tax and tip divided equally, and the whole bill divided evenly.

Anna ordered the least, so that is where the three disagree most. Splitting evenly is the quickest thing a table can do, and it is the one that costs Anna the most.

Annaordered $14

By item: $18
Extras equally: $24
Evenly: $51

Benordered $64

By item: $80
Extras equally: $74
Evenly: $51

Cleoordered $45

By item: $56
Extras equally: $55
Evenly: $51

What an even split costs Anna

$34more than Anna owes

Anna ordered $14 of food and owes $18. Dividing the whole bill evenly makes it $51.

Splitting by item and then dividing the tax and the tip equally is closer, and still costs Anna $7 more than the share of them that belongs to what Anna ordered.

The awkward parts

A line nobody claimsSomebody has gone, or nobody remembers ordering the side of olives. Leave it on nobody rather than spreading it quietly over everyone: an unclaimed line is a question for the table, and a bill that answered it on its own would be hiding the one thing worth asking about.

The roundingSplit three ways, a lot of amounts do not divide. Whatever is left over is a penny or two, and it has to go to somebody rather than disappear, or the parts stop adding up to the total. Decide who gets it and be consistent about it.

One person paid for everythingSplitting the bill and settling it are two different jobs. Work out what each person owes first, and then the only question left is how they pay the person who put down the card.

Doing it without the arithmetic

All of the above is arithmetic you can do on paper, and the reason people do not is that it takes longer than the meal did. Billshare is a web page that does it: photograph the receipt, tap what each person had, and send everybody a link.

The tax and the tip are spread in proportion without being asked. Splitting one bill by hand is free forever, with no account and nothing to install, and whoever you send the link to does not have to sign up to read what they owe. Reading a receipt with the camera is what needs an account, and the first three are free.

Questions

Should the tip be split equally or by what each person ordered?

Either can be done, and in proportion is the one that matches how the rest of the bill was divided: if the food was split by what people ordered and the tip is then split equally, the split is partly by item and partly not. Spreading it in proportion keeps one rule for the whole bill.

How do you split a shared dish?

Divide that line between the people who had some of it, and leave everybody else off it. If they did not have equal amounts, give them uneven shares of the line rather than splitting it down the middle.

What about somebody who only had a drink?

They pay for the drink and their share of the tax and tip in proportion to it, which is a small share, because the proportion is worked out from what each person ordered.

What if the parts do not add up to the printed total?

Then a line is on nobody, or something has been rounded away. Find the difference rather than correcting a number quietly: the total that was printed is the one that was charged.

Is there an app that splits a bill by item?

Billshare does it in a browser. Splitting one bill by hand needs no account, and whoever you send the link to installs nothing and signs up for nothing. Photograph the receipt and it is split by the item, with the tax and the tip spread in proportion. The camera is what needs an account, and the first three receipts are free.

Split a bill