BananaTab vs Venmo requests.

For one person and a round number, do that. It is two taps and nothing here improves on it. BananaTab is for the bill where you would have to work out six different shares with tax and tip on them, type six requests, and remember who never paid.

No. BananaTab sends Venmo requests. Venmo is where the money moves, between you and your friend, exactly as it does today. BananaTab never moves money itself.

They need Venmo to pay, the same as they would if you requested it yourself. They do not need BananaTab, an account, or a group thread. They get one text with a receipt link and a request.

Not the request — the request is one tap. It is everything before it: working out shares when two people didn't drink and the tip sits on a subtotal you have to back out of the total; typing six names, six amounts and six notes while the table waits; and the note field that says "dinner" and doesn't explain why one person owes $35.83 and another owes $12.

Every split is checked twice by two separate systems before a request is sent, and anything over $500 gets an "is that right?" first, because an extra zero is the expensive mistake.

Reply and change it. "Jordan left before dessert." "That was 25 percent tip." Nothing goes out until you say yes, so a wrong number is a correction, not a refund.

You do, always. A split of $215 six ways is $35.8333 a head. Your friends are asked for $35.83 and you cover $35.85. Friends are never rounded up, and it is a rule rather than a rounding accident.

Only when you approve it. Ask "who still owes me?" and you get the list; say yes to a nudge and it goes to that one person. It stops after three per person and tells you to follow up yourself. No reminder ever goes out that you didn't approve, which is the difference between a system that helps and one that embarrasses you.

One text each: a link to an itemised receipt for their share, and a Venmo request for exactly that amount. Not a group thread, not a photo of the bill with names written on it. Each person sees their own number and nobody else's, which matters when one person had the tasting menu and one had a salad.

A trip is fifteen of these in a row, which is where typing requests one at a time really stops working. Keep one tab open, add the Airbnb and the groceries and the gas as they happen, and settle once on the way home (splitting trip expenses). If you share costs with the same people every month, a running ledger fits that better, and we'd say so (BananaTab vs Splitwise).

Not for splitting. If you connect accounts for the spending side, it is read-only through Plaid: BananaTab can see transactions and cannot move a dollar. That side of it models your month and tells you what is safe to spend. How that works →

Splitting is free. Standard message and data rates from your carrier may apply. Reply STOP at any time to stop receiving texts.