Struggling with overpayments, and balancing

[thedaveCA]

I'm not sure if I am missing something, or if this gets into feature request territory, or maybe I am just outside the design scope and looking at the wrong product (which is fair enough).

Background: I'm running a self-hosted instance, with a few regular utility-type bills, and various other receipts that get split, which I manage on behalf of everyone. I have three "groups" that have no cross-interaction at all. I mostly have Luddite-types that are happier to just have a report (or even just a total), so as much as I'd love to get people logging in, it probably won't happen.

First problem, imagine this sequence:

• I pay a bill, Alice's share is $5.
• Alice settles up and gives me $10 (now owe Alice $5).
• Alice gives me $45 (leaving me owing $50) <-- How do I enter this? I can't figure out how to reverse the payment direction. User error possible, always.
• Phone bill shows up, Alice's share is $50, and now we're even.

Second, for various reasons, I tend to pay for a few big things, so everyone ends up owing me, and I act as clearing house. Imagine this sequence:

• Alice goes shopping, buys $10 if something for Bob. Bob now owes Alice $10.
• $150 phone bill arrives, I pay it, and split it evenly between Alice, Bob and myself, so $50 each.
• Alice hands me $40, Bob hands me $60.

Everybody is now balanced, and it is dramatically simpler than everyone handing bits of money to everyone else, each of which has to be documented, and is a potential source of confusion later.

Our previous solution acted like a virtual clearing house, which was great, even if in practice I end up being the actual clearing house more often than not. Either approach would work.

I suspect what I am looking for is probably out of scope?

[krokosik]

Hello, it seems to me we have this functionality covered, but maybe in the most convenient or clear way, if you see room for improvement, let me know.

1. In the add expense page, you may change the payer of the expense. Alice paying you 50$ makes her the payer and you, the sole debtor, so you would set the Alice as the payer and then in the split dialog, only include yourself in the split. There is an issue open about making 2 person splits more convenient Improve confusing language for unequal splits #645

2. If you are handling that inside of a group, have you tried turning on debt simplification? It seems to me this covers your use case exactly.