Frequently Asked Questions

Is BillSmart free, and what is the catch?

Yes. There is no account, no usage limit and no paid tier. The running costs are small because the calculator does its work in your browser rather than on a server, and the site is supported by advertising. Nothing about the calculation changes whether or not you block ads.

Do I need to create an account?

No. There is no sign-up, no email and no login. Open the page and start typing. The trade-off is that nothing is saved between visits — see the question about saving a trip below.

Where is my data stored? Can you see what I enter?

Names and amounts stay inside the browser tab. They are not uploaded, not written to a database, and not visible to us.

The only request that leaves your browser is the exchange-rate lookup, and it contains just a currency pair such as JPY to TWD. No names, no amounts, nothing that identifies the trip. The privacy policy covers analytics and advertising cookies separately.

Can I split one bill between only some of the group?

Yes — this is the main reason the tool exists. Each payment has a “Pay for” multi-select, so a taxi shared by three of five people is charged only to those three. Everyone else’s balance is untouched.

Can I mix currencies within one trip?

Yes. Enter each payment in the currency it was actually charged in — that is the number on the receipt, and the one you can check later. BillSmart converts everything into your base currency and shows the rate it used for each entry.

Which exchange rate do you use, and why doesn't it match my bank?

BillSmart uses European Central Bank reference rates, with a second public source as a fallback. Those are mid-market rates: the midpoint between what banks buy and sell at.

Your card issuer does not give you the mid-market rate. It applies its own spread, and many cards add a foreign-transaction fee of 1–3% on top. A statement landing a couple of percent away from the number here is normal, not a bug. If you need the exact figure — for a company expense claim, say — use the amount printed on your statement.

The mechanics are explained in more detail on how it works.

Can I give one person a larger share of a payment?

Not with a percentage field, no. A payment is divided evenly among the people you select for it.

The workaround is to split the bill into entries. If a $300 hotel room is shared by three people but one took the private room, enter $150 for that person alone and $150 shared by all three. Two entries express any weighting you like, and they are easier for the group to audit than a percentage.

Why does the result show fewer transfers than I expected?

Because it settles on net balances, not transaction by transaction. If you paid for my lunch and I paid for your taxi, there is no reason for two transfers — only the difference needs to move. BillSmart then pairs the largest debtor with the largest creditor repeatedly, which is what collapses a tangle of debts into a short list.

Why do balances sometimes differ by a cent?

Because $10 does not divide evenly by three. Full precision is kept in the calculation and only the display is rounded to two decimals, so the transfers still balance to zero even when three shares of $3.33 do not visibly add up to $10.

Can I save a trip and come back to it tomorrow?

No, and this is the real cost of having no account. Everything is cleared when you reload or close the tab. For a multi-day trip, either keep the tab open and add payments as they happen, or enter everything in one sitting at the end and screenshot the settlement.

Does it handle tax and tips?

Enter the final total from the receipt, including tax and tip. There is no separate field for them, which means the extras are shared in the same proportion as the bill itself. That is the fair default in most situations, and it avoids the classic mistake of one person quietly absorbing a 20% tip on a large table.

Two of us paid for the same bill. How do I enter that?

As two payments. If a $200 bill was covered $120 by one person and $80 by another, enter one payment of $120 and one of $80, both with the same list of people it was for. The net balances come out identically to a single combined entry.

Does it work on a phone?

Yes. The layout is responsive and the calculator is meant to be used standing at a restaurant table, not only at a desk.

My currency is missing, or something looks wrong. How do I report it?

Email me through the contact page. For a wrong conversion, include the two currencies and the rate you expected — that is enough to trace it. For a missing currency, just name it; adding one is a small change.

Still stuck?

The how it works page walks through the calculation step by step with a worked example. If your question is not answered there either, get in touch.