Finances: shared expenses

What it's about

The Finances module helps you split shared expenses fairly – whether within a household or co-parenting across two homes. You record who paid for what and how it's split; patchio keeps the balances, suggests the fewest possible transfers, and remembers receipts and recurring costs.

Before you start

• The Finances module needs to be turned on under Manage → Modules (admins only).
• You'll then find it under Finances in the navigation.

Add an expense

Tap Expense and enter the amount, title, date, a category and who paid. Then choose how it's split:

• Equally – the amount is split evenly between the people involved.
• Percentage – you set a percentage per person (must add up to 100%).
• Shares – you distribute shares (e.g. 2:1), and patchio works out the amounts.
• Exact – you enter an exact amount per person, down to the cent (must add up to the total).

While you type, the live remainder shows how much is still left to allocate – so the split always comes out exactly right, to the cent. patchio automatically allocates any leftover cent fairly.

Balances & settling up

The Balances section shows at a glance who owes whom, and how much. All balances always add up to zero. Use Settle up to record a payment that's actually been made between two people – the balance adjusts accordingly.

Recorded payments

Right below the balances is the Recorded payments list: who paid whom, when and how much, with a note. It shows the same payments that feed into the balances – every household member can see it. By default, the three most recent payments are shown; Show all payments expands the rest. Reversed payments are hidden at first – a text button underneath brings them back if you want to see them.

Reversing a payment

If a payment turns out to be wrong, you reverse it – it isn't deleted. The payment stays in the list, marked as reversed, and no longer counts towards the balances from that point on. That way, both sides can still see that the payment happened, and that it was taken back.

Before patchio reverses it, it doesn't ask “Are you sure?” – it shows you what applies afterwards: exactly who will then owe whom how much, calculated to the penny from your real balances. You can add a reason if you like; it then appears in the list and in the notification to the other person.

Only the two people involved in the payment, and the person who recorded it, can reverse it. A household member who has nothing to do with the payment sees no button – money between two people is only their business.

A reversal can't be undone. If the payment did go through after all, just record it again via Settle up.

Simplifying debts

Simplify combines debts running back and forth into as few transfers as possible: instead of A paying B and B paying C, patchio suggests the direct, shortest chain. You can record the suggested transfers as payments with one tap.

Attaching a receipt

You can attach a receipt photo or PDF to any expense. The receipt is visible only to members of your household and stays securely stored.

Removing a receipt again

Tap the expense – under the receipt, you'll find “Remove receipt”. The file is permanently deleted from storage, but the expense stays, with its full amount and all its shares. Only the receipt is gone afterwards; balances and insights don't change.

Only the person who uploaded the receipt – the one who created the expense – can remove it. Everyone else sees a note instead of a button. If an entire expense is wrong, delete the expense itself instead.

Recurring expenses

Manage regular expenses (pocket money, a cleaner…) on their own page via the Finances overview (Recurring tile) – add, edit, pause or delete them. patchio creates them there automatically on the due date, with the same split. A new template starts out private, with only you involved; sharing it is a deliberate second step. More on this under Recurring expenses. For ongoing contracts with a notice period, use Contracts instead.

Categories

Under Categories, you manage your own expense categories with an icon and colour – add, rename, delete. That keeps your expenses grouped clearly.

Export

Use CSV export to download all expenses as a table – handy for your own bookkeeping or a tax return.

Visibility: household or private

When you add an expense, you choose its visibility:

• Household – every household member can see the expense.
• Private – only you and the people directly involved can see it; it stays invisible to other members.

That lets you run sensitive or two-person settlements without involving the whole household.

Notifications

patchio notifies you in the app and by email when someone adds a shared expense, records or reverses a payment, or settles the fixed costs – always with your own share. Whoever triggers the action themselves isn't notified, and private or single-person expenses don't trigger anything. You can turn off each of these topics per channel in your profile under Notification settings.

Related topics

• Manage modules
• Notification settings
• Recurring expenses