Why do I owe this?
TabrilloSign in

Why do I owe this?

Because an expense made it. Tap any balance in Tabrillo and it opens the receipt behind it: every expense that contributed, what each one cost, whose share is whose, and who has changed anything since.

Every group has this moment. Someone looks at what they owe and doesn’t believe it — and most apps leave you there. The number is the number, and if you disagree your options are to accept it or start a spreadsheet.

What does an expense app that explains a balance show you?

Tap the balance and you get the receipt:

Where does the number come from?

Nothing is stored as a balance. Every figure is derived from the entries when you look at it, so correcting an expense corrects the receipt with it. There is no separate number to fall out of step.

TABRILLO
TOKYO, MARCH · 4 PEOPLE
Your share
Hotel · 1 of 4 of $312.00$78.00
Ichiran · 1 of 3 of $66.00$22.00
Airport train · 1 of 4 of $44.00$11.00
Total owed$111.00
You paid
Airport train−$44.00
Credited back−$44.00
You owe Ana$67.00
Ana entered the hotel on 4 March. Nobody has changed it since.
EVERY FIGURE TRACEABLE · NO MONEY MOVED

What if the number is right and the split still seems unfair?

A reading of what is between the two of you: every line, what each of you had, and which of them a reasonable person might read differently — a deposit that came back, a dinner one of you was not at, a round somebody did not drink.

It proposes and never rules. The arithmetic is ours, not the model’s: the figure with the line and the figure without it are both computed from the same entries the receipt shows. Nothing changes by itself — if you both agree, one of you edits the expense.

Where this comes up: the trip dinner · and the flat’s shopping

A proposal, not a ruling

Two shared dinners and a deposit that came back to one of you. The deposit is the line worth looking at again together.

As it stands: you owe Ana 42.30

Leaving out Deposit: you owe Ana 12.30

Nothing here changes on its own. To act on it, edit the expense together.

It says what it would leave out, and what that would make the balance.

How do I ask someone to pay me back?

Once you agree, a reminder is a draft you read and send yourself, in the tone you pick. Tabrillo never messages anybody on your behalf, and a reminder says what is owed rather than what somebody did.

Questions about disputed balances

Which expense app explains why you owe money?

Tabrillo does. Tap any balance and it opens the receipt behind it: every expense that contributed, what it cost, who paid it, your share and how it was worked out, and anything edited since with who changed it.

Why does my balance say something different from what I expected?

Because a balance is not stored — it is derived from the expenses every time it is read. The receipt shows each one, so a figure you disagree with can be traced to the entry that produced it rather than argued about.

What if a bill was split unfairly rather than wrongly?

Ask for a reading of what is between the two of you. It goes through the lines and says which a reasonable person might read differently — a deposit that came back, a dinner one of you was not at — with the figure both ways. It proposes; the two of you decide.

How do you ask somebody to pay you back?

Tabrillo drafts a reminder in the tone you choose and you send it yourself. It says what is owed and never what somebody did, and the app never messages anybody on your behalf.

Start without an account