Evenly — when that really is fair

Splitting evenly works when everyone ordered about the same: shared starters, a pizza for the table, a bottle for all. A difference of a euro or two is not worth the arithmetic.

As soon as someone does not drink, arrived late or ordered twice as much, «evenly» stops being fair — and the quiet resentment costs more than five minutes of counting.

By items: who had what

The fair way is simple: every line of the bill is shared by those who ate or drank it. The steak is one person’s, the pizza is three people’s, the water is everyone’s.

• A dish of one’s own goes to one person.
• A shared one is split evenly between those who shared it.
• Someone who had two portions of a shared thing — two glasses from the bottle — gets two shares.

In tabhug this is done by tapping: pick a person, then touch their items. One button marks an item as everyone’s.

The tip and the service charge

A service charge or a tax the place adds is shared in proportion: whoever ordered more pays more of it. The same goes for a discount on the whole bill.

A tip comes in two kinds. Left «from the table», it is shared in proportion to what each one ordered. Left by each person for themselves, everyone pays their own. tabhug lets you say who gave how much and pick either way.

Who paid is a separate question

What someone ate and who paid are different things. Often one person pays by card and the others send their share back. Sometimes two or three pay: then each is written down with their amount.

From there it is plain who should send how much to whom. With several bills in an evening, the debts come down to one transfer per person, not one per bill.

Photograph the bill instead of retyping it

Retyping the lines takes the longest. In tabhug you can photograph the bill: it reads the names, the amounts, the date and the currency, and you only mark who had what. A bill in another language gets a translation under each name.

The others do not have to sign up: they come in by a QR code or a link and see their share.