Group trip costs become confusing when transport, accommodation, groceries, tickets, and small cash purchases are recorded in different chats. The reliable approach is to record each expense when it happens, separate the people who benefited from the people who paid, and keep every currency in its own balance. Split provides one private link for that shared record without requiring participant accounts.
Agree on participants, currencies, and recording rules before departure
Create the shared space before the first booking and add only the people whose balances matter. Decide whether personal purchases stay outside the group and who will record expenses. Add each currency exactly as paid; do not invent an exchange rate merely to force the trip into one total.
Record the benefit and the payer as separate facts
For every booking or purchase, enter what it was, who benefited, and who actually paid. A hotel may benefit four travellers while one card covers the deposit and another pays the remainder. Keeping those roles separate lets the balance explain the real debt instead of approximating it.
Keep currency balances separate unless the group makes a real exchange
A 30 EUR debt and a 4,000 RSD credit are not one number without an agreed conversion. Split keeps balances by currency so the group can settle like for like. If friends later agree that one transfer closes another currency balance, record the real repayment and the rate they actually used.
Record repayments instead of editing the original expense
When someone sends money back, add a transfer between the two people. Do not change the hotel or restaurant entry to pretend a different person paid. The expense remains the history of the purchase, while the repayment shows how the group settled it.
Travel expense checklist before the trip ends
Review unrecorded cash purchases, duplicate entries, participant lists, payer totals, and currencies. Ask everyone to open the same private link and confirm disputed items before leaving. Then agree which repayments will happen in each currency and record them as they are completed.