Everything you need to track and settle group expenses in Google Sheets™ — on desktop or mobile.
Click Install on the SplitSheet™ Marketplace listing. Or, from inside any Google Sheets™ file, go to Extensions → Add-ons → Get add-ons and search for SplitSheet™.
Google will show you a screen headed “Select what SplitSheet™ can access” with three tick boxes. They start empty — tick “Select all”. SplitSheet™ needs all three to work, and missing one is the most common reason it misbehaves later. See what each permission is for →
Open any Google Sheets™ file and look for the SplitSheet™ icon along the right edge of the screen — that's where Google keeps every add-on you've installed. Click it to open the sidebar.
In the sidebar, type a name into the Add Someone field, then click 👥 Add To Your Group. Repeat for each person in your group — add as many people as you like. Free sheets cover up to 20 expense rows; upgrade anytime for unlimited.
Each row in the spreadsheet is one expense. Fill in the Date, Expense name, Amount, and who Paid. Then check the boxes for each person who was part of that expense — unchecked people won't be included in the split.
Use the Category dropdown on each row to tag expenses as Food & Drinks, Housing, Transportation, and more. This helps you see a breakdown of spending by type after syncing.
The Notes column lets you add any extra context to an expense — a restaurant name, a reference, or a reminder. It doesn't affect calculations.
As soon as you fill in an expense, SplitSheet™ recalculates everyone's share and updates the settlement summary — who owes who and how much — live, with no button to click. This works for anyone editing the sheet, not just the person who installed the add-on.
The 🔄 Refresh The Sheet button in the sidebar is for housekeeping, not calculation: it tidies up column widths and formatting, and re-checks your Pro status if you just upgraded.
In the settlement summary, there's a Settled? column with checkboxes. Check the box when someone has paid — the Paid On date is stamped the moment you check it (or type your own date), and the row crosses out on the next update. Tip: each expense row also has a Settled Directly checkbox — tick it if an expense was already paid back directly, and it'll be excluded from the math entirely.
Free covers up to 20 expense rows per sheet — every feature, unlimited sheets and people. When a sheet passes 20 rows, the settlement summary in the sheet is replaced by an upgrade prompt — your expenses themselves are never touched. To lift the limit, click ⭐ Upgrade To Pro in the sidebar ($9.99/year — unlimited rows across all your sheets) to open the secure checkout.
You'll be taken to our secure Stripe checkout, already filled in with your Google account email. Keep that email as-is — it's how SplitSheet™ recognizes your upgrade (watch out for Apple Pay or Link autofilling a different address). Enter your payment details and confirm — your local currency may be shown automatically.
Nothing to enter, nothing to activate — Pro is linked to your Google account and switches on across all your sheets by itself. If you don't see it right away, reopen SplitSheet™ from the sidebar and tap Refresh The Sheet.
Open your SplitSheet™ file in the Google Sheets™ app and scroll right to the settlement summary. It's part of the sheet, so it's all there — Payments Due, everyone's balances, and the spending chart.
Type straight into the next empty row — date, expense, amount, who paid, and tick the people who were in on it. The totals recalculate on their own, exactly like on desktop.
Tick Settled? in the summary when someone pays you back — the Paid On date fills in by itself. You can also tick Settled Directly on an expense row to leave it out of the maths entirely.
Anything that lives in the SplitSheet™ panel: adding or removing group members, tidying the sheet with Refresh, and upgrading to Pro. Hop on a laptop for those — everything else stays available on your phone.
Tap the star next to your SplitSheet™ file in the Google Sheets™ app to add it to Starred, so it's one tap away instead of a search every time.
Here's what each one actually does — some of Google's wording sounds broader than what really happens.
| What Google asks you to allow | What it's actually for |
|---|---|
| “View and manage spreadsheets that this application has been installed in” | Lets SplitSheet™ build your expense table and keep the who-owes-who summary up to date. Note “that this application has been installed in” — that's the single sheet you open SplitSheet™ in, and nothing else in your Drive. |
| “Connect to an external service” | Lets SplitSheet™ ask our server one question: “is this account on Pro?” That's the entire conversation. Your expenses, names, and amounts never leave your Google account. Without this one, a Pro subscription can't be detected and you'll keep seeing “Free”. |
| “Allow this application to run when you are not present” | Lets your totals recalculate when someone in your group adds an expense while your sidebar is closed — so the summary is always current. It only ever runs on the sheets you've used SplitSheet™ in. |
Free up to 20 rows per sheet. Upgrade only if you want.
Google Sheets™ and Google Workspace™ are trademarks of Google LLC.