Diner Creates Spreadsheet to Split $328 Bill She Paid After Disagreement

A woman has been praised for her water-tight method of ensuring everyone pays their fair share when eating out.

Haley, a 30-year-old from Pennsylvania, gained viral attention after she shared her bill-splitting spreadsheet on TikTok, where it has been seen over 950,000 times.

She explained how she recently went out for a birthday meal where the final bill was $327.83. But when the check arrived, there was a disagreement about splitting it seven ways.

"Some ate to a lower final amount than others of around $10-$12, it was asked people only pay for what they consumed," Haley told Newsweek.

A 2022 survey by Forbes Advisor and OnePoll of 1,000 American consumers reported that nearly half (47 percent) of U.S. adults who use peer-to-peer payment apps like Venmo and PayPal are splitting bills for restaurant meals, groceries or other regular purchases.

Generation Z adults (roughly aged 18-25) are most likely to use payment-splitting apps to settle a group bill, with 60 percent saying that they use them weekly, while 58 percent of those aged 26-41 also use them each week.

Some restaurants even have built-in systems to help customers split the bill—but they're not always the best option either.

"At establishments that use table-side Ziosk machines the diners are responsible for figuring out who consumed what and creating 'the separate bills,'" said Haley. "This was our experience—we asked for separate checks and were pointed to the Ziosk. The machine option is fantastic for smaller groups, however, we had issues of figuring out who would cover the total of the birthday person, and how to handle a couple that wanted to pay together with cash. After a fabulous night out, who wants to require everyone to be quiet, and go through each line item figuring out what to apply to each bill? Especially after a few drinks."

To speed things up and allow everyone to head home after the meal, Haley agreed to put the total on her credit card and let the group know through Venmo what they owed for the dinner.

Working Out the Bill

With a clearer head the next day, Haley sat down and worked out the bill in a spreadsheet.

"I input all the charges, split the birthday person's tax and tip, then sent out an image of the breakdown," said Haley.

After sending out the breakdown, the group were all happy to pay.

"The spreadsheet helped me figure out what to request from people on Venmo, however, after posting the TikTok, I was made aware of resources that are available to do this labor for you which I had not heard of prior," said Haley. "The spreadsheet did help me to get money back from people, but there was some unnecessary work on my part now that I know there are other ways to get to the same end result. I would not advise others to build out their own excel if they can use an existing resource, even though commenters asked for a template of my file."

Examples of an app that can figure out all of the details for you include SplitWise or Tab. Both allow users to take a picture of their bill and split it as they wish between a group.

"The response to the video has been more than I could have ever expected," said Haley. "The video is nearing 1 million views with over 2.5k comments, where most people fall into similar viewpoints. Some replies of, 'we love an excel queen' align to a view where the creation of a spreadsheet or using an app to figure out what everyone is responsible for to the penny is fine, normal, what they do in their social circles, and is necessary to get paid back. Others replied to this saying it is a courtesy to throw some extra dollars on top to say thank you for the person figuring it out."

While many praised the woman's inventive way of keeping the peace between her friends and splitting the bill fairly, others felt that the effort was unnecessary or over the top. But Haley stood by her decision to create the bill-splitting spreadsheet.

"People need to figure out with whom they dine how they want to handle bill paying and make sure everyone finds it fair, nothing burns a friendship more than a grudge of unequal financial responsibilities in a group. If dining out and one person has 4 alcoholic drinks and someone else only orders water, there is nothing fair in an equal bill splitting."

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