Expense Splitter 3.2
Splitting Made Easy!
The fourth Complete Programming Project (CPP) done by me.
v3.0 was a major update removing all the limitations that my Superpartner believed earlier versions had (see below).
This minor update is 'Release 9' and most probably the last one. The changelog is available here.
A fourth entry in the CPP club: EXPENSE SPLITTER. A bit of technicality: ExpenSplit (here's the app & the installer) requires MATLAB Compiler Runtime (2024a) to run. But you don't have to worry about what to download because the installer will figure it out (even whether MCR is already installed or not!) and install the right one before installing ExpenSplit. OK, so that's all good but you must be wondering what is this guy up to now.
Well, let's start the program and behold the main window:
As you might have suspected, this program helps you (the 'leader' of a 'group') split expenses incurred while sharing common 'grounds' together. As an example, if Emma's birthday gift cost $3400 and that amount was to be divided among all the four friends (even unequally!), you would enter it along with other transactions as shown. Then, you just hit the Calculate Payments button and settle what you owe others or ask for what they owe you:
Of course, you can do much more with this program than this simple scenario. You can view your data in different formats in the two tables as the expenses are split and optimal payments are calculated. You can enter transactions in multiple currencies to track expenses on your vacations across different countries (see below) and settle what you owe in the currency of your choice! You can export your data to a properly formatted Excel file for some data analysis of your expenses. Check them out and explore further the 'Options' and 'Help' menu items on your own.
So, Get Started: ExpenSplit App (3.2.5.9) or ExpenSplit 3.2
After watching this Demo Video (of v3.0 for now):
Limitations of the program / What shouldn't be expected for now
The current version doesn't have a currency converter in place. If you went on a trip to the Maldives and spent money in both INR and MVR during the journey, you would perhaps have to create two copies - one for the expenses in MVR and another in INR.
A currency converter is now in place and the scenario envisioned above can be exactly handled in a single file.
We do not have any options to append two files. If the monthly expenses of a family are getting split and the members are the same and if you wish to append some monthly files together, there is no mechanism that currently enables you to calculate a final payment result.
Two files can be merged now for precisely the scenario envisioned above.
Last but not least, if you are planning to use this program for dividing expenses between two people, this program is not going to help you. Give it a try and it may ask you to "Get a life". :)
It no longer does that for the scenario envisioned above, but it may do that for something else! ;)