Frequently asked questions

Tap the + button, enter the amount, choose who paid and how to split it (equally, by amounts, or by shares).

Settle up shows the fewest payments needed to clear everyone's balances in a group.

Yaar Khata is a simple expense-splitting app for friends, roommates, trips and families. You create a group, add shared expenses, and the app keeps a running "khata" of who owes whom so nobody has to do the maths. When it is time to pay up, it tells you the fewest payments needed to clear everything.

You can start using the app right away — groups and expenses are stored on your device. Creating a free account lets you sync across devices, get invited to other people's groups, receive email reminders and back up your data so you never lose it.

Tap the "+" button on the home screen and choose "New group". Give it a name (like "Trip to Hunza" or "Flat 3B"), add the people who are sharing costs, and you are ready to record your first expense.

Yes. All the core features — groups, unlimited expenses, splitting, settling up and reminders — are free. A Premium plan unlocks extra convenience features, but you never need it to split expenses with friends.

Amounts are shown in Rupees (Rs / PKR) by default. You can change the currency for a group in its settings if you are travelling or splitting costs in another currency.

Shares are weighted parts, not percentages. Give someone 2 shares to make them pay double.

Yes — when adding an expense choose Repeat and pick daily, weekly, monthly or a custom interval.

Open Settings → Get Premium and choose a plan. You can apply a coupon code at checkout.

Open the group, go to its members list and tap "Add member". You can add someone by name for a quick local entry, or invite a friend by email so they get their own synced view of the group and its balances.

Absolutely. Most people keep separate groups for flatmates, trips, office lunches and family. Each group has its own members, expenses and balances, and your home screen shows a summary across all of them.

You can remove a member once their balance is settled (they owe nothing and are owed nothing). This keeps the group's history accurate. If they still have an outstanding balance, settle up first, then remove them.

Yes. Open the group's settings to rename it, change its currency or delete it. Deleting a group removes its expenses and balances, so make sure everyone has settled up before you do.

Every group has an activity feed listing all expenses, income, transfers and settlements in date order. Tap any entry to see who paid, how it was split and each person's share.

Inside a group tap "Add expense", enter what it was for and the amount, choose who paid, and pick how to split it. Save and everyone's balances update instantly.

There are three split modes. "Equally" divides the cost evenly among the people you select. "By amounts" lets you type each person's exact share. "By shares" splits by weights — for example 2 shares for a couple and 1 for a single person — which is handy when people should pay unequal but proportional amounts.

You can log a normal expense, income (money coming in that is shared), a transfer (moving money between two members), and an expense created from a bill. Choosing the right type keeps everyone's khata accurate.

Yes — that is the most common case. Record who actually paid, then split the cost among everyone who benefited. The app tracks that the payer is owed money by the others.

When you have a single bill covering several items, you can create an expense from it and split the total across the group. It works like a normal expense but is tagged as coming from a bill so it is easy to recognise later.

For costs that repeat — rent, subscriptions, utility bills — you can mark an expense as recurring and choose daily, weekly, monthly or a custom interval. Yaar Khata automatically adds it on schedule so you never forget to log it.

Yes. Open the expense from the group feed and tap edit to change the amount, payer or split, or delete it entirely. Balances recalculate automatically for everyone in the group.

Yes. Use the income type for shared money coming in — like a deposit refund or a group gift — and it will be distributed among members instead of charged to them.

Settling up is clearing the debts in a group. Rather than everyone paying everyone, Yaar Khata works out the simplest set of payments that cancels all balances — so instead of many small transfers you make just a few.

It uses debt simplification: it looks at every balance in the group and suggests the fewest possible payments to bring everyone to zero. This means you might pay someone you never directly borrowed from, but the total you owe stays exactly the same.

No. Yaar Khata never touches your money — it only keeps score. When you actually hand over cash or send a bank transfer, you record that payment in the app so the balances update to reflect it.

Tap "Settle up", choose who you paid and how much, and save. The payment appears in the group history and both people's balances adjust immediately.

That is fine. Enter the amount you actually paid when settling up, and the remaining balance stays on your khata until it is cleared.

On a group's home screen there is a "Remind all" button. Tapping it sends a friendly payment-reminder email to every member of that group who currently owes money, showing exactly how much they owe in that group. It is a gentle nudge, nothing more.

No. "Remind all" never charges anyone and never moves any money — it only sends a reminder email. Recording actual payments still happens through "Settle up".

Only members who currently owe money in that group are emailed — people who are square or are owed money get nothing. A member must also have a Yaar Khata account with an email address, and must not have turned off reminder emails for that group. Anyone who does not meet all of these is quietly skipped.

Open the group's notification settings and switch off payment reminders for that group. You will stop receiving "Remind all" emails from it while still getting reminders from your other groups, unless you turn those off too.

The reminder email is friendly and simply states the amount owed in the group. It is designed to take the awkwardness out of asking, so you can nudge everyone at once without singling anyone out.

Yes. You can share a read-only view of a group through a link or a QR code. Anyone who opens it can see the group's balances and history without needing to be added or to install anything.

Besides sharing a whole group, you can share a single member's khata — their balance and transaction history. It is perfect for showing one person exactly what they owe or are owed, again as a read-only link or QR code.

Yes. When you create a share link or QR code you can optionally set a password, so only people you give the password to can open it. Without the password the link will not reveal any details.

No. Shared links and QR codes are strictly read-only. Viewers can see balances and history but cannot add, edit or delete anything in your group.

When you choose to share a group or a member's khata, pick the QR option and the app displays a scannable code. The other person scans it with their camera to open the same read-only view — handy when you are together in person.

Premium unlocks extra convenience on top of the free features. You can subscribe to a plan from within the app, and everything you already use for splitting and settling remains free whether or not you upgrade.

Payments are handled securely through Stripe checkout. Choose a plan in the app, complete the checkout, and your Premium features activate as soon as the payment goes through.

Yes. If you have a coupon code, enter it during checkout and the discount is applied to your plan before you pay.

Yes. A purchase receipt is emailed to you automatically after a successful payment, and again each time your subscription renews. These receipts are always sent regardless of your email preferences.

You can manage your plan from your account's billing section in the app. Cancelling stops future renewals while letting you keep Premium until the end of the period you have already paid for.

You are in control of non-essential emails such as group invitations, new-expense alerts and product tips. You choose which of these to receive from your notification settings, so your inbox stays exactly as busy as you want it.

Yes. Some email types are set at the account level and apply everywhere, while others — like new-expense alerts and payment reminders — can be switched on or off per group. This lets you stay closely informed about one group and quiet about another.

A few essential emails are always sent because they protect your account or confirm money matters — for example password resets and purchase receipts. Everything else is optional and controlled by your preferences.

Open your notification settings and switch off the categories you do not want, either for your whole account or for specific groups. Turning off reminder or new-expense emails for a busy group usually makes the biggest difference.

On the sign-in screen tap "Forgot password" and enter your email. We send you a reset link that is valid for 60 minutes; open it to choose a new password. This email is always sent for your security.

Only the members of a group can see its expenses and balances, plus anyone you deliberately give a read-only share link or QR code to. Your data is not public and is never shared with other members' groups.

Yes. Yaar Khata supports multiple languages. Pick your preferred language in the app settings and the whole interface updates instantly.

It does. You can switch between light and dark themes in settings, or let the app follow your phone's system theme so it matches everything else automatically.

You can request account deletion from your account settings. This removes your personal data; before deleting, make sure any shared groups are settled so you do not leave friends with unclear balances.

Yes — the app works fully offline. You can open groups, add expenses, split costs and settle up with no connection at all, which is ideal on trips or in areas with weak signal.

They are saved on your device straight away and marked to sync. As soon as you are back online, Yaar Khata uploads them automatically so everyone in the group sees the updates — no manual step needed.

When you are signed in to an account, your groups and expenses sync through the cloud so you see the same up-to-date information on every device you use.

Each person's changes are stored locally and merged when both devices reconnect, so nothing is lost. Balances are recalculated from the combined set of expenses once everything has synced.