Split the bill. Tax, tip and all.

How it works

Two ways to split, one set of extras.

1. Even splitType the food and drinks total from the bill, before any service charge or tax, and how many of you there are. Everyone pays the same.
2. By itemAdd the people, then each dish or drink with its price, and tick who shared it. A platter three people picked at is divided three ways; the beer only one person drank stays theirs.
3. Add the extrasFill in the service charge, tax and tip from the bottom of the bill, or tap a bill style to start from the usual rates. The bill in front of you always wins.
4. Round up, if you likeRound each share up to the next 1, 10 or 1,000 so nobody is counting coins. Whatever rounding adds is shown, so it can go to the tip.
5. Send itCopy the summary and paste it in the group chat. It lists the bill, the extras and what each person owes.

The order on the bill

Service first, then tax, then tip.

Splitting goes wrong most often before anyone divides anything: the extras get added in the wrong order. Two settings in the calculator cover the differences between countries.

Is the tax charged on the service charge too? On a menu marked “++” (plus plus), yes. In Singapore, the tax office says GST is worked out on the total including the service charge. Indonesia’s regional restaurant tax works the same way: it is charged on what you pay, so the service charge goes in first. That is why a “++” bill comes to slightly more than the two percentages added together.

Is the tip worked out before or after tax? In the United States, the Emily Post Institute says to tip 15 to 20 percent on the bill before tax, since the tax goes to the government rather than the staff. Tipping on the whole total is common too, and the calculator can do either.

Rates change and vary by city, so treat the bill styles in the calculator as a starting point. If the bill already says “service included”, a tip on top is a kindness, not a rule.

By hand

The same sum on the back of the receipt.

Four friends in Jakarta, a dinner that came to 450,000 for food and drinks, on a “++” menu with a 5 percent service charge and 10 percent tax.

1. Service charge5 percent of 450,000 is 22,500. Running total: 472,500.
2. Tax10 percent of 472,500 (food plus service) is 47,250. The bill: 519,750.
3. TipNone here: the service charge is on the bill. Where you do tip, work it out on the 450,000.
4. Divide519,750 ÷ 4 = 129,937.50 each. Round up to 130,000 and the extra 250 can stay with the staff.

Splitting by item works the same way, one person at a time: add up what each person had (their dishes plus their share of anything shared), then add the same 5 percent and 10 percent to their part. The parts add back up to the bill.

Splitting fairly

Eight rules that keep the end of the night short.

• Decide before you order. “Even tonight, or each pays theirs?” is easy over menus and awkward over the bill.
• Even when orders are close. If everyone ate about the same, an even split is fair and takes ten seconds. Small differences even out over a year of dinners.
• By item when they aren’t. Someone had a salad and water while others had steak and wine? Split by item, or that person pays for everyone else’s wine.
• Shared plates go to the sharers. The platter is divided among the people who ate from it, not the whole table.
• Drinkers split the bottle. A bottle of wine for three is a three-way split, even at a table of five.
• Extras follow the food. Service charge, tax and tip are percentages, so each person’s share of them should follow their share of the bill, not be a flat amount each. The calculator does this for you.
• The birthday person is a guest. Untick them from everything in By item, and the rest of the table covers their share.
• Round up, never down. The few coins rounding adds belong to the staff, not to whoever paid on their card.

For the group chat

What the summary looks like.

When one person pays on their card, the others need the numbers. This is the text the copy button gives you for the dinner above:

The bill
Food and drinks: 450,000
Service charge 5%: 22,500
Tax 10%: 47,250
Total: 519,750

Split 4 ways: 130,000 each
Rounding up leaves 250 over. Call it part of the tip.

Pick a currency symbol and the numbers come out the way that currency writes them, with dots for thousands in rupiah and decimals only where the currency has them.