Guide
Eight friends at an istiraha, two arrived after dinner, four people paid. A full to-the-halala example, plus a few small rules that keep it friendly.
By The Splitaha teamPublished Last updated 11 min readThe short answer
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In everyday Saudi Arabic, as columnist Ghannia Al-Ghafari defined it in Al-Yaum (external link), a qatta is chipping in with a group toward a particular purpose. The classic case is a gift for a colleague on an occasion. Other newspaper columns describe a second use: money collected among friends, relatives or colleagues for a shared cost, such as a night at a rented istiraha (external link).
We cite those columns only to define the word. They are opinion pieces and we are not adopting their opinions. What matters here is that the qatta is a long-standing, practical custom, and its only weak point is that it needs a clear calculation so nobody feels shortchanged or put on the spot.
Many groups have one person who gathers the money, called the “muhassil al-qatta” (the collector). Newspaper columns (external link) describe a collector who tracks who has paid and who has not. It is a good idea with two limits:
The fix is one record that everyone sees equally: each expense, who paid, who shared it, and what each person still owes. Then the collector is simply whoever paid first and entered the amount, not someone chasing people. Splitaha does not collect or move money. It records who owes whom, and you pay each other however suits you.
Agree on a short rule before the outing. This one works for most groups:
Someone who shows up after dinner should not pay for dinner, but they do use the istiraha for the rest of the night, so sharing the rent is the fairer default. If your group feels a late arrival deserves half a share of the rent, use shares: two units for a full share and one for a half. Decide this before the calculation, not after, and write it in the group chat so it does not become an argument.
Eight friends at an istiraha. Hamad and Ziyad arrived after dinner and did not eat. Abdullah paid the rent, Majed paid the food order, Saleh paid for charcoal and Ali paid for drinks. Four expenses, each with the right list of people:
Names are illustrative. The food order includes delivery fees and VAT as charged on the receipt, and is shared by six people only.
Istiraha rent
1,375.00 SARPaid by Abdullah · Equal, everyone
Food order
612.50 SARPaid by Majed · Equal between Abdullah, Majed, Saleh, Ali, Badr, Rakan
Charcoal and wood
85.00 SARPaid by Saleh · Equal, everyone
Drinks and snacks
148.60 SARPaid by Ali · Equal, everyone
Abdullah
gets back1,071.82 SARMajed
gets back309.32 SARSaleh
pays218.17 SARAli
pays154.57 SARBadr
pays303.14 SARRakan
pays303.14 SARHamad
pays201.06 SARZiyad
pays201.06 SARThe label beside each name: gets back is money coming to that person from the others, pays is money that person hands to the others, settled means nothing is owed.
* Some halalas did not divide evenly, so the engine placed them on these people to make the shares add up to the bill exactly.
Notice that Hamad and Ziyad owe nothing on the food line, and that the first few people in the list absorb the extra halala on some expenses. That is what happens when an amount does not divide evenly: the app counts in whole halalas and hands out the leftover by a fixed rule, starting with the first people in the list, so the shares always add up to the original amount.
In that night four people paid and four paid nothing. The traditional way has everyone sending their share to each person who paid, and the transfers tangle. Splitaha works out each person's net (what they paid minus what they owe) and then simplifies debts: it matches people who owe with people who are owed using the fewest transfers it can, and never more than the number of people minus one.
Debt simplification in Splitaha is free, along with groups, balances and settlements. Look at the transfers under the example: that is how few it takes to settle eight people when four of them paid.
A group order from any restaurant or delivery app follows the same rule, no special feature needed:
That leaves the fees: delivery, service and VAT. The simplest way is to split them equally along with the order, as in the example. If everyone ordered at very different prices and you want fees shared in proportion to what each person ordered, the precise way is to scan the receipt and split by item.
A 650 SAR gift bought by Mansour, with nine colleagues contributing equally, Mansour included. The person receiving the gift is not a participant, of course.
Mansour paid for the gift and each contributor owes an equal share.
Colleague's gift
650.00 SARPaid by Mansour · Equal, everyone
Mansour
gets back577.77 SARFaisal
pays72.23 SARSaad
pays72.22 SARNayef
pays72.22 SARTurki
pays72.22 SARKhaled
pays72.22 SARYousef
pays72.22 SARTalal
pays72.22 SARMohammed
pays72.22 SARThe label beside each name: gets back is money coming to that person from the others, pays is money that person hands to the others, settled means nothing is owed.
* Some halalas did not divide evenly, so the engine placed them on these people to make the shares add up to the bill exactly.
650 does not divide by nine exactly, so an extra halala lands on the first people in the list. That is normal, and the total still matches. If you would rather have a round number, agree a fixed amount per person, such as 75 SAR, but the app does not hold a surplus, so work that out outside it and return the extra or put it toward a card.
Most important with a gift qatta: it is voluntary. Join in as you can, and do not put people on low incomes on the spot. Affection is not measured in riyals.
For longer trips and multi-day outings there are more rules in our guide to splitting travel expenses. For fixed monthly costs, see the guide to splitting rent and bills.
Change the amount and the number of people to see how the halalas divide. For more, try the split calculator, no sign-up.
One amount split equally. Change the number to see how the engine hands out the extra halalas.
Bill amount
2,221.10 SAR
You Paid
Who pays whom
Leftover halalas are distributed across participants so the shares add up to the bill exactly.
Splitaha records balances and settlements only; the money moves outside the app. To save groups and track balances with other people you need an account inside the app.
About the author
The Splitaha team
We are the team building Splitaha, a Saudi app for splitting shared expenses. We write what we know about our own product and link a source for anything we say about others. If something is out of date or wrong, write to support@splitaha.com and we will fix it.
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Read the postJoin the waitlist and we will send one message the day Splitaha reaches iPhone. In the meantime, try the calculator.