# guide

How to split a restaurant bill fairly (with tax, tip and shared plates)

Short answer: each person pays for what they ordered, shared dishes are divided among the people who shared them, and tax, service and tip are split in the same proportion as the food. Splitting evenly is only fair when everyone ordered about the same.

Doing that by hand means reading the receipt line by line and a calculator at the table. With LazySplit it takes about a minute: scan the receipt, share the link, and everyone claims their own items from their own phone.

Step by step: scan, share, claim

1. Step 1

   Scan the receipt

   Take a photo of the receipt. Every item, price, tax and service line is read for you, so nobody types anything in. Anything the scanner got wrong is one tap to fix.

2. Step 2

   Share one link in the group chat

   Send the bill link to everyone at the table. It opens in the browser: no app to download and no account needed.

3. Step 3

   Everyone claims what they had, live

   Each person taps their own items on their own phone, and the bill updates in real time for everyone as claims come in. Shared plates? Everyone who had some taps it, and it splits between them.

4. Step 4

   Tax, service and tip split in proportion, automatically

   Someone who ordered 40% of the food pays 40% of the tip. Shares always add up to the exact bill, down to the cent.

5. Step 5

   See who owes what and who has paid

   Totals are ready the moment the last item is claimed. Mark people as paid, and send a gentle nudge to anyone who still owes.

What the maths looks like

This is what LazySplit works out for you as people claim. Three friends, a 68.00 subtotal and a 10% tip (6.80), so 74.80 in total. The fries (6.00) were shared by all three.

Ben ordered 30 of the 68.00 in food (about 44%), so he covers 44% of the tip: 3.00. Split evenly, everyone would have paid 24.93, and Cara would have overpaid by 9.53 for a salad. In LazySplit, Ana, Ben and Cara each tap their own dishes, all three tap the fries, and these totals appear on everyone's screen as they go.

When an even split is fine

If everyone ordered roughly the same, or the group simply prefers it, divide the total by the number of people. The split bill calculator does that in one step, tax and tip included.