Start before the first booking
Create the event once you know who is going, rather than waiting until you get home. Add friends who use Rachou and include the others by name. They can join through an invitation later and see the same history.
Agree on three things: which costs are shared, when people should enter what they paid and how you will handle different currencies. That saves you from searching old messages for receipts after the trip.
Include the right people in each expense
Accommodation and shared transport often involve everyone. Meals, tickets and shopping may involve only a few people. Include whoever actually took part. If someone stays on alone, their extra nights should not be spread across the group.
Use descriptions you will understand later, such as First day's groceries or Airport taxi to hotel. A useful description matters more than a perfect category. Keep receipts when helpful, but avoid attaching unnecessary personal information.
Record costs while you remember them
Enter the amount, currency, payer and participants soon after paying. It is faster than reconstructing five days of transactions. Everyone in the event can help; the person who created it does not have to do every entry.
If the connection is poor, keep the receipt and catch up that evening. Five minutes checking transport, meals and tickets each day is easier than a long accounting session at the airport.
Keep currencies separate
One friend might book accommodation in their home currency while another pays for dinner in euros. Choosing an exchange rate afterwards can change what each person owes. Rachou keeps balances separate by currency and does not convert them automatically.
Settle each currency separately or agree on a conversion outside the app. Record the settle-up in the currency and amount you actually agreed on. A rough exchange rate or a card authorization is not necessarily the final amount charged.
You do not need a transfer after every coffee
Settling every small expense immediately creates more transfers, sometimes in opposite directions. The combined balances show who has paid more for the group and who needs to catch up. Simplifying the settle-ups keeps the original expenses in the history.
Use the balances to take turns paying when it helps, but do not chase a perfect zero throughout the holiday. Calculate the final result after all expenses and refunds are recorded.
Review the trip before settling up
Ask everyone to check their expenses and shares. Look for duplicates, wrong currencies, missing participants and money already sent. Agree on a cutoff so late entries do not change the totals halfway through settling.
Make the agreed transfers, record each settle-up and check that the expected balances are cleared. Keep the history so you can answer later questions about a booking or a transfer without reconstructing the trip.
Your trip checklist
- Create the event and invite friends before leaving.
- Agree which costs are shared.
- Record payer, participants and currency for each bill.
- Check entries each day.
- Keep currencies separate.
- Review everything before the final settle-ups.
Bookings, deposits and cancellations
Describe what an advance booking covers and for which dates. A temporary card hold is not a final expense. Wait for the charge to be confirmed or make it clear that the deposit may be returned.
Adjust the record when something is refunded. If nobody has settled yet, correcting or removing the expense may be enough. If friends have already sent money, preserve the context and record what is needed to explain the changed balances.
Extra baggage, a private room or an additional night can belong to different people even on the same invoice. Separate those costs when entering the bill rather than negotiating corrections at the end.
When people arrive or leave on different days
An airport taxi may carry four friends on the way out and six on the way back. Accommodation may need to be split by the number of nights. Use weights or fixed amounts to reflect those differences without creating a separate event for every combination.
Explain the rule in the description when it is not obvious. You do not need a professional audit; you need a record a friend can understand without rebuilding the itinerary.