Lunch is an excellent opportunity to strengthen rapport or simply to take a breather from the daily grind, and it's even better when you can catch up with friends over a meal. But sometimes, things get more than a little awkward when the bill comes. Someone forgot their wallet. Another colleague wants to split it evenly, but she just had the salad. All of a sudden, there's mental math for individual drinks and appetizers, and the conversation stops right there. This won't be the first time the lunch bill has turned your team's joyous occasion into something resembling a mini-accounting session, and it won't be the last—unless you find a better way to split expenses.
This story occurs in offices worldwide, not to mention busy ones in India. Visualize the dynamic Mumbai-based marketing team that eats lunch together frequently. Laughter and fun accompany every lunch break for this team of friends. But by month's end, when anyone tries reconciling lunch bills using their respective mental notes, it always leads to confusion and arguments. This, in fact, turns out to be an example—the oft-occurring one—of the problems in splitting expenses among colleagues.
The hassle of having to divide the bill: universal
Dividing the lunch tab with friends has attached to its issues that cut across geographical locations or professions. The Fact of Fairness: Not everyone has the same budget or appetite. Dividing the lunch tab in equal portions can be discriminatory to the one who purchased a more expensive meal or included beverages in the meal. This is a huge point of contention in regards to the question of fairness in expense division.
Cash or Card Chaos: Searching for exact change or orchestrating separate card payments is a time-consuming and distracting dance. In these modern times, dealing with transactions in cash painfully drags along the process of splitting expenses.
The Forgotten Wallet Woe: We've all been there. That awkward moment when you realize you literally are empty-handed really might put a damper on the fun. Thankfully, splitting expense apps spares you from this awkward moment altogether.
Mental Math Mayhem: Coming up with individual amounts, especially for a larger group of people, can be very error-prone and much room for disputes. Splitting expense apps can eliminate this mental burden and become perfect tool for shared expenses.
>> Read more: Splitting Expenses Online Made Easy: Perfect for Gifts, Trips & Group Activities
Beyond the lunch bill: other splitting expense headaches
Parting lunch bills is by no means the most prevalent headache caused by splitting expenses. Here are some other common scenarios that cause many headaches:
Office Supplies: Keeping track of supplies such as printer cartridges or coffee filters used on behalf of the entire office can be a real hassle. Who used what and who owes for what? Using splitting expense apps has the functionality of tracking and splitting expenses of shared supplies around the office, very fairly and with no confusion at all.
Team Outings: Whether it's happy hour drinks or some sort of team-building activity, somebody is always left covering—which isn't easy—to cover upfront costs, collect reimbursement checks weeks later, and maybe even nurture resentment. Splitting expense apps can help facilitate team outings by splitting expenses up front and ensuring that everybody pitches in their fair share.
Work Trips: From the cab fares to shared hotel rooms, work trips represent an entire array of expenses. Now, keeping track of everyone's individual costs and making sure people are fairly reimbursed is a rather complicated thing. One way to remember expenses racked up during work trips and split them up is by using splitting expense apps, thereby avoiding the risk of missing receipts.
The impact of unresolved splitting expenses
These small problems can have big impacts in the work life when it comes to splitting expenses:
Low/Productivity: The stress and time wastage in wrangles over the bill eat into your lunch-break and erode the focus and productivity when you get back to work. Quick Takes Imagine that energetic marketing team in Mumbai again. If their lunch break is consumed by arguments over the bill, they may get back to work flustered and quite unable to concentrate on their work, which destroys their productivity for the rest of the afternoon.
Strained Relations: Small, unresolved financial issues can give rise to tension and awkwardness amongst people within a team. For example, suppose that due to differences, the Mumbai marketing team keeps pending its lunch bills. It could give way to feelings of disdain and eventually to a communication breakdown, and this is sure to reflect in team spirit and collaboration.
Loss of Time: The process is relevantly consuming break time that would otherwise be spent in relaxation or bonding with colleagues. Lunch breaks are supposed to be a time when people relax and socialize with colleagues. If the Mumbai marketing team uses the whole break in arguing over the bill, they miss out on this opportunity to bond with each other and build relations that would strengthen the team bond.
>> Read more: Splitting Group Expenses with Ease Using MemoGo after the Fun
Enter the tech hero: splitting expense apps save the day
Fortunately, there is a solution to these group expense headaches! Incredibly intuitive mobile apps for sharing expenses will be your office hero. They offer a raft of features to make the process easier and guarantee that everyone pays their fair share:
Easy Bill Recording: Just input the total amount of the bill and details like date and location. Some apps even allow one to take a picture with their device for future reference.
Flexible Splitting Options: You can split a bill equally or proportionally based on what individual items you ordered, or custom-split for any scenario. This makes everything fair and there are no more arguments about who owes whom.
Expense Tracking: Get an overall look at all your shared expenses in one place. This comes particularly in handy for recurring expenses like office supplies or team outings.
Multi Currency Support: In cases of international teams or frequent business travelers, some apps could be handy with multi currency support to help split expenses with a breeze even with different currencies involved.
Benefits of streamlined splitting expenses with tech
Using a splitting expense app confers numerous benefits, such as:
Transparency and Fairness: The total cost, along with individual shares, is visible to all, thereby putting everything clean and clear under the limelight, avoiding misconceptions.
Convenience and Efficiency: Splitting up the bills is quite a fast and simple activity and saves precious time in your hour-long lunch break or planned team outing.
Less Stress: No more awkward moments or long waits for the verbal algebra. Splitting expenses apps take out all the stress and anxiety from sharing the bill, once and for all.
Improved Relations: Barring financial issues, an expense splitter can create an easier and less argumentative setting within the working environment. As mentioned earlier, the marketing team will be extremely elated with a splitting expense app, as it would make the settlement of lunch bills very prompt and problem-free, which will, in turn, give them more time to tighten bonds and savor their recess hours.
>> Read more: Expense Splitter: Your Pathway to Financial Freedom at Young Adulthood
Download MemoGo as a best app for all group bills!
Let troublesome splitting not interfere with your work life and teamwork. Download MemoGo, one of the best splitting expenses apps now, and see how it can bring you to a smoother, fairer, and absolutely zero-stress process. By using this app, you will change the way you deal with group bills, reserving your attention for what is truly important: building strong relationships, attaining success together.