How to use TrolleyList

How it works

TrolleyList reads the print on your photo on its own server. The photo is not sent to any other company. Then it adds up the prices it found and holds the sum against the total printed on the receipt. Only when the two are the same does it trust what it read.

So one of three things happens:

1. It adds up. You see the shop, the date and every line. Look over the names. In the chat, write save. On the website, press Save trip.
2. It does not add up. TrolleyList says that it could not read the receipt safely, and why. Nothing is saved. Write fix in the chat: the receipt opens as a form, with your photo next to it and only the lines it is fairly sure of. Put it right, add what is missing, and save.
3. The photo cannot be read. Too blurred, too dark or too small: it says so at once and asks for a new photo.

A photo that reads right

1. Flat. Lay the receipt on a table and smooth out the folds.
2. Straight from above. Hold the phone over the middle of it, not from the side.
3. All of it. From the name of the shop at the top to the total at the bottom. Without the total, the prices cannot be checked.
4. Good light. By a window or under a lamp. No shadow of your hand or your phone across it, and no flash on shiny paper.
5. Sharp. Tap the receipt on the screen, wait a moment, hold still.
6. One receipt in one photo. For a very long one, hold the phone higher so that all of it fits. If the print gets too small that way, use the shop's app (see below).

Even better: the receipt in the shop's app

Many shops keep your receipts in their app, for example Tesco (the Clubcard app) and Lidl (Lidl Plus). Open the receipt there, take a screenshot, and send that. It is sharp and flat, so it is read right almost every time.

When a name is read wrong

Change it in the form before you save. TrolleyList remembers it for that shop: the next time the same line is read there, it gets your name by itself. You only put it right once.

Petrol and diesel

A receipt from the pump becomes one line, like "Unleaded petrol", at what you paid. The litres and the price of a litre are kept in the note of the trip.

No time, or still wrong?

Write report in the chat after the photo, or open Report or suggest in the menu. The admin looks at the photo and puts the trip right for you.

You can also let an AI app you already use read it: Add, then Upload a receipt, has a text to copy into that app together with your photo. Paste its answer under Paste a list.

The words for the chat

save saves the receipt that waits · fix opens it as a form · report sends it to the admin · undo takes the last thing back

What happens to your photo

It is kept for 7 days, so that a wrong reading can be checked, and then deleted. You see it next to the form; the admin sees it only when you report it. Other members never see it.

What it tells you

The bell at the top (on a computer: Notifications in the menu) shows a red number when something is new for you: a friend added you to a group, somebody put things on the group's list or took one, a bill was split with you, somebody paid you back. It also tells you when the price of something on your shopping list, or with a star, dropped in a shop, and when the admin answered what you sent.

What you can do there

• Tap a line to open what it is about. It then counts as read.
• Some lines have a button: Mark as paid, Add to my list, Open the group, Leave it.
• Mark all as read takes the red number away.
• The wheel opens the settings: switch a kind off, mute one group, and choose what also comes by email.

Good to know

You are never told what you did yourself. Several things in a row make one line ("added 5 things"). A price that dropped never says who paid it. A line is deleted after 30 days.

How it works

TrolleyList writes down who paid for what, and works out who owes whom. The money itself goes by bank transfer or cash, as you like. One friend is enough to start.

Step by step

1. Add your first friend. Menu, Split bills, type their email, Add friend. With an account they are with you at once. Without one they get an email with an invitation; its link works for 14 days, and they are with you as soon as they have signed up.
2. Add what was paid. Open the friend, Add an expense: what it was, how much, who paid. Split it equally, by amounts, by percent or by shares.
3. More than two of you? Make a group ("House", "Cornwall holiday") and add the people. A group can have up to 20 people. Whoever makes it is its admin.
4. Shop together. A group has one shopping list. Everybody adds what is needed and taps I'll get it on what they will buy or bring. Tap Done when you have it, and add the price if you like: it is split in the group.
5. Rent, internet, anything that comes again. Choose Repeat when you add the expense. It is added by itself every week or month.
6. A whole receipt. From an expense, choose to split one of your receipts line by line: who had what.
7. Put a bill right. Tap a bill to change its amount, who paid, the date or the split. Everybody in the group can do that (an admin of the group can narrow it). The others are told what changed, and each bill keeps its history: who changed what, and when. A bill that is removed can be brought back for 30 days, under Removed bills.
8. See who owes whom. The group shows it with as few payments as possible. Remind sends a friendly email to somebody who owes you.
9. Settle up. When somebody has paid, choose Settle up and it is written off. When everybody is square, an admin of the group can delete it.

The invitation did not arrive?

Ask your friend to look in their spam folder. In the group, under People, Send again sends it once more. You can also copy their link under Invite a friend and send it yourself, in any app.

Who sees what

The people in a group see the expenses and the shopping list of that group. They do not see your own shopping, your trips or your other groups.