Expense Splitter

What This Is

A web app for splitting restaurant bills fairly among friends. Handles the messy reality of shared appetizers, individual items, different tip preferences, and tax calculations. Add people, add items, assign who ordered what, and get a clear summary of who owes how much.

Learning project to practice building a complete web application.

Core Value

Everyone leaves knowing exactly what they owe - no arguing, no awkward math at the table.

Requirements

Validated

(None yet — ship to validate)

Active

Add people to a bill by name
Add items with prices
Assign items to specific people or mark as "shared"
Set custom tip percentage per person
View final summary: "Sarah owes $34.50, Mike owes $28.20..."
Save bills to local storage for history

Out of Scope

User accounts/authentication — local storage only
Backend server — fully client-side
Mobile native apps — web-first
Receipt scanning/OCR — manual entry
Payment processing — calculation only, no money transfer
Bill sharing via link — local storage means device-specific

Context

Learning project for practicing web development. Focus on clean UX for the item assignment flow - that's where most bill splitters get confusing. The core interaction is: how quickly can someone go from "we just ate" to "here's what everyone owes"?

Constraints

Tech stack: Client-side web app (HTML/CSS/JS or framework)
Persistence: Browser local storage only
Complexity: Keep it focused - bill splitting, not a full finance app

Key Decisions

Decision	Rationale	Outcome
Local storage only	Simplifies architecture, good for learning, no auth complexity	— Pending
Custom tip per person	Reflects real-world scenario where people tip differently	— Pending

Last updated: 2026-03-11 after initialization

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