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Walkthrough 1 — Planning a Wedding
The best way to learn Revel Tally is to plan something with it. Let's build “Emma & Liam's Wedding” from scratch — a $25,000 budget in Asheville, NC, split three ways — and touch every major feature along the way.
Step 1 · Create the event
Tap ＋ on the home screen, choose the Wedding type, and fill in a name, budget, location, and cover emoji. Event type matters — it colors the app, groups your home screen, and unlocks the right budget template in the next step.
Step 2 · Start from a budget template
A brand-new event's Expenses tab offers “✨ Start from a Wedding template.” Tap it and you get a checklist of the line items a wedding usually needs — venue, catering, photography, flowers, cake, and more — each with a sensible starting amount you can edit later.
Pick the line items to add — untick anything you don't need
…and your Expenses tab fills in instantly
Re-open it any time. The template screen remembers what's already on your budget and marks those items “Added” so you never create duplicates. There's also a “Clear all & re-add” option to start over.
Step 3 · Bundle the venue (included expenses)
Real venues often quote one price that already covers the DJ, photographer, and flowers. You don't want to pay for those twice. Open the Venue expense, tap “Includes other expenses → Add”, and pick the items its price covers. Revel Tally asks whether you have a per-item breakdown (keep each amount as a sub-line) or the items are simply included (shown with no separate cost).
Pick what the price includes
Keep the breakdown, or mark them “included”
Included items nest under the Venue
Why it matters: bundled items are excluded from every total — your budget, the per-person split, and settle-up — so a $5,000 venue that covers a $1,200 DJ counts as $5,000, never $6,200.
Step 4 · Add the people splitting
On the People tab, add everyone sharing the costs and give them a role (bride, groom, bridesmaid…). Anyone marked Splitting is automatically included when you add an expense.
Emma, Liam & the organizer — all splitting
Splitting unevenly? Use a custom split
Expenses split equally by default, but some bills shouldn't — maybe the bride covers a bigger share of the venue, or one friend skips the wine tour. On Add Expense, flip the toggle from Split equally to Custom split and give each person their own share, either in dollars ($) or percentages (%). A running total shows what's assigned; the amounts must add up to the full expense before you can save — Distribute evenly gives you a starting point to tweak.
Change your mind later? Open the expense and tap ✏️ Edit split on the split card to adjust everyone's share — anything already collected stays counted.
Custom split — each person gets their own share, in $ or %
Edit split later from the expense — save when it adds up
Step 5 · Vendor payments vs. collecting from people
Revel Tally tracks two separate things so they never get confused:
🏦
Paid to the vendor
Money that's left your hands — a deposit, an installment, or the full bill. Set it with a payment schedule or the “Mark paid to vendor” toggle.
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Collected from the group
Money your friends have paid you back for their share. Tracked per person and via settle-ups.
On an expense you'll see a Vendor payment section (has this been paid out?) and a Payments section (how much has been collected). The Catering expense below has a deposit paid; the Includes card sits right at the top.
Expense detail — Includes, Vendor payment & the split
Statuses at a glance: Paid the whole bill is settled, Partial a deposit is down, Unpaid nothing yet.
Step 6 · See the budget & who owes what
The Overview tab is your headline: how much of the budget is committed, how much has gone to vendors, what's collected from the group, the per-person split, and a category breakdown. Notice the bundled DJ/photographer/flowers don't appear as their own categories — they live inside the Venue.
Overview — budget, collected & by category
Split tab — your own share, expense by expense
Step 7 · Settle up
Tap View Full Breakdown for the Split Summary. The Settle Up list computes the fewest transfers to square everyone up — instead of six awkward paybacks, maybe just two. Tap Mark Paid when a transfer happens; it updates every screen and lands in Payment History (with an Undo).
Paid outside the app? If you sent cash, or used Venmo, Cash App or PayPal, tap Tell [name] I've paid on your own row and the person you paid gets asked to confirm it. Until they do, the amount stays listed as owed — a payment is only settled once both of you agree it arrived, so nobody's balance moves on one person's word. You can withdraw a report you made by mistake, and if they tap Not Yet (usually just "I haven't seen it land"), nothing changes and you can report it again later.
If nobody answers. A report that goes unanswered isn't left hanging. After three days Revel Tally sends a reminder, up to three of them, and you can send one yourself from the same row at any point. If all three go by with no reply, both of you are told to sort it out directly, and only then can the organizer record it outright. The order matters: asking comes first and recording is the last resort, so a payment can't be marked settled just because someone was slow to reply.
What if they're not on the app? They still get asked. If the person you paid has an email on their contact card, they're sent a link that opens a page asking whether the money arrived — no app, no account, no sign-in, and the link works once. If all you have is a phone number, the organizer gets a Text [name] the link button that opens their own Messages app with the same link ready to send — which is why nobody ends up unreachable.
Who can mark something paid. The person who was paid can always record it — they're the one who'd know, and saying "I got it" can only count against them. So can the organizer, on a payment between two other people, since they may be the only one there to witness cash changing hands. The one person who can't is the payer, including an organizer paying their own share: that's the whole reason the confirmation step exists.
Confirming, and the record it leaves. When you're the one being paid, confirming asks how the money arrived — cash, Venmo, Cash App, PayPal, a bank transfer. That's your own record, kept alongside what the payer said rather than replacing it, so if they reported Venmo and you were handed cash, both readings survive. The method shows next to the date in Payment History, which is where to look if you ever need to reconstruct who paid what, and how.
Fewest transfers to square up + per-person cards
Settle-Up History & “Where Everyone Stands”
Where Everyone Stands shows each person's net after what they fronted and any settle-ups — so someone who paid a big deposit up front clearly reads as owed, not owing.
Step 8 · Get paid back in one tap
Add your payment methods once — Profile → Payment methods takes a Venmo handle, Cash App cashtag, and/or PayPal.Me name (paste them in any form; the app tidies them up). From then on, anyone who owes you sees Pay with Venmo / Cash App / PayPal buttons on their own transfer, which open the pay app with the exact amount and a note pre-filled. Those buttons only ever appear on a person's own debt — you won't see them on money owed to you, because they'd be offering to pay yourself. Once the payment happens, the organizer taps Mark Paid to keep the books square.
Profile → Payment methods — add your handles once
Settle Up — one-tap pay buttons on each transfer
Good to know: buttons only appear when the person being paid has added payment methods (their transfer shows a gentle hint otherwise), and Venmo/Cash App only appear on USD events — PayPal covers other currencies.
Step 9 · Settle up without leaving the app
The buttons above hand off to another app, and someone still has to remember to come back and tap Mark Paid. There's now a second option that closes itself: pay inside Revel Tally, and the expense is marked paid automatically.
To be paid this way, set it up once. Go to Profile → Get paid in the app → Set up payments. That opens a secure Stripe page where you confirm who you are and where the money should land. It takes a couple of minutes, and you only do it once.
After that, anyone settling up with you sees Pay $142.50 with Apple Pay or Credit Card on their transfer (Google Pay on Android). They pay, the money goes to your bank account, and the transfer clears itself from Settle Up — no nudging, no "did you send it yet?".
Set it up once in Profile — Stripe handles the rest
…and everyone settling up with you gets a Pay button
Revel Tally never sees your card or bank details. Payments are handled entirely by Stripe, the same company behind checkout on a great many online stores. We never hold your money either — it goes from the payer straight to the recipient.
Venmo, Cash App and PayPal are always free. They simply open those apps — we are never in the middle of them, so they cost nothing and never will. Paying inside Revel Tally is free today too.* The Pay button only appears once the person being paid has finished setting up payments; until then the hand-off buttons work exactly as before, and nothing about the old way changes.
* Settling up inside the app may carry a small service fee covering the cost of running in-app payments. There is no fee at present, and if one is introduced you will see it before you pay — the amount you owe and the amount your friend receives are always the same number. Venmo, Cash App and PayPal stay free regardless.
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Feature Reference
The four event tabs
| Tab | What it's for |
|---|
| Overview | Budget headline, to-vendor vs. collected, per-person split, category breakdown, linked events. |
| Expenses | Every line item with its status; start from a template; bundled items nest under their parent. |
| People | Attendees and roles; who's splitting; add or import people. |
| Split | Your own share, plus View Full Breakdown → Settle Up with one-tap Pay with Venmo / Cash App / PayPal buttons, per-person cards & Payment History. |
Expenses in depth
- Payment schedules — split a bill into a deposit + installments, each with its own due date and paid toggle (this drives the “to vendor” number).
- Included expenses — bundle line items under a parent so a package price never double-counts.
- Who's splitting — every splitting attendee is pre-selected; add or remove people per expense.
- Custom splits — switch an expense from Split equally to Custom split and set each person's share in $ or % (they must add up to the total). Adjust any time via ✏️ Edit split on the expense.
- Payment reminders — get nudged before a due date (in-app and push).
- Photos & vendor links — attach receipts and a website to any expense.
Import an existing budget from a spreadsheet
Already planned this in a spreadsheet? On the Expenses tab, tap ↑ Import from spreadsheet instead of starting over. Upload a .xlsx, .xls, or .csv file and Revel Tally brings in every line item — matching common column names (Item, Amount, Category, Vendor, Notes, Due Date, Paid) and even guessing the category from the vendor type (a "DJ" or "Photographer" line lands in the right bucket automatically). Imported expenses split evenly among whoever's currently marked as splitting, just like adding one by hand — adjust who's in or the split afterward on any expense.
Bring in your existing budget instead of starting from scratch
Scan a receipt to auto-fill
Adding an expense from a paper (or emailed) receipt? Tap 📸 Scan a receipt to auto-fill at the top of Add Expense — take a photo or pick one from your library, and Revel Tally reads it and fills in the amount, a name, the vendor, the date, and a best-guess category for you. Everything stays editable, so glance it over and tweak anything before you save. It handles regular phone photos and screenshots alike.
Add Expense — tap Scan a receipt and the details fill themselves in
Photos on expenses
Every expense has a 📷 Photos card — attach receipts, contracts, or inspiration shots with ＋ Add. Photos are stored securely in the cloud, so they're visible to everyone in the event (not just the phone that added them) and survive reinstalls. Tap to preview; long-press or ✕ to remove — removed photos are deleted from storage too.
Your profile picture
Give your account a face: on Profile, tap the avatar (or its little 📷 badge) to pick a photo. It's cropped to a neat square automatically; tap again to choose a new photo or remove it.
Venue expense — photos everyone in the event can see
Profile — tap the avatar to set your picture
Comments on expenses
Every expense has a 💬 Comments thread so you can hash out the details right where the money lives — "shuttle or carpool?", "deposit's due Friday, can someone confirm?" Both the organizer and invited viewers can post, so it doubles as a lightweight activity feed for co-planners.
- Everyone in the loop — when someone comments, the event owner and anyone who's already replied get a push notification, so conversations don't get missed.
- Your own words, your call — long-press a comment you wrote to delete it (the event owner can remove any comment).
- Stays tidy — once a thread grows past a few comments it collapses to the latest three, with View earlier comments to expand and Show less to fold it back up.
Transportation expense — co-planners talking it through in the thread
People & attendees
- Quick add a person with a name and role; duplicate contacts are flagged so you don't add someone twice.
- Import from a spreadsheet for big guest lists — same idea as importing expenses: upload a .xlsx, .xls, or .csv with Name and Email/Phone columns (Role, Address, City, State, and Zip are optional) and everyone's added at once.
- Mark anyone as not splitting (e.g. a vendor or a child) and they're left out of cost math.
- Splitting isn't the same as attending. Someone can share costs without being there — a parent chipping in for the wedding, or a guest who cancels after the deposit is already paid and still owes their share. Revel Tally never changes who's splitting based on who turns up; that call stays with the organizer.
- Someone dropping out later? Take them off the expenses they were on, and once their last share is gone they move to Not Splitting on their own. You can also do it directly: open the People tab and turn Splitting off for them. Either way they stop appearing in the split summary and stop being included when you add a new expense.
People tab — Import brings in a whole guest list at once
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✉️
Inviting & Sharing
Every event has a ⋯ menu (top-right) — its control center for sharing, linking, exporting, going public, and wrapping up.
The ⋯ menu — invite, link, export, complete & more
Invite people to view your event (organizer)
Choose Invite Attendees. Add someone by email or SMS — if they already have a Revel Tally account the invite appears in-app; otherwise they get an email. SMS opens your device's own Messages app with the link pre-filled (nothing is sent from our servers).
Add invitees by email or SMS
Guests tap 🎟️ on Home and enter the code
Guests see a read-only view — the budget, expenses, and their own share under the Split tab — but can't edit your event.
Share everyone's split (organizer)
When you're ready to tell people what they owe, open the Split tab and tap 📤 Share splits with everyone. Nothing is ever sent automatically — your guests only hear from you when you tap this.
Split tab — Share splits with everyone
Pick who to send to — and see whose amount has moved
Tick the people you want to send to and tap Share. Your device's own share sheet opens with the message ready — pick Messages, WhatsApp, email, whatever you already use. Each person gets a personal link with their name, their total, and the itemised list behind it.
When amounts change, re-share
Add an expense or edit an amount and everyone's share moves. Revel Tally tracks who you've already told and flags the ones whose number has changed since — tap Select them to pick exactly those people and send an update in one go.
The links are always live. A link you sent last week already shows today's amount — you never need to send a new one to correct an old figure. Re-sharing is just a nudge so people know their number moved.
What your guests see
Tapping the link opens a simple web page — no app, no account, no sign-up. They see the event, what they owe, and exactly what it's for, with a quiet link to download Revel Tally if they want to track their own events.
What lands in your guest's messages — no install required
Everyone sees only their own share. A share link never reveals the event budget, what anyone else owes, or who else is on the list — so it's safe to forward, and safe to drop in a group chat.
People who are attending but not splitting — the bride at her own bachelorette, say — can be sent a link too. Theirs shows the event without a bill, and the message leaves the money out entirely.
Share a summary of the whole event
Sometimes you don't want to send each person their own number — you just want to show the group where the money's going. From the ⋯ menu, choose Share Summary Link. That creates one link for the whole event: the budget, what's been spent, and the category breakdown, on a page anyone can open without the app.
One link for the event — share, toggle, or turn it off
What the group sees — budget, spend, and where it's going
Names are hidden by default. The summary shows totals and categories, not who owes what. If you want the group to see each person's name and amount, there's a Show names and amounts switch — deliberately off until you turn it on, because anyone with the link can open the page.
Changed your mind? Turn off this link kills it immediately — anyone holding the old URL stops being able to open it. Sharing again later creates a brand-new link, and the names switch goes back to off, so a fresh link always starts private.
The summary never shows receipts, notes, individual expense comments, or anyone's contact details — only the totals, the categories, and (if you switch it on) each person's name and share.
Setting up a payment plan (invited guests)
If an event is more than two months out, an invited guest can spread their own remaining share over time instead of paying it all at once. From the My Split tab, tap Set Up Payment Plan: pick how many months to pay over (1 to 24), see the monthly amount work itself out, choose a starting month, and optionally turn on monthly reminders so a nudge lands right when it's time to set money aside.
Spread what you owe over months, with optional reminders
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Linked Events & Notifications
Planning a wedding and its bachelor / bachelorette / bridal shower? Link them for one combined budget. When an event has links, they appear right under Per Person Split on the Overview, with a combined total across all of them.
Overview — the linked bachelorette + combined budget
Linking your own vs. someone else's event
Linking two events you own is instant. To link with a different organizer — say a bridesmaid who's planning the bachelorette — the target event's owner first makes it searchable (⋯ menu → Make Public). The other organizer sends a link request, and you approve it from Manage Linked Events. Everyone keeps ownership of their own event; you just share the combined view.
Combined total, linked events & a request to Approve / Deny
The 🔔 bell — link requests & updates land here
Push notifications & the weekly check-in
Everything that lands in the 🔔 bell can also reach you as a push notification, so you don't have to open the app to stay on top of things:
- Payment reminders — a nudge before a due date so a deposit never slips.
- New comments — when someone posts on an expense you own or have replied to.
- Link requests & approvals — when another organizer asks to link, or approves yours.
- Weekly money check-in — every Monday, a quick summary of where your events stand (what's collected vs. outstanding) so nothing drifts. Tap it to jump straight to Payment History.
Notifications are opt-in — iOS asks the first time, and you can change your mind any time in your phone's Settings.
Export your attendee list
From the ⋯ menu → Export Attendee List, export attendees (names, roles, contact info, and split status) — handy for seating charts, thank-you cards, or a mail merge.
Export your event data
From the ⋯ menu → Export Event Data, pull the whole event into a spreadsheet (CSV). You choose what to include:
- Expenses only — the full expense ledger: name, category, amount, who paid, date, vendor, and notes.
- Expenses + settle-up — the ledger plus a per-person summary (each person's share, what they've paid, and their net balance — who's owed vs. who owes) and the optimized settle-up transfers.
The file opens straight into Excel, Numbers, or Google Sheets — perfect for your own bookkeeping, splitting with an accountant, or keeping a record after the event wraps.
Export Event Data — pick expenses only, or expenses plus the settle-up
Export your whole account
Want everything in one file — not just a single event? Open your 👤 Profile → 📥 Export My Data. Revel Tally gathers your profile, every event you own (with its expenses, splits, attendees, and settle-up payments), your contacts, savings plans, and notifications into a single JSON file, then hands it to the share sheet so you can Save to Files, email it to yourself, or copy it. It's your data, portable any time — handy for a personal backup or a data-portability request.
Profile → Export My Data — your entire account as one file
Mark an event complete
When it's all over, archive the event from the ⋯ menu. It dims on your home screen but keeps every record for reference.
