Papirer

Lists

Organize expenses by project or share with others

Last updated 2026-02-03

Lists

Lists let you group expenses under a single umbrella. You can use them to organize your own expenses by project or to share expenses with other people. This is a Pro feature.

Contents

What lists are for

A list is simply a container for expenses with a name and a color. What you do with it is up to you:

  • Organize a trip — Group all your trip expenses in a list to see how much it cost
  • Separate a project — Home renovation, wedding, moving: each project with its own expenses
  • Roommates — Invite your housemates and split expenses automatically
  • Couple expenses — Keep track of what you both pay for
  • Events — Group dinner, shared gift, any expense between several people

You don't need to share a list with anyone. Many lists work perfectly well as a personal organizational tool.

Creating a list

  1. Go to Lists from the menu
  2. Tap the + button
  3. Give it a name (e.g., "Portugal Trip", "Kitchen Renovation", "Apartment")
  4. Pick a color
  5. Tap Create

The list is created as personal. If you want to share it, you can invite members at any time from the list detail.

Personal lists

A list with no other members is a personal list. It's for grouping expenses under a common label without sharing them with anyone.

When you assign an expense to a list, it appears with a colored indicator on the main screen. You can also filter the main view to show only expenses from a specific list, using the list filter in the menu.

Some usage examples:

  • "August Vacation" to track trip spending
  • "Renovation" to group all project expenses
  • "Christmas" to keep tabs on gifts and dinners

Sharing a list

To turn a personal list into a shared one, invite other users:

  1. Open the list from Lists
  2. In the Members section, tap Invite
  3. Enter the person's email (they must have a Papirer account)
  4. They'll receive a notification and can accept or decline

Once someone accepts, the list becomes shared and any member can add expenses.

How balances work

When a list has multiple members with expense splitting enabled, the app automatically calculates how much each person owes.

Example

You have a 50/50 split with your roommate:

  1. You pay $100 for groceries
  2. Your roommate now owes you $50
  3. Your roommate pays $60 for electricity
  4. Now they only owe you $20 ($50 - $30)

The balance view shows the net amount:

  • Positive — You're owed money
  • Negative — You owe money

Setting percentages

By default, expenses are split equally among all members. You can adjust this from the list settings:

  1. Open the list and tap the edit icon
  2. Adjust each member's percentage

Percentages must add up to 100%.

This is useful when one person occupies a larger room, uses more shared resources, or you've simply agreed on a different split.

Settling up

When you want to settle the balance:

  1. The person who owes money pays the other outside the app (Venmo, cash, bank transfer)
  2. In the app, whoever receives the payment taps Settle
  3. Enter the amount received
  4. The balance is updated

This doesn't create a new expense, it just marks the debt as paid.

Tracking-only mode

Not all shared lists need to split expenses. If you just want to see what's being spent without calculating who owes what:

  1. Disable the Split expenses option from the list settings
  2. In this mode all members can see expenses, but no balances or percentages are calculated

Useful for recording group trip expenses, sharing visibility of family spending, or joint tracking without payment obligations.

Recurring expenses in lists

You can associate recurring expenses with a list. For example, the monthly rent on the apartment list or a shared subscription. Recurring expenses for a list appear in their own section within the list detail.

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