Recipe
Import from Splitwise — see exactly what you're migrating first
Export any Splitwise group as a CSV, drop it into the importer, and get a full preview: every member, every expense, per-currency totals, and any rows that need attention — before you commit to the move.
Last reviewed: January 2026
Moving off Splitwise usually means one of two bad options: re-type months of expenses by hand, or just abandon the history and start fresh. Split The Bill's CSV importer reads the standard Splitwise group export directly. Today it works as a preview tool — you upload the CSV and it shows you exactly what a migration would contain, so you can verify the parser read your real export correctly before the one-click "create the group" commit step lands. This guide walks the full export-and-preview flow so your migration is accurate, not approximate.
Step-by-step
- 1
Export your group from Splitwise as a CSV
In Splitwise (web is easiest), open the group you want to move. Go to the group Settings → Export as spreadsheet → choose CSV. Splitwise emails you or downloads a file that looks like:
``` Date,Description,Category,Cost,Currency,Alice,Bob,Charlie 2026-01-15,Dinner,Dining,45.50,USD,15.17,15.17,15.17 ```
The first five columns are fixed (Date, Description, Category, Cost, Currency); every column after that is one group member, holding that person's share of each expense. Do this per group — Splitwise exports one group at a time, and so does the importer.
- 2
Open the importer and drop the file in
In Split The Bill, go to `/import/splitwise`. You can either upload the .csv file directly or paste the CSV contents into the text box — both do the same thing. The paste box is handy if you already have the export open in a spreadsheet and just want to copy the raw rows.
Then click Preview the import. Nothing is created yet — this step only parses and reads back what it found.
- 3
Read the preview: members, expenses, totals
The preview shows four numbers up top: Members (how many people the importer found in the header), Expenses (how many expense rows parsed), Skipped rows (rows it deliberately ignored — see below), and Total per currency.
Below that you get the member list as chips and the first 10 expenses in a table (date, description, category, cost, currency). Sanity-check the totals against what Splitwise shows for the group. If your Splitwise group says "$4,210.50 total spent" and the preview total matches, the parser read your export correctly.
- 4
Check the skipped-rows count
Splitwise ends every export with a "Total balance" summary row that isn't a real expense — the importer recognizes and skips it on purpose, so seeing 1 skipped row on a clean export is normal and correct.
If the skipped count is higher than that, the diagnostics tell you why per row: a non-numeric cost, or a row with fewer columns than expected (usually a stray edit in the spreadsheet before export). Re-export cleanly from Splitwise rather than hand-editing the CSV, and the count should drop back to just the one balance row.
- 5
Verify multi-currency groups read correctly
If your Splitwise group mixed currencies (a trip billed partly in EUR, partly in USD), the Total stat breaks the sum out per currency — e.g. `3200.00 EUR / 450.00 USD`. This is the fastest way to confirm nothing collapsed into the wrong currency.
Split The Bill stores each bill in its native currency and reconciles at settle-time, so a mixed-currency Splitwise group carries over with its currencies intact rather than being force-converted to one.
- 6
Confirm the parse, then re-create the group
The importer is preview-only in v1 — the "create the group and import all expenses" commit step is a fast-follow. So once the preview confirms your export reads correctly, the reliable way to migrate today is: create the equivalent group in Split The Bill (New group, invite the same members by email), then re-enter the expenses — using the preview as your verified checklist of what should end up in the group.
It's not yet one-click, but the preview means you're working from an accurate, machine-read list of every expense rather than eyeballing the old app. If a preview shows wrong row counts, totals, or member names, flag it via the in-app feedback button — that's exactly the real-world variation the preview phase exists to catch before the commit step ships.
Why preview-first instead of one-click import
A migration you can't undo is worse than no migration. Splitwise CSV exports vary more than you'd expect — leading byte-order marks, quoted descriptions with embedded commas, the trailing balance row, occasional currency oddities. Shipping the parser as a preview tool first means every real-world export shape gets validated against actual user data before anyone's expense history is written into a live group.
The practical upside for you: the preview is a verification tool, not a leap of faith. You see the exact member list, the exact expense count, and the per-currency totals the importer read. Match those against your Splitwise group and you know the migration data is correct — no "did it drop half my expenses?" anxiety after the fact.
What carries over and what doesn't
The Splitwise CSV contains: each expense's date, description, category, total cost, currency, and each member's share. That's what the importer reads and previews.
What the CSV *doesn't* contain — and therefore can't carry over — includes receipt photos, comments, and Splitwise's internal payment/settlement log. Those don't exist in the export, so no importer can recover them. If you want the receipt images too, save them from Splitwise separately before you close the account; you can re-attach them to bills in Split The Bill afterward.
Categories come across as plain text from the CSV. Split The Bill has its own category set, so treat imported category names as descriptive labels you may want to normalize when you re-create the group.
Tips for a clean migration
Export per group, not per friend. The importer expects the group CSV shape (Date/Description/Category/Cost/Currency + member columns). A friend-level export won't have that header and the importer will tell you so.
Don't hand-edit the CSV. It's tempting to "fix" a row in Excel before importing, but re-saving from a spreadsheet can change the delimiter, quoting, or encoding and confuse the parser. If a row looks wrong, fix it in Splitwise and re-export.
Migrate active groups first, archive the rest. You probably don't need three years of a defunct trip group live. Preview the ones you'll actually keep splitting in; keep the old CSVs as your archive.
Keep the CSV file. Even after you've re-created the group, hang on to the original export. It's your source-of-truth record of the old data, and it's a plain file that opens in any spreadsheet forever.
When a straight re-create is simpler than importing
If your Splitwise group is small and already mostly settled — say two roommates who are square as of last month — importing the full history is more effort than it's worth. Just create the group fresh in Split The Bill and start splitting from today. The old balances were zero anyway.
The importer earns its keep on the *messy* groups: the long-running trip with 40 expenses across two currencies, the household with a year of utilities, the group where you genuinely need to verify the numbers carried over. For those, preview the CSV, confirm the totals, then rebuild with confidence.
Frequently asked questions
How do I export my group from Splitwise?▾
In Splitwise, open the group → Settings → Export as spreadsheet → choose CSV. Splitwise exports one group at a time. The file has fixed Date, Description, Category, Cost, Currency columns followed by one column per member holding their share of each expense.
Does the importer create the group automatically?▾
Not yet. V1 of the importer is preview-only: it parses your Splitwise CSV and shows you exactly what a migration would contain (members, expenses, per-currency totals, skipped rows) so you can verify it read correctly. The one-click "create the group and import all expenses" commit step is a fast-follow. For now, use the preview as your verified checklist and re-create the group manually.
Why does the preview show 1 skipped row?▾
That's expected. Splitwise ends every export with a "Total balance" summary row that isn't a real expense, and the importer deliberately skips it. One skipped row on a clean export is normal. A higher count means some rows were malformed (non-numeric cost, wrong column count) — re-export cleanly from Splitwise rather than hand-editing.
Does it handle groups with more than one currency?▾
Yes. The preview's Total stat breaks the sum out per currency (e.g. 3200.00 EUR / 450.00 USD), so you can confirm nothing collapsed into the wrong currency. Split The Bill stores each bill in its native currency, so a mixed-currency Splitwise group carries over with its currencies intact.
Will my receipt photos and comments come over?▾
No — the Splitwise CSV export doesn't contain receipt images, comments, or the internal settlement log, so no importer can recover them from the file. If you want the receipts, save them from Splitwise separately before closing your account and re-attach them to bills afterward.
Is importing from Splitwise free?▾
Yes — the importer and preview are free. So is the core of what you're migrating to: equal/exact/percentage/item/share/adjustment splits, multi-currency, recurring bills, and settle-up links are all in the free tier. Splitwise paywalls several of those; here they're included.
What if the preview shows wrong totals or member names?▾
Flag it via the in-app feedback button. The preview phase exists precisely to catch real-world Splitwise export variations before the commit step ships, so a mismatch is genuinely useful to report — include the row counts or names you expected versus what the preview showed.
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