Recipe
Split a utility bill — set it once, never again
Recurring template for the fixed costs (internet, Netflix), edit-on-arrival for the variable ones (electricity, water). Saved split, automatic monthly creation.
Last reviewed: January 2026
Utility bills are the worst category of recurring expense to track manually because half are fixed (internet, gym, streaming) and half vary by usage (electric, water, gas). Set-and-forget tools handle the fixed ones; nothing handles the variable ones gracefully. Split The Bill's recurring expenses are the middle ground: a template fires monthly with your saved amount AND saved split, but the generated bill is editable so when the actual electric bill arrives at $X instead of $X-average, you adjust in 5 seconds without re-typing the split.
Step-by-step
- 1
Make sure your roommate group exists
Open your Groups page in the app, you should already have a group covering everyone who shares the utility (typically your apartment or house group). If not: New group → add roommates by email, they sign up via the invite link.
The group is the durable thing — utility bills come and go, but the group + the saved split persist across all of them.
- 2
For each fixed-cost utility, create a recurring template
On `/recurring`, New → enter:
- Name: "Internet" / "Netflix" / "Spotify Family" - Amount: the fixed monthly price - Frequency: Monthly - Day of period: the day of the month the charge hits
Save. The first bill creates on that day. From then on it auto-renews each month. Once you split it (Equal / By share), the split also auto-applies to every future bill.
- 3
For variable utilities, set the template to the average
For electricity / water / gas — set the recurring template to your monthly average based on past bills. The amount doesn't need to be exact; the template is the placeholder.
When the actual electric bill arrives, you open the auto-generated bill (which has the average amount) and edit the total to match the real bill. Editing is one click; the split adjusts automatically since it's based on percentages, not absolute amounts.
- 4
Categorize the bill so the dashboard shows utility spending separately
On the bill detail, set Category to "utilities". This isolates utility spending from other categories on the dashboard's spending-by-category widget. After 3 months you can look back and see exactly what your apartment's utility footprint is — useful for budgeting, useful for "should we adjust the split percentages".
- 5
Add the actual receipt as an attachment if you want a paper trail
For utilities you want to keep a record of (e.g. for tax purposes if you work from home), upload the PDF or screenshot of the bill via the parse flow. Even though you've already set the amount manually, attaching the source bill creates a permanent record viewable in the Source image tab.
- 6
Settle up monthly or batch quarterly
Tap Pay on each share row to nudge each roommate. The deep links open Venmo / PayPal / Revolut / Cash App / Wise / SEPA — whatever you've registered.
Many roommate groups settle utilities quarterly rather than monthly — fewer payments, less mental overhead. Either works; the app tracks running balances either way.
Why the "edit the auto-generated bill" workflow beats fully manual
The naive alternative is creating a fresh bill each month from scratch — open new bill, type "Electric March", enter the amount, re-add the split. 90 seconds per month per utility. Across 4 utilities, that's 6 minutes monthly, 72 minutes a year, just for typing.
The edit-on-arrival workflow: open the auto-generated bill (already has the right name, the right participants, the right split), change one number. 10 seconds. 40 seconds total monthly. 8 minutes a year. The math: ~64 minutes saved per year, every year, without losing anything.
More importantly, the split stays consistent. The naive workflow is also where errors creep in — typoed split percentages, forgetting to include a roommate, splitting equally when you meant proportional. The auto-generated bill always uses the same saved split, so it's impossible to drift.
How to handle the "internet went out for 5 days, do we adjust?" cases
Real utility bills include actual outages, charges to wrong addresses, and other anomalies. Two approaches:
Just absorb it. If the outage was small and brief, splitting the original amount equally is fair enough — no one in the apartment had internet during the outage either, so the loss is shared.
Itemize the credit. If the utility company gives you a credit on your next bill for the outage, just edit next month's bill to reflect the lower amount. The roommates each owe less; everyone benefits proportionally.
Don't go down the rabbit hole of "let's recompute who was home when". The math overhead exceeds the savings every time.
When to break out of the recurring pattern
For one-time utility events — a service call, a deposit, a special-circumstance charge — just create a regular bill (not recurring). They appear in the same group, use the same split UI, get the same settle-up flow. Mixing recurring + one-off in the same group is fine and expected.
If utility allocation needs to change permanently (a roommate moves out, the household size changes), pause the recurring template, edit the saved split, resume. Past bills keep their original split as historical record.
Frequently asked questions
Is recurring expenses a free feature?▾
Yes — recurring is in the free tier. Bills generated by recurring templates don't use the AI receipt scan (since they're template-based, not photo-based), so they don't count against the 10-bills-per-30-days OCR quota at all.
What if I forget to edit the auto-generated electric bill?▾
The bill stays at the template's default amount until you edit it, and the split applies that amount. If you settle on the default and the real bill was higher, just create a one-off "electric correction" bill to true up. Most months it's within $20-30 anyway, so this is minor.
Can I split utilities by usage (one roommate has a power tool habit)?▾
Yes — the saved split supports custom percentages. Edit the split once on a generated bill and the new percentages apply forward. So if your power-tool roommate covers 40% of electric and 33% of everything else, that's configurable.
How do I keep the bill amounts up to date when prices change?▾
Edit the recurring template (`/recurring` → tap the row → adjust amount). The next generated bill uses the new amount; past bills stay at their historical amounts. Useful when your internet provider raises rates or you switch plans.
Can I attach the actual utility PDF as proof?▾
Yes — open the bill detail → upload via the source-image tab. The PDF stays attached, viewable forever in the Source image tab, useful for tax records or disputes with the utility company.
How does it handle utility deposits when moving in?▾
Create a non-recurring bill for the deposit, split among the people contributing. Don't put it on the recurring template — deposits are one-time and shouldn't auto-renew.
Free tier covers most recipes. Pro is 100 receipts every 30 days + private invite links.
