You Owe Me App Features

Running balances

Every entry updates one clear balance per person, so you can see who owes whom without rebuilding the history from chats, notes, bank transfers, or memory.

This is also useful for temporary support, where one person covers rent, groceries, bills, or other help and repayments happen later in steps.

With Balance Replay, you can scroll back through entries and see who owed what around the moment you are reviewing.

Learn what a running balance means and how it works.

If you are still deciding whether notes, spreadsheets, payment history, calculators, split apps, or You Owe Me fit best, compare the best way to track IOUs between people.

Main use cases

• Long-running IOUs with friends or family
• Couple, roommate, or client balances that change over time
• Partial repayments and shared expenses in one balance history

See how this applies to roommate bills and shared household costs.

Loan Records

Loan Records keep each loan in its own record without creating another person or losing the wider history between you.

Name a car repair, rent deposit, laptop purchase, family loan, or other balance that deserves its own view. Each loan keeps its own remaining balance, updates, interest terms, status, and optional repayment plan.

The same person can have several loans at once without mixing their purposes together. Every linked payment or update still contributes to that person’s overall balance.

You can also start with an already-in-progress loan: enter what remains today, keep the real historical start date, and add paid-before-tracking context without inventing old transactions.

For support that should be repaid gradually, Loan Records can keep one temporary support arrangement separate while the full person balance stays correct.

For the real-life helper-side situation, read how to support someone financially without confusion before turning support into a clear record.

If you only need a quick written note before opening a Loan Record, use the Temporary Financial Support Record Template to capture what was covered, what should happen next, and the check-in date.

If you only need a one-time no-interest calculation, use the free Payment Plan Calculator. When the schedule needs to stay tied to the loan balance and payments, add a repayment plan in the app.

Each loan stays visible in Timeline too, including when it started, when its plan changed, and when it was settled.

Main use cases

• Larger or longer-running loans
• Multiple balances with the same person
• Repayments that need to stay tied to the right loan
• Family loans, rent deposits, larger purchases, repairs, or existing loans brought into the app

Repayment plans that stay current

Add an optional plan to any active loan when “pay it back later” needs a clearer path. Choose weekly, every-two-weeks, or monthly payments and set the first payment date.

Start from the decision that is easiest to make: compare lower-payment, balanced, and faster-payoff options; enter a regular payment amount; choose a projected payoff date; or choose the number of payments. The app calculates the rest before you save.

The plan uses the same balance and payment history as the loan. If a payment is smaller than planned, the app shows what is still needed for that installment. If it is larger, the extra amount can move the plan ahead. Additional borrowing, corrections, or deleted entries update the remaining schedule, projected payoff, and next reminder.

See what is due next and whether the plan is on track, ahead, due today, or overdue. Interest can be left out, added as one agreed fixed amount, or calculated on the declining unpaid balance.

If circumstances change, start a revised plan from the current balance while keeping the earlier plan in history. Ending a plan stops future schedule tracking and its reminder without deleting the loan or its payments. One active repayment plan is included for free; paid access supports unlimited active plans.

See how a named personal loan stays current after partial, extra, early, or late payments.

Need the manual method first? See what to record for one personal loan before creating a Loan Record.

Main use cases

• Personal or family loans repaid over time
• Plans built around an affordable payment or target date
• Partial, extra, early, or late payments
• Loans that were already underway before tracking began
• Changing a plan without erasing the earlier plan history
• Keeping the next amount, date, and projected payoff current

Relationship Timeline

Timeline connects money movement with money communication. For each person, it brings balance changes, repayments, separate loans, repayment-plan starts and changes, plan-linked payments, follow-ups, repayment updates, loan requests, and shared records into one chronological view.

It can also surface the loan and amount that need attention next—overdue first, then due today, then upcoming—and stays quiet when no action is needed.

Main use cases

• Seeing the full history with one person
• Checking when you last followed up or sent an update
• Keeping separate loans, plan milestones, and plan-linked payments visible inside the relationship
• Seeing when you shared a statement, PDF, Live Link, text history, or CSV export
• Understanding balance phases, settlements, and direction changes
• Seeing a clearer next step before another money conversation

Group Paybacks

Group Paybacks organize one shared thing you paid for — a gift, tickets, dinner, deposit, booking, or small shared purchase — while each person’s real share stays in their own balance history.

Use it when the question is not only “what was the split?” but “who has paid me back, who partly paid, and who still owes?”

Main use cases

• Group gifts
• Tickets and bookings
• Dinner or shared purchase paid by you
• Deposits or reservations
• Office/team gifts
• Small roommate or family shared costs

Group Paybacks are not full trip accounting or a collaborative group ledger. They are best when you paid first and want to track paybacks from each person.

Need a quick status check first? Use the Group Payback Calculator. Need the simple tracking workflow first? Read how to track who paid you back for a group expense.

IOU tracking

Record money lent, money borrowed, informal loans, covered purchases, and everyday IOUs without turning the app into accounting software.

Main use cases

• Money a friend still owes you
• Money you borrowed and want to repay clearly
• Family loans, client balances, and personal payback records

Smart Money Check-Ins

Silence is often what makes money situations awkward. Smart Money Check-Ins adds a proactive timing layer by watching real balances, repayment progress, reminders, promised dates, and stretches of silence.

When communication starts to matter, the app suggests the right next step, explains why now, and takes you into a ready-to-send message before tension has time to grow. Timeline places that guidance next to the relationship history that explains it. If you already know you need more time, read how to send a repayment update when you need more time.

Main use cases

• Following up when someone owes you and silence is becoming risky
• Sending a repayment update when you owe someone
• Avoiding repetitive prompts with adaptive resurfacing

Money Conversations

Money Conversations turns your real balance and history into ready-to-send messages for the three situations people avoid most: Follow-Up, Ask for Loan, and Repayment Update.

For temporary support, this helps turn the real balance into a calm ask, repayment update, or request for more time. For a manual starting point, use the repayment update guide.

Choose a tone, adjust details if needed, and keep full control before sending. Messages can include a Live Link so the other person can view the latest statement without installing the app. When you copy or share a Money Conversation, Timeline can record that the communication happened.

Money Conversations can help with clear money messages after you choose to ask, lend, follow up, or update someone. If the right answer is not to lend at all, read how to politely say no when people ask for money.

Need a one-time manual message first? Read the polite reminder guide or browse repayment reminder examples.

Main use cases

• Follow-up when someone owes you
• Ask for Loan when you need help and want to ask respectfully
• Repayment Update when you owe someone and want to keep trust intact

Follow-Up messages

Generate a clear check-in when someone still owes you and you want the message to feel calm, specific, and grounded in the actual balance. Timeline helps you see whether you already followed up recently or shared the details another way.

Main use cases

• Late repayments
• Friendly reminders after silence
• Awkward IOUs where wording matters

Ask for Loan messages

When you need to borrow money, create a clearer request from the real context instead of rewriting the message until it feels acceptable.

For a manual starting point before using Money Conversations, read how to ask family for temporary financial help clearly.

Main use cases

• Asking a friend or family member for help
• Explaining amount, reason, and expectations
• Keeping the tone respectful and direct

Repayment Update messages

If you owe someone, send a clear update that explains what changed, what has been repaid, and where things stand now. Timeline can show when you sent a repayment update, which makes the next message easier to judge. If you need more time before the next payment, use the repayment update guide. If you are sending a partial repayment yourself, the same guide includes a responsible partial repayment update example.

Main use cases

• Confirming a partial repayment
• Keeping trust when you need more time
• Reducing confusion about the remaining balance

Balance Sync

Keep one balance updated in both apps

Connect a balance with someone you trust. Add or update an entry on either phone, and Balance Sync keeps both apps up to date—without sending changes back and forth.

Both people see the same underlying activity and an up-to-date balance from their own perspective. Each person keeps a separate record in their app, so Balance Sync adds two-way participation without turning the balance into a group workspace.

• Private, two-way connection for exactly two You Owe Me users
• Add, edit, archive, or delete supported connected entries from either phone
• Offline changes stay safely stored and synchronize after connectivity returns
• Clear sync status and explicit conflict handling—no silent overwrites
• Names, profile images, reminders, recurrence rules, and attachments stay local

Live Link

Share an always-current balance without requiring the app

You keep the record in You Owe Me. The other person opens one read-only browser link to see the latest balance and history as you update it—without installing the app or creating an account.

Use Live Link when the other person needs visibility but does not need to edit the balance. The same link remains useful as entries, repayments, and the current balance change.

If the main question is whether everyone needs to install the same app, read the one-person shared-money tracking guide.

Main use cases

• Sharing a live balance with family, partners, roommates, or clients
• Replacing repeated screenshots with one current link
• Giving the other person visibility without asking them to install the app

Split Entry for shared expenses

Record one shared expense instead of rebuilding the same entry person by person. Choose the participants, enter the total once, include your own share when needed, and let YouOweMe turn the result into accurate entries for each real person.

Dinners, tickets, groceries, trips, rent, and client costs all end with clean individual balances, not manual math or duplicate records.

Main use cases

• One shared expense becoming separate balance entries
• Including yourself in the calculation without creating a debt to yourself
• Equal, visual, or exact custom shares for real-world fairness

Payment reminders

Set reminders for due dates, bills, balances, and follow-ups. A reminder can stay attached to a specific IOU, loan, a person's balance, or a standalone bill, so the nudge still knows what the money is for.

For an active repayment plan, the reminder follows the next unpaid installment. After a partial, full, or extra payment, it updates to the current amount and due date instead of repeating an outdated number.

When a reminder is tied to a person, YouOweMe helps you return to the right balance and choose the next step: record a payment when there is a fixed amount, mark it done, keep it, or follow up based on the current balance.

Main use cases

• Due dates tied to a specific entry, loan, repayment plan, or payback
• Standalone bill reminders for rent, utilities, subscriptions, invoices, or other payments
• Balance and follow-up reminders for people you need to review later
• Upcoming, overdue, completed, and recurring reminder states

Recurring entries

Some money patterns are not one-offs. Rent, subscriptions, allowances, weekly coffees, monthly bills, and shared household costs tend to come back again and again.

Recurring Entries turns one entry into a schedule. Choose the rhythm from daily to yearly, keep it tied to the right weekday or calendar date, and optionally set when it should end. As each repeat comes due, the app creates a real entry so balances and history stay accurate.

For example, if Noah’s half of a monthly internet bill is $30, the schedule creates a new $30 entry when it is due. If Noah repays $20, that repayment leaves $10 open. When the next $30 entry arrives, the current balance becomes $40.

You Owe Me does not read bank or card transactions and does not move money. The bill and repayment happen outside the app; Recurring Entries keeps the agreed record, repayment history, and remaining balance clear.

Main use cases

• Rent, utilities, subscriptions, and allowances
• Every 2 weeks, every 3 months, or yearly repeats
• Repeated household costs that should update the real balance

PDF statements

Generate clean, shareable PDF statements from selected entries when you need a more formal summary. A focused loan PDF can show what was recorded, what was paid, what remains open, and the due date or payment details when needed. When a loan has a plan, you decide whether to include a concise repayment-plan summary with the next payment, regular rhythm, projected payoff, interest context, and overdue amount when relevant.

Statements reflect the real balance and history, not a manually rebuilt spreadsheet. Timeline can show when a PDF statement was shared, so the formal record stays connected to the rest of the history.

PDF statements are useful for summaries and records. They are not a replacement for accounting, tax, invoicing, or payment-processing software.

Starting manually? Download the Family Reimbursement Tracker Template for a simple Excel, CSV, or printable PDF log. If the record is mainly parent bills, subscriptions, groceries, pharmacy purchases, and sibling reimbursements, start with the Elderly Parent Expense Tracker.

Main use cases

• Client balances and small business records
• Family reimbursements that need a polished summary
• Long-term balances with percentage or fixed interest

Logo, due dates, and payment details

Add your own logo or image, a due date, and payment details to a statement when the record needs to feel more professional or easier for a client to recognize. This is useful for freelancers, small service providers, tutors, coaches, and other simple client-payment situations where a branded summary is enough and a full invoicing system would be too much.

Main use cases

• Small business or freelancer summaries
• Client-facing repayment records
• Formal family reimbursement records

Interest tracking

Choose the interest mode that matches the agreement. Use percentage interest when the amount should grow over time: enter a rate, choose daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly frequency, and optionally set start and end dates. Use fixed or flat interest when you only need one exact amount added once, such as $10 or $25, with no rate or date calculation.

Once interest is saved on an entry, YouOweMe includes it in balances, entry totals, Loan Records, statements, shared links, and repayment context.

Repayment plans can instead use no new interest, one fixed total interest amount, or annual interest on the declining unpaid principal. Payments apply to unpaid interest first and then principal, so the projected payoff stays consistent with the plan terms.

Main use cases

• Percentage interest that grows over time
• Fixed interest or one-time extra amounts
• Clear repayment summaries with principal and interest context

Voice to Entry

Say something like "I lent Alex 30 euros for groceries yesterday." The app turns it into a structured entry with the right person, amount, category, and date.

Main use cases

• Fast capture when you are on the go
• Daily use without typing every detail
• Natural wording for real-world money moments

App Lock

Keep your repayment history private with App Lock. Unlock the app using Face ID, Touch ID, or your device passcode whenever you open it, so your balances and personal repayment records stay private even if someone else has your phone.

Main use cases

• Personal balances you want to keep private
• Family or client records on the same device
• Extra privacy for everyday finance data