A tab's locked rate
A bill in another currency counts in a tab at a rate locked when it joined, so balances do not move when exchange rates do.
A tab settles in one currency, and every balance in it is in that currency. A bill in another currency is counted in the tab at a locked rate: the rate is fixed when the bill joins the tab, and the tab counts the bill at it from then on, so balances do not move when exchange rates do. The bill itself stays in its own currency.
How to see the rate a bill counts at
- Open the bill from the tab. Under Bill total on its strip, the amount it counts in the tab is shown after "=".
- Press the strip. The sheet names the bill, such as Heathrow coffee in this tab, and shows the bill's total and your share in both currencies, the rate, and when it was locked and from where.
The same rate is in the bill's Settings, on the row Counted in and the tab's name.
How to change a locked rate
The bill's owner, and whoever runs the tab, can change it, such as to the rate your bank actually gave.
- In the rate sheet, press Change.
- Type the Rate: what one of the bill's currency is worth in the tab's. The sheet shows what the bill then counts as.
- Press Save the rate.
A typed rate is marked "(rate edited)", and the change is in the tab's activity. Every balance in the tab moves with it at once; payments already made stay as they were.
Worked example: the Heathrow coffee
The Lisbon weekend tab settles in Euro. On the way out, Tom paid 15.00 in British Pounds for coffee at Heathrow, shared by Priya, Maya and himself: 5.00 each.
When the bill joined the tab, its rate was locked at 1 GBP = 1.1600 EUR. The tab counts the coffee as €17.40, and each of the three as 5.80. Tom paid it, so Priya and Maya each owe him 5.80 of it: that is why he owes Priya 76.40 at the end of the weekend, not 88.00. However the pound moves afterwards, the coffee still counts as 17.40.
If something stops you
- "Not counted yet: needs a rate". No rate could be fetched when the bill joined. The bill's owner or the tab's admins type one, and it counts from then.
- "Only the bill's owner or the tab's admins can change its rate". Ask one of them.
- "This tab is closed. Reopen the tab first." A closed tab's rates are kept as they were.
- The tab's currency will not change. Once a payment has been confirmed in it, a tab's settlement currency stays.