The people on a tab, with or without an account

Everyone in a tab has a seat in it, and every bill added to the tab starts with its people. A seat can be someone with an account, a name added for someone who has none, or a guest who opened a link sent to them alone. People, the last button in the tab's bar, lists every seat with its role or state and where it stands.

How to invite people and add names

1. Open the tab and press People in the bar at its foot.
2. Press Invite people to share the tab's link. Show its QR code, press Copy, or press Share link to send it from your phone.
3. To add someone without their joining, press Add people, tick people you have shared with before or type a name in Search or add a name, and press Add.

Joining a tab from its shared link needs an account: the share sheet says "Joining a tab needs an account. Anyone with this link sees its name, who is in it and what it has spent, and can ask to join." Someone added by name can still be put on bills, and claims their seat through the link once they have an account.

How someone with no account takes part

The tab's owner or an admin can send someone added by name a link of their own, which opens the tab as that person with no account.

1. Press the person's row, then Send an invite.
2. Enter a Phone (optional) or an Email (optional). Only the owner and admins see it, and nothing is sent until you press Send invite.
3. Press Send invite, or Share their link to send it from your own phone.

New link replaces their link, so the one sent before stops opening their seat. A guest on a tab reads it, claims their own items on its open bills, says what they paid and confirms payments to them. They add no bill and no person (see Taking part with no account).

What the list says

Each row gives the person's name, then their role, Owner, Admin or Member, or the state of a seat nobody with an account holds: Added by name, Invited, or Guest with the day they opened their link. Someone who joined after the tab's first bill also has the day they joined, and a line beneath the list says they are on the bills added since. Each row ends with what they owe or are owed in the tab, or Paid up.

What the owner and admins can do

Press a person's row to see what can be done with their seat:

• Send an invite: for someone with no account, as above.
• Make admin or Make member: the owner only, for someone with an account. An admin runs the tab with the owner, but only the owner changes roles, hands the tab over or deletes it.
• Hand the tab over: the owner only. The person becomes the owner.
• Merge with someone: folds two seats for the same person into one, when no more than one of them has an account. Their bills, payments and balance become one person's.
• Remove from the tab: at once, with Undo in the message that follows. Someone with an account who is on a bill or has a balance stays as a name, so the balance is not lost.

Reset, beside Invite link, then Reset link, makes a new link for the tab. "The old link stops working straight away, and so does each person's own link. Everyone already in the tab stays in it."

Worked example: Sam joins the Lisbon weekend

Maya started the Lisbon weekend tab with Tom and Priya, who have accounts. Sam came out on the second day and has none, so Maya pressed Add people and typed Sam. His row read "Added by name - joined Sun 13 Jul", and beneath the list: "Sam is on bills added since joining. To put Sam on an earlier bill, reopen that bill and add them."

Maya pressed Sam's row, then Send an invite, entered his phone number and pressed Send invite. Sam opened the link on his phone, and his row then read "Guest, opened their link Sun 13 Jul - joined Sun 13 Jul". He was on the dinner at Ramiro, so his row ends with what he owes, 24.00.

Tom, who does not run the tab, sees the same list, and pressing a row offers him nothing. Had Maya removed Sam after he signed up, the message would read "Sam removed. They stay as a name with their balance."

If something stops you

• There is no Invite people or Add people. The tab is closed, or you are in it as a guest with no account.
• Pressing a row does nothing. Only the owner and admins change a seat, and nobody changes the owner's.
• There is no Remove for someone. A name with a balance stays in the tab until the balance is settled, so nobody's money is lost.
• Send invite is greyed out. Add a phone number or an email first, or get a connection.