Switching apps sounds like a weekend project. Years of expenses, a group of people to convince, balances you do not want to recalculate by hand.
In practice it takes about five minutes per group, because the export and import do the work. Here is the whole process.
Before you start
Two things worth knowing up front.
- Your Splitwise data is not deleted or altered. Export copies it, nothing more.
- You can run both apps in parallel for a while. There is no need to decide today.
That second point removes most of the risk. Import your history, use the new app for a month, and if it is not for you, nothing has been lost.
Step 1: Export from Splitwise
This has to be done on the web, not in the mobile app.
- Open Splitwise in a browser and sign in
- Open the group you want to move
- Find the export option in the group settings, usually labelled export as spreadsheet
- Save the CSV file somewhere you can reach from your phone, like your cloud drive or by emailing it to yourself
Repeat for each group you want to bring across. There is no bulk export, so this is one file per group. Most people only move their one or two active groups and leave dormant ones behind.
Step 2: Import into EconoGlance
This part happens in the app.
- Open EconoGlance and go to the import option
- Choose the CSV file you exported
- Match each person in the file to an existing contact, to yourself, or leave them as a placeholder
- Confirm and the group is rebuilt
The matching step is the only one needing attention. The file contains names as they were typed in Splitwise, so you are telling the app which of those names is you and which correspond to people you already have.
What comes across
Specifically, here is what survives the move.
| Item | Transfers? | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Expenses | Yes | With dates, amounts and descriptions |
| Who paid | Yes | Matched to the person you selected |
| Split amounts | Yes | Each person's share is preserved |
| Settlements | Yes | Past payments come across as settlements |
| Members | Yes | As real users or placeholders |
| Comments | No | Not included in the export file |
| Receipt images | No | Not included in the export file |
Comments and receipt images are the two genuine losses, and that is a limitation of what the export file contains rather than of the import. If a particular receipt matters, save it before you switch.
Common import problems, and the fix
Most imports are uneventful. When something looks wrong, it is almost always one of these.
| What you see | Cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| A person appears twice | The same person typed two ways in the original group | Match both entries to the same contact during import |
| Balances are slightly off | Rounding on old multi-way splits | Usually pennies; settle once to reset cleanly |
| Someone shows as owing everything | You were matched to the wrong person | Re-run the import and check the matching step |
| Dates look shifted by a day | Time zone difference in the export | Harmless; the amounts and order are unaffected |
If an import goes badly wrong, the safest fix is to delete the imported group and run it again. Nothing is lost, because your CSV is untouched and so is the original data in Splitwise.
Step 3: Bring the people over
The part that is social rather than technical.
You do not need everyone to join before you start. People who have not joined exist as placeholders, so every split stays mathematically correct and balances are right from day one. When someone accepts your invite, they take over their placeholder and the history is already there waiting.
This matters practically. It means one person can move a group without waiting for five other people to agree, which is otherwise the step where switching stalls indefinitely.
Step 4: Check the balances
Do this once, before you rely on it.
Open the imported group and compare the balance for each person against what Splitwise shows. They should match. If they do not, the usual cause is the member matching step, where two names were merged or one was matched to the wrong person.
Five minutes of checking now is worth considerably more than discovering a mismatch in three months, when you no longer remember what the correct figure was.
What you gain by moving
Worth being concrete about why you would bother.
- AI receipt scanning that reads line items, so splitting a restaurant bill takes one photo
- Subscription tracking with renewal reminders and price change alerts
- A private personal space with budgets, separate from your shared groups
- No ads on any tier
- Correct handling for currencies most apps get wrong, including the official SAR and AED symbols
For a feature by feature view see EconoGlance vs Splitwise, or the wider field in our honest four-app comparison.
Tell your group what is happening
The social step people skip, and the one that decides whether a switch sticks.
Say what you are moving to, that their history is already there, and that they do not need to do anything today. A group that understands nothing has been lost will follow you. A group that gets an unexplained invite link mostly will not.
A sensible first month
How to switch without betting everything on it working.
- Import your one most active group first, not all of them
- Check the balances match, then use it for two weeks
- Invite one person who splits with you often, rather than the whole group at once
- If it sticks, import the rest and tell everyone else
Moving one group at a time keeps the risk near zero and means you are asking people to join something you have already tested, which is a much easier conversation than asking them to try something new alongside you.
If you decide not to switch
That is a perfectly reasonable outcome, and the export was still worth doing.
Keep the CSV. Your expense history is your data, and having a copy on your own drive means no future pricing or product decision can hold your records hostage. That is true regardless of which app you end up using.
