Fair numbers need fair play.

BalanceUp works because people trust the numbers in it — their own, and the ones they share with friends, family and flatmates. These guidelines explain how to use BalanceUp in a way that keeps that trust. They sit alongside our Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy; by using BalanceUp you agree to follow them.

• Use your own, accurate name, email address and mobile number. One BalanceUp login is for one person.
• Keep your 6-digit PIN and one-time codes private. Nobody from BalanceUp will ever ask you for them.
• Choose a PIN that isn’t easy to guess — BalanceUp rejects common ones such as 123456 or 000000.
• If you think someone else has access, change your PIN from Settings and check your login devices. Contact us if anything looks wrong.

BalanceUp calculates balances from what people record. Please record expenses and payments as they really happened:

• Enter the real amount, date and payer. Don’t inflate an expense or add one that never happened.
• Record a Full Pay or Part Pay only after the payment has actually been made outside the app.
• Split expenses the way the group agreed. Use Exact when shares differ, rather than editing others’ entries.
• Correct mistakes promptly — edit or delete your own expense, or ask the group admin.

• Invite only people you know and who expect to share expenses with you. Don’t send repeated or unwanted invitations.
• Respect a declined invitation — don’t pressure people into joining a group.
• Keep group names, notes and cover photos friendly and appropriate for everyone in the group.
• Disagreements about money are between the people involved. Talk them through; BalanceUp only shows the numbers.

Guests are people without a BalanceUp account whom you add to a group by name. An email address or mobile number is optional.

• Only add a guest’s email or mobile number if they are happy for you to share it with the group.
• Use a guest’s real name (or a name they’re happy with) so the group knows who is who.
• If a guest asks to be removed, remove them once they are no longer part of any expense.

• Set permissions that fit the group — who can add expenses, invite members, close and delete it.
• Close a group only when the members have had a fair chance to review the settlement summary.
• Remember that closing makes every record read-only, and deleting a group removes it for everyone.
• Use admin powers (editing or deleting others’ expenses, removing guests) fairly and transparently.

You must not use BalanceUp to:

• Break any law, or record, plan or conceal illegal activity, fraud or money laundering.
• Harass, threaten, shame or impersonate anyone, including in names, notes and cover photos.
• Upload content that is hateful, sexual, violent, infringing or otherwise offensive.
• Collect other users’ personal information, or search for users to spam or scrape them.
• Interfere with the service: bypass security or rate limits, probe for vulnerabilities without permission, or overload our systems.
• Copy, reverse-engineer, resell or build a competing service from BalanceUp or its content.
• Present BalanceUp as a payment, lending, wallet or banking service — it is none of these.

Please tell us privately at [email protected] with enough detail to reproduce it, and give us reasonable time to fix it before sharing it publicly. Don’t access, change or delete other people’s data while testing.

Depending on how serious it is, we may remove content, limit features, suspend or close the BalanceUp account involved, and — where the law requires it — cooperate with the authorities. We consider the context and, where appropriate, let you explain before we act.

To report something that breaks these guidelines, email [email protected] with what happened, the group or person involved and any screenshots.