Venmo’s new group payment option will help settle up your friends’-getaway costs

Digital payments app Venmo is rolling out a new feature that allows users to create groups to track and settle up multiple expenses.

The feature is meant to cut out the need for spreadsheets and other third-party apps, such as Splitwise, before sending expenses to friends. It will automatically calculate each individual amount due based on the overall spend of each person in the group.

Venmo’s Groups launches Tuesday and will continue to roll out within the coming weeks, the company said. Rather than have one person track all expenses for a given outing or event, each group member is able to add expenses, see what’s due, and send money to others when needed. New expenses can be added and calculated at any time, the company said.

“We know managing ongoing expenses in a group can be challenging, in particular when each member covers different costs with different amounts at different times,” Erika Sanchez, VP and general manager, said in a news release, adding that Groups was one of the app’s “most requested features.”

Venmo launched a different groups feature back in 2015, which let users create an account for their group or club but required select managers to handle tasks such as paying membership dues. The company has since renamed that feature “organization accounts.”

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