A Circle connects a group of people to each other in one step. Use it when several people need to be linked up fast — a trip, a flat, a regular game.
What a Circle is and isn't
It is a named place for people and their shared transactions — a roster, a QR code that connects everyone who scans it to everyone else, and the list of transactions tagged with it.
It is not a group account. A Circle holds no balance, receives no money, and settles nothing. Every balance created with a Circle's help lives between two people, exactly like every other balance in HiBill.
The practical result: archiving a Circle loses nothing. Balances survive it, because they were never in it.
Creating one
Go to Circles and create one.
Give it a name — "Lisbon weekend", "Flat 4B". You can rename it later.
Open it and show the QR code, or copy the join link.
Getting people in
Anyone who scans the QR or opens the link joins the Circle, and is immediately connected to every other member — not just to you. Seven people each scan once, and all seven are connected to each other.
Join links expire after 24 hours. This is deliberate: a join link connects a stranger to everyone in the Circle, so it should not stay live in a chat thread for months. If it expires before everyone joined, open a new code from the Circle screen.
People who join need a HiBill account. For someone who will not sign up, add them as a placeholder instead — placeholders can be Circle members.
Using it on a transaction
The payoff. When you create a transaction, add the whole Circle instead of picking names individually — everyone lands on the expense at once, and you can remove anyone who was not there.
For a seven-person trip this is the difference between one tap and seven per bill.
Seeing the Circle's transactions
A transaction can be tagged with one Circle, and the Circle's page lists everything tagged with it, newest first, under the roster.
There are three ways to tag one:
Add it from the Circle's page. The Add transaction button there fills in the roster and the tag together, so most transactions are filed without you thinking about it.
Pick a Circle while adding it anywhere else. There is a Circle control beside Date and Category in the transaction form. It stays hidden until you have made your first Circle.
Tag it afterwards. Open any transaction and use the Circle row in its details. The same row changes the tag or clears it.
Tagging is only a label. It moves no money, changes no balance, and does not decide who is on the transaction — the people on it are still whoever you added as payers and participants.
The list shows the transactions you are part of. Being in a Circle does not let you read transactions you were not on, so what you see on a Circle's page is your own share of the trip rather than everybody's.
For the same reason there is no trip total. Any figure would be your total rather than the group's, and wrong for anyone who missed a dinner. A Circle still holds no balance of its own.
Filing something after the trip is over
The usual moment for remembering an expense is after everyone has gone home. Archived Circles still accept transactions, so the airport taxi receipt found in a coat pocket in October can still be tagged to last summer's trip. Archiving tidies a Circle out of your active list; it does not close the books on it.
Connections outlast the Circle
When someone joins, what is actually created is a relationship between them and each other member — the same connection as adding a person by hand.
So after a trip, everyone you met is in your People list permanently. You can split with them individually forever, whether or not the Circle is still active. Archive the Circle when the trip ends; you keep the people.
When you don't need one
For two people, skip it. A Circle for you and one other person is pure overhead. Add them directly and split.
Circles start paying off at more than three people who don't all already know each other in the app. Below that, adding people directly is faster.
Managing a Circle
Some actions belong to the person who created it:
The owner can remove a member at any time. It does not touch balances or delete the relationship — the person stays in your People list, and they are notified they were removed.
The owner cannot be removed from their own Circle.
Anyone else can leave a Circle themselves.
The owner can archive the Circle when it is done, and unarchive it later if the group comes back. Nothing financial is affected either way, and an archived Circle keeps its transaction list and still accepts new tags.
Archive, Restore and Leave are in the ⋯ menu beside the Circle's name.
There is no limit on Circles or on members per Circle, on any plan.
You get a notification when someone joins or is removed from a Circle you are in — see notifications.