how to deal with monies paid between friends

Question

Dealing with my 2020 transactions
 Due to COVID, a friend and I made a lot of purchases together: Instacart, getting take-out, etc.
 Sometimes I would pay and sometimes she would pay.
 This is NOT about how to reconcile things between us - we just wrote it down the old fashioned way on a piece of paper and reconciled it between ourselves at the end of the year, in terms of the overall total for the whole year and the one that paid less paid the other one the difference.
 My question is about using Quicken to get accurate totals for how much I am spending in a category.
 I think I know how to do it if I was the one making the purchase:  For example, we made an Instacart order that was $200.  I paid it all, but only $50 of it was actually for my groceries and the other $150 was for her groceries.  I think I do that one by a split transaction and only categorizing $50 as my groceries and the other $150 as "x friend owes"
 OTOH,  say we ordered take out for $75 and my friend paid for it.  But half of it I owe to her.  However,  I might want to know how much I spent on take out in a particular month.  It wouldn't be in my register because I didn't pay for it.   But I essentially paid her back for in at the end of 2020.  How would I set that up in Quicken so I could know these things?

Sherlock · Answer

There are a few ways to handle these types of transactions.  One way is to create a Cash account that will maintain the balance.  When you purchase something for your friend or pay them back, record the entry as a transfer to the Cash account.  When your friend purchases something for you, enter the purchase in the Cash account.  When your friend pays you back, record the entry as a transfer from the Cash account.  A positive balance indicates what your friend owes you and a negative balance indicates what you owe them.