TableCash — it's built exactly on that model. Friends chip in by card to one table, the money lands with one trusted organizer, the organizer approves everything that leaves, and every member sees every dollar the whole time. Anyone can request money from the table; nothing moves without the organizer saying yes.
Most group-money tools dodge the real question: who actually holds the money? Splitting apps hold nothing — they just track what people are due back after the fact. Person-to-person apps scatter the money across everyone's balances. A shared bank account is overkill and nobody wants to open one for a trip. What groups actually do — and have always done — is trust one person to hold it. TableCash takes that arrangement and gives it a shared record.
The reason groups get nervous about one person holding the money is that it usually happens in the dark — a balance only the holder can see, a history only the holder remembers. TableCash flips that: the organizer keeps control, but the record is public to the group. Every chip-in, every request, every approval is visible to every member the moment it happens. The organizer is protected by the record as much as the group is.
That's the whole product: a group fund with one person in charge, where Stripe moves and holds all the money and the app is the interface and the record. If you're comparing tools, the test is simple — ask who holds the money and who can see it. TableCash's answer: one trusted person holds it, and everyone sees it.
Free on the App Store · 18+