Two Canberra entrepreneurs have come up with an app to help people avoid the social awkwardness of asking friends to repay money – and in a world first users can pay with Bitcoins as well as dollars.

The app, QuicklyPay.it, allows friends to easily collect money from shared expenses such as restaurant bills or electricity bills between flatmates. Using social media, the app reminds people that they owe the money and allows them to pay it easily, without having to worry about bank account numbers or hand over the money in person.

Andrew Clapham and Zakaria Bouguettaya: app masterminds.

Co-developer Zakaria Bouguettaya says he got the idea when he went with friends to a restaurant that refused to split bills, so he picked up the tab.

“The problem came about when I wanted to chase everyone up for payment. Individually, $20 wasn't worth an aggressive push to get the money back, but in total $120 wasn't something I could ignore,” Bouguettaya says. “I didn't want to be seen as a cheapskate, but at the same time I realised most of my friends had simply forgotten to pay me back.”