Expense Tracker

Popular Usecases for Expense Splitting and Tracking

Getting started, in three steps

The sheet moves through three steps, and the tool keeps you on the one the sheet is ready for. You cannot enter an expense before there are people to split it between, and there is nothing to settle until at least one expense exists.

1. 1

   Set up the sheet

   Give the sheet a name, choose the currency, and list the people splitting. Nobody needs an account or an email address. A sheet holds up to 10 people, and you can rename them or add more later.

2. 2

   Log expenses

   Each expense records what it was, how much, the date, who paid it, and which people it is shared between. Log them as they happen rather than from memory at the end: the running total is only worth reading if the expenditure behind it is complete. Not every bill involves everybody, so you pick the sharers per expense rather than once for the whole sheet.

3. 3

   Settle up

   The settlement step states who pays whom and how much. Mark a payment once the money has actually changed hands and it comes off the list. What is left is a short list of transfers that clears everybody.

Share with friends and group

Using it to track spending, not just to split it

Most people arrive wanting to settle one trip. The sheet is just as useful as an expense tracker for a group that keeps going: a household, a couple, a shared project. Every entry is dated, so the sheet doubles as a log of expenditure you can read back months later, which is more than most people manage when they try to track spending in a chat thread or a notes app.

It is not a budget tool and does not pretend to be one. There are no categories, no monthly limits and no forecasting. What it gives you is an accurate record of what was actually spent and by whom, which is the part people usually get wrong when they try to manage personal spending across more than one person. If you want that record to feed a household budget, the totals at the foot of the expenses step are the figures to take.

Nothing here needs an account, so a sheet stays separate from the rest of your personal finances. Only the people you send the link to can see it.

A worked example

How the numbers are calculated

Each expense is split equally between the people you select

You choose the sharers per expense, so a bill that only three of you were part of is divided by three. What varies between expenses is who is included, not how much each of them takes on. A bill where people owe different amounts goes in as two expenses.

The payer is credited in full, the sharers are debited their part

Somebody who pays 60.00 for a meal four of you ate is up 45.00 on that expense: out 60.00, back 15.00 as their own share. Adding that across every expense gives each person one net figure, and those figures always add up to zero.

Settled expenses drop out of the balances

Marking an expense settled keeps the record of who paid for what and takes it out of the running totals. Reopen it at any time if the payment falls through.

Someone added later starts from zero

A person who joins part way through is included in expenses added from that point on, so a figure the group has already agreed stays where it is. To include them in an earlier expense, delete it and enter it again with their name ticked.

The currency is set when you create the sheet

Amounts are stored as whole cents and are never converted between currencies, so the currency is chosen once, at the start, and stays fixed once the first expense is in.

Frequently asked questions

How does it work out who owes whom?

Each expense records one payer and the people it is split between. The payer is credited the full amount, because they are out of pocket by that much, and each of the people sharing it is debited an equal part. Adding that up across every unsettled expense gives each person one net figure. Positive means the group owes them, negative means they owe the group. The settlement step then turns those figures into a short list of payments.

What happens when an amount does not divide evenly?

Ten dollars between three people is 3.34, 3.33 and 3.33. The leftover cents go to the people listed first on the sheet, so the shares always add back up to the exact total. Nothing is rounded away, and the balances always add up to zero.

Can I add someone to the group later?

Yes, up to the limit of 10 people on a sheet. A person added later starts on a zero balance and is included in expenses added from that point on. Expenses already entered keep the people they were entered with. If an older expense should have included them, delete it and add it again.

What does marking an expense settled do?

It takes that expense out of the running balances while keeping the record of who paid for what. Use it when the money for that particular bill has changed hands. You can reopen it at any time.

How is that different from the settle step?

Marking an expense settled retires one bill. The settle step records a payment from one person to another, which can clear parts of several bills at once. Most groups use the settle step at the end of a trip and leave individual expenses alone.

Do I need an account?

No. Creating a sheet gives you a long random link, and that link is how you and everyone else reach it. There is no signup, no password and no app to install.

What happens if I lose the link?

There is no way to recover it, because there is no account it could be attached to. Bookmark it, or send it to yourself, as soon as you create the sheet.

Who can see my expense sheet?

Anyone who has the link, and nobody else. Individual sheets are excluded from search engines and from our sitemap. Anyone you send the link to can add expenses and mark them settled, so send it only to the people splitting the bill.

Can two people on the sheet have the same name?

No. Two people called Sam would make every balance row ambiguous, so a duplicate name is not added. Use a surname initial or a nickname.

Can we use a currency other than dollars?

Yes. You choose the currency when you create the sheet, from dollars, pounds, euros, rupees and several others. Every amount is stored as a whole number of cents rather than a decimal, so repeated splitting cannot introduce rounding drift.

Is it free?

Yes, and there is nothing to pay later. A sheet holds up to 10 people.