Shared bills calculator
Household bills rarely land on one person's card. Log who paid which bill and the calculator nets it out at the end of the month.
Short answer
Log each utility bill against whoever's account it comes out of, exclude anyone who wasn't living there for that period, and the calculator nets the month's bills into one or two payments rather than reimbursing each bill separately.
People
Expenses
Balances
- Alex$375.00
- Sarah$15.00
- Mike$165.00
- Emma$195.00
+ gets money back · − owes money
💸 Settle up
Only 3 payments needed.
- EmmaAlex$195.00
- MikeAlex$165.00
- SarahAlex$15.00
Who paid what
- Alex$600.00
- Sarah$180.00
- Mike$60.00
Saved on this device. No account needed.
How it works
- 1Add the household members.
- 2Enter each bill with the person whose account it comes from.
- 3Exclude anyone who was not living there for that billing period.
- 4Settle monthly with one or two payments.
Household bills rarely all sit on one person's account. Electricity might be in one housemate's name, internet in another's, and a third pays for a shared streaming subscription — reconciling that by hand each month is exactly the kind of repetitive arithmetic this page exists to remove.
The calculator treats each bill as its own expense: an amount, a payer, and the set of people who should share it. Someone who moved out mid-month or was away can simply be excluded from that bill, or given a reduced custom share, without disturbing anyone else's numbers.
Because bills tend to repeat monthly with only the amounts changing, it's worth keeping the same group and re-entering fresh amounts each month rather than starting from scratch — the structure (who pays what) rarely changes even when the totals do.
Worked examples with real numbers
Four bills, three housemates, one month
Electricity (128) and water (46) are on one housemate's account; internet (39) and gas (71) are on another's. The third housemate's account has no bills this month but they lived there the full period.
| Bills | Amount |
|---|---|
| ElectricityHousemate A's account | 128.00 |
| WaterHousemate A's account | 46.00 |
| InternetHousemate B's account | 39.00 |
| GasHousemate B's account | 71.00 |
| Total | 284.00 |
| Person | Paid | Fair share | Balance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Housemate A | 174.00 | 94.67 | +79.33 |
| Housemate B | 110.00 | 94.67 | +15.33 |
| Housemate C | 0.00 | 94.67 | −94.67 |
- Housemate CHousemate A79.33
- Housemate CHousemate B15.33
Total bills are 284 across three people, a fair share of 94.67 each. Housemate C, who paid nothing, owes 94.67 in total, split between the other two roughly in proportion to what they were out of pocket.
A mid-month move-out
A 90 internet and streaming bill covers a full 30-day month, but one of three housemates moved out after 10 days. They shouldn't pay the full even third.
| Adjusted shares | Amount |
|---|---|
| Full month, two remaining housemates | 60.00 |
| Ten days, departing housemate | 30.00 |
| Total | 90.00 |
Rather than splitting 90 three equal ways (30 each), giving the departing housemate a custom share of 30 for their 10 days and splitting the remaining 60 between the two who stayed the full month reflects actual usage more fairly.
Netting a month of bills
1. List each bill
amount, payer, and included people, one row per bill
2. Sum paid per person
add up every bill amount a person actually paid
3. Sum share per person
add up that person's share across every bill they were included in
4. Net balance
total paid − total share = balance for the month
Mistakes that cause arguments
Splitting every bill evenly regardless of usage
If one housemate works from home and uses far more electricity, an even split isn't fair — use a custom split weighted toward actual usage for that bill specifically.
Not adjusting for people who moved in or out mid-month
A bill covering a full billing period should be pro-rated for anyone who was only there part of it, rather than either fully included or fully excluded.
Reconciling bills separately instead of netting them
Paying back each bill individually (one payment for electricity, another for internet) produces more transfers than necessary — log them all as one month's set of expenses and settle once.
Practical tips
- Keep the same group set up permanently and just add new bills each month rather than recreating it from scratch.
- For usage-heavy bills like electricity, agree a custom split once (e.g. by room size or by whether someone works from home) rather than debating it every month.
- Exclude or pro-rate anyone who was away or moved during the billing period.
- Settle monthly rather than bill-by-bill — it's the same total either way but far fewer individual payments.
Questions
- What if one person uses far more electricity?
- Use custom amounts or percentages on that bill rather than arguing about the whole month.
- How do we handle a bill covering a period someone was away?
- Untick them, or lower their custom amount proportionally to the days away.
- Can subscriptions be included?
- Yes — any recurring cost with a payer and a set of beneficiaries works the same way.