One file for the house — and the house owns it
A shared home runs on three questions: what did we agree, who owes whom, and whose turn is it. Most houses answer all three in a group chat — which has no totals, no structure, and no memory anyone can search at the moment it matters. The Roommate & Shared-Household Operations Kit answers them in one file, and does the unpleasant arithmetic so the house doesn’t have to.
Log a shared cost as it happens — what it was, the amount, who actually paid — and pick how it splits. Six columns work out every person’s share instantly, and the Settle Up tab nets everyone off and names exactly who pays whom, to the cent. The chore rotation fills itself in for eight weeks. And twenty-six house-agreement terms come already drafted, so you only have to agree, edit, and date them.
It works in Excel, Google Sheets, and LibreOffice — delivered as a workbook plus a one-click “Make a copy” Google Sheets link, so the whole house can edit one shared copy with no import to fuss with.
Four ways to split a bill — because not every cost splits the same way
This is the part a blank spreadsheet makes you build yourself, and the part most people get subtly wrong:
- Split equally — everyone. Divided by however many roommates are on the roster. Internet, trash bags, the plumber.
- Split equally — named only. Divided among just the people you name. The streaming plan three of you are on; the party supplies for whoever was actually there.
- Split by rent share. Each person’s percentage from House Setup. Electric and heating, so the person in the box room isn’t subsidizing the heat in the big one.
- One person pays. Charged entirely to the single name you enter — for when somebody else fronted the money. You paid for their parking permit; it lands in the settle-up and comes back automatically, instead of living in your head as a thing you’re owed.
Every row carries a Check column that adds the six shares back up against the amount. If a name in “Split among” doesn’t match the roster, the row says so rather than quietly charging nobody — and the Dashboard counts those rows for you, so a bad one can’t hide.
What makes it worth more than a blank spreadsheet
It’s a designed, connected system built for a house of up to six roommates. House Setup is the only tab that has to be right; every dropdown, split formula, rotation, and dashboard figure reads from it:
- Shared Expenses resolves whichever split method you pick into six per-person share columns, live.
- Settle Up works out each person’s paid-versus-owed, then turns the balances into a grid: everyone who owes pays everyone who is owed, in proportion to what each is owed. Every figure is explainable in a sentence, and the totals prove every dollar paid is a dollar received.
- Chore Rotation builds eight weeks from one start date, stepping each chore on to the next person every time it comes round — so a monthly job still moves through the house instead of sticking. Underneath, it counts the turns and flags anyone carrying more than a fair share.
- House Dashboard scopes the whole month from a single cell: balances with at-a-glance bars, spending by category, chore load, the shopping list, and how far through the agreement you are.
Twenty-six things worth deciding before you need to have decided them
The best time to agree what happens when someone’s partner is staying four nights a week is before anyone’s partner is staying four nights a week. The House Agreement tab covers rent and bill splits, the deposit, quiet hours, common areas, the fridge, guests, chores and supplies, pets, parking, moving out, and how the house handles a disagreement — each one drafted, each one editable, each one dated when you agree it.
The included 18-page House Agreement guide walks every term: what it’s really about, what goes wrong when a house hasn’t decided it, and the two or three answers houses actually land on. There’s a printable version with a signature block if you’d rather have it on the fridge.
Where things are — never the password
A shared household file gets copied, screenshotted into group chats, and left open on kitchen tables. The House Info tab is built around that: trash day, whose name the electric is in, the water shutoff, the breaker panel, the spare key — recorded as where something is and who has it, never the password, door code, alarm code, or account number.
Own it, don’t rent it
Unlike a bill-splitting app, this file belongs to the house. Your rent, your balances, and the names of the people you live with don’t sit on a company’s server, can’t be mined or sold, and won’t vanish when a free tier changes or a service shuts down. Nobody needs an account to be included. And when someone moves out, they take a copy — not a login.
Want to try the math first? The free Roommate Bill-Split Calculator splits one month of shared costs and tells you who owes whom, right in your browser.
A household record and arithmetic — not a lease, and not legal advice
The house agreement is a written understanding between the people who live somewhere. It is not a lease, not a legally binding contract, and not legal advice, and it does not change your rights or obligations under your lease or under the law where you live — those always win. Everything on the money tabs is arithmetic on figures you enter; a balance in the workbook is not a legal claim on anyone. Deposits, notice periods, subletting, and what a landlord may deduct are governed by your lease and your local law, not by this file. If real money or someone’s housing is at stake, get advice from a lawyer, a tenants’ rights service, or your local housing office. The example house is clearly fictional; overwrite it with your own.
