Flatshare: splitting rent, bills and groceries

Equal, by room, or exact amounts?

There is no universal right answer, only a rule everyone agrees on. The three common ones:

• Equal shares: internet, electricity, cleaning supplies. Simple and rarely disputed.
• By shares: 4 shares for the big room, 3 for the middle one, 2 for the small one. The split follows the shares, whatever the amount.
• Exact amounts: the rent, when the lease sets each room’s figure.

Example for €1,500 rent between three:

Counted checks to the cent that the split adds up to the total before saving: a badly split rent does not go through.

Rent and subscriptions, entered once

When adding the expense, choose “Repeat”: rent, the internet subscription or home insurance are then added automatically every time they fall due, with the same split. You can pause or stop a recurring expense, and the expenses already added stay as they are.

Who pays for what?

In real life, one person often pays the rent and another does the shopping. It does not matter: everyone records what they pay and who it is split between. Each person’s balance (what they paid minus their share) updates for everyone.

When to settle up?

Once a month, or when someone moves out. The Settle up tab suggests the shortest list of transfers to bring everyone back to zero, and each person marks theirs as done. For how it is calculated, see Who owes whom?.

Spreadsheet or app?

A shared spreadsheet works as long as one person keeps it up to date. Once everyone edits it, formulas break and nobody knows who changed what. An app keeps a history of every addition, edit and deletion, works offline and gets the maths right.

With Counted, nobody has to create an account: the project link is all a flatmate needs to join. And everything is encrypted on your device: your rent and groceries are nobody else’s business.