Free template
Shared expenses spreadsheet
A shared expenses spreadsheet fits in five columns: the date, the description, the category, who paid and the amount, followed by one column per person where you tick who is concerned. Each person's balance is then what they paid minus their share. This template already contains those formulas, and goes as far as the list of transfers to make.
An .xlsx file, 30 KB, in your currency: the pound version uses UK date format, the dollar version uses US format. No signup, no email required. Works with Excel, LibreOffice Calc, Numbers and Google Sheets.
What is inside
Four tabs: a getting-started guide, the expense entry, the summary with its charts, and the workings running behind the scenes.
| Date | Description | Category | Paid by | Amount | Alex | Sam | Jamie |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 14/08/2026 | Airbnb (2 nights) | Accommodation | Alex | 360 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 14/08/2026 | Arrival groceries | Groceries | Sam | 82 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 14/08/2026 | Petrol | Transport | Jamie | 70 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 15/08/2026 | Dinner out | Restaurant | Taylor | 124 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Name | Paid | Their share | Balance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alex | £408.00 | £189.00 | +£219.00 |
| Sam | £138.00 | £189.00 | -£51.00 |
| Jamie | £70.00 | £173.00 | -£103.00 |
| Taylor | £124.00 | £189.00 | -£65.00 |
How to use it
Three moves, and the spreadsheet keeps itself up to date.
1. Put the names at the top
Welcome tab, the “Who's in?” block. Up to eight names, and the rest of the workbook refers back to them: renaming someone takes a single edit.
2. One row per expense
Expenses tab: the date, what it was, its category, who paid and how much. Then a 1 in the column of everyone concerned, a 0 for the others. No division to do by hand.
3. Read the Summary
Summary tab: everyone's balance, two charts, and above all the “Who pays whom?” block, which gives the list of transfers cut down to the minimum. That is what most templates lack.
What a spreadsheet will not do
This template is genuinely useful, and it will still die eventually. Better to know why before relying on it.
- One person keeps it up to date, and it is always the same person. The others never open the file.
- It needs a computer, while expenses happen at the restaurant or the petrol station.
- Two people editing at once create two versions, and nobody knows which one counts.
- It freezes a moment in time: reopening it three weeks later assumes somebody kept it going meanwhile.
- It caps out at eight people and a hundred expenses. Past that, the formulas have to be extended by hand.
Key points
- A shared expenses spreadsheet is structured as one row per expense, with one column per participant saying whether they are concerned.
- A person's balance is what they paid minus what they owe, and the sum of every balance in a group is always zero.
- A SUMIF on the "paid by" column gives the total advanced by one person without sorting the rows.
- Ticking 1 or 0 per participant, rather than typing amounts, avoids the most common error: a split whose parts do not add back up to the amount.
- Turning balances into the minimum number of transfers is a separate calculation from the balances themselves, and it has no single answer.
- The .xlsx format is a ZIP archive of XML files, which is why Excel, LibreOffice Calc, Numbers and Google Sheets can all read it.
Frequently asked questions
How do you make a shared expenses spreadsheet?
Create one row per expense with the date, description, who paid and the amount, then one column per participant where you tick who is concerned. Each person's balance is what they paid, computed with a SUMIF on the "paid by" column, minus the sum of their shares.
Does the template work with Google Sheets?
Yes. Import the .xlsx into Google Sheets and the formulas carry over as they are. It also works with LibreOffice Calc and Numbers.
Do you need to give an email to download it?
No. The file downloads directly, with no signup and no email.
How many people does the template take?
Eight, entered on the Welcome tab. The participation columns on the Expenses tab and the balance block follow automatically. Past eight, the formulas have to be extended by hand.
How do you know who should pay whom?
The Summary tab has a “Who pays whom?” block giving the list of transfers directly, cut down to the minimum needed. That is what most templates do not do.
Why should the balances add up to zero?
Because every pound spent is both advanced by someone and owed by someone. If the Balance column does not add up to zero, an expense is mis-attributed on the Expenses tab.
Three weeks. That is the average lifespan of a shared spreadsheet.
Not because it is badly made, but because one person maintains it and expenses happen far from a computer. CountClub does the same thing, except everyone adds their own in ten seconds, from their phone.
- Everyone adds their own
- Balances always current
- Free