A kitty spreadsheet that actually does the maths: enter expenses, tick the crew, balance per person calculated automatically. For Excel, LibreOffice and Numbers, no sign-up. Plus the honest answer on when a spreadsheet stops being enough.
In short
The Sailto kitty template is a free Excel file with four sheets: Crew, Expenses, Settlement and Instructions. Each expense goes on its own row with amount and payer, and in the name columns you tick who it was for. The settlement works out, per person, what they have paid out, what their share is and what their balance is, in either split mode or pot mode. No macros, no sign-up, and it runs in Excel, LibreOffice and Numbers. For a crew that wants to keep the accounts together, the kitty in Sailto is the better choice, because everyone sees the same kitty in their browser.
On almost every trip there is one person who opens their laptop on the third evening and starts a spreadsheet. Columns for date, amount and "who paid", and underneath, three days of expenses from memory. It works, sort of. Until someone asks how to split the restaurant evening that only three of eight people went to.
This template saves that person from building the spreadsheet. It calculates each person's share automatically, can split expenses between subgroups and handles both common kitty models. It is free, needs no sign-up, contains no macros and runs in Excel, LibreOffice Calc and Apple Numbers.
Download the boat kitty template (XLSX)
Four sheets, nothing more.
Crew. Up to ten names, each with a share. The share is set to 1 and stays there unless someone deliberately pays differently: a child 0.5, or the skipper 0 on a guided trip where the crew covers their kitty. Plus a column for payments in, which is only needed in pot mode.
Expenses. One row per expense: date, description, category from a drop-down list, amount, payer from the crew list. Next to that, one column per crew member. An x means: the expense was for this person. No x in the row means: for everyone. That way the restaurant evening for three is logged with three crosses, while diesel and harbour fees go to the whole crew without any.
Settlement. Calculates itself. Per person: what they have paid out, their share of all expenses, and their balance. Positive means they get money back; negative means they owe. The sum of all balances is always zero — that is the built-in check. For pot mode, the pot balance and pot-mode balance sit alongside.
Instructions. Five steps, in case someone gets the file without this article.
The template contains four sample rows with a fictional crew, so you can see straight away how the settlement reacts. Just overwrite them.
With the sample data — four people, four expenses, one of them shared by only three:
| Name | Paid out | Share | Balance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Anna | €158.00 | €146.13 | +€11.88 |
| Boris | €180.00 | €146.13 | +€33.88 |
| Conny | €214.50 | €114.13 | +€100.38 |
| Dirk | €0.00 | €146.13 | −€146.13 |
Conny was not at the restaurant evening, so her share is €32 lower. Dirk has not paid for anything and pays the other three. This is exactly the calculation that otherwise takes an hour on the last evening.
The template covers both models, and the choice should be made before the trip, not after. In short — the full version is in the article Sharing the boat kitty fairly:
Split mode. Whoever pays, fronts the money. At the end, the split-mode balance column shows who owes whom. Nobody has to pay in up front, but it takes discipline to log every expense.
Pot mode. Everyone pays the same amount into the pot up front, and bills are paid from the pot. Payments in go on the Crew sheet, and the settlement shows the pot balance. If someone pays for something for the crew out of their own pocket, they still enter it as an expense; the pot-mode balance column takes that into account.
How much should go into the pot is covered, with a worked example, in the article What does a sailing trip cost?. As a rule of thumb: €25 to €40 per person per day, plus a 15 per cent buffer.
We built the template because many crews start with a spreadsheet, and because a good spreadsheet beats a notebook. There are still three things it cannot do — and they are the reason Sailto exists.
It is only up to date for one person. The crew sees the balance when that one person shows it. In Sailto everyone has the same kitty in their browser, everyone enters their own expenses, and the balance is visible to everyone at any time.
It knows nothing about receipts. In Sailto, a photo of the receipt is attached to every expense.
It does not suggest a settlement. Four balances can be settled in your head. With eight people, settling by hand means five to eight transfers; Sailto calculates the settlement with the fewest transfers, usually two or three.
Split mode with receipts, balances and settlement suggestion is free for good in Sailto, for any number of trips. Pot mode is part of the Trip Pass, a one-off €14.99 per trip.
If you are sticking with a spreadsheet, this template will serve you well. If after your first trip you want to swap it for something the whole crew can see, you know where to look.
Three sections are enough: a list of the crew with their shares, a list of expenses with date, amount, payer and who took part, and a settlement that compares what each person has paid out with their share. The Sailto template comes with exactly these three sheets and ready-made formulas. All it takes is the discipline to enter every expense on the same day.
Yes. The template only uses standard functions such as SUMIF and COUNTIF, with no macros and no Excel-specific formulas. It calculates the same way in LibreOffice Calc and Apple Numbers, and the drop-down lists for category and payer work there too.
Each expense row has one column per crew member. An x means this person took part. The amount is then split only between the marked people, weighted by their share from the Crew sheet. If a row has no x, the expense applies to the whole crew.
Yes. The Crew sheet has a column for payments into the pot. The settlement then shows the pot balance — payments in minus expenses — and, per person, the balance of payments in, amounts paid out and share. A negative value means: pay in more.
The spreadsheet sits with one person; the Sailto kitty belongs to the whole crew. In Sailto everyone enters their own expenses, attaches a photo of the receipt, and everyone sees the same balance. At the end, Sailto calculates the settlement with the fewest possible transfers, which the spreadsheet cannot do. Split mode in Sailto is free for good.
No. The file is right behind the link, with no email address, no newsletter and no account. It contains no macros and makes no external connections.