A Spreadsheet to Track Shared Expenses for Two Roommates

I've scoured the internet looking for a simple Excel spreadsheet to keep track of expenses between myself and my roommate, but everything I've found is designed for large numbers of roommates—usually four or more.

Using Kelly Darby's Roommate Accounting Spreadsheet as a template, I created a spreadsheet that works for me. Here's the deal:

The first five columns (A-E) show the basic details of each expense. These columns are purely for your reference; they don't affect any other part of the spreadsheet.

Columns F-I show each roommate's debts and payments.

Columns L and M show a running total of the balance between roommates. These are the only dynamic cells in the spreadsheet. Cell L2 is the sum of columns F and I minus the sum of columns G and H. Cell M2 is the sum of columns G and H minus the sum of columns F and I. The sum of L2 and M2 should always equal zero.

Directions: Anytime your roommate owes you money, whether it's for their share of an expense or because you loaned them money, enter the amount they owe in their "debit" column. Anytime you pay your roommate money, enter the amount you paid in your "credit" column. When you want to settle up, reference Columns L and M. Whoever has the positive amount should pay the other roommate.

Like it? Download the spreadsheet here. To download the spreadsheet, in the Google Docs menu, go to "File" and then "Download as ▶" and select "Excel." Note: Don't ask for permission to edit the main document! I'm not going to give it to you, because you'd be typing directly into the template that everyone can see.

Don't like it? If you have suggestions for improving the spreadsheet, please email me at two [dot] roommate [dot] spreadsheet [at] gmail [dot] com.