Crew kitty calculator for your sailing trip

Enter the crew and what each person paid into the kitty, then add the week's expenses as they come: the supermarket run at the base, marina fees, diesel, dinners ashore. For each one, choose who paid, the kitty or someone out of their own pocket, and who shares it. The calculator keeps a running balance for everyone and lists the transfers that settle up.

It works out the fewest transfers that square the whole crew, not just a short list. A crew of six needs five at most, and fewer when some balances cancel each other out.

Amounts are split to the cent. When an amount does not divide evenly, the odd cents go round the crew from one expense to the next, so nobody always pays the extra cent.

Many crews each put the same sum into a kitty at the start of the week. One person keeps the cash and pays the shared costs from it. Choose them under “Who keeps the kitty?”: whatever is left at the end is with them, so the settlement has them pay it out. If the kitty ran dry and they topped it up from their own money, the settlement pays them back.

Costs paid out of pocket count too. If one person pays for the diesel with their own card, add it as paid by them and the calculator credits them.

Food and drink on board, marina and harbour fees, mooring buoys, national park tickets, diesel and the tourist tax are the usual shared costs. The charter price, the transit log and the security deposit are mostly paid at booking or at the base and split separately. Our charter cost calculator estimates each of these for a week in Croatia.

How much to put in at the start depends on the route and on how often you eat ashore. A good guide is the marina, fuel, food and tourist tax lines of the charter cost calculator, divided by the crew.

On many private crews the skipper pays no share of the kitty, and the crew covers the skipper's food and drink. Tick “Pays no share” next to the skipper's name and every expense is split among the others. A hired skipper's fee is paid separately from the kitty, though the guests usually feed the skipper too.

For a single expense, untick anyone who should not share it, such as someone who missed a dinner ashore. The next expense keeps that choice until you change it.

The kitty is saved in the browser you use, so you can close the page and carry on later on the same phone. Copy the link to show the crew: it carries the whole kitty, and everyone who opens it sees the same figures. Changes made on another phone stay on that phone, so it works best when one person keeps the kitty up to date. Print it at the end of the week for the record.

Nothing you enter is sent to us. A very long kitty, with many dozens of expenses, is too long for a link; print it instead.