Set up one group for the household
Create a single Owely group for the apartment and invite everyone who lives there with the group’s invite link or code. One group means one balance per person, so you are never adding up three different spreadsheets to work out who owes what.
Name it something everyone recognizes, like the street name. If you have a separate arrangement with one roommate, such as a shared car, give that its own group so it does not blur the household numbers.
Rent when the rooms are not the same size
Splitting rent evenly is simple, but it is not always fair. When one room is bigger, has its own bathroom or comes with parking, agree on a split up front and use it every month. Talking about it once, before anyone moves in, is much easier than renegotiating it later.
| Room | Share | Pays |
|---|---|---|
| Large room with bathroom | 40% | $960 |
| Middle room | 30% | $720 |
| Small room | 30% | $720 |
| Total | 100% | $2,400 |
In Owely, add the rent as an expense paid by whoever sends it to the landlord, choose Percentage and enter each person’s share. If you prefer to think in dollars, choose Exact amounts and type $960, $720 and $720 instead. Either way, the person who paid is credited and everyone else’s share is added to what they owe.
Utilities, internet and subscriptions
Recurring bills are usually split evenly. Add each bill when it arrives, pick the matching category, such as Electricity, Water, Internet or Streaming, and attach a photo of the bill to the expense so there is a record of it.
If someone moved in partway through a month, split that one bill with exact amounts or an adjustment rather than changing the whole arrangement. The next bill goes back to normal.
Groceries and household supplies
Shared staples like cleaning products, dish soap and toilet paper split well across everyone. Food is trickier. A common approach is to split only the groceries you actually share and leave personal food out of Owely entirely.
When one roommate is away for half the month, shares keep things fair without any arithmetic. Give the others two shares each and the absent roommate one, and a $100 grocery run comes to $40, $40 and $20.
Settle up on a regular rhythm
Pick a day, such as the first of the month or rent day, and settle then. The group’s Balances tab shows each person’s net balance and suggests who should pay whom, so the household can square up with a few payments instead of everyone paying everyone.
Owely does not move money. Pay each other the way you usually do, by bank transfer, cash or a payment app, then record the payment in Owely. Paying part now and the rest later works too: record a partial payment and the balance updates for everyone.
When someone moves out
Before a roommate leaves, settle their balance and record the final payment, then they can leave the group. Past expenses stay in the group’s history, so the household keeps the record of what was paid and by whom.
If the person moving out is the group’s only admin, they should make someone else an admin first so the household can keep managing the group.