An application for calculating shares of rent and bills in a communal living situation. My house previously used a spreadsheet to do this, but the process was convoluted and unwieldy. No one needs to be "taught" how to use this software, and once you've configured it for your house, it's very difficult to mess anything up.
- Download the zip file
- Unarchive the zip file into wherever you want the application to live on your hard drive
- Double click the file labeled "Start Rent Calculator"
When you first run the application, you will notice the window is empty. This is because you have not added any of the data specific to your situation yet.
You will have the easiest time if you enter the information in the following order:
- House Details - Go to View >> House Details, or alternatively press Alt+H, or click the House icon at the bottom of the sidebar. Enter numbers for total rent, and any shared income that will go toward rent in their respective fields.
- Add Rooms - You can skip this step if you do not pay different rates based on room. Go to View >> Rooms, or press Alt+R. Click the Add Room button in the resulting window. Give the room a name or short description, and add a room fee to the appropriate field. Repeat for each rentable room in your house.
- Add People - Go to House >> Add new person, press Ctrl+N, or click the New Person button on the sidebar. If the person has made a one time purchase for the house (seperate from paying bills) and you want to refund them through the rent process, enter a number in Essentials Bought. If the person needs pro-rated rent or utillities you can also do that here. Repeat for each resident of your home.
- And you're done! Go back over all your data to make sure everything is correct, and edit anything that needs fixing. Don't forget to save (Ctrl+S, Save Button, or File >> Save) so that you don't have to start from scratch next time you have to calculate rent.