Is there an app to split gig money between band members?

Yes. The free calculator on this site works out a gig's split in about a minute, with no account: the fee, who played and each player's postcode in, every share to the penny out. The app does the same sums for every gig, and gives each player a statement they can read.

If you are weighing the two up, this is the longer answer: what a fair split has to mean first, why a group chat gets it wrong, what the calculator does, what the app adds, and what it all costs.

What does "split" have to mean?

Not "divide by the number of players", though that is where most bands start.

The fair version has an order, and the order is the point. Start with what the band actually receives, the total band fee. If a manager or agency takes a cut, take it off, and what is left is the band pot. Then take each player's travel out of the pot and give it back to whoever made the journey. Split what remains equally between the players on the night. Everybody takes home their equal share plus their own travel.

Do it in that order and a player who drove a long way is repaid for the driving without being paid more for playing, and a player who lives round the corner is not quietly paying for everybody else's fuel. Reverse the order and the long-distance player subsidises the gig every time. The full working, with round numbers, is in how UK function bands split gig money, and the idea of an equal split has its own glossary entry.

If a dep covers somebody, the same sums apply with one difference: the travel is worked out from the dep's postcode, because the dep made the journey. You can read about the pot and travel the same way.

Why does a group chat get it wrong?

It rarely gets the arithmetic wrong on purpose. It gets it wrong because there is no arithmetic to look at.

Somebody posts "everyone's getting a set amount, sorted". Maybe they did it carefully on a calculator. Maybe they rounded up for themselves without noticing. Nobody else can tell, because the working is not in the message. And the common mistakes all leave the same mark: a number that is slightly off for someone and impossible for them to check.

• Splitting first and settling travel afterwards, so the driver loses.
• Forgetting a cut, or taking it from the wrong figure.
• Handling a dep as a sixth equal player, so the shares do not add up to the pot.
• Rounding each share separately, so the pence do not match the total.
• Changing the rate from gig to gig, because a rate that moves with the mood is not a rule.

None of that takes an app to fix. It takes a sheet that shows the workings in the same order every time. An app or a calculator is simply the quickest way to get one.

There is a human cost too. A player who suspects a number is wrong rarely says so. They say nothing, quietly resent it, and are less keen to take the next gig, and the leader never finds out why. Showing the workings is not about distrust. It is what lets people stop wondering.

What does the calculator do?

The band gig pay split calculator is for one gig, once. You open it, and:

1. Type in the fee, and the manager's cut if there is one.
2. Say where the gig is.
3. Add the players, and each player's postcode (or a distance, if you would rather type it).
4. Switch a line to a dep if somebody is being covered, and add the dep's postcode.
5. Press the button.

It shows the pot, each player's travel, the travel total, the equal share, and what each person takes home, to the penny. There is no account, no sign-up and nothing is stored, and you can copy a link that holds your sums, so you can send the whole thing to the band.

It is deliberately a quick tool. A band that plays a handful of gigs a year and wants to know what to pay on the night can do all of it there. It also answers an argument fast: put the same numbers in, see the same answer.

It works in pounds and miles for a UK gig, and has a switch for a US one, with ZIP codes and dollars. The sums are identical either way, which is rather the point: the order is the same wherever the band plays.

What does the app add?

The calculator forgets as soon as you close it. The app keeps everything, and that changes what you can do:

• Every gig, not one. Gigs live on a diary the whole band can see, with the fee, the line-up and the day sheet.
• Deps handled properly. A member asks a dep from the gig page, the dep accepts on their phone, and their travel is worked out from their own postcode automatically.
• Expenses. A receipt for a hired van or a parking bill is claimed, approved and added to the right gig, rather than lost in a thread.
• A statement for each player. A named, numbered page showing the gig, what it paid, your travel and where it was worked from, and your total. Anyone can read how their own number was reached.
• Reminders and days off. Who is free, who has been asked and who has said yes sits beside the money, so the person running the band is not keeping three lists.
• A record. Months later, when somebody asks what they earned, or whether the Bath gig was ever settled, the answer is on the page rather than in someone's memory.

The page for musicians is the player's side of this, and features lists everything the app does.

What does it cost?

Members never pay. A player in a band, and a dep covering one, can have an account and see their own gigs, their own travel and their own statements at no cost, whichever band they are in. The calculator is free and needs no account.

Anything paid is for the band rather than the players: a band running itself can use the app free, and there are paid plans for leaders and managers who want more. Pricing lays out exactly what is in each, so there is no point guessing at it here.

Which should you use?

If you want to know what to pay on one gig, and you want to know now, use the calculator. If you are the person who ends up doing the sums every month, who chases deps, who gets asked "have I been paid for that one yet?", use the app. They are the same arithmetic, done once or kept.

Either way, the thing that makes a split fair is not the software. It is that the order is always the same, and that everybody can see it.

Try it with your own gig. The band gig pay split calculator is free, takes a minute and needs no account.