Function band software
Built by a working function bandleader for the money side nobody’s diary app touches.
What a function band has to keep straight
A function band’s gig is not one number. There is the fee the client agreed, and sometimes a cut to whoever booked it. There is who actually played — the regular line-up, or a dep standing in for somebody who could not make it. There is how far each of them drove, because the bass player who lives twenty minutes away and the singer who drove a hundred and forty miles each way should not come out the same. And there are the add-ons — a ceremony set, an extra hour, a DJ — and who each one belongs to.
Then all of that has to become one answer per person: their share, their travel back, their expenses, and a statement that says so. Most bands keep it in a spreadsheet one person understands, a calculator and a WhatsApp thread. That is the part this software is for.
What it does with a gig
You put the fee in. If a manager or an agency takes a cut, that comes off first. Then every player’s round trip is worked out as the real driving distance from their own postcode to the venue and back, at the rate the band has set, and paid back to them off the top — before anything is divided. What is left splits equally, to the penny, with the odd pennies accounted for rather than lost.
At the end of the month each member gets a statement of their own: every gig, the share, the travel and the expenses, as a page and as a PDF. When a dep covers, the band pays its own member as if they had played, the travel follows whoever actually drove, and the member settles with the dep. Expenses are claimed with a photo of the receipt, against the gig they belong to, and approved by whoever pays them back.
For the people who play in it
Every member has an account of their own, and it costs them nothing. They see their own gigs in date order with the venue, the times, the line-up, the day sheet and the setlist; their own pay for each gig and exactly how it was worked out; and a mileage record built from their own postcode, gig by gig, that they can hand to whoever does their tax return.
The account belongs to the person, not the band, so it follows them. Somebody who plays in three bands and deps for a fourth has one diary and one list of what they are owed, whoever they were playing for. Nobody has to take the bandleader’s word for a number — the arithmetic is on the page.
For the person who runs it
Whoever runs the band stops doing the sums. The month’s statements are drafted from the gigs as they happen, checked, and approved in one go; a correction supersedes the old version rather than quietly rewriting it, so everybody can see what changed. Deps are asked, accept and are paid from a phone. Receipts arrive already filed against the right gig.
A manager running several bands sees them all in one place, with their own cut kept per county and never shown to a band. An agency the band works with can send gig details straight in, and nothing it sends reaches a statement until the band confirms the gig. And with Bookings the band gets its own public enquiry page, quotes a client accepts online, and invoices.
What it costs
Members never pay. A band running itself can use the gigs, the split and travel, expenses, statements, deps, setlists and the phone app on Free, for as long as it likes — Free is a real tier, not a trial that runs out.
Band Pro is paid per band: it lifts Free’s caps and adds things like the agency sheet sync, day sheets, gear and PAT deadlines and calendar feeds. Manager is paid per band you manage and includes Band Pro for each of them. Bookings is per person, for your own enquiries, quotes and invoices. Every new band gets a month of Band Pro to try, with no card to cancel. The prices, and the only caps Free has, are on the pricing page.
Questions bandleaders ask
Is it only for UK bands?
No. It was built around UK function bands, and the UK pages are written in British English, but a band can be in the UK, Ireland, the US, Canada, Australia or New Zealand. The band’s country sets its currency, miles or kilometres, the word for a postcode and the date format. The arithmetic is the same everywhere: travel off the top, then the equal split.
Can a member use it without the bandleader?
Yes. An account belongs to the person, not the band. Start a band of your own for the gigs you play, put the fee and your postcode in, and you get your own travel, your own expenses and your own statements straight away, whether or not anybody else signs up. The rest of the band can join whenever they like.
What about deps?
A dep has an account like anybody else, free. The band asks, the dep accepts, and the dep sees that gig, its day sheet and its setlist — nothing else of the band. The band pays its own member as if they had played, the travel is worked out from the dep’s own postcode because the dep drove, and the member settles with the dep. Who owes whom is written on the statement.
Does it do setlists?
Yes, on every plan. The band keeps its songs with their keys, tempos and structure, builds a set for each gig by dragging songs into order, and names the first dance. Everybody reads it on their phone at the gig, and once it has been opened it still works in a room with no signal.
How do I start?
Create an account, create the band and add the people in it with their postcodes. Put your next gig in with its fee and venue, and the split and everybody’s travel are worked out straight away. Or try the free pay split calculator first — the same arithmetic, with no account.
Put your next gig in and see the split
Members are free. Every new band gets a month of Band Pro, and it drops to Free on its own afterwards.