The member who does the money
Six self-employed teachers share a building: four teaching rooms, a waiting area and a shared website. They agreed years ago to split the rent 'by use', the website and insurance equally, and the income from the Saturday group class by who teaches it. One of them, the pianist, has kept the spreadsheet ever since.
The spreadsheet has grown formulas nobody else can follow. The guitarist moved from two evenings to three in January and nobody changed the split until April. The singer suspects she is paying for the room the drummer uses because it is the only one with soundproofing. The pianist is tired of being treasurer and wants to hand it over, and nobody will take it.
Why the split drifts
A collective's arrangement is usually fair on the day it is agreed. After that, teachers change their hours, swap rooms, take on group classes, and bills change. The spreadsheet records the original agreement, not the week-by-week use. Updating it depends on each teacher telling the treasurer, and they rarely do.
- Room use changes every term, but the split is updated once a year.
- Some rooms cost more to run than others, and that is not reflected.
- Shared income from group classes and workshops is split by memory.
- Only one member understands the spreadsheet.
The cost is mostly between colleagues
Money disagreements between people who share a building and refer pupils to each other can end a collective. Even without a falling out, the treasurer's unpaid time is real, and the arrangement depends on them. When they leave, the collective discovers how much it relied on one person's spreadsheet.
A ledger that follows actual use
- The collective's rules are written down as settings: which costs are shared equally, which by room hours, how each room is weighted, and how shared income is divided.
- Each teacher books their rooms in a shared calendar, which is the record of use.
- Monthly bills (rent, energy, insurance, website, cleaning) are entered or pulled from your bank feed and tagged by type.
- At month end, the ledger calculates each teacher's share from their actual room hours and the fixed splits.
- Each teacher gets a statement showing their hours, their share of each cost and any income shared with them.
- Payments into the collective's account are matched to statements, and anything outstanding is visible to everyone.
| Cost or income | Agreed split (example) | Based on |
|---|---|---|
| Rent | By room hours, weighted per room | Room bookings |
| Insurance and website | Equal shares | Membership list |
| Energy | By room hours | Room bookings |
| Saturday group class income | By teaching time | Class register |
| Cleaning | Equal shares | Membership list |
The collective chooses the rules. We make them visible and apply them the same way every month, and anyone can see the working.
Money you can stop arguing about
Every member sees the same statement and the same working. When someone takes on an extra evening, their share changes that month because the booking changed it. The treasurer's job becomes a quick review, and handing it on is possible because the rules are written down, not buried in formulas.
The collective's meetings change too. Instead of arguing over whether the singer really uses Room 2 on Thursdays, members look at the bookings together and decide whether the weighting for the soundproofed room is right. If a new teacher wants to join, you can show them in advance what their share would have been last term for the hours they plan to teach, which makes the conversation straightforward and honest.
Does your collective need this?
- One member maintains a spreadsheet nobody else understands.
- The split has not kept up with who uses which room.
- Some members suspect they are paying for others' use.
- Shared income is divided by memory.
- Nobody wants to take over as treasurer.