Group trip expense tracker — no signups required
What's the easiest way to track shared expenses on a group trip?
Designate one person as the trip treasurer. They book and pay for the shared things — house, car, group dinners — and log each expense in Conto as it happens. At the end of the trip, Conto shows each traveler what they owe the treasurer in one number.
What is Conto?
Conto is a group expense tracker designed around a single organizer. One person handles the money flow; everyone else just gets a tally. There are no participant accounts, no invitations to accept, no apps to install for the rest of the group.
Why one organizer beats peer-to-peer splitting
On most group trips, one person is already paying for most of the big stuff: the Airbnb deposit went on their card, they're collecting cash for the rental van, they handle the group dinner tab and chase reimbursements later. Conto assumes that's the case from the start.
Compared to a peer-to-peer tool like Splitwise where every traveler logs their own expenses and the app calculates a settlement web, the treasurer pattern produces fewer transactions to settle and zero need for participants to remember to log anything. Trade-offs are real — see the head-to-head comparison.
What to track on a typical group trip
Conto lets the treasurer log each shared expense as a single line. For a long-weekend group trip, that usually means:
• Lodging (house, hotel block, cabins) and the security deposit • Transport (van rental, gas, tolls, airport transfers) • Groceries for in-house meals • Group dinners and bar tabs • Booked activities (lift tickets, charters, tours, tickets) • Trip-wide supplies (firewood, propane, decor)
Anything paid by the treasurer goes in. Anything paid individually (someone grabs their own coffee) stays out.
How the final settlement works
At the end of the trip, Conto divides total spend by participants (respecting any per-expense exclusions, like "didn't go on the boat charter") and gives each traveler one number to send the treasurer. One transfer per person. No three-way settlements, no "you owe me, I owe him, he owes you" graph.
If a smaller group is doing a bachelor party or splitting roommate bills, the same flow applies — same shape, different occasion.
When this model isn't a fit
If your trip has multiple people paying for big things in parallel — two couples each renting cars, three different people booking different houses — you may be better off with a peer-to-peer tracker. The treasurer model assumes one person is the financial hub. When that's true (and it usually is), the workflow is dramatically simpler.
A useful test: before you booked anything, did you already know who was going to put their card down for the house? If yes, that person is the treasurer and Conto is the right shape. If multiple people are going to book multiple things on multiple cards and reconcile later, the settlement graph that a peer-to-peer tool produces will earn its keep. Conto very deliberately does not try to be both — being focused on one specific workflow is exactly what lets it ask zero of the other travelers. That trade-off is the whole product, and it's worth being honest about when it doesn't apply.
Frequently asked
- What if multiple people paid for things during the trip?
- Log them as out-of-pocket reimbursements. The treasurer's total contribution adjusts down, and Conto still produces one settlement number per traveler.
- Can I exclude someone from a specific expense?
- Yes. Per-expense participant selection lets you exclude travelers who didn't join a particular activity or meal.
- Does it handle currency conversion?
- Log expenses in whatever currency they were paid; Conto tracks the amount as-entered. Currency conversion at settlement time is on the roadmap.
- Can I share the running tally with the group during the trip?
- Yes. Every group has a public, read-only share link travelers can bookmark.