How to split relay team costs fairly

The common shared costs are the entry fee, van rental, gas, lodging, food and snacks, and supplies such as coolers and decorations. If your team buys a Handoff Race Pass, that can be split as an expense too.

Not every cost belongs to everyone. A hotel room might be for one van, and a snack run might be for a few people. The fairest split follows the people each cost benefits.

Settle these questions in your team chat while the team is being built, when nobody owes anything yet:

1. Who may spend for the team, and is there a limit before they ask?
2. Which costs are split evenly, and which only among the people who benefit?
3. When is everyone expected to pay what they owe: before the race, or within a week after it?
4. How should people pay each other? Name the apps or methods you will use.
5. What happens if a runner drops out after money is paid in, for example for the entry fee or a hotel room?

There is no single right answer to the last one. What matters is that the team decided it together and wrote it down.

Handoff offers three ways to split an expense, and most teams use all three:

1. Everyone: the cost is shared by every runner on the team. This suits the entry fee and any cost that benefits the whole team.
2. A van: the cost is shared by the runners with a leg in that van. This suits a van’s gas or rental, and it is offered when your race has more than one van.
3. Pick runners: the cost is shared by the runners you choose. This suits a hotel room for some of the team or a purchase for a few people.

Shares are worked out to the cent, so they always add up to exactly what was spent. Any leftover cents go one each to a few runners, starting with the person who paid when they share the cost. How to split expenses in Handoff

It is common for the captain to pay the entry fee and for each van to cover its own gas. It is also common for the details to be forgotten a month later, so write each expense down as it happens: what it was, how much, and who paid.

In Handoff, the captain adds expenses on the Expenses tab. The captain can also let runners add the expenses they paid, either for everyone or for people they pick. Can runners add expenses?

With several people fronting several costs, paying each other back one by one means a lot of payments. It is simpler to net everything out: for each person, take what they paid, subtract their share, and adjust for anything already paid back.

Say the entry fee works out to $150 a runner, and Riley paid $180 for Van 1’s gas, which comes to $30 for each of the six runners in that van. Riley’s share is $180 and he paid $180, so he does not need to move any money at all.

Handoff does that arithmetic for the whole team and shows who owes whom as a short list. The list is a suggestion: pay however your team prefers, and record what was paid so the balances stay right. Who pays whom?

Handoff keeps the record, but it does not collect or move money between teammates. Payments happen outside the app. Does Handoff handle the money?

People pay faster when the next step is obvious. Anyone who has joined the team can add how they like to be paid, such as a payment app and a username, and the captain can add it for an unjoined runner who is owed money. The runners who owe them see it with the amount. How do I set how to be paid?

For the rest of the planning, see the captain checklist.