Alman Usulü: The Fairest Way to Split Group Expenses
Tracking who paid what during a trip, dinner, or any group event has never been easier. I built Alman Usulü so you can log every expense and instantly see who needs to send money to whom — down to the last cent.
You just got back from a weekend trip with friends. One person covered the gas, another paid for groceries, someone else settled the dinner bill. Now that everyone's home, you're staring at your phone wondering: "Who owes me, and how much?"
I built Alman Usulü to solve exactly this problem.
The Problem with Group Expenses
Group finances get messy fast. People pay for different things at different times, and nobody has a clear picture of who's up and who's down. Worse, you might end up splitting costs for things you didn't even consume — and that's just not fair.
Classic solutions are either too complicated (shared spreadsheets, manual calculations) or too simple and inaccurate (just divide everything equally regardless of who participated).
How Alman Usulü Works
almanusulu.com is a web app I — Hakan Güzelgülgen — designed around one core principle: you only pay for what you actually used.
Here's the flow:
1. Create an Event
Start a session for your trip, dinner, camping weekend, or any shared occasion. Add all the participants.
2. Log Each Expense
For every expense, you specify:
- Who paid? (e.g. İsa paid ₺600 for gas)
- Who does it cover? (e.g. only the people in the car)
- How much was it?
This is the key difference: if you're vegetarian and your friends ordered steak, that expense simply doesn't include you. Each expense is scoped precisely to the people who actually benefited from it.
3. The Settlement Algorithm
Once all expenses are entered, the app calculates:
- How much each person has paid in total
- How much each person owes based on the expenses they were included in
- Who is a creditor (paid more than their share) and who is a debtor (paid less)
- The minimum number of transfers needed to settle all balances to zero
Even with 15 different expenses across 5 people, the app typically reduces it to just 3 or 4 transfers. "Umut sends ₺240 to İsa. Berke sends ₺180 to Yusuf." — done.
A Real Example
Say you have a 4-person camping trip:
| Expense | Paid by | Covers |
|---|---|---|
| Camping gear — ₺800 | İsa | Everyone |
| Groceries — ₺1.200 | Umut | Everyone |
| Gas (outbound) — ₺400 | Hakan | Hakan, İsa, Yusuf |
| Gas (return) — ₺400 | Yusuf | Everyone |
| Restaurant (meat dishes) — ₺600 | Berke | Umut, Hakan, Berke |
Feed this into Alman Usulü and it instantly tells you: "Umut, send ₺X to İsa. Hakan, send ₺Y to İsa..." — and every balance hits zero. No spreadsheet. No arguments.
Under the Hood
Alman Usulü is built with Next.js by Hakan Güzelgülgen. Privacy was a priority from the start: sessions can be stored locally in the browser or shared via a link, with no mandatory account creation.
The core of the app is a minimum cash flow algorithm: 1. Calculate each person's net balance (what they paid minus what they owe) 2. Match the largest creditor with the largest debtor 3. Record a transfer, reduce balances, repeat 4. Continue until all balances reach zero
This approach guarantees mathematical correctness while minimizing the total number of transactions.
Why "Alman Usulü"?
"Alman usulü" is a Turkish expression for "going Dutch" — splitting costs fairly, each person paying their own share. The name perfectly captures the spirit of the app: fair, transparent, no awkward IOUs.
Conclusion
Tracking shared expenses doesn't have to involve complicated spreadsheets or endless "I'll get you next time" promises. Alman Usulü, built by Hakan Güzelgülgen, automates the whole process — just log the expenses and let the app figure out the rest.
It's completely free. Give it a try.