How bands split money

Net profit is money received, minus gig expenses, minus the agent’s commission, minus the leader fee. That is the pot Equal Pay divides.

Your booking agent’s commission rarely appears on the venue settlement. It still comes out of the band’s number before Equal Pay. If the gig has an agent, their rate comes off before the leader fee and before you split among players.

Every player on a gig uses the same share type. BandTally does not mix equal, percentage, and flat fee on one night. The gig settlement calculator uses the equal split. Percentage and flat fee are set on the gig in the workspace.

Equal split. Equal Pay divides the pot evenly among the players on the gig. When the cents do not divide evenly, the leftover cents go to the first members, one cent each.

Percentage split. Each player gets a percent of the same pot. The percentages on that gig have to add up to 100%. Leftover cents go to the shares with the largest fractional part, and the shares still add up to the pot.

Flat fee per player. Each player has a set dollar amount, the fixed-amount share. Those amounts have to add up to the pot being split. A flat fee is not an extra payment on top of an equal split. A custom share follows the same rule: the amounts must add up to the pot, or the split is rejected.

Leader fee. A leader fee is a set amount or a percent taken before the players split, then added to the leader’s line on top of that share. The next section is how it is recorded.

Paying back reimbursements. A gig expense linked to the night comes off the pot before the split, whether the band paid it or a player fronted it. Regular band bills that are not linked to the gig stay off that night’s split. If a player fronted the expense, the payout owes them that amount back on a separate line from their share. The journal records the payback as a reimbursement, not pay, and paying it once marks the expense reimbursed so it is not paid a second time.