How LocalHost works

LocalHost helps flatmates and mess members track monthly bills, shared meals, and household expenses in one place. Each apartment has its own workspace. Members sign in with a personal password; the apartment itself has a separate login for registration and admin access.

Each month you typically:

1. Log shared expenses and meal shopping throughout the month
2. Mark who ate which meals on the weekly checklist
3. Enter the electricity bill and lock the month when ready
4. See each member's fair share — rounded up per head so the total always covers costs

1. 1

   Register your apartment on the sign-in page. Choose a name, apartment password, and add your first members.

2. 2

   Configure costs in Settings → Costs: fixed items (rent, gas, internet), optional add-ons (Wi‑Fi upgrade, parking), and who is opted in to each optional cost.

3. 3

   Set up meals in Settings → Meals: how many meals per day (e.g. Lunch + Dinner), meal names, guest meal mode, and each member's meal plan.

4. 4

   During the month, members log expenses, mark meals on the checklist, and add meal shopping. Today's meals are selected by default — tap to opt out if someone skips.

5. 5

   End of month: Bill Manager enters electricity on the Bills page, reviews breakdowns, records payments, and locks the month. Meals can be finalized separately on the Meals page.

Permissions are configurable under Settings. For example, manage_meal_checklist controls who can tick meals for other members. lock_bills controls who can finalize a month.

The dashboard shows current-month bill breakdown per member and a set of year-level charts: monthly totals, per-person yearly spend, category breakdown, electricity trend, rounding gap over time, and member expense comparison.

How to use it

• Open Dashboard from the sidebar — it loads the current calendar month by default
• Use stat tiles at the top for fixed bucket total, active members, locked months, and year gap
• Charts help spot months where electricity spiked or one member carried more expenses

Dashboard numbers come from the same bill and expense engines described below — it is a read-only summary, not a separate calculation.

The Bills page is where each member's total monthly share is calculated and displayed. Use the month picker to browse previous months.

What you can do

• Enter electricity — required before the bill can be calculated (Bill Manager)
• View breakdown — fixed rent share, electricity, optional costs, meals, adjustments
• Lend / borrow adjustments — one-off corrections (e.g. “paid extra for repair”)
• Track payments — mark who has paid their share
• Lock month — freezes the bill snapshot; no further edits to that month's calculation inputs
• Bill Manager payment info — members can see how to pay (bKash, bank, etc.)

Each member's bill is the sum of several parts, plus any adjustments:

1. Fixed bucket (rent & fixed utilities)

All fixed costs marked in fixed bucket (typically rent, gas, internet) are summed. Members with a custom rent amount in Settings → Rent pay exactly that; the remainder is split equally among members without a custom amount.

2. Optional costs

Each optional cost (e.g. parking, premium Wi‑Fi) is split only among members who are opted in. The per-person amount is rounded up to the nearest whole taka.

3. Electricity

Split equally among all active members, rounded up per head:

4. Meals

Meal costs are calculated on the Meals page (see below) and plugged into each member's bill automatically when the month is calculated.

5. Adjustments (lend / borrow)

Lend increases what a member owes; borrow decreases it.

6. Rounding gap

Because each line uses ceil per head, the sum of member totals may slightly exceed the actual bills. The difference is shown as the gap (surplus collected). This is normal and keeps every share a whole number.

Read the full bill-splitting guide with worked example →

My meal plan

Each member chooses which meal slots they participate in (e.g. only Dinner). You are only billed for slots you are enrolled in. Change this on the Meals page or in Settings → Meals.

Weekly checklist

• Navigate weeks with the arrow buttons — opens on the current week by default
• Each cell is a meal slot (Lunch, Dinner, etc.) for that member and day
• Green check = confirmed meal; grey letter = not confirmed
• Today: enrolled meals are confirmed automatically — click to withdraw if someone skips
• Future days cannot be edited
• Dash (–) means the member is not on that meal plan

Meal shopping

Add grocery items bought for the shared kitchen. These feed into the meal fund together with Food-category expenses from the Expenses page.

Guest meals

Below the checklist, pick a day, choose a host member, and set guest counts per meal slot. Two modes (Settings → Meals):

• Equal split — guest meal cost shared among all active members
• Host pays — only the host member pays for their guests

Guest meals count toward the total meal pool when calculating the per-meal rate.

Finalize meals

When the month is done, finalize meals to lock counts and rates. After finalization the checklist and guest counts cannot be changed.

Meal fund

The pool of money used to calculate the rate:

Meal rate

Two modes (Settings → Meals):

• Auto rate — calculated from the fund divided by total meals
• Fixed rate — admin sets a flat ৳/meal regardless of spending

Each member meal cost:

Net on the meal summary = meal bill minus what that member contributed to the fund (their Food expenses + shopping entries).

Full meal rate guide with worked example →

The Expenses page lets each member log items they purchased for the apartment: groceries, utilities, transport, household items, and more. Categories include Food, Groceries, Utilities, Transport, Household, Entertainment, Medical, and Other.

How to use it

• Select the month with the month navigator
• Add items with name, price, category, and optional date
• View per-member totals and category breakdown
• Food items also flow into the meal fund automatically

Expenses are separate from the monthly Bills page — they use a carry-forward settlement model described below. They do not directly add to the rent/electricity bill unless the item is in a category that feeds meals (Food).

Expenses use a lowest-spender base model. The member who spent the least (including any balance carried from last month) is the reference; others owe the difference forward.

Example

Rafi spent the least, so base = ৳1,500. Ali forwards ৳500 and Sara forwards ৳300 into the next month. Over time this balances who has been buying more for the house.

Import

1. Download the Excel template from the Import page
2. Fill in members, expenses, meals, and bill data for a month
3. Upload the file (.xlsx, max 10 MB)
4. Review validation results — fix any errors and re-upload if needed

Export

Export all apartment data for backup or migration. Settings → Backup also offers JSON export/restore.

Your profile shows a personal dashboard: bills paid across the year, meal participation, expense totals, charts, and a snapshot of the current month. Edit your name, photo, and password from the profile modal.