We've written about a few different sites focused on helping friends share expenses, including general-purpose BillMonk and Wigadoo for outings. Now a new contender out of Finland has come to the table with a novel e-commerce twist.
Scred—short for "street credit"—allows friends, groups and communities to manage their collective money. Its Pools feature, first of all, is designed to help friends keep track of who owes what during a joint excursion, for example. Friends all sign up for the same pool when they know they'll need to track expenses together, and then they input each cost incurred as they go along. The system will track debts between people, balance debts and shared expenses and then calculate who owes what in the end—even using multiple currencies. The Pools function is free to use, and is also available via mobile phone.
Perhaps even more interesting, however, is Scred's MiniCorps feature—now in beta—which can be used to take in money and have it automatically accounted by Scred. Aimed at users such as associations, trip organisers, charity groups and artists, MiniCorps serve much like virtual companies as they allow groups to sell items or collect fees and donations through a Scred shop, track both income and expenses, and calculate profits and losses. MiniCorps are free to use during the feature's beta period; all money is handled via PayPal.
With the growing number of sellsumers out there, eager to earn some extra cash during these tough economic times, we'd bet Scred's MiniCorps feature will be met with a particularly warm reception. What else could help sales-oriented consumers make the most of their bottom line...?
Website: www.scred.com
Contact: scred@scred.com
Spotted by: John Greene
Thanks, John, for the Springwise review. As many have probably noticed already, MiniCorps are still in closed beta, and some fairly substantial overhauls are coming up. However we are eager to work with beta groups to develop the service towards a final public launch. So anyone with an interesting project or who wants to be a beta user/seller, please contact us and we'll arrange matters :-)
Hi, I'd like to mention another free online expense sharing tool: http://shortreckonings.com
If you are looking for a simple and quick way to track and even out group expenses, you should try Short Reckonings. It is ideal for roommates, travel buddies, family members or event organization.
The latest release lets you signin using your Facebook account and invite your Facebook friends to your expense sheets. Many user interface enhancements were also made to allow for even quicker expense entering: auto-complete when entering expenses or person names, keyboard shortcuts, etc. Enjoy!