How to use Planly Last Hurrah

Your planner lives privately in your own Google Drive, so the first step is making your personal copy.

1. Open the PDF from your Etsy purchase (Etsy → You → Purchases and reviews → Download files).
2. Click the “Make my copy” button. If you're asked, sign in to your Google account.
3. Google shows a “Copy document” screen. Click the blue “Make a copy” button.
4. Your copy opens. Rename it if you like (click the title in the top-left), e.g. “Nashville Weekend”.

The light cells at the top of SETUP feed the dashboard, the countdown and the itinerary heading.

1. Open the SETUP tab.
2. In the light cells C6 to C11, enter the Trip name, Guest of honor, Destination, Arrive date, Leave date and Budget per person.
3. Pick your Currency in C12 ($, £, €, CA$, A$, NZ$, R, ₹, ¥, kr, CHF or zł). Every money heading then shows your symbol, e.g. “Amount (£)”, and SETTLE UP writes balances like “Owes £25.00”.
4. Check the DASHBOARD title: it now shows your trip name, with the destination and dates underneath.
5. Read the short tip in B14 before moving on.

The two lists on the right of SETUP fill the Category dropdowns on EXPENSES and PACKING. The defaults work well, so change only what you need.

1. Expense categories (E6 to E15): Lodging, Travel, Food & drinks, Activities, Decor & swag, Gifts and Other are ready to go. Rename them or add your own in the empty rows, and they show up in the dropdown and on the spending donut.
2. The last expense category, Repayment, is special: use it when someone pays another person back. Keep it in the list with that exact name. Repayment rows settle balances but never count as spending.
3. Packing categories (G6 to G15): Clothes, Going out, Toiletries, Tech, Shared, For the guest of honor and Other.
4. Who brings it (I6 onward) fills itself with “Everyone” plus every name on GROUP. It feeds the dropdown on PACKING, so there's nothing to type here.

GROUP is your guest list for the trip. These names fill the Paid by and Who brings it dropdowns, and they're the people costs are split between.

1. Type each person's Name, Phone and Email, one per row. Up to 20 people fit.
2. Set RSVP to Going, Maybe or Can't make it. Going turns green, Maybe turns pink and anyone who can't make it is greyed out.
3. Add the guest of honor too, typing their name exactly as it appears in Guest of honor on SETUP. That's how the planner knows to leave them out of the split, so they never get a share even though their Chipping in box is ticked.
4. Anyone set to Can't make it is left out of the split automatically as well.
5. Look at Chipping in. Every box starts ticked, which means that person shares the costs. Untick it for anyone else who is sitting costs out, like a friend who is only coming for one dinner and paying their own way.
6. Fill in Arrives, Time and Flight or train so you know who to pick up and when.
7. Add a Room, any Food notes, and tick Deposit paid as deposits come in.
8. Check the cards at the top: Invited, Going, Maybe, Chipping in and Deposits paid.

ITINERARY is the hour-by-hour plan. The heading shows your trip name and dates.

1. For each plan, enter the Day, the Time, What you're doing and Where.
2. Tick Booked once a reservation is made. Plans that aren't booked yet are highlighted in pink.
3. Enter a Per person cost for anything with a ticket or cover charge, so the group knows what to expect.
4. Add an Address or link (a reservation page or map link) and any Notes.
5. Keep the rows in time order. The first row of each new day turns bold, so the days are easy to spot.
6. Check the cards at the top: Plans, Booked and Activities, per person.

Planly Last Hurrah · Weekend itinerary

Every time someone pays for something the group is sharing, add a row on EXPENSES. This is what SETTLE UP uses to work out who owes what.

1. Enter the Date, What for (e.g. “House, 2 nights”) and a Category.
2. Type the Amount.
3. Pick who paid in Paid by. The dropdown reads your GROUP names.
4. To share the cost between everyone with Chipping in ticked on GROUP (never the guest of honor or anyone who can't make it), leave all the name boxes on that row unticked. People shows how many that is, and Each shows the share per person.
5. If only some people are sharing a cost (say, four of you went to the spa), tick the boxes under their names on that row. The cost then splits between only the people you ticked. The name columns sit between Paid by and People, with each person's name at the top.
6. Watch the cards at the top: Total spent, Items, People splitting and Each, if split evenly.

Planly Last Hurrah · Shared expenses with cost splitting

SETTLE UP does the math nobody wants to do on the drive home. There's nothing to type here.

1. Each person on GROUP gets a row with what they Paid, their Fair share and their Balance (paid minus fair share).
2. Status says it plainly: “Gets back $40.00” (green) if they paid more than their share, “Owes $25.00” (pink) if they paid less, or “All square”.
3. The Still to settle card shows the total that still needs to change hands.
4. To settle, anyone who owes pays whoever gets money back, starting with the biggest amounts.
5. Record each repayment on EXPENSES so the balances update: add a row with the amount, set Category to Repayment, set Paid by to the person paying back and tick only the person who was repaid.
6. When every Status shows All square, you're done.

PACKING starts with 16 common items. Personal things say “Everyone”, and shared things wait for one person to claim them.

1. Read through the list and delete anything you don't need. Add your own items in the empty rows with a Category.
2. For each Shared item (speaker, decorations, party games, snacks and so on), pick one person in Who brings it. The dropdown lists “Everyone” plus every name on GROUP. Shared items with no one yet are highlighted in pink.
3. Leave “Everyone” on personal items like chargers and sunscreen.
4. Tick Packed as things go in the bag. Packed items get a line through them.
5. Check the cards at the top: Items, Packed and Shared items with no one yet. Aim for zero on that last one.

The dashboard pulls everything together. There's nothing to type here.

1. The cards show Days to go, Going, Total cost, Cost per person, Budget per person and Still to settle.
2. Spending by category shows where the money is going.
3. Paid vs fair share shows each person's two numbers side by side. Anyone who hasn't paid anything and has no share (often the guest of honor) is left off.
4. RSVPs shows Going, Maybe and Can't make it.
5. Budget vs cost per person compares your budget per person with what the trip has cost each person so far.

Planly Last Hurrah · Trip dashboard