Settling up: who owes what
The end-of-night arithmetic, done in the right order: payouts by place, then by bidder, then person by person inside the syndicates — one complete event, worked line by line.
Settlement is where a good calcutta goes bad. The auction was fun, the rodeo was fun, and now somebody is standing under the arena lights doing three-way percentages on the back of a program while twenty people wait to find out what they owe. The math itself is only multiplication — but it's layered multiplication, and doing the layers out of order is how the numbers stop adding up.
The right order is: pot → places → bidders → people. This page runs one full event through all four layers.
The event
A twelve-team ranch rodeo calcutta. All twelve teams sold, for a total pot of $2,400. Payouts are 50/30/20 on the top three; no cut and no consolation (we'll add a cut at the end to show what changes). The buyers who matter for settlement:
- Hank, bidding alone, bought Circle C for $400.
- The Bar T syndicate — Dale ($200), Rhonda ($150), Wes ($100), Casey ($50); pooled budget $500 — bought Lazy J for $300 and Rafter M for $150. (This is the same syndicate worked through in syndicates and pledges.)
- The Feed Store Crew — Marge ($250) and Tom ($250); pooled budget $500 — bought Double D for $350 and Broken Spoke for $150.
- Seven other teams went to assorted solo buyers for a combined $1,050; none of those teams placed.
Check the pot before anything else: $400 + $300 + $150 + $350 + $150 + $1,050 = $2,400. If the sale sheet doesn't sum to the pot, stop and fix that first — every later number inherits the error.
The rodeo ends: Circle C first, Rafter M second, Double D third.
Layer 1: what each place pays
| Place | Team | Share | Pays | To the buyer |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | Circle C | 50% | $1,200 | Hank |
| 2nd | Rafter M | 30% | $720 | Bar T syndicate |
| 3rd | Double D | 20% | $480 | Feed Store Crew |
| Total | $2,400 | |||
First check: the payouts sum to the whole pot. $1,200 + $720 + $480 = $2,400. ✓
Layer 2: each bidder's position
Now net each buyer out: what they spent across all their teams, against what their teams collected.
| Bidder | Spent | Collects | Net |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hank | $400 | $1,200 | +$800 |
| Bar T syndicate | $450 | $720 | +$270 |
| Feed Store Crew | $500 | $480 | −$20 |
| Seven other buyers | $1,050 | $0 | −$1,050 |
| Total | $2,400 | $2,400 | $0 |
Second check, and it's the important one: the nets sum to zero. A straight calcutta moves money around the room; it doesn't create or destroy any. If your nets don't cancel, a price or a payout is wrong somewhere upstream.
Notice the Feed Store Crew: they placed — third! — and still finished down $20, because their two teams cost $500 and returned $480. Placing and profiting are not the same thing, and the settlement sheet is where the room finds that out.
Layer 3: inside the syndicates
Solo buyers are done — Hank's line is Hank's line. Syndicates need one more pass: each member's share of the group's spend and the group's winnings is their pledge divided by the group's total pledges.
Bar T pledged $500 total, so the shares are Dale 40%, Rhonda 30%, Wes 20%, Casey 10%. Applied to $450 spent and $720 collected:
| Member | Share | Owes | Collects | Net |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dale | 40% | $180 | $288 | +$108 |
| Rhonda | 30% | $135 | $216 | +$81 |
| Wes | 20% | $90 | $144 | +$54 |
| Casey | 10% | $45 | $72 | +$27 |
| Total | 100% | $450 | $720 | +$270 |
Feed Store Crew pledged $250 each — a straight 50/50. Each owes half of $500 and collects half of $480:
| Member | Share | Owes | Collects | Net |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Marge | 50% | $250 | $240 | −$10 |
| Tom | 50% | $250 | $240 | −$10 |
| Total | 100% | $500 | $480 | −$20 |
Third check: each member table's columns must sum to the syndicate's own line from Layer 2 — owes to spent, collects to winnings, nets to the group net. Both do. ✓
Layer 4: the by-person list
Now merge everything into the one list the room actually needs — every human, one line, owes and collects side by side:
| Person | Bidding as | Owes | Collects | Net |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hank | himself | $400 | $1,200 | +$800 |
| Dale | Bar T | $180 | $288 | +$108 |
| Rhonda | Bar T | $135 | $216 | +$81 |
| Wes | Bar T | $90 | $144 | +$54 |
| Casey | Bar T | $45 | $72 | +$27 |
| Marge | Feed Store Crew | $250 | $240 | −$10 |
| Tom | Feed Store Crew | $250 | $240 | −$10 |
| Seven other buyers | themselves | $1,050 | $0 | −$1,050 |
| Total | $2,400 | $2,400 | $0 | |
Moving the actual money
With the list in hand, the cleanest mechanic is one pass through a single table: everyone pays what they owe to the clerk's table, and the table pays out the three payouts. Money in equals money out — that's what the zero-sum check guaranteed — so the cash box opens empty and closes empty. Many rooms collect hammer prices during the auction itself, in which case the "owes" column is already settled and only the payouts move at the end. Either way, the by-person list is the receipt: every winner can point at their line, and every line traces back through the layers above.
What doesn't work is pairwise IOUs — "Casey just pays Hank" — negotiated on the fly. With eight-plus people and three payouts, improvised chains of who-covers-whom are where the reconciliation errors live. One list, one table, one pass.
What a top cut changes
The same event with 10% to the arena fund
Cut = 10% × $2,400 = $240. The places now split 90%: 1st pays $1,080, 2nd $648, 3rd $432.
Every "collects" shrinks accordingly: Hank nets +$680; Bar T collects $648 (Dale $259.20, Rhonda $194.40, Wes $129.60, Casey $64.80); the Feed Store Crew collects $432 and is down $68.
And the zero-sum check becomes a minus-the-cut check: the nets now sum to −$240 — the room as a whole is down exactly what went to the arena fund, and not a cent more. (+$680 + $198 − $68 − $1,050 = −$240.)
Note the cents: 40% of $648 is $259.20. Pledge-ratio splits of post-cut payouts routinely land on dimes and pennies. Round consistently — to the cent — and keep the check totals honest, because "close enough" rounding across a dozen lines is how a settlement ends up a few dollars short with nobody able to say where it went.
The checks, in one place
- Sale sheet sums to the pot. Before results are entered.
- Payouts sum to the pot (or to the pot minus cut and consolation, when you're running those).
- Each syndicate's member columns sum to the syndicate's own totals.
- All nets sum to zero — or to minus the cut and consolation, which go to their announced destinations and nowhere else.
Where CalcuttaCalc fits
CalcuttaCalc produces every table on this page automatically, the moment the host enters the results — payouts by place, the by-bidder table, and the by-person list, with pledge-ratio splits computed to the cent and every check already passing. The lists are the whole product: the app hands the room its numbers, and the room settles up in person, cash or however you square things with friends. The app never takes, holds, moves, or pays out a dollar of it.