How Familynomics works

Sign up, then run Quick Setup (2 min) or Custom Setup. Set your family name, monthly essentials, and a daily payout cap — a good starting point is roughly one-third of a weekly allowance ÷ 7, which keeps daily cash-outs small and lets the rest bank.

Name each member and (optionally) add a photo, then generate an invite link per child from the Members panel. Children open it, set a 4-digit PIN, and add the app to their home screen.

Before the deadline (default 9:00 AM) — open bidding. Children bid on the chores they want, and more than one child can bid the same chore. It’s bidding, not first-come, so an early riser can’t seal off the best chores.

At the deadline — one fair draw. Each contested chore goes to the child with the fewest chores; ties are settled by a shuffle-bag draw (a lottery that never lands on the same child twice running). Whoever loses gets first pick of the higher-value leftovers, then everyone still short of their target is topped up. A participating parent never wins a chore away from a child.

Grace window (default 3 hours) — first-come. Children grab and swap leftovers; whatever they take is theirs.

End of grace (default noon) — picks lock. You can also lock early from the dashboard card; locking early simply runs the draw then.

Choosing your times. Set the draw deadline for when your slowest riser is usually up and fed — that’s when bidding closes and the day is dealt. The grace window is the cushion after it: longer grace gives a slow or sick morning more room to drop and re-pick; a shorter one gets everyone moving sooner. Both live in Settings → Chore day timing, and you can always lock early by hand from the dashboard when the morning’s already settled.

The more chores you give target finish-times, the more Footprint helps with tardy children.

On chores that other children depend on, you can set a target finish time in the chore editor. Footprint watches for a child who is chronically late and blocking siblings, and will ask you whether to limit that child's access to those anchor chores for a week. You're always in control — Footprint only ever recommends; it never applies a limit without your yes.

Children who stay steady on anchors may earn a quiet first-pick advantage. Limits are silent on the child side — you handle the human conversation.

Exclusive — one child earns it (resolved by the draw above).

Split + teamwork bonus — communal; payout splits among child pickers, plus $1 each.

Full for all — community activity; everyone earns the full value.

“Waits on” (dependencies). A chore can wait on another finishing first — set the dishes to wait on dinner, and dishes stay locked until dinner is done. It’s about order of work, not teaming: a child waiting on a sibling’s prerequisite isn’t paired with them, just queued behind the step that has to come first. (For teaming, see Connected chores below.)

Bonus elevation. A higher-paying variant of a chore that a child can claim and you approve — “dinner” becomes “a real sit-down family meal” for a few dollars more. The child sees the bonus description and taps to claim it; you see your approval checklist on the Approvals queue and confirm before the extra is paid. The base chore pays out either way. All values are entered and shown in dollars.

In the chore editor, the “Connected chores” field links chores that go together — back-to-back or dependent (set the table ↔ make dinner ↔ dishes). Connections are two-way.

Children can only team up on chores that are connected. That keeps teaming about the work itself and stops two children forming a clique that freezes out a third. Seeded chores come pre-connected; connect your own custom chores here.

Teaming opens after the 9 AM draw, on settled chores — never on still-open bids, so the draw can’t pull a chore out from under a team-up. If a child drops a teamed chore during grace, the pairing dissolves and the partner is notified.

Familynomics quietly tracks which chores children actually bid on over the last two weeks — behavior, not a survey. It counts the bid whether or not the child wins, so a chore three children fight over reads as high-demand.

When a chore goes basically un-picked for two weeks, a card appears on your dashboard: “these chores aren’t getting picked — they may be priced too low.”You Raise price or say It’s fine. The app never changes a price itself.

The idea: a chore sits at the bottom either because it’s genuinely miserable, or because it’s mispriced. If cleaning toilets paid enough, someone would pick it. A chore that stays un-picked despite a fair-looking price is the children telling you the price is wrong. (New families: this stays quiet for ~2 weeks until there’s enough history, then switches on automatically.)

Familynomics settles in real cash, the same evening. Keep a small stash on hand — ones, fives, tens, maybe a few twenties — and set aside the payout once the day’s chores are done. Some families settle together around the table; others, once there’s enough trust, let the children self-servetheir own payout. Either works.

Paying out that night is part of why it works: the reward arrives the moment the work is finished, so a child feels work → reward as a single motion.

The stash refills itself. When a child wants something, they earn it, you buy it, and they pay you back from what they earned — the cash goes straight back into the stash. Instead of family money quietly covering candy, toys, and Amazon orders, the children fund their own wants and replenish the bank in the process, so it never runs dry. Set the cash habit up from day one.

At settlement time (default 8:30 PM) the app computes each child’s cash payout (balance capped at their daily cap; the rest banks). Mark each child paid, hand over the cash, and they confirm receipt — a disputed payment restores to the ledger. Use “Print summary” for a paper hand-off around the table.

Settlement time is a suggestion to gather, not a cutoff. A child can still finish a chore later in the evening and cover their footprint — the day only truly closes at midnight (see Mercy mode vs. Debt mode below).

Every child starts the day owing a small footprint — their share of the household’s real costs. Chores pay it down. What happens if they don’tcover it by the end of the day is your choice, set under Settings → “Unpaid footprint: Mercy or Debt.”

Mercy (the default). Any footprint a child didn’t cover is forgiven at the end of the day, so everyone starts the next morning at zero. No debt ever piles up. This is the gentlest setting — good for younger children, or while a family is still learning the rhythm. A missed day is simply a missed day.

Debt. An uncovered footprint carries over — the child keeps owing until they catch up, so a slow day follows them into tomorrow and the work still has to get done. To keep it from ever feeling hopeless, debt stops at a −$25 floor: once a child is that far behind, new daily charges pause until they earn their way back up. This setting teaches that obligations don’t vanish on their own — better for older children ready for that lesson.

When the day closes. Either way, the books close at midnightin your timezone, not at the 8:30 settlement — so a child always has the whole evening to cover their own footprint before mercy forgives it or it becomes debt. You can switch modes anytime; it takes effect from that day forward.

Your monthly household essentials — the real number you entered for rent, utilities, a food baseline, and the like — is the starting point. Familynomics divides it by 30 for a daily figure, then by the active members who share the household (every active parent and child). That yields one person’s daily share, rounded to the nearest 25¢ so children see clean quarter amounts.

Each child’s daily footprint is just their own one-person share — not the whole household bill split among only the children. Parents are counted in that division too, so the children never carry the adults’ portion. Little ones under five (welfare members) are folded into your monthly total but left out of the divisor, so the household absorbs their share rather than charging it to a child.

Your surplus rate does not change a child’s footprint or their pay. It only makes each day’s chore pool a little larger than the bare minimum, so there’s variety to pick from. If a footprint ever looks wrong, fix the expenses input — every chore value and payout cap is downstream of this one number.

Optional and off by default. Turn it on in Settings if you want to pick chores on your own board alongside the children — not required for normal parenting in the app.

You earn $0. Completions are tagged parent acted and never add money to anyone’s ledger. You’re modeling the work and clearing blockers, not competing for payout.

You won’t take chores from children. At the morning draw, contested exclusive chores are decided among child bids only. If children bid a chore, any parent bid on it is released — a participating parent never wins a chore away from a child.

Your picks don’t skew pricing. Child bids feed the desirability / pricing nudge; parent picks don’t, because they aren’t voluntary child demand.

Unblocking still works. Finishing a prerequisite chore (including an anchor) counts as done for the dependency chain, same as when a child completes it — useful when someone’s stuck waiting on a parent to clear the path.

Acting for a child (Mirror) is different: you complete a chore on a child’s assignment from their mirror view. Also $0 and tagged parent acted, but you don’t need participation mode for that.

Power tools on the parent dashboard for busy mornings. Each is reversible or adjustable unless noted.

Lock picks now — Ends the bidding window early, runs the morning draw (same pass the auto-lock would run at your deadline), and tells children picks are closed. Reversible: tap Unlock picks on the same card to reopen. Also available as Lock all picks in Bulk actions (hidden once already locked).

Mark all sick / Mark all vacation — Marks every active child out for today. Each gets a day mark, today’s footprint is waived, and in-progress chores are returned to the pool (credits reversed). Skips children already marked. Undo isn’t one button — clear a child individually from their row or mirror view if you marked by mistake.

Set all caps — Sets the same daily payout cap on every active child. This updates each child’s saved cap, not just today. Per-child overrides live in Members → Details. Blank per child means the family default applies.

There is no mark all done bulk action — completions still go through the normal chore flow (or Mirror for assisted children).

Footprint doesn’t store birthdays — only whether a child is under 5or 5 and up, plus whether they need a parent to run the app for them.

Under 5 (welfare) — A roster slot for a little one who isn’t picking chores or signing in. They’re always parent-operated. Their share of household cost should be inside the monthly essentials number you entered, but they are not charged their own daily footprint (active parents and children 5+ split that load). Use Operate as / Mirror when you’re doing their chores.

Child (5 and up) — Normal participant: footprint, picks, ledger, invite to their device when ready.

Needs help (assisted) — For a 5+ child who won’t use their own login (shared tablet, too young for a phone, etc.). Same operational pattern as under 5: you run their view; no invite required. They still have their own footprint and ledger once active.

Quick setup — Seeds placeholder names and counts from your onboarding answers. Rename real people and flip Needs help or Under 5in Members before you rely on the numbers.

1. Bid (before the deadline). Tap the chores you want to rank them, then “Submit bids.” You can bid the same chore as someone else — you don’t lose it just because they tapped first. A fair draw decides who gets a contested chore, and whoever loses gets first pick of the good leftovers. Or hit “I Feel Lucky” for a random set.

2. Do them. Mark each chore done as you finish. Accidentally tapped done? You have 10 minutes to undo.

3. Get paid. At settlement, check your cash and confirm when your parent pays you. Flag anything that looks wrong — flags are anonymous.

Teaming opens after the deadline draw, once your chores are settled — you team on the chore you actually got, not one you’re still bidding on.

On a chore you’re holding, if a sibling has a connected chore (one that goes with yours), you’ll see “Team up with [name]? (+$1 each).”If they asked you first, you’ll see their request with Accept and a small decline.

If you both say yes and you both finish, you each earn a bonus $1 — and you each still keep your own chore’s full pay. You can only team on connected chores, so nobody gets left out. If you drop a teamed chore during the grace window, the team-up ends and your partner is told.

Screen time — you get a daily budget; buy more with what you’ve earned ($2/hr, $1/30 min). Bought by accident? Undo within 10 minutes.

Streaks — meet your footprint every day to build a streak (badges at 7, 14, and 30 days).

Savings goal — on “my stats,” name a goal and a dollar target; the bar tracks your banked money toward it, with a celebration when you hit it.

Out today? Tap “I’m out today” for sick or vacation — your footprint is waived and your chores go back to the pool.