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No. You log spending yourself with the quick-add bar — amount, category, done. Nothing connects to your accounts and nothing can move money. Many families find logging by hand is exactly what makes them notice where money goes.

Add each kid in the Family tab. Then tap Switch at the top of any screen and choose their name to hand over the phone or iPad. They'll see their own jars, chores, goals, and Money School — never your budget. The parent PIN you create during setup keeps it that way: the parents' side asks for it and locks again after a minute away.

On the PIN screen, tap Forgot PIN? and confirm it's you with Face ID or Touch ID, then set a new PIN right there. Phones without Face ID or Touch ID use the phone's passcode instead. If your phone has Face ID or Touch ID but it's turned off for Hearthwise, turn it on in Settings first. If your phone has no passcode, turn one on in Settings first. Without one of these, the PIN can't be reset.

Good to know: after five wrong PIN tries, the PIN screen pauses, and each extra wrong try makes the pause longer. Resetting the PIN always ends with you choosing a new one, so the parents' side is never left without a PIN. You can change the PIN anytime in Family → Settings, but you can't turn it off. The parent PIN is a family lock for everyday hand-offs; to keep the whole device private, use your phone's passcode and Screen Time.

Money a kid earns or receives — chores, allowance, gifts — splits into Spend, Save, and Share using percentages they choose on the My Jar tab. Spending comes out of Spend, goals are funded from Save, and giving comes from Share. Only the Save jar gets Kindling.

Kindling is your family's savings bonus: a little extra you add to each kid's Save jar. You pay it. In Family, you set how big the bonus is and a limit on how much of each Save jar earns it. It's added in small amounts at each weekly meeting, so kids watch it grow. Hearthwise only keeps track of it; no money moves through the app. (Kindling used to be called the Family Bank.)

Yes. On the Meeting tab, tap Customize to choose the day and time, meet every week or every other week, turn steps on or off, reorder them, add your own agenda items, and pick the kind of conversation questions you want.

Go to Family → Backup file and tap Export backup. Hearthwise shows a code for that file: write it down or save it in a password manager (not in your photos, and not next to the file), then save the backup file to iCloud Drive or Files, or email it to yourself. The file is encrypted and can only be opened with that code. On the new device, install Hearthwise, tap “Moving from another phone? Restore a backup file” on the first screen, choose the file, and enter the code. (If Hearthwise is already set up on that device, use Family → Backup file → Restore instead; it replaces what's there.) Your parent PIN and kids' codes aren't included, so the new device asks for a new parent PIN, and you can set kids' codes again in Family. We recommend exporting a backup once a month.

Not yet. In the beta, Hearthwise lives on one device. Sharing between parents' phones is something we're working on, and we'll update this page when it's ready.

Tap the ? button at the top of any screen to replay that area's guide. To replay everything, go to Family → Guides → Replay all guides.

Yes. Everything you enter is stored on your device. The app has no sign-up, no analytics, and no ads, and we never sell or share your data. Hearthwise doesn't send your family's data to us. During the beta, crash reports reach us automatically through Apple's TestFlight; feedback, screenshots, and any extra crash details reach us only if you choose to send them, and backup files you export are encrypted with a code only you have. Read the full privacy policy.