Set up pocket money

Equal House can attach money to children’s chores, so what they earn follows what they actually did rather than a weekly guess.

Set the rates

1. More → Settings → Pocket money.
2. Set an amount for each difficulty level, 1 to 5.

A level 1 chore might be 20p and a level 5 chore two pounds — whatever suits your household. Every child chore then pays according to its difficulty, with no further thought.

Overriding a single chore

Some jobs do not fit their difficulty. Washing the car is not hard, but you might pay properly for it; tidying their own room is a chore you may not want to pay for at all.

Open the task. In the Rewards card, type an amount under Pocket money. It replaces the difficulty rate for that chore only, and the line under the box says what leaving it blank would pay.

Setting an amount of zero means it pays nothing — which is a real, useful answer, and different from leaving the box empty.

Stars on a task

The same Rewards card has Stars. Auto works them out from the effort, as every chore always has, and shows how many that is. Tap Choose to set a number of your own, from 0 to 20, for a job whose stars should not follow its effort. The stars never change the fairness score: that still counts the effort.

Routines can pay too

A routine for a child has the same Rewards card: Stars, a number from 0 to 10, and Pocket money, an amount per day. Leave it blank and the routine pays nothing, which is what every routine did before.

The money lands the moment the child ticks the last step of the day, with the stars. It does not wait for your OK, because a daily routine would fill Waiting for your OK every morning. Instead, unticking a step the same day takes that day’s stars and money back, and ticking it again pays once.

Who it applies to

Only children. The Rewards card appears once a child could do the task, or is picked for the routine; it does not turn up on an adult’s washing-up or their own wind-down.

What the child sees

From age 7, each job and routine on a child’s board says what it pays, like 3 ⭐ · 30p, and Great work this week lists the routines they finished alongside the chores. Children aged 4 to 6 see the words without the numbers.

Hiding it from a child. If you would rather a child didn’t see what they are earning, turn off Pocket money on their board under the child in More → Settings → Children’s boards. Their board then shows stars only, on every device they use: no total, no jars and no amounts on jobs or routines. The money still builds up, and you still see it and pay it out there.

The currency

Amounts follow the household’s currency setting, including on the children’s own screens.

Where the money goes

If you use money jars, earnings split between them automatically by the proportions you set.

When it is paid

Equal House keeps the running total. Actually handing over money is between you and your child — the app does not move money and is not connected to a bank.

When you have handed some over, record it in More → Settings → Children’s boards. Tap Pay out pocket money… under the child. The row shows how much they have to pay out. It starts at everything they have, and you can type another amount or tap Half or All. The line underneath works out what they will have left. Tap Mark paid, and their board shows the new total.

If you use jars, choose the jar it comes from first. It then starts at everything in that jar, and Half and All are of that jar. To pay out more than one jar holds, or everything at once, choose All jars: it takes the money from Spend first, then from the other jars in turn. Only the household’s owner or an admin can pay from all jars at once.

Paying out isn’t on a child’s board, including the board you open on your own phone and hand over. That board is still your phone, signed in as you, so Equal House stays on that board until you hand it back. If a child will use Equal House on their own, have them sign in to Kid Zone instead.