How to run payroll for the people who work in your home

Open householdpayroll.app in your phone’s browser. One sign in page serves everybody: type your email if you run the household, or your username if you work here, and it asks for the right thing next.

Running the household means a password and then a six digit code from an authenticator app. Working here means a PIN, and no code.

Put it on your home screen

It then opens like an app, without the browser bar. On iPhone: Share, then Add to Home Screen. On Android: the three dots, then Install app.

The teal panel answers the question you open the app to ask:

Underneath, Needs attention shows only tiles that have something in them. No tiles means nothing is waiting for you. Each one links to the screen that clears it.

Then each person, with a coloured strip of the last twelve months: green paid, amber part paid, red overdue, grey nothing recorded.

Staff, then Add a person. Name, role and monthly salary are the only things it insists on.

Track from

The month the app starts keeping records. It is not their start date. Pick the month you want the ledger to begin, usually this one, and nothing before it is recorded.

Where they stand today

The part to get right. If you already owe them, or they owe you, or a loan is part paid, enter it here. Whatever you put becomes their opening position, and they see it and sign it on their own phone the first time they sign in.

Three buttons sit under the balance on the Money tab.

More opens the rest: extra payments, leave, tickets, permit fees and changes to a loan.

Paying in another currency

Every form has a link for it. You type the rate you actually used. Nothing is looked up, so the figure stays the one you agreed between you, and both amounts are kept.

The signature

After saving a payment you can collect a signature on your phone there and then, or send it to theirs. Until it is signed the record shows as awaiting signature, and it appears as a tile on your home screen.

Staff can ask for an advance, a loan, leave or anything else from their own phone. It arrives as a notification, an email, and a tile on your home screen.

You have three answers:

• Agree: exactly what they asked for.
• Agree with changes: a different amount, a different monthly deduction, a different starting month. They see what you agreed, not what they asked.
• Say no: a reason is required, and they see it.

Agreeing moves no money. It records the decision. You still record the handover when it happens, and that is what they sign for.

If they think something is wrong

Instead of signing, they can tap This looks wrong. That opens a dispute, tells both admins, and leaves the record unsigned until it is settled.

Passports, residency cards, work permits, licences, contracts, insurance. Photograph the page and add an expiry date.

The app then watches it. You are told at sixty days, thirty days, seven days and on the day itself, by notification and by email. Sixty is the default and you can change it under Settings.

The person can see their own documents. Nobody outside your household can see any of them.

On their Profile tab, Set up their login. You get a QR code to show on your screen. They scan it with their own phone and choose their own PIN, which you never see.

Signed in, they can see and do exactly this much:

• What they are owed, and their own record
• Their loans and how much is left
• Their own leave and documents
• Ask for an advance, a loan or leave
• Sign for a payment, or say something looks wrong

They cannot see anybody else, any total, or anything about the household. Another member of staff is invisible to them.

Under Settings:

Worth doing once a month

Export gives you a spreadsheet that opens in Excel, and a full backup of every table. It is your own copy, in your hands, independent of anything else.