Guide

An allowance that shows up in your child's app

In FF Family an allowance lives in two places at once: in your budget in FF Life, as a recurring expense, and in your child's wallet in FF Grows, on the day it's due. You set it up once, from your side.

Where to set it up

In FF Life, open your child's page (Connections, Family tab, their card). In the Send money card, press + Set up allowance.

Four choices

1. Amount per period, in whole numbers.
2. Frequency: Weekly, Every 2 weeks, or Monthly.
3. The day: a day of the week, or for a monthly allowance a day of the month from 1 to 28, so it exists in every month.
4. Starts on: the first payment is on the day you picked, on or after this date. After that it repeats by itself.

Leave Record as a recurring expense in my budget ticked; it's on by default. The allowance then appears in your FF Life budget as a recurring expense, and your forecast counts it at its real rhythm.

What your child sees

On the payment day the allowance appears in your child's wallet in FF Grows, with your name on it. Nobody has to approve it. From age 8 your child can also see it coming on their My Plan page, which is where planning starts: "the allowance arrives on Sunday, so the new ball is next week."

The money itself

FF Family records money; it never moves it. The allowance in Grows is the record of what your child has. Hand over the real money the way your family already does: cash, a transfer to their own account, or keeping it for them. What matters is that the number they see matches what is actually theirs.

Changing it or stopping it

The allowance appears as a row in the Send money card on your child's page. The pencil edits it and the bin stops it. If you untick the budget box when editing, the recurring expense in your budget stops too, and its history stays.

A one-off

A birthday, or a job well done? + Send a one-off in the same card adds a single amount to your child's wallet, and can record it as an expense in your budget as well.

How much?

That part is yours. Our guide to allowance by age walks through the rhythm, the amount and what to do when it runs out mid-month, without a table somebody invented.