Chore Exchange
“Before anything else, preparation is the key to success.” – Alexander Graham Bell
Setup Guide
Chore Exchange was designed to be as simple as possible and still achive what it's designed to do. That being said we thought it would be helpful to provide a little manual, a guide of sorts to make this experiance that much better. Each section is laid out one after the other in the setup process. Or if you just need a refresher, you can skip ahead by selecting one of the items from the menu bar on the left.
Get Started With Chore Exchange
To get started go ahead and click the link --> or go to Chorexchange.app and create an account. Once you have created an account you would land on the Leader Dashboard. Do some exploring and start building your team. Come back anytime to this website to learn more. Please note, the Chore Exchange App only works all members have a cell phone and a working email.
Leader Profile
As the Leader you will be resposible for creating and assigning chores, setting rent contribution amount and more. But in addition to that you are also a Team Member. You can do chores as well. A basic profile is automatically set up for you. On the Navigation Bar go to Members, you will see a member profile card. This is your profile card. Edit member profile card by clicking on the yellow pencil. Once you have set up your member profile (The Leader) Go back to the Leader dashboard by pressing Home on the Navigation bar.
Just below the Chore Exchange logo there is a Leader/Member Button. This will allow your to jump to your Member Dashboard and back to the Leader Dashboard at any time. By doing this you can make changes, assign chores to yourself and understand how it works before inviting the rest of the family members. You will only be able to see your dashboad.
Building Your Team
The purpose of this app is facilitate the exchange. Exchanging Rent for chores. As the leader you will determin each individual cost of living in the form of Rent contribution. In the app we have added a cost of living calculator located on the navigation bar. This is for your to make an educated quess on what the rent amount might be. If you see an (i) information icon, click on it. This will give you helpful tips along the way.
1. Use the Cost of Living Calculator
2. Add Members to your team
3. Set Member Profile settings, wages, rent, etc.
COST OF LIVING
1.
Calculator
The Cost of Living Calculator is a tool in our tool box that will help us come up with an estimated cost of living for your young adult or team members. Many factors come into play when diciding what the room and board should be. Utilities, groceries, rent/morgage, and the members age, are some of the main factors to consider. Remember the Cost of Living Calculator is there to give you an idea of what it might cost for a young adult living at home. Ultimately you decide what their rent/contribution should be. Each member of your team could have the same amount, or they could vary from person to person. In the Chore Exchange App there are 2 parts to the Cost of Living Calculator.
Part 1: The Cost of Living Calculator is located on the Navigation Bar with an icon labled LIving. When selected you will need to fill out an expenses form to determine what it would cost for your family to live where you're at. This will give you a basic per person cost of living. Now in the input field for Number of Family Members, this is the number of people sharing the household expenses. The total cost of living is divided by this number, to calculate each member's share. This number could be manipulated to reflect more responsibility. For example, one family member ( the bread winner ) could count for 2 or 3. A family of 4 could count as 6 or 7 members. The bread winner in the family would be resposible for more then the young adults would be.
Part 2: When you set up the profiles of each member of your team. There is a Suggested Rent Calculator button. This will adjust the cost of living amount to reflect the age your your team member. For example. a 13 year old would have very little rent verses a 30 year old who would have the full rent amount. Remeber these Calculators are suggestions, or educated guesses, to determine rent contribution. Ultimately you decide. If rent is 0.00 then any chore completed would earn a profit and could be considered an allowance. Play with the numbers and see what works best for you and your family.
2.
Add Member
To Add Members to your team simply click Members in the Navigation Bar and then click Add Members button at the top right corner or the page. Fill out basic informantion and click Add Member. This will create a Member Card
Setup Member Profile
3.
Once a Member Card is created, you will need to setup their profile. Click the yellow pencle on the Member Card to Edit/Setup profile. Edit basic information, set rent amount, hourly wages, and enable or disable expenses and savings.
Expenses: This option allows a member to credit their account instead of getting reimbursed for expenses made on behalf of the family. For example, Jimmy picked up a gallon of milk and a dozen eggs on his way home from work. Instead of asking to be reimbursed for the money he spent, he was able to take if off his rent contribution.
Savings: This opton allows a member to put money into savings and get a matching credit amount applied to their account. This is an insentive for members to put a little money into savings. One day they will move out and having a little savings nest egg, could come in handy. For example if Susan wanted to put $100 into savings and I set up the her profile at 10% matching, she would get $10 dollars credited to her account.
Chore Catagories
Now we need to work on the list of chores that you need done. All the chores will come under one of the main catagories. For example Wash Dishes would come under the Kitchen tab, Mow the Lawn would come under the Yard Work tab. Make Your Bed would come under the Bedroom tab, and so on. You can use the list of cantagories already there and add more if need be. You can add and remove catagories at any time. Note: If there are chores listed under a particular category, you will not be able to remove it. The chores need to be removed or deleted before removing a category.
Adding Chores
The next step is to add Chores to your Catagories. Click on Add Chore button under Chore List in your Leader Dashboard. A Create Chore form will pop up for you to fill out. When filling out your chore card, the more information you can provide the better.
Title: Keep the chore title as short and to the point as possible. For example Feed Clifford AM. Short and to the point. There's not much room on the chore card for a long winded title. Create as many chore card variations as your need. For example, Create a second chore card for Feedind Clifford in the evening, intitled "Feed Clifford PM"
Catagory: Select from the list of catagories to file your chore card. If you add a chore and do not have a catagory for it just place it in an exisiting catagory and then create a new catagory. Then edit that chore to the correct catagory you just created.
Description: In the description portion of the chore card, you need to go in to more detail like the following example: Feed Clifford 3 scoops of Dog food first thing in the morning on the front porch. Rinse out water bowl and fill with clean water. Having a clear and detailed description not only ensure the chore is done properly, but also eliminates repeat explanations.
Estimated Time To Complete Chore: Enter the amount of time, in minutes, you think it should take to complete the chore. Be generous. If you think it should only take 5 minutes, make it 10. The amount of time entered will be used to calculate the payout amount for each chore.
Assigning Chores
To assign chores, from your Leader Dashboard click Chore List and select a catagory containing the chore you would like to assign. Click on the person icon next to the pencil. Once the Assign Chore card pops up you can fill in the neccessary information.
Assign To: Select the member you would like to assign this particular chore to. If the chore requires more than one member to complete tap the + button and add another member.
Start Date & Time: The Start Date comes in handy when you are scheduling a chore to be done more than one time. For example. Make Bed could be schedule 3 days a week starting next week. Setting the Time will help with notification when you would like the chore done. If you do not select a date and time the curent date and time will be used by defualt.
Fequency and Duration: Setting the Frequency and Duration help with scheduling chores for the week and month. Play around with the settings. Once your chore is assigned you can check your calender to see if you scheduled it correctly. You can alway delete chores from your Calender, as well as the Current Chores tab on your dashboard. If a chore is completed you can not delete it. The work was put in and should be credited.
Manditory Time Set: When turned ON, the assigned chore must be completed by the designated time. If the assigned member doesn't finish within the grace period, the chore is automatically broadcasted to the other household members so someone else can complete it. Use this for time-sensitive tasks that need to get done by a deadline. For example Feeding the Dog or Take Dog Out would be bad if chore was missed. If another member completes the task they will get the credit and broadcasted chore cards will automatically be removed.
Chore Needs Approval: When set to Yes, the member marks the chore complete but credit is only issued after the leader approves it. The Leader can also ask that the chore be redone and chore is sent back to member to complete. When set to No, credit is applied automatically the moment the member marks the chore complete — no approval needed.
Notifications: Decide when you want chore reminders to go out. An email is sent to your team member's email address. This will help your team member remember there is a scheduled chore to be done.
Once your done with with filling out the assignment card, hit the Assgin Chore button and just like that your chore has been assigned. Check your calendar to see if the chore was assgned correctly. Then just repeat the process.
Remember, it's very helpful to assign yourself chores when getting started. This way your can better understand what the Chore Exchange app does and how it works. And when the time comes to get the rest of the family involved, you can guide them through.
"Do what you can, with what you have, where you are." — Teddy Roosevelt
Start working with the app and make it work for you. We will continue to add more information in the future.