Household Management

Household Overview

A household is the core organizational unit in HelmKeep. All tasks, members, balances, and settings are scoped to a household. Each household operates independently, with its own roles, permissions, and financial tracking settings.

Inviting Members

Members with the invitations.create permission can invite new people to the household in two ways:

Generic invite link: Generates a shareable URL that anyone can use to join. Share it via text, email, or any messaging app.
Email-targeted invite: Send an invite to a specific email address. The recipient will see the invite in their notification bell and during onboarding. This is more secure since only the intended recipient can accept it.

Note: Invites can be revoked by members with the invitations.revoke permission before they are accepted.

Managed Accounts

Managed accounts are placeholder member profiles for people who do not have their own email address, such as young children. A member with the members.manage permission can create a managed account with just a name.

Managed accounts can be assigned tasks, earn rewards, and have their own balance — just like regular members. When the person is ready to use their own account, you can send them an email invite linked to the managed member. When they accept, their new account takes over the existing member record, preserving all task and transaction history.

Tip: This is ideal for families where younger children earn chore rewards but a parent manages their account until they are old enough to sign in themselves.

Switching Households

HelmKeep supports multi-household membership. If you belong to more than one household (e.g., one for family and one for roommates), a household switcher appears in the sidebar. Click it to switch your active household. All pages, tasks, and data update to reflect the selected household.

Your active household is remembered between sessions using a browser cookie. If the cookie expires or becomes stale, HelmKeep falls back to your most recently joined household.

Household Settings

Household settings are managed in the Settings page by members with the appropriate permissions. Available settings include:

Household name
Approval mode (admin approval, peer confirmation, or self-report)
Financial tracking toggle (enable/disable the balance system)
Task categories
Tags, roles, and allowance configurations