How KittyCash works

The basics

KittyCash is a family money hub — a safe, pretend bank where your kids earn, save, and watch their balance grow while learning real money habits. You set the rules; KittyCash does the day-to-day work automatically so you never have to remember to pay pocket money or work out interest by hand.

There are two moving parts you'll hear about a lot: pocket money (a regular payment) and interest (a reward for saving). Both are handled by scheduled jobs that run every week, plus a nightly job that keeps every balance accurate. You'll find each of those explained below.

Pocket money (periodic payments)

Pocket money is a recurring payment you set up per child on their Pocket money screen. You choose the amount and how often it's paid:

• Weekly — paid once a week.
• Monthly — paid once a month.

Once it's switched on, you don't need to do anything. On a regular schedule KittyCash automatically pays pocket money to every child whose payment is due, and lines up the next one. Turning a child's pocket money off simply stops future automatic payments.

Because this is fully automatic, there is no "pay allowance now" button — that used to cause confusion (and the risk of paying twice). If you ever want to give a child a bit extra, use the Pay screen on that child's card for a one-off top-up. A top-up is separate and never changes or skips the automatic schedule.

Interest

Interest is how KittyCash rewards saving — the more a child keeps in their account, the more they earn. It works like a real bank:

• Interest is calculated on each day's closing balance, using a daily rate (the annual rate ÷ 365).
• A positive balance earns interest at your family's earn rate (12% per year by default).
• A negative balance (a "loan") is charged interest at your loan rate (20% per year by default) — a gentle lesson in the cost of borrowing.

These daily amounts are added up and applied once a week, around the start of the week and before pocket money is paid. It lands in the child's account as an "Interest earned" or "Interest charged" transaction.

You control both rates. Open Rewards & rules and edit the earn and loan percentages under Interest rates. Set the earn rate high to make saving exciting, or lower it to keep things realistic.

Nightly calculations

Each night KittyCash runs a quiet "close of business" job. It doesn't move any money — it just makes sure everything is accurate and ready for the next day. It does three things:

• Seals the day's closing balance for every account. This daily record is what the weekly interest calculation reads from, so interest is always based on real end-of-day balances.
• Reconciles and heals each account — it re-adds every transaction from scratch and, if a displayed balance ever drifted, quietly corrects it to match the true total.
• Refreshes the public stats (total families, accounts, and transactions) shown on the website. These are anonymous counts only — no child's name, balance, or details are ever included.

If a run is ever missed, it's designed to catch up the next time it runs, so nothing is lost. This is a read-only tidy-up from your family's point of view — it never spends, pays, or charges anything.

Chores, tasks, awards & penalties

Beyond pocket money, kids earn (or lose) money through the items you set up in Rewards & rules:

• Chores — jobs a child can mark as done. When they submit one, it appears on your dashboard under "Chores done — approve to pay". Tap Approve to pay it, or Reject if it isn't finished.
• Tasks — one-off jobs you can pay for directly whenever they're done, without waiting for a request.
• Awards — bonus payments for good behaviour, milestones, or anything you like.
• Penalties — small deductions when needed, so kids see that choices have consequences.

From a child's card on the dashboard you can pay any chore, task, or award — or apply a penalty — in a single tap. Each one posts straight to the child's account.

Savings goals

A goal is a target amount your child is saving toward — a new game, a toy, a day out.KittyCash stores the target and shows progress against their current balance, so kids get a visual nudge as they get closer. Reaching a goal doesn't automatically spend the money; it's a motivator, not a withdrawal.

The ledger & undo

KittyCash keeps a proper bank-style ledger: it's append-only, which means a transaction is never edited or deleted after it's recorded. This keeps the history honest and easy to trust.

If something is posted by mistake, using Undo doesn't erase the original — instead it adds a matching reversal entry that cancels it out, exactly how a real bank corrects an error. Both entries stay visible in the history so the story is always complete.

Demo vs live accounts

The Demo lets you explore KittyCash with pretend data that lives only in your browser — nothing is saved to our servers and it resets when you leave. A live account (when you sign up) securely saves your family's data so pocket money, interest, and the nightly job can run for you automatically. The features work the same way in both; only the storage differs.

Security & privacy

Your family's data is private to your family. Kids sign in to their own accounts and only see their own money. The public stats on our website are anonymous totals only — never names, balances, or any detail that could identify a child. For the full picture, see our legal & privacy pages.

What do I need to do?

Very little day-to-day. Set each child's pocket money and your interest rates once, then approve chores and hand out awards or penalties whenever you like. Everything on a schedule — weekly pocket money, weekly interest, and the nightly balance check — happens on its own. If a question isn't answered here, reach us any time at hello@kittycash.com.au.

A note on reliability

Scheduled timings above (weekly, nightly, and so on) are indicative and may vary. We make every reasonable effort to keep KittyCash and all of its automated systems running smoothly and accurately, but we can't guarantee uninterrupted, error-free, or perfectly-timed operation. The service is provided on a best-effort basis, and exact schedules may change without notice. For the full terms, please see our Terms & Conditions.