Set up BillPlex on your own, or together with the people you live with.
Do this on the phone that will look after the household. It becomes the household’s main device; everyone else joins later.
The main device is the heart of the household: every sync goes through it, and only it can change members, categories and the budget. Pick the phone that is at home most of the time.
The owner is the person who created the household. The phone they created it on is the household’s main device, and it always belongs to the owner: you can’t switch it to another member.
Every other device is a member device, even one the owner uses. Say you created the household on your iPhone, then added your iPad and set it up as yourself. The iPad shows your name, but the app marks it Member device: only your iPhone is the owner’s main device.
Everyone else in the household is a member. What you can change depends on the device in your hand, not on who you are. On that iPad, even you can’t change the budget.
Replacing the main device? Move with a BillPlex backup of it: the new phone becomes the main device and still belongs to the owner. If you join the household from the new phone instead, it becomes a member device.
Main device lost, and no backup? See The main device is gone. How do I carry on?
The main device shows a QR code, you scan it, and the two phones link up over your home Wi-Fi. Both phones need to be on the same Wi-Fi.
Already looking at BillPlex’s first screen? Tap Other options → Join a household and scan the code from there.
A code works for 2 minutes. If it runs out, tap Get a new code on the main device.
Once the first phone has joined, the main device can add more the same way. There’s no limit on devices: BillPlex counts people, not phones.
Adding a device for a new person? The free version covers two people, you included. A third person needs BillPlex Pro. Adding a second device of your own, like an iPad? It joins as a member device, not as a second main device.
How the phones in a household stay in step, and what they share with each other.
BillPlex doesn’t keep your household on a server. The phones talk to each other directly over your home Wi-Fi, and everything goes through the main device: it collects what everyone added, puts it together, and sends the result back to each phone.
That means:
There are two ways to sync: by hand, whenever you tap Sync on the main device (free), or automatically in the background (BillPlex Pro).
If the same thing was changed on two phones before they synced, the most recent change wins.
Only the main device can start a sync.
With automatic sync on, the other phones don’t need to be open: tapping Sync wakes them up. Give it a few seconds.
Only the main device can change members, categories and the budget. Currency is set on each phone and BillPlex doesn’t convert amounts, so make sure everyone uses the same one.
No. A receipt photo stays on the phone that scanned it. The other phones get the expense itself (amount, category, date and notes) but not the picture.
Receipt photos also aren’t part of a BillPlex backup. Your phone’s own backup (iCloud or Google) usually includes them, so they come along when you move to a new phone that way.
Part of BillPlex Pro. What it does, when phones catch up, and why it isn’t always instant.
With automatic sync, nobody has to remember to tap Sync. When someone adds or changes something and then leaves BillPlex, their phone sends a small wake-up call to the rest of the household. The other phones then catch up quietly in the background, as long as they are on the same Wi-Fi as the main device at that moment.
It’s made for an ordinary day at home: people add things here and there, and each time, the phones that are home together catch up. By the evening, everyone sees the same numbers.
Most of the time it’s quick, but it isn’t instant and it can’t be promised to the minute. See When does a phone catch up? below.
Short answer: when the phones are home together on the same Wi-Fi and someone makes a change. Here’s the longer answer.
The wake-up call goes out when someone finishes a change and leaves the app. Phones that are at home with the main device at that moment usually catch up within seconds to a few minutes.
Your phone, not BillPlex, decides when apps may work in the background. To save battery it can hold BillPlex back for a while, sometimes until the next time you open it. This happens more often when:
If you add something while you’re out, it waits safely on your phone. Getting home doesn’t trigger a sync by itself: your phone catches up at the next change someone makes while you’re both home, or when someone taps Sync on the main device. Changes you made while away are sent out again the next time you open or leave BillPlex at home. On a normal day, all of this happens without you noticing.
If a phone hasn’t synced for three days, BillPlex tells you with a quiet notification (… hasn’t synced in a while) and a note in the app. Nothing you add is lost in the meantime.
Need everyone up to date right now, say before settling up? Open BillPlex on the phones and tap Sync on the main device. That works right away.
The switch lives on the main device and applies to the whole household. The Sync screen marks any phone that isn’t linked yet: Needs one sync to join means it needs that first sync, and Update BillPlex on this device means it needs the latest version from the store.
To stop it, turn Auto-sync off on the main device. The household goes back to syncing by hand.
No. Your expenses, amounts and names only ever travel over your own Wi-Fi, directly between your phones.
The wake-up call is the only thing that uses the internet. It goes through Apple’s or Google’s notification service, like any app notification, and it carries no amounts, no names and nothing about what you bought. It holds only a random household code, so the right phones know to check in.
To prevent misuse, our server counts how many wake-up calls each household code sends, and deletes that count after 30 days.
Keep a copy of everything, move to a new phone, and get your data back.
BillPlex keeps your data only on your phones. We don’t have a copy. That’s why backups matter: if a phone is lost and there’s no backup, and no other phone in the household, the data can’t be recovered.
Nobody can open the file without the PIN, and that includes us. If you forget it, the backup can’t be restored.
Making backups by hand is free.
Restoring replaces everything on this phone with what’s in the backup. Anything on this phone that isn’t in the backup is deleted, and this can’t be undone.
On iPhone you can also tap a backup file in Files, Mail or AirDrop, and BillPlex opens it for you.
Links to other phones aren’t in a backup, so the Household screen shows Restored from backup. On the main device, add each device again with Add device. On a member device, tap Scan QR to reconnect and scan the code on the main device.
Restoring never deletes anything on the other phones. Once you’ve reconnected, the next sync brings back anything newer they have.
Had a paid Pro subscription? Tap Restore purchases on the Pro screen.
With BillPlex Pro, BillPlex keeps a backup up to date for you, so there’s nothing to remember.
The automatic backup is saved on the same phone. If the phone is lost, so is the file, unless the folder is also kept somewhere else (on iPhone, for example, a folder in iCloud Drive). Every now and then, make a manual backup and keep it off the phone too.
Moving with Apple’s or Google’s own phone-to-phone transfer or backup usually brings BillPlex along with everything, receipt photos included.
Backups work between iPhone and Android, in both directions.
A paid Pro subscription comes back with Restore purchases, using the same Apple ID or Google account. Pro you got free as an early user usually comes back on its own, and it also travels inside your BillPlex backup, which is the way to bring it between iPhone and Android. See I used BillPlex before Pro. Do I have to pay?
Say the phone that created the household is lost or broken. If you have a BillPlex backup of it, restore that on a new phone instead: the main-device role comes back with it. See Move to a new phone.
No backup? A member device can carry on as the main device of a household of its own.
Leaving the household can’t be undone. The device that leaves is cut off from every device it used to sync with, and can’t sync with the old household again unless you delete BillPlex and set it up from scratch.
Any other devices from the old household stay linked to the lost main device. They can’t sync with the device that left.
Paid for Pro? On this device, open the Pro screen and tap Restore purchases, signed in with the Apple ID or Google account Pro was bought with. See Restore Pro on a new phone.
We’re sorry, but there’s no way back. The PIN is the only key to the file, and we never see it or keep a copy.
Your data on the phone is fine; only that backup file can’t be opened. Make a new backup with a PIN you’ll remember, and write it down somewhere safe.
What’s free, what Pro adds, how it covers your household, and what happens if it ends.
The free version is a complete app. Pro adds what a household shares, plus a few extras. Limits count per household, not per person.
| — | Free | Pro |
|---|---|---|
| Expenses and income | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Recurring bills and reminders | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Receipt scanning and PDF reports | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Syncing by hand | ||
| People in the household | 2 | Unlimited |
| Your own categories (expense + income) | 1 + 1 | Unlimited |
| Expenses in one spoken sentence | 1 | Up to 4 |
| Automatic sync | — | |
| Automatic backup | — | |
| Private entries | — | |
| Who owes whom, and settling up | — | |
| Advanced insights | — | |
| Bills whose amount changes | — |
Pro is bought on the main device. Every phone in the household gets it through the normal sync, iPhone and Android alike. Nobody else buys anything or signs in anywhere, and no payment details travel between phones.
The household’s Pro comes from the main device: a plan bought on it, or the thank-you Pro it already has. It reaches every other phone when that phone syncs with the main device. Here is what happens in every case.
Whatever happens to Pro, your data is never deleted. See What happens if Pro ends for what pauses on the free plan.
It’s the same Pro whichever you pick. You see the exact price in the app, in your own currency, before you pay anything.
On the Pro screen, a card shows how much the annual plan saves you compared with paying monthly. Tap it, then tap Switch to Annual. You confirm in the App Store or Google Play, like any purchase.
Only the main device, the phone that pays for Pro, sees this card. The rest of the household keeps Pro as before and doesn’t need to do anything.
No. Every phone that already had BillPlex before the update that brought Pro has Pro for life, free: the owner’s main device and every member device alike. It’s our thank-you for being here early: something we chose to give, not something we ever promised. Nothing was bought, so nothing is ever charged and there’s nothing to cancel.
The thank-you is given when you first open the 2.0 update. A phone that skips 2.0 and first opens BillPlex on a later update (2.1 or newer) doesn’t get it, even if BillPlex was on it before, unless it already had it from an earlier update.
We do our best to keep your free Pro with you. Because nothing was bought, though, we can’t promise it in every case.
Keep a recent BillPlex backup. It’s the one way back that works in every case.
You don’t need to. But if you do, for example on a new phone before your free Pro came back, it’s an ordinary purchase: Apple or Google bill and renew it until you cancel it, and while it runs, the Pro screen shows that plan so you can manage it. Your free Pro isn’t lost. When the plan ends, it takes over again by itself.
Bought it by mistake? Cancel it in the store (see Cancel your subscription). Refunds are up to Apple or Google.
On the new main device, open the Pro screen and tap Restore purchases, signed in with the same Apple ID or Google account you paid with.
The other people in the household don’t need to do anything. They get Pro from the main device through sync.
BillPlex can only see your household and the store account on each phone. It can’t merge, move or cancel purchases.
Subscriptions are handled by Apple and Google, so you cancel with them:
In BillPlex, Manage subscription on the Pro screen takes you straight there. Cancel before the renewal date and you won’t be charged again. You keep Pro until the end of the period you’ve already paid for.
On a free trial, cancel at least a day before it ends and you won’t be charged anything.
A one-time purchase has nothing to cancel.
Refunds are handled by Apple or Google, whichever store you paid in, not by BillPlex. The store decides, under its own rules. To ask for one:
Nothing is deleted, and everything you already have keeps working. Only the Pro extras pause:
Come back to Pro any time, and everything picks up where it left off.
If a renewal can’t be charged, for example because your card has expired, Apple or Google keep trying for a while. Update your payment method with them so the renewal can go through:
BillPlex has no account, so it learns about Pro from the App Store or Google Play on each phone. The rest of the household hears about it at their next sync.
Start with the quick checks, then find your problem below. Fixes go from easiest to most thorough.
Quick checks that solve most problems
Please don’t delete BillPlex to fix a problem. Your data lives on your phone, so deleting the app deletes it too, unless you have a backup or another phone in the household has it.
Every sync goes through the main device. Two member devices can’t sync with each other while the main device is away.
First, what’s normal: automatic sync isn’t instant. Phones catch up when they’re home together and someone makes a change, and your phone may delay background work to save battery. A phone that was out catches up at the next change made at home, or when someone taps Sync on the main device.
If one phone keeps falling behind:
BillPlex lets you know when a phone in the household hasn’t synced for three days, or when this phone has had changes waiting to go out for a day. Nothing is lost; it’s just a heads-up.
That’s on purpose: to keep your household safe, a code works for only 2 minutes.
This usually means the phone has lost its link to the household, for example after restoring a backup or reinstalling BillPlex.
You’ll see this after one of the phones was reinstalled or restored from a backup. Your data is safe; the two phones just need to be linked again.
We can’t open a backup without its PIN, and we never have a copy of it.
Member devices can’t buy or restore Pro. Their Pro screen says that BillPlex Pro comes from the owner’s main device, and that’s expected. A plan bought with their own Apple ID or Google account shows there as Not used: it works only in a household of their own. A phone that went 30 days without a sync is back on Free until its next one; see Who has Pro, case by case.
That’s expected. Receipt photos stay on the phone that scanned them: they don’t sync to other phones, and they aren’t part of a BillPlex backup. The expense itself is there; only the picture isn’t.
Moving to a new phone with Apple’s or Google’s own transfer usually brings the photos along.
Where your data lives, and what we can and can’t see.
On your phones, and nowhere else. BillPlex has no account, and no server of ours holds your expenses. When you share a household, the phones sync directly with each other over your Wi-Fi.
Copies only exist where you put them: a backup file you saved, or your phone’s own iCloud or Google backup.
Nothing about your money. We never receive your expenses, income, names or receipts.
We usually reply within 1–2 business days.
Can’t find what you need? Write to us. A real person reads every email and replies.
