Family Sync has been one of the most requested features by the users. We're glad to announce that it is finally available in MoneyCoach!
In this guide we will dive deep and learn all about this new powerful feature. Let's start.
What is Family Sync in MoneyCoach?
Family Sync allows multiple MoneyCoach users with different Apple IDs to work from one shared dataset. You can share accounts, budgets, goals, transactions, categories, and the rest of your MoneyCoach data with a partner or family member. If you want to learn more about Family Sync, you can read our blog post.
Keep in mind that Family Sync is a Premium feature.
Before Activating Family Sync
⚠️ Important for Family Sync Users ☁️👨👩👧👦
Since this is a Premium feature, you and the users you invite must have MoneyCoach Premium. If you or any family member has bought a Family Plan, your family members will become Premium after they restore purchases at no additional charge. Learn more about this by visiting this official Apple guide.
Another thing to keep in mind is that if you have purchased a Family Plan that includes a free trial period, you will have to wait for the trial to end before you can share the Family Plan with your Apple Family members. Trying to restore purchases before the trial ends will not work on your Apple Family members' devices.
If you haven't upgraded to a Family plan yet, here is how to do it - How To Upgrade To Family Plan
Another important thing to keep in mind for the Family Subscription plans. If your family members have different App Store regions, meaning for example that one is in US and the other one is in Germany, you will not be able to share your Family Subscription with them. This is something that Apple does not allow and we cannot change. So all users in an Apple Family must have the same App Store region.
Step-by-step guide
- Update MoneyCoach to the latest version.
- Make sure iCloud Drive is enabled.
- Go to Settings / Data & Sync.
- In the Sync row, open the menu and select Family.
- MoneyCoach will prepare your data, create a backup, and start the Family Sync setup.
- When the Apple sharing view appears, invite your partner or family member using their Apple ID.
- Tap Done after sending the invite.
- Wait for the first sync to complete. This can take a while if you have a lot of existing data.
- That's it. You have done your part.
Once the invitation you sent gets accepted, the syncing will start and after a few moments both of you will have one shared MoneyCoach view.
Important information
If you personally have multiple devices where you use Individual Sync, change each one to Family in Settings / Data & Sync.
If you receive a Family Sync invitation, open that invitation on every device where you use MoneyCoach. For example, if you use an iPhone, iPad, and Mac, accept the invitation on each device so they all join the same Family Sync setup.
After Family Sync is active, Data & Sync shows a Manage Participants button. Use it to open the Apple sharing controls for the active shared database.
How does it work?
Family Sync in MoneyCoach uses iCloud sharing. When the owner enables Family Sync, MoneyCoach marks the local data for sharing, creates a backup, switches the sync service to a shared iCloud database, and presents the Apple sharing controller.
After the invited user accepts, both users work from one shared dataset. The app combines transactions, accounts, budgets, goals, categories, and related data. All participants can make changes, and those changes sync through iCloud.
Things to know
Although we merge and sync pretty much everything into one unified dataset when you are in Family Sync with other users, some customizing options are individual.
For example, each user can separately select to show or hide any accounts from their Overview card and Net Worth. Check out the linked guide on how to do that.
Another important thing to mention is that when you turn on either the "Individual" or "Family" sync, MoneyCoach will also make a manual backup file containing all the data that is present in your app locally at that point in time. You can find this backup in the MoneyCoach folder in your iCloud Drive when exploring via the Files app.
