A shared budget is one set of buckets, bills and left-to-spend that several people run together. Everyone sees the same numbers, and each person can link their own bank to it.

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Invite someone

Only the budget’s owner can invite people.
1

Open the budget's settings

Go to Settings, and under Budgets tap the budget you have open. Its Budget Settings open.
2

Create an invite

Under People, tap Invite Someone. Copper creates a 10-character code like K7QP4-XNMR2 and opens the share sheet.
3

Send it

Send the message however you like. It includes a link that opens Copper on their phone and the code to type in.
While the code is unused it stays under People, with when it expires. Tap Share Invite to send it again. Once someone uses it, it’s spent, so invite the next person with a new one.

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Join a budget

Tap the link in the invite on your phone, or go to Settings › Join a Budget and enter the code. On the web, press ⌘K (Ctrl K on Windows) and choose Join a budget with a code. You’ll see the budget’s buckets, bills and transactions, and you can link your own bank to it.

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Who can do what

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Banks and plans

Banks stay with whoever linked them. Everyone on the budget can see the accounts counted in it and their transactions, and their balances count in the shared left-to-spend, which is the same figure for everyone. In Accounts, someone else’s accounts appear under Linked by and their name: the bank, each account’s name, last four digits and balance. Only the person who linked a bank can change or remove it. Their other banks, and accounts they count in a different budget, stay private. A plan limits how many banks each person can link. The person who links a bank needs a plan; someone who joins and doesn’t link a bank doesn’t need one.

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Keeping something private

In a shared budget, anyone can create a bucket only they can see, like a gift fund. It still counts in everyone’s left-to-spend. See Private buckets.

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Leaving and removing people

To leave, switch to the budget in Settings › Budgets, tap it again to see who’s on it, and tap Leave Budget. To remove someone, the owner opens Budget Settings, finds them under People and taps × beside their name. Before anything changes, Copper shows the accounts that leave with them and their balances, and what else happens; tap Remove to confirm. When someone leaves or is removed:
  • They lose access to the budget’s buckets and transactions.
  • Banks they linked move to a budget of their own. Copper creates one if they don’t have one. Those balances stop counting in the shared budget.
  • Their private buckets in the shared budget are deleted, and that money goes back to left-to-spend.
The owner can’t leave their own budget. They can delete it instead, which removes it and all of its buckets and transactions for everyone.
Your budgets list in Settings marks each shared budget: “Shared · 3 people” on budgets you own, and “Shared with you” on budgets you’ve joined.