Family
Manage members
What it's about
Members are the people with their own login who help organise your household – admins, who set things up, and members, who use everyday features fully.
Why it's here
In a real family, not everyone has the same rights: parents need to be able to adjust lists and invite members, but a teenager shouldn't accidentally restructure everything. So patchio separates admins and members, and an admin can unlock more for individual members.
How it works
Someone with their own login joins your household in one of three ways: with your household's invitation code (Family → Household & settings), with their personal user code, which an admin enters under Add member → “Add a member by code”, or by email invitation via Set up login on a profile without a login (see below). Anyone added with a user code gets a notification and can leave again at any time: first switch to that household using the household name at the top, then leave it under Family → Household & settings.
There are exactly two levels of rights: admin (can add members, maintain lists and change household settings) and member (uses everyday features fully – events, tasks, shopping …). An admin can also unlock specific admin areas for individual members, see Roles & permissions. You can spot admins by the marker icon in the members area. You can grant or withdraw admin rights at any time, and remove members from the household – removed people lose access to the household immediately. This also applies to tasks and lists they created themselves: these stay in the household, and the longest-standing member takes over household lists. The only exceptions are private tasks, which stay with the person, and group tasks, which stay with the group. Only the person who created a task can change its visibility. Cross-household tasks stay with the people involved once the removed person can no longer reach them from their other households, and that includes people in a linked household. These tasks may move into a household list. Any member can assign, change and delete a household task that no longer has a creator. For a cross-household task, the people assigned to it can. Their calendar subscriptions and timers in this household end and the imported events disappear. Polls they created stay in the household. What the person ticked off stays in the task's history, shown as “Unknown” instead of their name, and their points go with the profile. If they're still listed as the payer on expenses, recurring expenses or a fixed-cost settlement, you can only remove them once someone else is listed there or the settlement has been undone. Anything you can see there, you can change yourself. Private entries and private contracts can only be seen and changed by the people involved, often just this person. If they don't help, they can't be removed, not even by an admin. patchio tells you when that's the case. When you remove someone with a login, Generate new invitation code is already ticked; otherwise they could come back with the old code without anyone being asked.
Separate from that is the role in the household (parent, mother, father, partner, child, daughter, son, housemate or family member): it's a label without any permissions and fits every constellation – couples without children or a shared flat included. Only child, daughter and son make a difference in a few places, such as choosing children in the school and babysitter modules, and the recommendations in guided setup.
Giving a member a login
You set someone up as a passive profile (without their own login) and now want to give them their own access? That's possible without creating anything new – all the person's data stays as it is.
Here's how:
- Tap Set up login on the passive member (marked “no login”) and enter their email address. patchio sends an invitation; you can also copy the link yourself and share it.
- The person signs up with exactly this email address. Only then can the access be linked to the existing profile.
- Done: the profile now belongs to the person – colour, assignments, tasks and everything else stay unchanged. No second profile is created. The one thing they're asked about is listed carers: the person sees who's listed when accepting and decides whether that stays. If they accept in an older app, carers only stay for children, and the child gets a notification.
The link alone doesn't bring anyone into the household: the person sees which household the invitation is for and confirms with Set up access. If someone is already listed as a caretaker on the profile, they decide at that point whether that stays. Without their tick the caretaker is removed, for a child too, so it's best to tick the box together. The store apps skip this step until the next app update, and there the caretaker is always removed on accepting.
You can resend an open invitation, copy the link, or withdraw it at any time. The link is valid for 7 days.
This is also the route for children: children under 16 only get their own login through an invitation from a household admin with parental responsibility, who gives their consent by sending it. That way you as parents decide when your child takes part themselves. The existing child profile simply becomes their own login – the full history stays intact. From then on, the child can see their carers in their profile and remove them there. As an admin you can still add carers, and the child gets a notification each time. Anyone removed only comes back if the child adds them again.
How many logins fit in a household?
A household currently has room for up to 8 logins – people who can sign in. The reason: a household in patchio is a home, not a club with a shared subscription. Passive profiles don't count towards this – a child who only appears as a person in the calendar is always unlimited. Is your household really bigger than that? Give us feedback and we'll take a look.
In practice
Invite your co-parent as an admin, if you organise as equals. Your 14-year-old should tick off their own tasks. As an admin with parental responsibility, you set them up with their own access via “Set up login”, without admin rights and with the household role “son” or “daughter”, and give your consent by doing so. They see their tasks and events, but can't delete lists or touch the blended-family link – their profile, with all its tasks and points, stays intact.