What Go to Neighbor does

In short

• Each client can have more than one service, each with its own price: per walk, visit, session or night, by the hour, a flat weekly price, a price you type each time, or free.
• Tap Done after a session and its price is added to what that client owes. By the hour, it works out the amount from the start and end times.
• Money you earned and money you collected are kept apart. Earned is the work you did. Collected is the money that came in. Owed to you is what clients haven't paid yet.
• A client can pay part of what they owe. It pays off their oldest sessions first, or the ones you pick, and the rest stays owed.
• A client can pay ahead. The extra is kept as credit and comes off what they owe next.
• Raising a price never changes the past. Sessions already done keep what they were charged. A new weekly price starts with the next weekly charge.
• Money shows what you collected, what is owed to you and what you earned, this week, this month and all time, by service and by client. Every week, month and year you work is kept, with your best ones.
• Repeats every week, every other week, or every 3 or 4 weeks, and Plan your week shows the next seven days.
• Send balance writes a text with the amount and what it's for, which you send from your own phone. It can save your own words, and open Venmo to ask for the amount.
• Team: up to 5 people, each paid per visit, per hour, a share of the price, or a price you type, and the app keeps track of what you owe each one.
• Taxes: a calendar year's money by month, quarter, service and how you were paid, with the US federal tax dates, to copy, and the year's payments to download as a file. Not tax advice.
• Group sessions charge each person who came. Catch up last week fills in days you forgot to tap Done. Send all balances lines up every text. Reminders each morning and evening once it is on your home screen, and a file of all your records.
• It works in any browser on iPhone, Android or a computer, and adds to the home screen. Clients never see it or sign up. It never moves money: a payment is recorded only when you log it.

Questions people ask

Sessions

• Add a session starts with Single or Group at the top. With Single, pick the client from the Client list. Opened from a client's page, that client is already picked, and with only one client they are picked for you.
• Service: pick from a list. When a client has their own services, those come first under "Their services" and the rest of yours under "Other services". With one service of theirs it is picked for you (or your only service, when they have none of their own); with several, the one they had most recently. A service is still needed to book.
• Something else, last in the Service list (Single and Group), opens two boxes: what it is called and, with Single, its price for this client (with Varies). Add saves the service for your account and picks it; with Single the client gets it at that price. Its unit is a visit, or a service's own when you type its name, like Babysitting by the hour. A name you already have picks that service and leaves the client's price as it is. Words typed without Add are saved when you book. How you charge, the emoji and a weekly price are set in Add a client and Settings, and the length in Edit client and Settings.
• Under the Service box, a gray line: "Add or remove services in Settings."
• A client with nothing booked yet can start on a free Meet and Greet: "🤝 Meet and Greet (free first visit)" is the first choice in the Service box, and it is not picked for you.
• Rate per walk (or visit, session, night) starts at the client's price and can be changed for this booking. A weekly price, an hourly price and a Varies price each get a gray line instead of the box.
• Just these days: tap the day you are working in a two week strip from today, or Pick a different date for a day further out. A tap moves the pick. Add more days lets each tap add a day, as many as you like, and Just one day goes back. Opened from the Calendar on a day, or + on a day in Plan your week, that day is picked.
• A line under the days says what you are adding, like "3 sessions on Sun, Mon, Tue at 6:30 PM".
• Start and End: type the start, and the How long will it take? chips fill in the end. Change the end yourself and it stays as you set it. Add another time books up to four times that day. "No set time. I'll go when I can" books it with no time.
• Two times in the same booking can't start at the same minute; the app says "You already have a session at that time." It does not check your other sessions.
• Tap Book session (Book 2 sessions, and so on, when it books more than one), or Schedule series for a repeat, the green button pinned at the bottom.
• Set Repeats to Weekly, pick how often (Every week, Every other week, Every 3 weeks or Every 4 weeks), pick the Date it starts, tap the days of the week, and pick when it ends: keep going until you stop it, this week only, a number of weeks, or until a date.
• Give each weekday its own time by turning off "Same time every day".
• A repeat with no end keeps about eight weeks of sessions booked ahead, topped up each time you open the app.
• A new repeat never books a second session next to one that client already has for the same service, day and time: that session becomes part of the repeat, keeping its price, notes and who does it, and Add a session says so under Date first ("Today's 4:00 PM Tutoring with Sally becomes the first in this repeat."). Opening the app never adds one next to it either.
• Book a group session: tap Group, then + Add under Clients and tick two or more, give the group a name if you like, and set a Rate per client.
• Clients priced by the hour or with a Varies price can't join a group yet, and the app tells you why.
• For a service you sell by the night, tap how many nights and each night is booked as its own session, with a line like "3 nights, Fri to Sun, $60 each, $180 total once all are marked done."
• Duplicate on a session opens Add a session on that session's day.
• On Home's Today list, tap Done, check the amount, then tap Complete and charge. Its price is added to what they owe.
• Done on a group session, on Home, Calendar and Heads up, lists who is in it with what each is charged ("Weekly price" or "Not charged" for anyone who isn't) and a Came switch, on for everyone coming. Switch someone off and they aren't charged: "Charging 2 people $30." and Complete and charge $30.
• After Done a short message says what happened: "Added $25 to what Sally owes." (with what they owe now when it is more, or "Money Sally paid ahead covers it."), "Marked done. Sally's $100 weekly price covers it, so nothing was added." for a weekly client, "Added $45 to what 2 clients owe." for a group, and "Marked done. It was $0, so nothing was added to what Sally owes." It never says "Logged", which is a payment's word. While the Done form is open on Home, the + is hidden.
• For an hourly client, type the start and end time and the app works out the charge ("You'll charge $X · 2 hours at $Y/hour").
• For a client whose price varies, type what you charged when you tap Done (type 0 if it was free).
• A client on a flat weekly price is not charged again when you tap Done; the session is covered by their weekly charge.
• On the Calendar, Done is one tap for a set price; hourly and Varies prices open the session to fill in.
• Tapping Done on a session that starts later today asks first: "This session hasn't happened yet" with Mark done, Call it off and Not yet.
• Call a session off from Home's Done form (Call it off), the session itself (Call off this session), or Calendar and Heads up (Call it off), and nothing is charged. A message says "Called off Sally's 4:00 PM walk." with Undo, and one called off today stays on Home's Today list, marked Called off, with Put back.
• Home tells you how many past sessions still need marking, and the Calendar shows each one with Done and Call it off, and tapping that line opens Heads up with them first, under Not marked done, by whose it was and its date ("Sally Park", then "Dog walking · Fri, Sep 25 at 4:00 PM"). Hiding one there takes it off Home's count and Heads up's too, with Undo, and Show again under the hidden link brings it back. It is still not marked done, and Calendar still shows it on its day. Hiding a late payment there is the same as Home's Hide someone.
• Tap any session to change its client, service, amount, date, time, notes or status (Scheduled, Done, Called off, No-show).
• Change who is in a group session from its roster.
• Delete a session; any charge it already made stays.
• When you change or delete a session that repeats, choose "Just this session" or "This and all future sessions". A new day or time is saved for that session only, and the pop-up says the rest of the repeat stays where it is ("Only this session moves. The rest of the repeat stays on Mondays at 4:00 PM.").
• Change a done session back, and the app takes its charge off, or tells you why it can't (a payment or write off is already on it).
• On a client's page, or in their Activity, tap "Mark not done" on a done session to put it back on your schedule and remove its unpaid charge.
• Remind client: the app writes a friendly text for an upcoming session ("Hi Sarah, just a reminder: Dog walking on Friday at 4:00 PM. See you then!"). Tap Text to open it in your messages app, where you can change the words before you send, or Copy it.
• A group session gets "Remind clients", one text for each person.
• Catch up last week: tap the days you saw a client last week, type the amount or hours if their price changes, say whether they already paid, and Save. The app books those days, marks them done and logs any payments you said they made.
• Add a session you already did: pick Yesterday or an earlier day, say whether they paid, and Add it as done saves it on that day with its charge, and a payment only if you said so.
• Session history lists your past sessions, newest first, with today's once they are marked, and filters for each status, including "Not marked".
• Tap a client's address on a session to open it in your maps app.

Planning

• Calendar shows a month at a time with a dot on each day that has sessions; tap a day to see its list.
• On the Calendar, a repeating session shows a small tag with how often it repeats, like "weekly" or "every 3 weeks".
• Plan your week (the button at the bottom of Calendar) shows the next seven days, starting today.
• On Plan your week, tap the + next to any day to book a session on that day, or tap a session to open it.
• Press and hold a session for half a second, then drag it up or down to change the order of that one day. This works on Home's Today and Tomorrow lists, the Calendar day list and Plan your week.
• Dragging only reorders sessions inside the same day. It never moves a session to another day and never changes its time.
• On the Calendar and Plan your week, "Back to time order" undoes your own order for that day.
• Home shows a Tomorrow card you can open to see tomorrow's sessions.
• Heads up (the inbox at the top of Home) shows only what needs you: past sessions not marked done, tasks due today or late, people late to pay, and a session today with no price. When nothing does, it says "You're all caught up." and shows your next session.
• Remember, a to do list for your day: add something to bring, ask or do, link it to a client, put it on a day or on that client's next session (it shows on that session on Home and Calendar and moves with it), tick it off with Undo, move it to today, or delete it.
• Things to remember today show on Home, and both show on Heads up under Remember today, the late ones as "Still not done".
• Each client's page shows what to remember for them now, and Remember for them holds every one.

Clients and services

• Add a client in two short screens: their name, phone and "Who do you text?", then what you do for them and your price, and Save.
• "Who do you text?" is for when you text someone else, like a dog's owner or a child's parent. Send balance and Remind client say hi to that person. With no one to text, the text says hi by the client's first name only when the saved name looks like one: "The Garcias", "Mrs. Miller", "Nguyen family" or an emoji get just "Hi!".
• Give each client their own services and their own price for each one.
• Price kinds: a price per walk, visit, session or night, a price per hour (for a service you sell by the hour), a flat weekly price charged on a day you pick, or Varies, where you type the price each time.
• A flat weekly price shows the date of the next charge as you set it up.
• Add a service you don't have yet with Something else while adding a client, or in Add a session's Service list.
• Save opens the new client's page with a small card at the top: "Book their first session" opens Add a session with them and their service picked, on Weekly when their price is weekly; "How do they pay?" saves Venmo, Zelle, Cash or Other, their Venmo username and a note for you; "Add another client" starts again. Each row goes once it is done, the card with the last one, or with the X.
• "Add several clients at once" sits at the bottom of the Clients list: type or paste one name per line, pick one service for all of them, check the names, and add them.
• Edit a client: name, services and prices, phone, email, address, notes, and how they pay: Venmo, Zelle, Cash or Other, their Venmo username and a note for you.
• The Clients list has a search box that finds the start of any word in a client's name, or in the name of who you text, and filters: All, Owes you, Settled, Been a while, and one for each service.
• Each row on the Clients list shows what you do for them, with the price in words when they have one service ("🐕 Dog Walking · $25 a walk"), and on the right only money: "owes you", "owed for 3 weeks" in yellow once it is late, or "paid ahead". Nothing owed shows nothing.
• A client's page shows their balance and what it is for, today's session with Done, phone (tap to call), upcoming sessions, tasks that need doing now, how they pay, their services, prices, address and notes, and the last three things that happened.
• For a weekly client, the page shows the next charge and "Skip this one" to skip a week.
• Pause a client: their weekly charges stop until you unpause them.
• Archive a client to take them off your list without losing their history.
• Open Archived at the bottom of Clients to Restore someone. The weeks they were archived are never charged.
• Delete a client for good, after two checks. It removes their sessions, charges, payments, cleared balances, prices, repeats and tasks, and their place in group sessions; a group session or group repeat stays for everyone else. Deleting from Archived on Clients does the same.
• In Settings, add, rename, reorder and remove your services. Removing one lets you move its charges to another service or delete them.
• First time setup asks what services you offer, adds one client you already have, and books when you see them next, just once, every week or every other week. Coming from a page about one kind of work, it asks if that is your work and offers that work's own kinds, each with its own price, per session or by the hour.

Money

• Home shows Collected this month, Owed to you and your number of clients at the top.
• Under them, a small line shows what clients paid you each week for the last 8 weeks, the same weeks as Money's chart, with this week's amount, and the first week's date and "Now" under its two ends. Tapping it opens Money. Holding it, or sliding a finger along it, shows a thin line under the finger, the week on the right ("Oct 5"), and in place of "Collected each week" what happened that week, with History's own numbers ("$88 collected · 6 sessions · $1,433 earned", "no sessions" or "Nothing this week"); a mouse shows it on hover and the arrow keys move it a week at a time. A new account sees when it unlocks instead ("Unlock your chart after next week.").
• Home's owed list shows who owes you and how long it's been, with a green Log payment button on each row.
• "Hide someone" on Home's owed list hides a person from it, with Undo; you can show them again from Heads up's hidden link. While hidden they are also off Heads up and its count, until what they owe changes.
• Who owes you lists everyone who owes you, how much and their oldest charge, with Send balance on each.
• With 2 or more people owing, Who owes you has Send all balances: one screen with everyone who owes you, each with their text ready. You tap Text for each one and send it from your own Messages; the app never sends anything itself. People you hid on Home are left out unless you show them.
• Balances that sit unpaid too long turn yellow. You pick how many days in Settings (14 to start), and it saves as soon as you leave the box.
• Send balance writes a text with the amount and what it's for ("Hi Sarah! Your balance for September is $60 (3 walks). Thanks so much!"). You can change the words, then Text it or Copy it. If what they owe changes after you change the words, it goes back to its own message with the new amount. If your words name a different amount from what they owe, a gray line says so.
• If the client has a Venmo username saved, Send balance also has Venmo request, which opens Venmo with the amount filled in.
• Changed the words of Send balance? Save the message for next time, for one client or for everyone: keep the whole message with the amount and visits filled in each time, keep just the greeting and thank-you around the normal middle, or keep the message exactly as written (only with no dollar amount in it). Each choice shows the text it would send. The amount always comes from what the client owes. Use the normal text again goes back.
• No phone number or Venmo username saved? Send balance has a box to add it, and Text or Venmo request is ready without leaving.
• Log a payment: client, amount, date, method (Cash, Venmo, Zelle, Apple Pay, Other) and a note. The amount starts at what the client owes, however it was opened, and follows the client you pick until you type your own.
• A payment pays off the oldest charges first, or you can tick "Apply to specific charges".
• "Paid for a few at one price?" opens Times paid: 3 walks at $25 each are saved as one payment of $75.
• When a payment you log is saved, the app plays a short ka-ching and the message's check draws in: the bigger the payment, the fuller the sound. Sounds in Settings turns it on or off (on at first, off at first on Android), Hear it plays it, and it stays quiet when an iPhone is on silent.
• Add a charge by hand for a client and service, with a date and a description; Number adds several at once.
• Clear balance: Mark as paid (logs a payment) or Write off, so they owe $0 and it doesn't count as money you made. Money they paid before still counts as earned.
• Fix the balance: if a balance is wrong because of a mistake, type what the client should owe and the app adds the difference.
• A client who paid ahead shows "Credit", and that money goes to their next charge.
• A client's Activity shows every session, charge, payment and write off, by month, with All, Sessions, Payments and Charges. Tap one to delete it or undo a write off.
• Money groups your money by Weekly, Monthly or Yearly, and keeps your pick on the phone.
• On top, what you earned and what you collected in that week, month or year ("Earned in October $1,165, for 5 clients", "Collected in October $1,150, 10 payments"), then Owed to you: everything owed right now. When some of it is from earlier weeks or months, a line under it says how much. Tapping it opens Who owes you, as on Home.
• Under the chart, Money says one thing when it is true: that this is your best week, month or year for earnings so far, how much more you earned than at this point last time, a run of weeks or months above your usual, or that last week was your best week this month. It never says less.
• Money's All time page says when your earnings pass a mark, like $5,000, in the week it happens.
• A bar chart shows what you collected (or, with the Earned switch, what you earned) each week, month or year, as you picked. Its average counts only the weeks or months that are over and that you worked from start to finish ("Average of finished months: $1,367.50"). Tapping a bar lights it and lists what made it, with a row that opens that week or month. Earlier shows older bars.
• Under the chart and the details, "Your money, explained" (with "Past weeks, months and years" under it) opens every week, month and year you worked, your records (best week, month and year) and your best clients, with a chart and a list. A switch puts the chart and the list on Earned (work you did, on the day you did it; a weekly price is shared by that week's sessions) or Collected (payments, on the day you were paid). Tapping a bar lights it and lists what made it, client by client, with one short line on how. Each week, month and year has its own page: Earned and Collected side by side, the same chart and switch, your best clients, Earned by service and how much of what you earned is owed to you, with the one before and after.
• When this week, month or year beats every earlier one, Money says "That's your best week for earnings so far." (or month, or year) and it opens that week, month or year. "Your money, explained" shows the same moment on a card with a trophy, and a record's own page says "Your best week so far". Only after 4 weeks, 3 months or 2 years with work, and a tie is not a best.
• Taxes, under Your money, explained: a year's money collected (by month, every 3 months, by service and by how you were paid), work you did, what is still owed, what was forgiven, balance fixes, past earnings and team pay, with US federal tax dates. Copy for taxes copies it as plain text; Download for taxes saves the year's payments as a file. Not tax advice.
• Collected by service shows what each service brought in, with its share.
• Collected by client shows who paid you the most.
• Each view lists its payments behind a row, and you can delete one. All time, a row under them, opens everything since your first day on its own page.
• Past earnings: add money you made before you used the app. It shows as one line on All time and never counts toward a balance or this week's numbers.
• Export my data downloads every client, session, charge and payment as one CSV file.
• Heads up's Late to pay has Log payment and "Text them" (a ready nudge text) for each person late to pay, and See everyone who owes you opens Who owes you.

Team

• Turn on "People work with me" in Settings to get a Team tab. Team is for helpers you pay; they don't sign in.
• Add up to 5 people.
• For each person, set what they do and how they are paid for each service: per walk (or visit, session, night), per hour, a % of the price, or Varies.
• Set extra pay for each extra dog, student or client on the same visit.
• Save the days each person can work, their start date, a color and notes.
• Set who usually does each of a client's services, and new bookings start with them.
• When you book a session, pick who's doing it; the app warns you if they are busy or don't usually work that day.
• Change who did a session, and what each person gets for it, from the session itself.
• Filter the Calendar to Everyone, You, or one person.
• The Team tab shows each person's sessions this week and what you owe them.
• A person's page shows You owe, Paid this year, Done this month and their schedule for this week or next week.
• Send a person their week: Text, Share or Copy, with switches to include addresses and notes.
• The app tells you when a schedule changed after you sent it.
• Mark paid records money you paid a team member; it never touches what clients owe.
• See and remove past payouts on a person's page.
• Money has a Team pay card: what you owe each person, Mark paid, and a list of sessions that need an amount.
• Money says how much of what you earned went to your team: "Your team earned $240 of that. You kept $775."
• After you mark a session done, the app asks what you are paying a Varies person for it.
• Set how often you pay them and your payday; Heads up tells you on payday who you owe.
• "Remind me to send schedules" is on at first: a push when next week's schedules haven't been sent.
• Remove someone from your team and choose who takes their upcoming sessions; you can bring them back later.

Phone

• After your first Done on a phone, the app offers to put Go to Neighbor on its home screen, with a drawing of your own browser's buttons that plays the steps, and on Android Chrome's own Install button when Chrome offers one. On a computer, the end of setup shows a QR code that opens Log in on your phone. Inside Instagram and similar apps it shows how to open it in your browser first, even before you make your account. Settings and Home's Next step card show it again.
• On Android, press and hold the app's icon for a Clients shortcut.
• Then it asks you to turn on notifications, and says what they bring. Your phone only asks after you tap Turn on notifications.
• Turn on notifications for this phone (or this computer), see Your devices, and send a test. If you said no, Settings shows the steps for your own phone or computer to turn them back on.
• Morning summary: who's on today and who owes you, at 7:30am unless you change it.
• Evening reminder: a nudge if a session from today that's over isn't marked done, 30 minutes after your last session ends when there's time before your evening time, and at 8pm unless you change it.
• Session reminders: a push about 30 minutes before a session that has a start time.
• Quiet hours: no pushes during the hours you pick. If quiet hours start before your evening reminder, it comes just before them.
• More reminders, off for new accounts until you turn them on: Weekly recap (Sundays at 6pm), Nightly brief, Money you are owed, First session with a new client, Client has gone quiet, and Month end summary.
• Client has gone quiet opens that client's page with a friendly check in text ready behind Text ("Hi Sarah! Just checking in. Want to get something on the calendar this week?"), written to who you text. You can change the words, and your own phone sends it. On Android the push also has a Text button.
• The Sunday Weekly recap push is titled "Your week" and says what you collected, how many sessions you completed and what's owed. When someone owes you, it ends "Tap to send balances." and opens Send balances; otherwise it opens Money.
• Home's Next step card has "Turn on notifications", which turns on the morning summary and evening reminder in one tap.
• Where notifications can't work yet (like Safari on an iPhone without the app installed), that step says to put it on your phone first. Under it, "Use my calendar instead" offers a daily 8pm calendar event, "Mark today's sessions done". Settings > Reminders has it too.
• Right after your first session ever is marked done, a small sheet offers reminders once: in the installed app, "Turn on reminders" (the same one tap); in Safari on an iPhone, "Put Go to Neighbor on your phone", or "Use my calendar instead". It never shows if reminders are already on or were turned down, counts as one of Home's three reminder asks, and never shows the same day as Home's own ask.
• Inside the installed app, Home asks you to turn on notifications, naming your next session ("Want a heads up before Sally's walk?"). "Not now" hides it until the next day, and it stops asking after three times.

Looks and settings

• Dark mode on or off, saved as soon as you flip it.
• In dark mode, pick a look: Green (the default) or Charcoal. It is saved on that phone only.
• Account, from the circle with your first letter on Home: your photo, how long you have used Go to Neighbor, Your journey (sessions done, clients, and dated milestones like 50 sessions done, never money), your first name, the email you sign in with, change or set a password, Subscription, Log out and Delete account. A name that came whole from Google shows only its first word on Home, the tour and Account. After Log out, that phone gets none of your notifications until you turn them on again.
• Reset all data or Delete account, each after typing DELETE.
• The Guide button on most screens explains that screen in plain words.
• A welcome tour on your first Home visit: 9 stops in 3 short parts (your day, your money, then clients, team and settings), with Finish later. Replay it from Settings, Help, or the Guide.
• Settings has its own button on Home, next to Account. It opens on a line that says where your reminders reach (when this phone or computer can't get them yet, Notifications and devices says why instead, once), then six groups: Notifications and devices, Work preferences, Team, Look, Privacy and security, and Help.
• Home's Next step card walks you through your first client, your first Done, your first payment, reminders and installing the app.
• The + button on Home: Log a payment, Add a charge, Add a session or Add a client.
• Home's line under the greeting tells you how the day is going, from your own sessions and money ("3 sessions today, $155 to earn. First at 8:00 AM.", "1 of 3 done, $30 earned so far. 2 left, next at 3:30 PM.", "Everything is done for today. Nice work. Here's tomorrow.", "Nothing on today. $1,630 is owed to you.").
• Under Home's chart, one short line when it is true: that this is your best week for earnings so far, or that you have earned more than at this point last week. It opens that week or Money.
• Pull down to refresh on any screen.
• Subscription: you have the whole app free, and since you joined early it stays free for life, as long as we run Go to Neighbor.
• Show Taxes: a switch in Settings. It is on unless you turn it off, and off hides the Taxes row on Your money, explained.

What it doesn't do

• Clients can't book or pay through the app. There is no client login.
• It never takes card payments or moves money. You record payments yourself.
• It doesn't run payroll or file taxes.
• It needs an internet connection. It doesn't work offline.
• The tax dates are US federal dates only, and show only in a US time zone.
• Your team doesn't sign in. You text each person their week.
• It doesn't track walks by GPS or send visit reports or photos to clients.

Price

• Go to Neighbor is completely free while we build it. No card needed.
• Everyone who joins before paid plans start stays free for life, as long as we run Go to Neighbor, with the whole app: any number of clients, and Team too.
• Free for life stays with the account you made before paid plans start. A new account made later, even after deleting the old one, follows the prices of that time.
• Found a bug or want something changed? Email hello@gotoneighbor.com. We read every one.