What a chore can pay
Each chore pays wool (the app's points — call them stars, points or minutes if you prefer), money in your currency, both, or nothing for a flock duty — the chores everyone does because they live here. Paid jobs are the extras. Both kinds count toward levels and the streak, so the unpaid work still feels like progress.
Not sure what a chore is worth? The editor shows what families typically pay for a kid's age and the chore's effort, and the kid editor gives the allowance rule of thumb — a dollar per year of age per week — with the usual range. A Use button drops the number in.
Weekly allowance
Set an amount and a weekday per kid and the allowance line appears every week from the start date you choose, whether or not the app was open. Allowance and chore pay live in the same ledger, so you can run chores-for-money, allowance-plus-bonuses, or allowance that is simply expected — whatever your house believes about pocket money.
Shear Day
Shear Day is payday. Open a kid's page, tap Shear Day, confirm the amount (the balance by default) and record how you paid: cash, Apple Cash or a bank transfer. The payout is a ledger line like any other, the balance returns to zero, and the lifetime totals keep counting. The weekly digest reminds you what is owed before Shear Day comes round.
Savings goals and jars
A kid can set money aside for something bigger — a goal with a name, a picture and a target. Saved money stays apart from what they can spend in the Barn Store, so the sleepover fund does not leak into Friday's movie. Optionally pay a little jar interest on money kept aside, to teach the thing banks teach. Goals reached earn a badge.
Bonuses, adjustments and penalties
- Surprise bonus: a parent adds wool or money with a reason, from the inbox, a kid's page or Siri. Unexpected rewards keep motivation alive longer than fixed ones.
- Adjustments: correct a balance with a note; the line stays visible so nothing is mysterious.
- Penalties are optional and off by default. On, a missed chore with penalty points costs them the next morning; a chore skipped with a reason waives it.
- Undo: an approval taken back removes its reward line; a redemption cancelled after approval reverses it with an adjustment that references the same reward.
Reports and export
Reports show wool earned and money owed per kid and a twelve-week trend. The ledger and the completion history export as CSV files you can open in Numbers or Excel; dangerous spreadsheet characters are escaped, so a chore named “=SUM” cannot run a formula on your computer.
Cashless houses: keep the money in the app as a running tab and pay out on Shear Day by Apple Cash or transfer; the payout method is recorded with each line. Points-only houses: set every chore to wool and rename wool to minutes if screen time is your currency.
Questions
Does Sheep Chores move real money?
No. It keeps the books. You pay the kid in cash, Apple Cash or a transfer and record which; the app never connects to a bank or a card.
Can one chore pay points and money?
Yes. Each chore pays wool, money, both or nothing, and you can change it any time; past lines keep what they paid.
What currency does it use?
Your device's currency by default, changeable in Settings. Amounts are stored exactly, not as floating-point approximations.
Can a kid turn wool into money?
Yes, if you set a rate: Settings › Rewards › Wool can be cashed out, then what one wool is worth. A Cash out card appears in the store; the request waits for your approval and lands in the ledger as one line that takes the wool and adds the money.
Can I start a kid over?
Yes. Reset the ledger on a kid's page clears their wool and money lines after your PIN or Face ID. Reset the sheep takes every accessory and the portrait off.