Parent Sphere — User Manual

Setting up

• You can use Parent Sphere locally without an account.
• For family sync, open Family circle and create an account with your email and a password of at least eight characters, or sign in with Google or Apple where your device offers it (Microsoft on Windows).
• Create an invite for the other parent's exact email. They create their account with that email, enter the expiring invite code, and join the same household.
• Only active household parents can read shared records. Keep the invite private and sign out on a shared device.

The shared family day

One view holds custody time, appointments, school, activities and the next handoff. A change either parent proposes stays in a separate proposed state until the other agrees — so the agreed calendar is always the one both of you actually signed off, and a disagreement never quietly overwrites the week.

Preparing a handoff

• Open the next handoff and fill the brief: sleep, food, mood, medicine, packed items.
• Add anything the other parent will need in the first hour rather than everything you can think of.
• The receiving parent sees it before pickup, not after.

Writing an update

Updates are one topic each, which keeps a disagreement about Tuesday from swallowing the note about the dentist. The pause-and-reframe check reads what you wrote and asks whether it stays child-focused. It never sends anything for you and never edits your words — you decide whether to change it.

Decisions and follow-through

Record the decision, each parent's response and the next action with an owner. Ownership is explicit so 'I thought you were doing it' has somewhere to be resolved. Reminders chase the action, not the person.

Expenses

• Log the cost, attach the receipt, set how it splits.
• Mark reimbursement when it actually arrives — the status is the point, not the ledger.

Development notes

Milestones are prompts to notice something, not a checklist to pass. Record what you observed in your own words; the app keeps it ready for the next well visit. If something concerns you, the app will say so plainly and tell you to contact your clinician — it will not offer a verdict.

The TV board

Family board on Apple TV shows the shared day and routines for everyone in the room. Private messages and sensitive health details are excluded by design and cannot be turned on.

Sync, export and deletion

• Use Sync now after an offline change. Revision checks stop an older copy from silently replacing a newer one.
• Export shows the household, active members and shared records available to your account.
• Delete account removes your identity and membership. Shared records stay for the other parent; the final parent's deletion removes the household.

Free, Pro and ads

• Free keeps Today, the calendar and handoff brief, messages with the tone check, decisions, family sync and milestones for one child.
• Pro adds play ideas, every child, the expense ledger, shared routines and care information cards, and removes ads. A locked item says what Pro adds and has an Upgrade to Pro button that opens the Pro screen.
• Subscribe on the Pro screen: through the App Store on iPhone, iPad and Mac, through Google Play on Android, and on softflourish.com/parentsphere/account on Windows. Apple TV shows your plan but cannot sell one. New subscribers get a 7-day free trial.
• Already subscribed on another device? Sign in with the same account and choose Restore purchases (Check my membership on Windows).
• Free accounts on iPhone, iPad and Android see one small non-personalised ad at the end of the Today, Calendar, Grow and Circle pages. There are no ads on handoffs, messages or decisions, on Mac, Apple TV or Windows, or with Pro. On Android, where the law requires a consent choice, Ad privacy choices on the membership card in Family circle reopens Google's consent form.

If something goes wrong

Email [email protected] or use the contact form. Tell us the platform and what you expected to happen.