How it works

The chore-and-allowance loop, in plain English.

Chortal turns the chore-and-allowance routine into a clear, repeatable loop: parents set the rules, kids do the work, parents approve the earn. There's no chat, no community, no card to manage — just the family loop that already exists at home, made calmer and more consistent. Here's how the three sides fit together: the parent side, the kid side, and the money habits the loop builds over time.

The parent side — approval, not babysitting.

You set up the chores once. There's a family list everyone shares and per-kid overrides for the things that only apply to one child. You pick what counts and what it pays — defaults are there if you want them, custom amounts work just as well.

When a kid submits a chore as done, it lands in your approval queue. One tap to confirm, from any device, with no app to install. Phone, laptop, tablet, work browser — same queue, same one-tap approve. Approval is the throttle: nothing pays out until you say so, and nothing surprises you. You're not babysitting the app, you're confirming work that already happened.

The kid side — chores that feel like a game, with you still in charge.

Kids open Chortal on their own device or yours — it's a web app, so any browser works. They see their list: what's expected today, what's a one-off, what they've already done. Tap to submit when something's finished and the chore moves to "Pending" until you approve.

Once you approve, the earning shows up as balance — the number actually moves on the screen, with a payday animation that makes the moment feel real. From there a kid can save toward a goal, ask to spend (with your sign-off), or hold for the weekly allowance to top things up. Streaks, surprise rewards, and savings goals are the parts that make kids keep coming back. Nothing addictive, nothing predatory — the loop is the loop.

Chores and allowance — two shapes of earning.

Chores are individual: a job, an amount, an approval, a payout. The kid does the thing, you confirm, the balance moves.

Weekly allowance is shaped differently. You pick a daily routine and a quota — for example, "five days a week of brushing teeth and bed made." Hit the quota by Sunday and a single allowance payout lands in your approval queue. Miss it and there's no payout that week — just an honest reset. Two shapes of earning, one approval flow. Read more about each on the Chores and Allowance pages.