Guides
Keep a fair record of who does the work
Hours, receipts and kilometres on every job, for family, partners and helpers alike. Five steps, no payments through Yaybe.
Most trouble over a shared property is not about money. It is about memory. Who replaced the toilet? Who drove four hours with the parts? Who paid for the paint and was never paid back? When nobody wrote it down, the loudest memory wins, and the person who quietly did the most can end up with the least to show for it.
Yaybe keeps the record while the work is happening, so the argument never has to start.
What gets recorded
Every job at a place is a task, and every task has a Work and costs section. There you add:
- Hours, with the rate you charge. Leave the rate blank for work you are not charging for. The hours are still kept, so unpaid time is never invisible.
- Purchases, with a photo of the receipt.
- Travel, in kilometres, with your rate per kilometre.
Anyone working on the job records their own. A manager can record for someone else. Nothing is ever edited or deleted: a wrong entry is cancelled with a reason and entered again, and both stay on the page.
Five steps to start
- Add the place. Under Places, add each house, cottage, unit or workshop you look after, and invite the people who help.
- Add the first job. Give it a short title, say where, add a “before” photo, and set a due date and who is doing it.
- Record as you go. Hours at the end of the day, a photo of each receipt, kilometres when you drive. A minute each time.
- Mark it done. Add an “after” photo. The job keeps its photos, its history and its costs together.
- Look at the year. Each place has a Work tab: every person’s hours, work, purchases and travel for the year, and a list of jobs by cost. You can download it as a spreadsheet.
For the family conversation
The Work tab counts everyone’s time the same, whether it is a parent, a child, a partner or a hired helper. It does not decide what anyone should be paid. It makes the real picture visible, so the conversation about fairness starts from what happened, not from what people remember.
If you keep books for a place on Yaybe, a manager with access to the money pages can add a job’s charged entries to the place’s books in one step. Each entry goes in once, under the name of the person who did the work or paid.
Why a written record changes things
A record does three quiet jobs. It protects the person who does the most, because their hours, receipts and kilometres are written down on the day, with photos, not reconstructed years later. It protects everyone else too, because they can see exactly what was spent and why. And it lets a family or a partnership talk about fairness using facts, which is a calmer conversation than one built on feelings about who has done what.
None of this requires anyone to be paid. Some people work on a family property for love and want no wages. Recording their hours anyway is still worth it: the time is real, the property gained from it, and a later decision, such as who inherits, who buys out whom, or what a share is worth, can take it into account if it was written down.
Who records what
- The owner adds the places, creates the jobs and sees every entry.
- A manager can create jobs, assign them, record for other people and close jobs. Give this to a co-owner, a sibling or whoever runs the property day to day.
- A helper, such as a child, a cleaner, a handyperson or a neighbour, is assigned a job and records their own hours and purchases. They see only their own entries, not what others earned.
- Someone you hire can be given a job with an agreed price written on it. Yaybe shows it to both of you and does not pay it.
Each person records their own work because it is their word on their own time. A manager can still enter hours on someone’s behalf when they cannot, and the entry shows who recorded it.
Choosing your rates
Yaybe does not suggest a rate. Each entry carries its own, and the form remembers the last one each person used, so you type it once. A few things people find useful:
- Decide the hourly rate for each person before the first job, so nobody is surprised later. Different people can have different rates, for example a skilled tradesperson and a teenager helping to carry.
- For kilometres, use the rate your accountant or your tax authority publishes for the year, so your records line up with the paperwork you may need later.
- If you are not charging for your time, leave the rate blank. The hours are kept with no charge, and they show in the yearly view.
Receipts and photos
Take the receipt photo in the shop, while you still have it, and attach it to the purchase on the job. A photo of the old part before you throw it away, and one of the finished repair, makes the record easy to understand years later. A job can hold up to twelve photos, and each is labelled before, after or evidence.
Situations that come up
One person does most of the work. The yearly Work tab shows it plainly without anyone having to argue. What to do about it is a decision for the family, not for the software.
A partner buys the tools. Record the purchase as a purchase on the job it was first needed for, with the receipt. It shows who paid out of pocket.
A child helps on a Saturday. They can add their own hours from their account, or a manager can add them under the child’s name. If it is unpaid, leave the rate blank.
The job turns out bigger than planned. Keep adding entries to the same job. The total on the task grows with it, and the history shows when each part was done.
Someone made a mistake. Cancel the entry with a short reason and enter it again. Both stay on the page, so the record can always be trusted.
What Yaybe does not do
Yaybe does not pay anyone or hold money. It records. You settle up the way you already do: by e-transfer, cash or cheque. It is also not tax or legal advice, so ask an accountant how to treat family wages and expenses where you live.
Try it on one job
Pick the next repair on your list and make it the first task. When it is done you will have a dated record with photos, hours and receipts, and a reason to keep doing it for the next one.
Questions people ask
Who can see the records? Only the people with a role at that place. A helper sees their own entries. Managers and owners see everything for the place.
Can I take the numbers out? Yes. The Work tab downloads a year’s totals per person as a spreadsheet, with no job details, which is handy for a family meeting or for your accountant.
Does it work for businesses? Yes. Small landlords, property managers and anyone who looks after more than one place can use the same tools, with each property kept separate.
What if someone has not joined yet? Hours are recorded against a Yaybe account, so invite them by email from the place’s page. Until they join, you can write their time in the job’s notes, and once they have signed in a manager can record it properly under their name.
