How can we help?
For help with Necessary, email support@tinkervalley.ca. Include your iPhone model, iOS version, and a short description of what happened. Please do not email passwords, connection keys, or complete financial statements.
Common questions
How does the available amount work?
Add the money available for spending during a two-week pay period. Necessary subtracts every non-excluded purchase, including unreviewed purchases, and the remaining amount can go below zero.
What do Necessary, Not Necessary, and Excluded mean?
Necessary and Not Necessary purchases both count toward spending. Not Necessary also contributes to the amount you could have saved. Excluded purchases stay in history but do not affect spending totals or category charts.
Do I need category budgets?
No. With category budgets off, category cards show only what was spent. Turn them on in Settings to add reusable targets, remaining amounts, and progress bars. Changing this setting does not delete saved targets.
How do I add Apple Pay transactions?
Follow our Apple Pay setup guide to download the shortcut for iOS 27, or build an automation manually on earlier iOS versions. Sign in to Necessary first; no connection key is needed.
What happens when my iPhone is offline?
The Shortcut saves the purchase on the device and Necessary retries when connectivity returns while the app is running, or the next time the app opens. The Budget screen shows entries still waiting to upload.
Why did I receive a transaction notification?
When enabled, Necessary notifies the person associated with a newly imported purchase. You can mark it Necessary or Not Necessary from the expanded notification. Manage notifications in Settings.
Can family members share a household?
Yes. Invite someone by email from Settings → Family members. Household members can see shared transactions and settings, while each person’s Budget review prompt focuses on their own purchases.
How do I change my name or household name?
Open Settings → Profile. Your profile name identifies your transactions, and the household name changes for everyone in the household.
Account deletion
Open Settings in Necessary and choose Delete Account. If you are the household’s only member, the household and its data are also deleted. If other members remain, ownership transfers to a remaining member and your membership is removed. Contact support if you cannot complete the process in the app.