Can the other parent see my personal finances?
No. Only expenses you mark as shared are visible to them; your own spending stays entirely private.
Roles — The co-parent
Keep the money part of co-parenting neutral
You are not looking for a budgeting app. You are looking for a way to stop the money part turning every handover into a discussion.
In short
As a co-parent you need a record, not a relationship tool. SharedNest logs each child-related cost with the agreed share and a receipt, keeps one balance instead of two tallies, and exports a clean report whenever a written account is needed.
What makes a shared record work between separated parents?
Three things: shares agreed before the spending happens, evidence attached to each entry, and one balance both people read the same way. Anything less and every disagreement restarts from memory.
SharedNest is deliberately unopinionated about your arrangement. It applies whatever ratio you have agreed — 50/50, income-weighted, or a fixed percentage from an agreement — and keeps applying it.
What do you log, and what do you leave out?
Log what the agreement covers: school and childcare, medical and dental, clothing, activities, travel to see the children. Leave out everything personal, which stays private and never enters the shared ledger.
- Receipts attached to each entry
- Child-specific categories for clean reporting
- Fixed or income-weighted shares, set once
- One balance, settled by transfer whenever you choose
- Exportable reports by date range or category
How does this help when communication is difficult?
It moves the exchange from conversation to record. A dated entry with a receipt does not need defending, and a transfer against a balance does not need a discussion — which is often the whole objective.
Is it useful if the other parent won't join?
Yes. Track the costs yourself and export a report to send. It is less good than a shared ledger, but far better than a memory and a folder of photographs.
Questions people ask
Can we follow the percentage in our agreement?
Yes. Set a fixed custom share and every shared child expense follows it automatically.
Will the export hold up in mediation?
It gives a dated, categorised, receipt-backed record, which is what mediators usually ask for. It is documentation, not legal advice.
What if we disagree about a specific expense?
The entry, the receipt and the date are all there, so the discussion is about the decision rather than about what happened.
Keep reading
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