Key takeaways
- Invite people by their Aurelo account from Menu, then Sharing; each keeps their own login.
- Each person chooses which of their own accounts feed the shared budget; the rest stay private.
- Collaborating is free: one other person on Free, up to five per budget on Gold.
- A shared budget is a shared plan; Aurelo never moves money between you.
Money you share is easier to manage when you’re both looking at the same plan. Aurelo lets you share a budget with the people you share costs with, while each of you decides what goes into it. This guide covers who sharing is for, how to set it up, and a few habits that make it work.
Who a shared budget is for
A shared budget suits anyone who splits real costs with someone else:
- Partners, whether you’ve merged everything, nothing, or something in between.
- Housemates covering rent, utilities and a household shopping pocket.
- A parent and an adult child, or anyone helping someone else get on their feet.
If you’re a couple deciding how much to combine in the first place, How to Budget as a Couple Without Merging Everything walks through the options before you touch an app.
How to invite someone
You invite people by their Aurelo account, so the other person needs to install Aurelo and sign in first. (During the beta, that’s through TestFlight via the Try it early button on getaurelo.app.)
- Open Menu → Sharing.
- Invite the other person by their Aurelo account.
- They accept the invite in their app.
Once they’ve accepted, you’re both working in the same budget: the same pockets, the same plan, the same amounts left.
Each of you keeps your own login on your own phone. Everyone on the budget sees changes as soon as they open the app.
Choosing which accounts feed the budget
This is the part that matters most, and it’s in each person’s hands. Each person chooses which of their own accounts feed the shared budget. Accounts you don’t link stay private.
A few common setups, as examples:
| Situation | What each person might link |
|---|---|
| Fully combined finances | Everything: joint checking and every card |
| Joint account for shared costs | Just the joint account and the card used for household spending |
| Housemates | Only the card or account each uses for rent and utilities |
You can manage your connected accounts from Menu → Banks & connections.
In Aurelo: Linking is per account and per person. Your partner can’t add your accounts for you, and an account you haven’t linked to the shared budget isn’t part of it.
What the other person sees
Everyone on the budget works from the same pockets: the shared plan of Bills, Needs and Wants, what’s allocated and what’s left. Spending from the accounts people have linked to the budget comes into those pockets, so when one of you buys groceries, the other sees the Groceries pocket go down.
What they don’t see is anything from an account you haven’t linked. If you keep a personal account for gifts or your own spending, leave it out and it stays yours.
Plan limits
Collaborating is free.
- Free: share a budget with one other person.
- Gold: up to five people per budget.
On Free you have one active budget at a time, and a budget you join counts as that one. If you already have a budget of your own, the app shows you exactly what happens to it before you accept an invite. Gold has no limit on budgets.
For everything else each plan includes, see Aurelo Free vs Gold.
Tips for a shared budget that lasts
With a partner
- Agree what’s shared before you link anything. A ten-minute conversation about which costs are “ours” saves a lot of confusion later.
- Give each person a personal pocket. A no-questions-asked amount for each of you takes the friction out of small purchases.
- Pick one short weekly check-in. Glance at the pockets together, Reshuffle anything that ran over, and move on. Keep it to a few minutes.
- Treat a pocket going over as information, not blame. Moving money from another pocket with Reshuffle is a normal part of any budget.
With housemates
- Keep the shared budget small. Rent, utilities, internet and a household supplies pocket are usually enough.
- Link only the account that pays shared costs. Everything else stays private by default.
- Put yearly or irregular costs in an Annual Pocket, such as a renter’s insurance renewal, so nobody is surprised by a lump sum. Sinking Funds explains why this helps.
In Aurelo: Give each shared bill its own pocket in the Bills group, such as “Rent” or “Internet”. Everyone on the budget can see at a glance whether it’s funded before the due date.
Common questions before you start
Do we both need to connect a bank? No. Each person chooses which of their own accounts feed the budget. Aurelo also works without a bank connection: pockets, a starting amount, and spending logged by hand.
Can one person see the other’s private accounts? No. Only the accounts each person links to the shared budget are part of it. Anything you leave unlinked stays private.
Does sharing move money between us? No. Aurelo never moves, holds or transfers money. A shared budget is a shared plan; any money you move between yourselves happens in your own banks.
New to Aurelo altogether? Start with Getting Started With Aurelo.
Common questions
Can two people use the same budget app together?
Yes. In Aurelo you invite the other person by their Aurelo account and you both work on the same budget. Each of you uses your own login on your own phone.
Will my partner see all my bank accounts if we share a budget?
No. Each person chooses which of their own accounts feed the shared budget. Any account you don't link to it stays private.
Is sharing a budget in Aurelo free?
Yes. Collaborating is free. On the Free plan you can share a budget with one other person; on Gold, up to five people per budget.
Do we have to combine our money to budget together?
No. You can each link only the accounts that pay for shared costs, such as a joint account or the card you use for groceries, and keep everything else separate.
Written by the Aurelo team. We build Aurelo, a budgeting app that reads your accounts read-only and never moves your money. Every claim about the app is checked against the app itself. This is general education, not financial, tax or legal advice.
