You've made the decision to get your household properly organised. Good choice.
But staring at a new app with a blank dashboard can be a little overwhelming. Where do you start? What goes in first? How do you get the whole family using it?
This guide walks you through everything — from creating your account to having your entire household running through SimpliHome — one step at a time.
#What Is SimpliHome?
SimpliHome is a household management platform built around the concept of a Circle — your family or household group. Everything lives inside your Circle: the shared calendar, bills, vehicles, recipes, finances, tasks, and household members.
One login. One place. Everyone in the loop.
What you can manage:
- Calendar — shared events, school runs, appointments, synced with Google or Outlook
- Bills & utilities — renewal dates, meter readings, usage tracking
- Vehicles — MOT, road tax, insurance for every car in the household
- Recipes & meal planning — a recipe library plus a weekly meal planner
- Finances — bank accounts, budgets, spending tracking
- Tasks & chores — to-do lists and recurring household chores
- House & property — mortgage tracking, valuations, documents
- Notes & contacts — shared household address book and note-taking
- File manager — store documents, receipts, and important files
- And more — insurance policies, planner, social feed
#Step 1: Create Your Account
Head to simplihome.co.uk and click "Get Started".
You can sign up with:
- Email and password — the standard route
- Sign in with Google — one click, uses your Google account
- Sign in with Microsoft — uses your Microsoft/Outlook account
During registration you'll:
- Enter your name and email
- Set a password (or use Google/Microsoft)
- Verify your email address (check your inbox for a confirmation link)
- Accept the terms and privacy policy
Tip: Use the email address you actually check daily. SimpliHome sends reminders for bills, MOT renewals, and upcoming events — you want those to land somewhere you'll see them.
#Step 2: Create Your Circle
After verifying your email, you'll be guided to set up your Circle.
Your Circle is your household group. Think of it as your household's private space within SimpliHome.
You'll be asked to:
- Give your Circle a name (e.g., "The Johnson Household" or just your surname)
- Confirm your role as the Circle owner
As the Circle Owner, you:
- Control the subscription and billing
- Manage who joins the Circle
- Set permission levels for each member
- Assign a secondary admin if needed
Don't overthink the name. You can change it later.
#Step 3: Invite Your Household
A household management app only works when the whole household uses it.
To invite family members:
- Go to Settings → Circle Members
- Click Invite Member
- Enter their email address
- They'll receive an invitation link
When they accept, they join your Circle and can see the shared calendar, feed, and other household data depending on their permission level.
Permission levels explained:
| Level | Who | What they can do | |-------|-----|-----------------| | Admin | Circle Owner + Secondary Admin | Full access to everything | | Family | Core household members | Create events, posts, upload files, see everything | | Relatives | Extended family | Read-only access to public content | | Friends | Family friends | Read-only access to public content |
Start with Family for everyone who lives in the house. Set Relatives or Friends for people you want to keep loosely in the loop without giving them edit access.
#Step 4: Add Your Household Members (Profiles)
This is separate from inviting users. Circle Members are the people in your household — including children and anyone else who lives there, even if they don't have a SimpliHome login.
Why this matters:
- Calendar events can be assigned to specific members
- Allergies, prescriptions, and medical info is tracked per person
- Meal planning considers individual preferences and dietary needs
- School and activity schedules are attached to the right people
To add household member profiles:
- Go to Circle → Members
- Click Add Member
- Fill in their details — name, date of birth, allergies, school, medical info as needed
Start with the basics and fill in more detail over time.
#Step 5: Set Up Your Calendar
The shared calendar is the heartbeat of your household. Get it set up properly and scheduling chaos becomes a thing of the past.
Add your first events:
- Go to Calendar
- Click Add Event or click directly on a date
- Fill in the title, date, time, and optionally a location and which member it's for
Connect your existing Google or Outlook calendar:
Rather than rebuilding your schedule from scratch, sync what you already have:
- Go to Settings → Calendar
- Choose Connect Google Calendar or Connect Outlook
- Authorise the connection
- Your existing events will appear in SimpliHome
Full two-way sync means events created in Google or Outlook appear in SimpliHome, and SimpliHome events appear in your external calendar. More on this in our calendar sync guide.
#Step 6: Add Your Bills
The earlier you add your bills, the sooner SimpliHome can start warning you about renewals before they sneak up on you.
For each bill, you'll typically add:
- Provider (e.g., British Gas, Sky, EDF)
- Bill type (energy, broadband, insurance, etc.)
- Renewal or payment date
- Cost
- Account reference (optional but useful)
Start with the big ones:
- Energy supplier
- Broadband and TV
- Home insurance
- Mobile phones
- Council tax
You don't need to add everything on day one. Even 5–6 bills in the system immediately removes the anxiety of wondering when things are due.
Pro tip: SimpliHome supports direct integrations with providers like Octopus Energy, Sky, Thames Water, and BT. Where available, your usage and billing data syncs automatically.
#Step 7: Register Your Vehicles
If your household has cars, add them to SimpliHome so you never miss an MOT, road tax renewal, or insurance expiry again.
To add a vehicle:
- Go to Cars
- Click Add Vehicle
- Enter the registration number
SimpliHome looks up the vehicle details from the DVLA database automatically — make, model, MOT history, current MOT status. You just confirm and save.
Then add:
- Insurance details and renewal date
- Road tax renewal date
- Breakdown cover
- Warranty information
All upcoming renewals appear on your dashboard and you'll receive email reminders before they're due.
#Step 8: Set Up Meal Planning (Optional but Brilliant)
If food planning is a source of stress in your household — the "what are we having for dinner?" question at 5pm — SimpliHome's recipe and meal planning features can fix this.
Getting started with recipes:
- Go to Recipes
- Add recipes manually, or paste a URL from a supported site (BBC Good Food, Jamie Oliver, Joe Wicks, Good Housekeeping) and SimpliHome will import it automatically
Then build a meal plan:
- Go to Meal Planner
- Click on a day and assign a recipe (or type a quick note like "Leftovers" or "Eating Out")
- Build out a week at a time
Once you have a library of 20–30 recipes, meal planning becomes a 5-minute weekly exercise rather than a daily source of stress.
#Step 9: Configure Your Notification Preferences
SimpliHome sends reminders for upcoming bills, MOT renewals, and calendar events. By default, email notifications are enabled — but you can customise what you receive.
To configure notifications:
- Go to Settings → Notifications
- Toggle on or off:
- Bill renewal reminders
- MOT/road tax/insurance expiry alerts
- Calendar event reminders
- Weekly household summary
Set these to match how you like to be reminded. Most households find weekly summary emails plus critical renewal alerts to be the right balance.
#Step 10: Explore the Dashboard
Once you've added your core household data, the Dashboard becomes your daily starting point.
What you'll see:
- Today's calendar events
- Upcoming bills and renewals
- Tasks due soon
- Recent household activity in the news feed
- Financial overview (admin accounts)
Spend a few minutes on the dashboard each morning and you'll always know what's happening across your household without having to check five different apps.
#What's Coming: The Mobile App
SimpliHome is currently available as a full web application — accessible on any device through your browser. The native iOS and Android mobile apps are in development and launching soon.
When the apps arrive, you'll get:
- Native push notifications for reminders
- Quick-add events and tasks from your phone
- Offline access to your household data
- The same full-featured experience in a native app
Already a SimpliHome user? You'll be notified automatically when the mobile apps launch.
In the meantime, the web app works brilliantly on mobile browsers. Add it to your phone's home screen for an app-like experience:
- iPhone (Safari): Tap the Share icon → "Add to Home Screen"
- Android (Chrome): Tap the three-dot menu → "Add to Home Screen" or "Install App"
#Your First Week Checklist
Use this to make sure you've got the essentials covered:
- [ ] Account created and email verified
- [ ] Circle set up with a household name
- [ ] All household members invited or added as profiles
- [ ] Shared calendar populated with recurring events (school terms, clubs, work schedules)
- [ ] Google or Outlook calendar connected (if applicable)
- [ ] Top 5–10 bills added with renewal dates
- [ ] Vehicles added with MOT and insurance dates
- [ ] Notification preferences set
- [ ] All household members have logged in and confirmed they can see the calendar
Tick these off in your first week and you'll have a household management system that actually works.
#Getting Help
If you get stuck:
- Browse the other articles in our blog for detailed guides on specific features
- Check the help section within the app
- Contact us via the contact form
The most common question new users ask is "what should I add first?" The answer is almost always: the calendar and the bills. Get those two areas set up properly and everything else falls into place naturally.
Welcome to SimpliHome. Let's get your household sorted.