Getting started with FamSpend

A quick guide to set up your first workspace, create a container and add your first planned expense. In practice, from zero to operational in five minutes.

Updated on Apr 25, 20262 min readGetting started

FamSpend isn't a money manager: it's a proactive planner for family expenses. It doesn't track balances — it answers a different question. When to pay, how much each area of your life costs, who is involved.

Create your first workspace

When you sign up at console.famspend.io, FamSpend automatically creates a workspace for you. A workspace is the shared space where all your data lives: expenses, incomes, containers, people. You can have multiple workspaces (e.g. one personal, one with your roommate), but one is enough to start.

Add a container

Containers are the real-life areas of your life: Milan home, Car, Vacation 2026, Kid's school. Every expense belongs to exactly one container, so when you ask "how much am I spending on the car?" the answer is right there.

From the dashboard, click New Cost Center, give it a name, pick an icon and a color. Done.

Add your first expense

Go to Expenses → Add expense:

  1. Title — e.g. "March gas bill"
  2. Amount — the exact value if you know it, otherwise an estimate
  3. Due date — the day the expense needs to be paid
  4. Container — the one it belongs to
  5. Person (optional) — who pays or who is involved

The expense shows up immediately in Home → Today & Upcoming with its status (pending, overdue, paid).

When an expense is "to be determined"

If you don't know the amount yet, leave it empty. FamSpend shows "to be determined" instead of a fake €0. When the bill arrives, open the expense, enter the amount and the planner updates.

What to do next

To bulk-import from an Excel sheet or a PDF, the fastest way is to ask the AI Helper: attach the file and let it extract every line with explicit confirmation before saving.

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