Help & FAQ
Answers about circles, care, and your account. Open a question to read it.
Circles and roles
A circle is your family's shared space in KinCircle. Members, notes, appointments, medications, bills, Household Renewals, documents, and the family tree belong to one circle.
You can belong to more than one circle. KinCircle opens the circle where your role is Owner, if you are an Owner anywhere, then Caregiver, then Viewer.
Owner and Caregiver can add and edit circle information. A Viewer can look, and can react to notes, but cannot add or change most things.
Owners and Caregivers can send a single-use invite for a Caregiver or a Viewer. The Owner can update a member's sign-in email, phone, and password when that person is only in this circle, change Caregiver and Viewer roles, and transfer ownership.
The Owner restores deleted items from Circle Settings. Documents use a separate recycle bin.
Notes
Notes are a timestamped feed for the circle. Owners and Caregivers can post notes, edit them, and comment. Viewers can read notes that are not caregivers-only, and can react with a thumbs-up, heart, prayer, or laugh. Viewers cannot post, comment, or edit.
The author can delete their own note. The Owner can delete any note in the circle. You can delete your own comment. The author or the Owner can restore a comment, and a Caregiver can restore their own comment. Viewers cannot restore comments.
A note can be marked hidden from Viewers. Viewers do not see that note or comments on it. They also do not see it in the weekly summary email. Owners and Caregivers still see it. The note is labeled hidden from Viewers.
Showing a caregivers-only note to the whole circle asks you to confirm first, because Viewers will then be able to read it.
Appointments
Appointments are a shared calendar. Switch month, week, day, or agenda. Agenda lists visits from today onward, including earlier times today, and later days. Visits from before today are under Show past appointments. Times use the person in care's time zone.
Owners and Caregivers can add and edit visits. You can assign a circle member, or Other for someone who is not in KinCircle. You can mark that the person in care still needs a volunteer. A Viewer can see the calendar but cannot add, edit, delete, or cover a visit.
You can download a PDF of the week or month on screen. It lists the visits you can already see, in the person in care's time zone, with blank lines for handwritten notes.
The calendar link is on your Account page. It adds all of your KinCircle appointments to your calendar and keeps them updated. Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook can subscribe by pasting that link. Changes you make in your phone or computer calendar do not come back to KinCircle.
Copy the link when it appears. KinCircle will not show it again. If someone else gets the link, revoke it on Account and create a new one. Changing or resetting your password also turns the link off, so you create a new one.
Add to calendar, on one appointment, copies just that visit. If the appointment changes later in KinCircle, that copy does not update.
Medications
The medications list holds the name, dose, schedule, instructions, and prescribed purpose. Owners and Caregivers can add, edit, and mark a dose taken or skipped. Viewers can look but cannot change the list or log a dose.
Dose history stays with the medication. A removed dose stays out of that history until it is restored. Stopping a medication moves it to past medications. The Owner can restore a deleted medication from Circle Settings.
The weekly summary email lists medication changes: added, stopped, or removed, and changes to dose, schedule, or instructions. Taken or skipped doses are not in that email.
Household Renewals
Household Renewals track insurance, taxes, registration, and inspection dates. The categories are car insurance, home insurance, health insurance, property tax, vehicle registration, vehicle inspection, and income tax.
Owners and Caregivers can add a renewal, record that it was renewed or filed, and delete it. Viewers see what is being renewed and when, without costs, policy numbers, notes, or confirmation numbers. Dates use the person in care's time zone.
You can choose how many days before the due date to remind Owners and Caregivers who turned on device reminders. The reminder says only that a renewal is due. The Owner can restore a deleted renewal or record from Circle Settings.
Bills
Bills track household bills and the payments you record. A bill can be one time, weekly, every 2 weeks, monthly, quarterly, or yearly. Owners and Caregivers can add and edit. Viewers can see the schedule and payee, without amounts, account details, or notes.
Enter dollars and cents. KinCircle stores the amount as cents. An account number is the last 4 digits only. KinCircle does not store the full account or card number. Editing the amount, due date, or frequency does not change older payments. Dates use the person in care's time zone.
If device reminders are on, a notice says only that a bill is due. It does not include the payee, amount, or account. The Owner can restore a deleted bill or payment from Circle Settings.
Documents
Documents keeps insurance cards, policies, IDs, and other papers for the circle. Categories are insurance, medical, legal, ID, or other. Owners and Caregivers can add and edit. Viewers see only documents that are not marked caregivers-only. A caregivers-only document is hidden from Viewers, including the list, search, thumbnails, opening the file, and the circle export.
Files are PDF, JPEG, PNG, WebP, or HEIC, up to 20 MB each. KinCircle checks the file contents, not just the name, and removes location data from photos. Files stay on this server, encrypted, and are never a public link.
Each circle has 2 GB of space for document files unless a platform admin sets a different limit for that circle. Files in the recycle bin do not count until they are restored. The meter warns at 90%.
A deleted document stays in the Recycle Bin for 30 days. It is not in search or the circle export, and it does not count toward document space. Owners and Caregivers can restore it or delete it forever.
After 30 days the file, its preview, and any words copied from it are permanently removed. Restoring a document counts it toward the circle's space again. If restoring it would go over the limit, remove another document first, or ask a platform admin to raise the limit.
Family tree
The family tree shows people around the person in care and how they are related: spouse or partner, parent, child, sibling, grandparent, grandchild, or other. For a spouse or partner, the status can be married, not married, no longer together, or widowed.
Owners and Caregivers can edit the tree. Viewers can look but cannot change it. On a phone, use the zoom buttons and scroll to move around.
Export picture downloads a PNG of this circle's tree. Export data downloads JSON with each person and each relationship for the circle you are viewing. The Owner can restore a deleted person or relationship from Circle Settings. A relationship can be restored only when both people are on the tree.
Circle chat
Circle chat is day-to-day conversation for Owners and Caregivers. It is separate from care notes. Viewers cannot read or send messages. You can delete your own messages.
Deleted messages stay hidden until the Owner restores them from Circle Settings. A new message can notify other Owners and Caregivers who turned reminders on. The lock screen says only "New message in your circle". It does not include the message text.
Reminders and email
Reminders stay off until you turn them on for this browser, on your Account page. On an iPhone, add KinCircle to your Home Screen, open it from that icon, then turn reminders on. Each browser is its own choice.
For an appointment assigned to you, KinCircle can notify you the day before and again the morning of the visit. The lock screen says only the day and time, such as "Appointment tomorrow at 2:00 PM". It does not include the visit name, place, circle, or any note. The assigned person can also get an email the day before and the morning of, when email is set up. That email includes the visit name and time.
If reminders are on, Owners and Caregivers can also get a short notice that a bill is due or that a household renewal is due. Those notices do not include amounts, account numbers, policy details, or medication names. Turning reminders off removes this browser only. Changing your password removes reminders on every device.
Weekly summary email is off until you turn it on from your Account page. Around Sunday 6:00 PM in your main circle's time zone, KinCircle emails the next 7 days of appointments (who is covering, and open volunteer asks), medication list changes from the past 7 days, and the first line of new notes and comments.
Taken or skipped doses are not included. If the medication list did not change, the email says so. The email only includes circles you belong to. Viewers do not receive caregivers-only notes. A quiet week sends nothing.
The message has an unsubscribe link that works without signing in. You can turn the summary back on from your Account page.
Exports
On Circle Settings, an Owner or a Caregiver can download a ZIP for this circle. It includes JSON and CSV files for members, the family tree, contacts, places, medications and dose history, appointments, and notes, plus the care card as JSON. It also includes documents: a list of each document and the files themselves. Passwords, sign-in sessions, and invite links are left out. Notes and documents marked caregivers only are included. Items in Recently deleted are not included. Bills, bill payments, Household Renewals, renewal records, and circle chat are not in the ZIP. Viewers cannot export the circle.
On the family tree, Export picture downloads a PNG and Export data downloads JSON for the circle you are viewing. On Appointments, you can download a PDF of the week or month on screen.
Sign-in and your account
Two-factor sign-in is off until you turn it on from Account, when this server allows it. After your password, KinCircle asks for a 6-digit code from an authenticator app. You also get 10 recovery codes, shown once. Each recovery code works one time. Turning two-factor on signs out your other devices. This browser stays signed in. Your profile never includes the secret or those codes.
A passkey is saved on this device or in your password manager, when this server offers passkeys. Signing in with it skips the authenticator-app step, even when two-factor is on, because the passkey itself is a strong check. Add one from Account. That asks for your current password. Password sign-in still asks for the authenticator code when two-factor is on.
If this server offers them, you can also link Google or ask for an email sign-in link. Google works only after you link it from Account to the same email. KinCircle does not create an account from Google. An email link works once and expires in 15 minutes. Password, Google, and email-link sign-in still ask for an authenticator code when two-factor is on.
On the sign-in page, choose Forgot password and enter your email. If an account exists, KinCircle emails a temporary password. The page says the same thing even when that email has no account. Your current password still works, and you stay signed in, if you ignore that email.
If you sign in with the temporary password within 60 minutes, it becomes your password, your other sessions are signed out, and passkeys and Google sign-in on the account are turned off. You are then asked to choose a new password. If you do not use the temporary password in time, it stops working and the account is unchanged.
You can also change your password from Account while you are signed in. That keeps this browser signed in, signs out other devices, and turns off passkeys and Google sign-in. A circle Owner can reset the password for a member who belongs only to this circle. That signs them out, turns off passkeys and Google sign-in, and shows a temporary password once.
Recently deleted
Yes. Circle Settings has Recently deleted. The Owner can restore medications, contacts, places, appointments, bills, bill payments, Household Renewals, renewal records, notes, note comments, circle messages, removed members, family tree people, and family relationships. A relationship can be restored only when both people are on the tree.
Documents are different. They go to the Documents recycle bin for 30 days, then they are permanently removed. Owners and Caregivers can restore a document from that bin or delete it forever before the 30 days are up.
On a note, the author or the Owner can restore a deleted comment. A Caregiver can restore their own comment. Viewers cannot restore comments.
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