Setting up HelperTrack is mostly a quiet evening’s job — about fifteen minutes if your helper is around to confirm their number. By the end, your home will have an attendance log, a pay schedule, and a shared place for daily notes.
Download the app and sign in.
HelperTrack is two apps that share the same home: the family app (you) and the helper app (each helper, in their own phone). Start with the family app.
- Search for HelperTrack on the App Store or Play Store, or scan the QR on the homepage.
- Open the app and tap Get started.
- Enter your phone number. We send a one-time code by SMS — the app reads it automatically on most phones.
- Choose your preferred language: Englishorहिंदी. You can change this later from Settings → Language.
Add your home.
Once you’re signed in, HelperTrack asks you to set up your home — the household everything else belongs to. You can run more than one home from the same account later (e.g. parents’ flat) but start with the one you live in.
- Tap Add my home on the welcome screen.
- Give the home a short, memorable name — “Indira Nagar flat” or “Mumbai home” works well.
- Pick your city and currency. Currency defaults to ₹ INR; you can’t change it later, so make sure it’s right.
- Skip the How many helpers? step — we’ll add the first one in the next section.
Invite your first helper.
This is the moment HelperTrack actually starts being useful. Adding a helper sends them a friendly SMS with a one-tap link to download the helper app. Their account is created on their phone, with their name, in their language.
- From the home dashboard, tap Helpers → Add helper.
- Enter their name, phone number, and the role they play in your home — cook, nanny, driver, caretaker, housekeeper, or other.
- Choose the pay cycle: typically the 1st of every month. You can also pick a custom date (e.g. 15th) or a weekly cycle.
- Set the monthly salary in ₹, and the typical working hours. Both are easy to change later.
- Tap Send invite. The helper receives an SMS within a few seconds.
Set up the routine.
HelperTrack works best when you spend two minutes telling it what a normal week looks like. Once set, you don’t have to think about it again — daily mark-ins become a single tap.
- From the helper’s card, tap Routine.
- Mark their working days (e.g. Mon–Sat) and any weekly off.
- Pick the holidays they take — HelperTrack ships with a small set (Diwali, Holi, Eid, regional festivals); add your own as needed.
- If they’re a cook, tap Meals and lay out a typical week of breakfast, lunch, and dinner. This becomes the default plan; you only change what’s different that day.
That’s it for setup. From tomorrow morning, the helper’s row on your dashboard will show today’s expected work and a single Mark present button.
Show your helper the helper app.
Five minutes with your helper, in person, makes the next month much easier. The helper app is intentionally tiny — about as complicated as a calculator.
- Ask them to open the SMS we sent and tap the install link.
- They confirm their name, choose Hindi or English, and they’re in.
- Walk through three screens with them:
- TodayWhat’s planned today — meals, tasks, expected hours.
- PayTheir salary, advances taken, and the running balance.
- NotesQuiet two-way messages with the family.
Five small things that trip people up.
What if my helper doesn’t have a smartphone?
That’s fine — you can run the helper’s records from the family app alone. They’ll get a printed weekly summary you can hand to them on payday. About 18% of HelperTrack households work this way.
Can two people in my family use the same home?
Yes — from Settings → Family, invite up to four other family members. Each one signs in with their own phone number and sees the same household. Edits are logged with who made them.
How do I record an advance I gave in cash?
From the helper’s pay screen, tap Add entry → Advance. Enter the amount and date — that’s it. It shows up as a deduction on the next monthly statement.
The helper app is in English — can they switch to Hindi?
On the helper app, tap the small हिंदी button at the top right of the welcome screen. Once signed in, they can change it any time from More → Language.
I made a mistake while adding a helper. Can I edit?
Yes, everything is editable — tap the helper’s card and look for the small Edit link on each field. The exception is the pay cycle after a month has been billed; we’ll show a warning before letting you change it.
You’re set up. A gentle path from here.
Most families have everything they need with the steps above. Once you’ve marked attendance for a week or two and the helper has logged a few notes back, here’s the natural order to explore the rest of the app:
- Add a second helperIf you have more than one, the routine flow is the same — takes about three minutes per person.
- Try the monthly statementOn the 1st, tap Statement on the helper’s card — it’s a clean one-page PDF you can print and hand over with the payment.
- Turn on Pro featuresOnly if you need them: advance receipts, multi-helper, monthly auto-statements.