It is an inventory: what you hold, where it is held, and who to contact. It is for you, or the two of you, to keep, and for a family member or attorney who may one day need to find everything.

It is not a safe. Never put passwords, PINs, security answers, full account or card numbers, National Insurance numbers or passport details in it. Keep those in a password manager, and use the "Where the login is kept" box to say where to find them.

One person or two

The register works for one person or for a couple. Under People and documents, open About each of you and enter one name or two. With one name, everything is shown for that person alone. With two, each of you has a column, and entries can be held by either of you or jointly.

You can change this at any time. To add a partner, enter their name. If a name is removed, that person's column is hidden but what was entered for them is kept, and it comes back if a name is entered again. Entries held by them, or jointly, stay on the Accounts tab, shown as held by "Partner" or "Joint", until you change who holds them.

Two people using it at once

You can both have the register open and make changes at the same time. Each of you sees the other's changes appear within a moment. Saving keeps only the boxes you changed, so if you are both filling in the same section, each of you keeps what you entered. If you both change the very same box, whoever saves second is told what the other person entered, and chooses whether to keep their own version or the other's.

Overview

The front page: what is recorded, the first things someone acting for you would need, and anything needing attention.

Accounts

Everything you hold and owe, your insurance and your household bills.

Gifts

A record of gifts you have made, for the seven-year inheritance tax rule.

People and documents

Your names, executors, attorneys and wills, where key documents are kept, your digital accounts and any business details.

Health

Medical details and emergency contacts for each of you.

Care

For someone looked after at home: who helps, care visits, daily life, and the home.

Wishes

Funeral wishes, and who should be told.

Everyday banking

Current account

The account your income is paid into and your bills go out of.

Savings

Savings account

An ordinary savings account, whether instant access or with a notice period.

Regular saver

One you pay a set amount into each month. Put the monthly amount in the regular payment box.

Fixed rate saver

Money locked away for a set term. Put the date the term ends in the action date.

Cash ISA

A Tax Free savings account. The Tax Free box ticks itself.

Premium Bonds

Held with NS&I. Also Tax Free.

Investments

Stocks & Shares ISA

A Tax Free investment account.

Investment account

Funds or shares held through a platform or adviser, outside an ISA or pension.

Shares

Shares you hold directly, whether as certificates or through a share dealing account.

Pensions

Pension

One you are still building up or have not started taking. Enter the pot's value. For a final salary pension not yet started, leave the value empty and put the expected income in the notes.

Pension being received

One that is paying you now, such as a final salary pension, an annuity or the State Pension. Enter the monthly income. If it is a pot you are drawing from, enter its value as well.

Property

Property

A home or other property. Enter an estimated value and say where the deeds are. Record any mortgage as its own entry.

Vehicles and valuables

Vehicle

A car, motorbike, boat, caravan or trailer. Enter the make and model, the registration, an estimated value, and where the logbook and keys are. Use the action date for the MOT, insurance or tax. Record any finance on it as a Loan, and its insurance as a household bill.

Valuables

Jewellery, art, antiques, a collection, or anything worth naming on its own. Enter an estimated value, where it is kept, and any valuation or receipt.

Debts

Mortgage, Loan, Credit card

Enter the amount owed. Debts are taken off the total. For a mortgage, the action date is a good place for the date a fixed rate ends.

Not counted in the total

Life insurance, Critical illness insurance, Income protection, Private medical insurance

Enter the cover amount if there is one, and the monthly premium. Shown as cover, never added to the total. Car and home insurance are better entered as household bills.

Home insurance, Vehicle insurance

Buildings, contents and motor policies. Enter the monthly or annual premium, and the renewal date as the action date. Use Goes with to link the policy to the property or vehicle it covers.

Regular income

Money that comes in each month and is not a pension: salary, rent, maintenance and the like. Enter the State Pension as Pension being received, not here. Enter the monthly or annual amount. It is left out of the total, and is used in the table of money in and out.

Household bill

Gas, electricity, water, council tax, broadband and the like: the essentials that need keeping going. Enter the monthly cost, and a renewal date as the action date.

Membership or subscription

Clubs and gyms, streaming and other subscriptions, motoring organisations, regular gifts to charity, and society memberships: the extras someone acting for you may need to cancel. Many are paid once a year, so use How often it is paid, and put the renewal date as the action date.

Other

Anything that fits nowhere else. Say what it is in the notes.

Provider

The bank, building society or company. Start typing and it suggests ones you have already entered.

Nickname

Your own name for it, such as "Holiday fund", to tell apart two accounts with the same provider.

Held by

Whose name it is in: either of you, or joint.

Last 4 digits

Just enough to recognise the account on a statement. Never the full number.

Value and "checked on"

A rough figure is fine. The date shows how fresh it is, and the register reminds you when it is over a year old.

Interest rate and Tax Free

The current rate, and whether the interest or growth is free of tax. Entries are assumed taxable unless ticked.

Regular payment

A monthly amount. Its label changes with the type: a payment in, a repayment, an income, a premium or a cost.

Access

How quickly the money can be reached: instant, after a notice period, or locked until a date.

Nominated beneficiary

Who it is set to pass to, where one is named. This matters most for pensions and life insurance, which often pass outside a will.

Where the login is kept

The place, such as the name of an entry in your password manager. Never the login itself.

Provider contact and paperwork

A phone number or website, and where the statements or documents are kept at home.

Action date

A date something needs doing, with a few words saying what, such as "Fixed term ends".

Main account for bills

Tick this on the account your direct debits come from. It is the first one an attorney needs to keep funded.

Closed, keep on record

Keeps a closed account in the register, greyed out and left out of the totals, so there is a record that it existed.

How often it is paid is for bills and policies not paid every month: council tax in 10 monthly instalments, a quarterly bill, or a policy paid once a year. Enter the amount of each payment. The entry shows what you actually pay, such as "£238 a month for 10 months (£2,380 a year), nothing in February and March", and the totals use the yearly cost divided by 12, so the monthly figures stay right across the year.

For a household bill or an insurance policy you can enter the annual amount instead of the monthly one. The register divides it by 12 to fill in the monthly figure, which is what the subtotals use, and shows both on the entry.

Paid from appears on bills, insurance, repayments and regular savings once you have entered a current account or credit card. Choose the account the direct debit or standing order comes out of. For something that does not come out of one of your accounts, such as a workplace pension taken from salary, choose Not from an account here. That account then shows Pays for, listing everything paid from it with the monthly total, which is what an attorney needs to keep it funded.

On the Accounts tab, Direct debits and standing orders gathers these under each account, with its monthly total, and lists any that have no account recorded yet. It starts folded; click it to open. With two of you, the buttons at the top show everyone's, or one person's with the joint ones.

Goes with appears on bills, insurance policies, mortgages, loans and credit cards once you have entered a property, vehicle or valuable. Choose the one it belongs to, such as the car a motor policy covers or the home a mortgage is on. The policy then names the car, and the car lists everything linked to it, with the monthly cost and renewal date.

The figure at the top is everything you hold, including property, vehicles and valuables, less what you owe. Life insurance, household bills and closed entries are shown but never counted.

The list is in two parts, each starting folded to its title: What is held, and what is owed, which shows values, and Paid or received each month, which shows monthly amounts. Click a title to open it. Inside, entries are gathered into groups, each with its own subtotal. Every group starts folded when you open the register, showing just its heading and subtotal. Click a heading to open that group, or use "Expand all" and "Collapse all" beside the filters. Debts show as a minus figure, life insurance as total cover, and bills as a total each month.

The buttons above the list show one person's entries or one provider's, and the totals follow. "One line each" gives a compact table with the account digits, rate, tax status and action date in columns. Click any entry to see everything about it.

Earlier figures and how things have changed

When you change an entry's value or its monthly amount, the register keeps the old figure and its date. Open the entry to see them under Earlier figures, with how much it has gone up or down since the first one, such as savings growing or an insurance premium rising.

An entry with two or more earlier figures also shows a small chart of them, with today's figure at the end.

Once a month the register also records the household totals: the total held less what is owed, the totals for savings, investments, pensions, property and debts, and the money coming in, committed and saved each month. Use Show above the chart to choose which to see. After two months, the Accounts tab shows How things have changed under the money table, folded to one line with the change so far. Click it to see the chart. It only moves when you update values, so keeping them up to date keeps it useful. Attorneys for finance and carers do not see any of this.

Money in and out each month

It starts folded to its title. Click it to open the table.

Under the list of entries, a small table adds up the monthly amounts you have entered: what comes in from pensions and other income, what goes out on bills, insurance and repayments, and what you pay into savings. It shows roughly what is needed to keep things running, which matters most to whoever takes over. It is optional: it only shows what you have filled in, and it does not appear until an entry has a monthly amount. With two of you, there is a column for each person and one for joint entries, and you can narrow it to one person together with the joint entries, to see what that person alone would face. The bottom rows show what is left each month. It opens showing the names and the totals only. Show the detail opens it out, and the register remembers your choice on that device. Only people who can see amounts see it.

This box appears on the Accounts tab, for the two of you only, when something wants looking at. The Overview tab shows a single line saying how many things need attention, in red if any are overdue. Click it to go to the list. In the list, click an entry's name to open it and deal with it.

Action dates

Listed from 90 days beforehand. Once the date passes it shows as overdue, and stays until you edit the entry and change or clear the date.

Values not checked

Any entry whose value has no "checked on" date, or one more than a year old.

The register only shows these when you open it. It does not send reminders.

Whoever deals with your estate has to report gifts made in the seven years before a death, with what was given, to whom, its value and when. This tab is that record. Add a gift when you make it, and note where the evidence is, such as the bank statement.

Choose the allowance the gift falls under: the £3,000 annual exemption, a small gift of up to £250, a wedding gift, a regular gift from surplus income, or a gift to a spouse or charity. If none applies, the seven-year rule does, and the gift shows the date its seven years end and how long ago it was made. In the list, the gifts shown at full strength are the ones still under the seven-year rule. Gifts covered by an allowance, and gifts past seven years, stay on record but are greyed out.

The £3,000 annual exemption is per person, so as a couple you can give £6,000 a tax year between you under it. It is a total for the giver, not for each recipient: your £3,000 can go to one person or be split among several. Any of it you do not use carries forward one tax year only, so each of you could give up to £6,000 in a year that follows an unused one.

The table at the top has a row for each tax year, showing how much of that year's £3,000 each of you has used, such as "£3,000 of £3,000 used". A year's exemption is used first by gifts made in that year. Anything left carries forward one year, and the row says when it was used that way. A further row shows what is still available this tax year. Each annual exemption gift in the list shows the tax year it falls in, which depends only on its date: a tax year runs from 6 April to 5 April. A gift marked "Both of us" counts half to each, and should really come from both of you, for example from a joint account.

Above the list of gifts, a drop-down shows the gifts to one recipient at a time, and "Within seven years only" hides everything except gifts still under the seven-year rule. Clicking a name in the "By recipient" table does the same.

A second table, "By recipient", adds up what each person has received, with a column for each allowance you have used, and the seven-year rule split into gifts still within seven years and gifts past it.

It records and counts. It does not work out tax, and the rules have detail this cannot capture, especially for gifts from income. Check GOV.UK or an adviser before relying on an allowance.

Each block has its own Edit button. "Name used in this register" is the short name shown on entries and column headings.

Tick "Power of attorney is in use" for a person once their attorneys have started acting. Every entry held by that person, and every joint entry, is then marked to show it. An attorney still has to register the power of attorney with each provider separately before they can act on an account there.

For documents such as passports and certificates, record where they are kept and never their numbers. For digital accounts, record email addresses and where your list of accounts lives, never the logins. It is worth setting up the legacy or inactive-account options that Apple, Google and others offer.

The Health tab holds, for each of you, the medical details a family member or attorney may need, starting with a primary and a secondary emergency contact, then the NHS number, blood type, allergies, conditions, regular medicines, organ donation decision, GP, pharmacy, dentist, optician, other specialists or clinics, health and welfare attorneys, and any advance decision or resuscitation form.

The primary emergency contact is the first person to call, usually your partner. The secondary is who to call if the primary cannot be reached, or is the one who needs help.

An ambulance crew cannot open the register. Put the same details in your phone's emergency medical information (Medical ID on an iPhone), which shows on the lock screen. The For your phone button on the Health tab lists what the phone asks for, with Copy buttons, and saves your emergency contacts as a contacts file for the phone, and consider a medical alert card or bracelet for anything serious. A low-tech extra is a small label on the back of the phone, or inside its case, saying who to call in an emergency.

The Care tab is for someone looked after at home, by family or by paid carers. It keeps in one place what everyone helping needs to know, instead of in one person's head or on notes on the fridge.

Who helps

Family and friends who help and how to reach them, the care agency with its office and out-of-hours numbers, when care visits happen and what is done, the social worker, the district nurse, and the personal alarm or pendant.

Daily life

The daily routine, food and drink, likes and interests, mobility and equipment, sight, hearing and communication, personal care, and what helps if they are confused or upset. This is in the spirit of the "This is me" leaflet.

At home

Where the key safe is and who knows the code, how to get in and find things such as the stopcock and fuse box, where the hospital bag is, and any Message in a Bottle kit.

Never write a key safe code or alarm code in the register. Say who knows it instead.

Summary for carers, a button on the Care tab, gives one page for each person: emergency contacts, allergies, conditions, medicines, any advance decision, the GP and pharmacy, and everything on the Care tab. It has nothing about money. Print it for a folder kept in the home, or copy it into a message to a new carer.

Where the register is kept on your own site, a carer can have their own sign-in that shows only the Overview, Health and Care tabs and your names: nothing about money, documents or wishes. See Who can see the register.

Funeral wishes are not legally binding, but they spare your family from guessing, and they are often needed in the first few days, before a will is read. Fill in as much or as little as you like, and list the people who should be told.

"Copy as spreadsheet" gives every entry as rows you can paste into Excel or Google Sheets, or save as a CSV file. A saved copy is a simple backup.

"Import from spreadsheet" does the reverse. Copy your rows including the headings row, paste them in, check the preview, then import. Each row becomes a new entry, so importing the same rows twice makes duplicates. Account numbers are cut to their last 4 digits, and dates are read as day/month/year.

On the Overview tab, "See a full copy" shows everything in the register laid out as one document, including a list of direct debits and standing orders under the account each one comes out of. "See a summary for a will or power of attorney" shows a shorter summary. Each opens on screen first. Choose who it is for, then use "Print or save as PDF" (in the print window, choose "Save as PDF" as the printer to keep it as a file), or "Copy as text" to paste it into an email or document. Printing is not offered where the register runs inside Claude, but copying is.

Under Backups, "Save a backup file" saves everything as a single file, which "Restore from a backup" can load into this or another Household Register. Restoring adds the backup's entries and replaces the other tabs with the backup's version.

Each backup file's name includes this register's short name and the date and time, such as household-register-bcb4c-backup-2026-10-12-1305.json, so copies from different registers are easy to tell apart. When you restore, the register says which register the backup came from, and warns you if it is a different one.

The summary for a will or power of attorney gathers what the register holds that a solicitor, will writer or the government's power of attorney service will ask for: names, executors and attorneys, what each of you holds and whose name it is in, nominated beneficiaries, the direct debits and standing orders paid from each account, gifts in the last seven years and funeral wishes. It ends with a list of what else to have ready. It is not a will and not legal advice.

When restoring, you can tick "Replace everything already in the register". That deletes everything first, then loads the backup, which is useful for starting a demonstration register afresh.

"Clear the register" deletes every entry, gift and amount, and everything under People and documents, Health and Wishes, for everyone who uses the register. It cannot be undone and nobody can recover what it deletes, so save a backup file first. You must type DELETE to go ahead. Who can open the register is not changed.

A printed copy or backup file has no protection of its own. Keep it with your will and other papers.

A copy for one person

When two names are entered, use "For" in the full copy, or beside "Save a backup file", to choose who it is for. A copy for one person holds what they hold alone, the joint entries, and their own details, health and wishes. It suits an executor, or an attorney acting for one of you. Its list of direct debits and standing orders, and each account's "Pays for", show only that person's payments and the joint ones.

A backup saved for one person can be restored into a new, empty register, which then becomes that person's own. Joint entries stay marked as joint, and the other person is shown as "Partner", until the entries are changed.

Copy as spreadsheet, on the Accounts tab, copies the entries being shown. If the tab is showing one person, it copies that person's entries, with the joint ones unless you untick them. The box says what is included and how many are left out.

Only people on the household's access list can open it, each signing in with their own Google account. Nobody ever needs anyone else's password.

There are editors, who can see and change everything, and four kinds of reader, who can read but never change anything. Each sees only the parts of the register their role needs:

Which kind to choose. Finance attorneys handle money and property for you. Health and welfare attorneys make decisions about care and treatment. Executors deal with your estate after a death, so they see everything, amounts included, to value it. Carers, paid or family, help look after someone at home and see only what that needs: nothing about money, documents or wishes.

Nobody except editors can change anything. Each kind of reader sees nothing at all until an editor switches that kind on, on the Overview tab under Who can read the register. One person can be more than one kind, for example an attorney of both types.

Think about who would switch access on if neither of you could. Many households switch on access for their attorneys and executors from the start, or keep a printed copy with the will.

If this register was made with a setup link, a green Update my register button appears at the top of the Overview tab whenever a newer version exists. Only the Google account that set the register up can run the update, and nothing you have entered is changed.

To see who has access now, and for the steps to add or remove someone, an editor opens the Overview tab and looks under Who can open this register.

The lists of editors and readers are kept in the Firebase console, in the Firestore database under access, then members. Only someone with a role on the Firebase project can change them, so give project roles to yourself, or the two of you, and nobody else.

People are listed by the email address of their Google account, in lower case.

Signing out. Closing the browser tab or window signs you out of the register, and so do 15 minutes with nothing done, with a minute's warning first. Anything not yet saved is lost when that happens. Your Google account itself stays signed in to the browser, so on a computer other people use, also sign out of Google, or give each person their own browser profile or computer login.

The code is shared openly on GitHub and holds no household information. Everything you enter sits in your household's own Firebase project, which is part of your Google account. Nobody else can see it, including whoever shared the code with you.

Nothing reaches the database without passing the rules. They sit with the database on Google's side, so they still apply even if someone tampers with the page. Amounts and health details are kept in their own compartments, so the rules can refuse them outright to anyone whose role does not need them.

Why it is not end-to-end encrypted

The register is encrypted on its way to Google and while it is stored there, and only people on the access list can open it. End-to-end encryption would go one step further and stop even Google being able to read it. It was left out on purpose.

It would need a separate passphrase that every editor, attorney and executor must have. If the passphrase were lost, everything would be gone for good, and the point of the register is that attorneys or executors can get in when you cannot help them. A passphrase written down beside your wills would also give less protection than it sounds.

So the real secrets are kept out instead: no passwords, PINs, full account numbers, National Insurance or passport numbers. Keep those in a password manager, which is end-to-end encrypted and independently checked.

The risk that remains is that Google could technically read the entries, as could anyone who takes over an editor's Google account. Turn on two-step verification for every editor's Google account.