Approvals, explained
Tidywell can hold a completed task for a parent or partner to review before it counts. Here's how it works for kids, for adult members, and what gets preserved when something gets sent back.
A soft pause between done and counted
When a profile has approval turned on, finishing a task doesn't immediately mark it complete. The completion goes into a pending state and an envelope shows up in the admin's inbox. The admin opens it, sees what got done (with optional photos), and either approves or sends it back. Approval is the moment the task actually counts.
Coins and streaks wait until approval lands
No half-credits. A pending task pays no coins yet, and it doesn't bump the streak. When the admin approves, both arrive at once. If the task gets sent back, neither happens, the task just reappears on the list.
Opt-in for kids, opt-in for adults too
Approval is opt-in per profile, not a household-wide setting. There are two situations it tends to fit, and they're priced differently.
Kid Mode approvals
When you add a Child profile, approval starts off and you turn it on whenever you're ready. From the child's member detail screen, flip Needs approval and any task they finish will land in your inbox before counting.
- Coins arrive when you approve, not when the kid taps Complete
- Streak only counts approved completions
- You can switch it off again at any time per child
Adult member approvals
An adult Member can opt into approval too. Useful for co-parenting, shared accountability, or anyone who just wants a second pair of eyes on certain tasks. Premium-only because it's a power-user setup, not the standard adult flow.
- Toggle it on per adult profile, not for the whole household
- The reviewer is still an Admin, even if the requester is also an adult
- Same envelope, same Approve and Reject buttons
Only Admins can approve or reject
Members and Children can't sign off on each other's tasks, even if approval is on for someone else in the household. If your household has one Admin, they're the bottleneck. Promote a second Admin in Profile → Members if you want shared review duties.
From tap to tick, with a pause
Three stops between Complete and counted. Here's what each one looks like.
Tap Complete
The requester finishes the task as normal. Optional before and after photos can be attached.
Pending envelope
The task is held in a pending state. The requester sees a friendly envelope on their Today tab, the admin sees it in their inbox.
Admin reviews
The admin opens the envelope, checks the task name, room, effort, and photos if there are any. Two buttons: Approve or Reject.
Approved
Task moves to done. Coins are paid, streak ticks up, room health updates.
Rejected
Task reappears on the list. No coins, no streak bump. If the task was pinned to a specific day, the pin stays.
The envelope is character, not just chrome
The pending card uses a handwritten 'Caveat' font for the kid-friendly bit. It doesn't look like a system error or a warning, it looks like a note waiting to be opened. Small detail, big difference for younger users who might otherwise read 'pending' as 'wrong'.
What admins see
Open Profile, then Approvals. The screen groups pending items into Children and Members so you can blitz the kid stack first if you like, or handle adult items separately.
Children section
Every pending task from a kid in the household, newest first. Tap the envelope to see the task, room, effort, and any photos. Approve and Reject sit at the bottom, so the same gesture works for every item.
Members section
Same layout for any adult Members who have approval turned on. Hidden if no adult in the household is using it, so it doesn't clutter the screen for typical setups.
Optional before and after photos
Photos are never required, but they make a quick approval painless. Especially useful for tasks where 'looks done' is the only real test, like a bathroom or a tidied bedroom. Photos respect the household's retention policy: 7 days on free, 35 days on Premium.
Only your household sees this
Pending envelopes never leave the household. Members see only their own pending items plus, if they're Admin, the inbox of others. Nobody outside the house sees a thing.
Sending a task back doesn't lose its place
This is the bit that surprises people. If a kid pinned a task to Saturday and you reject it on Saturday evening, Tidywell doesn't dump the task back into a faceless backlog. The original Saturday pin survives the rejection, so the task simply reappears on its scheduled day, ready to retry.
Pending, pinned to Saturday
Tidy your bedroom
SaturdayKid completes the task on Saturday afternoon. Envelope sits in the admin inbox with the Saturday pin still attached.
Rejected, pin still there
Tidy your bedroom
SaturdayAdmin rejects it. Task comes back to the list with the same Saturday pin, not buried in the backlog with no schedule.
Without this, every rejection would feel like a punishment with extra steps, you'd lose the schedule and have to set it up again. Preserving the deferral keeps the friction at 'try again', not 'start over'.
Why this matters for kids especially
A rejected-but-rescheduled task is recoverable. A rejected-and-dumped task is just gone, and the kid often forgets it ever existed. Keeping the pin means the chore is back on Saturday, on its own, in the spot they already expected it. They retry, you approve, everyone moves on.
What approval pays out, and what you can take back
Approval is the trigger for everything that rewards completion. Here's the breakdown of what arrives when, and what's reversible.
Coins arrive on approval
When you approve, the kid's coin balance goes up by the task's coin value. Reject and no coins are paid. There's no partial payout, and the kid sees the coin animation only once the envelope is approved.
Streaks bump on approval
A pending task doesn't count toward the daily streak. If a kid completes everything but it's all sat in your inbox at midnight, the streak is at risk. Approve before the day ends and the streak ticks up as if the task counted from the moment it was done.
Approving has a quick undo
Right after you approve, a small toast offers Undo for a short window. Tap it and the task goes back to pending. Useful if you tapped the wrong button or realised the photo doesn't show what you thought.
Rejecting has no quick-undo button
If you reject by mistake, no panic, the task just comes back to the list with its pin intact. The kid taps Complete again and you get a fresh envelope. Slower than the approval-undo toast, but it works.