How to use Rotaro

What Rotaro does. Rotaro keeps the shared record of a savings circle: who is in it, whose turn it is, who has paid and who has confirmed it. Rotaro does not hold your money. Members pay each other directly, by bank transfer, and mark it in the app.

1. Sign in or create an account

Enter your email address or phone number and choose Continue.
We send a six-digit code. Enter it within 10 minutes. If you change your mind, use the back arrow to return to the start.
The first time, you add your name and agree to the terms.
While you use the app, Rotaro checks about every 15 minutes that your sign-in is still valid. If your account has been blocked or closed, you are signed out and the app returns to the sign-in screen.
If that check cannot be made at the moment, you stay signed in. When the app opens, the screen says "Your sign-in could not be checked" and "Try again" tries once more; while you are using the app, the message "Your sign-in could not be checked just now" asks you to try again in a moment.

2. Start a group (the organiser)

Choose "Start a group" and set the name, the amount each member pays, how often (every week, every two weeks or every month), the number of members and the first due date.
You can also choose how many days before a payment is due members are reminded, and how many hours to wait before a payment counts as late.
Choose whether members with the first payout slots need a guarantor. A guarantor is someone in the group who vouches for them: they stand behind that member's payments and are told if one is missed. The form tells you how many slots count as the first ones for your group.
Small groups are free. The "Places" card on your group shows how many places your plan covers and how many your group needs. For a bigger group, choose "Buy places" and pay on our website (see "Buying places" below).

3. Change a group before it starts

On a group that has not started, the organiser and the deputy can choose "Edit group" to change anything you set at the start: the name, the amount, how often, the number of members, the first due date, the reminders, the waiting time and whether guarantors are needed.
If you change the number of members, check that the group still has one member for each round and that everyone still has a place in the payout order.

4. Invite members

Share an invitation link, or share the group code (it looks like ROTA-4K7M).
Someone who joins with a code asks to join. You approve the request, and they read the group's rules and accept before they are in.
Every group needs a deputy, a member you trust who can step in for you. Name one and they accept.

5. Guarantors

If the group asks for guarantors, each member with one of the first payout slots must name one before the group can start. The "Your guarantor" card says whether you need one, why, and who still has to choose.
To choose, open the group before it starts and tap the name of the member who will be your guarantor. You can change your mind until the group starts.
If the group does not ask for guarantors, you can still name one if you want someone to stand behind your payments.

6. Set the payout order and start

Everyone needs their own place in the order. Draw it, set it by hand, or let members choose. Open "Set the payout order" on the group's page.
Once your deputy has accepted, an order you set by hand needs your deputy's approval before it counts. A draw, or members choosing their own places, needs nobody's approval.
Changed your mind about the whole group before it starts? Choose "Delete this group". Nothing has been paid, so it goes at once. Everyone in it is told, and the group moves to "Ended" on the home screen.
The "Start the group" button stays switched off until everything is ready, and it tells you what is still missing: members who have not joined, a deputy who has not accepted, places in the payout order, guarantors, or places to buy. When every place is filled and everything is ready, choose "Start the group". Round 1 opens.

7. Buying places

A free group has a limited number of places. If your group has more members than that, or plans for more, you buy places before it can start. The "Places" card on the group, and "Places and plans", show how many places you have and how many you need.
Choose a plan and tap "Pay on the website". Our website opens in your browser, you pay there by card on a secure payment page, and you come straight back to your group. Rotaro never sees your card details. Members pay Rotaro nothing; this is only the organiser's cost.
Places you buy count in full, so a group of five needs five places. The waiting page shows three steps (Payment, Confirming, Back in Rotaro) and a ring turning round the Rotaro mark while we wait for the payment provider to confirm. Coming back to Rotaro on its own changes nothing; your places appear once the payment is confirmed. You do not need to pay again. After you have paid, the page says "Your places are ready" and takes you back to your group. If you cancel, no payment is taken.
If a running group has more members than paid places, it is paused: reminders and automatic collections wait, but members can still mark and confirm payments. The group card explains this and the organiser can buy places. It starts again by itself once the places cover everyone.

8. Each round

Each member pays that round's recipient directly, then taps "I have paid" in the app.
Paid for someone else, such as a husband or wife, a friend, or your organiser paying for a member? Choose "I paid for someone else" on the group's page and pick the member. The payment stays theirs. Both your names go on the record, they are told, and the recipient still confirms it.
The recipient checks their bank and taps "Confirm". Only a confirmed payment counts in the record.
If you and another member disagree, raise a dispute from the payment. The organiser records the outcome.
Reminders are sent before each payment is due.
The group's page shows the whole payout order from the start, with the ring for every turn. A turn whose round has not opened yet says "Opens when it falls due".

9. Changing a group that has started

Once a group has started, nobody can change it alone. The organiser or deputy can choose "Change the group's settings" on the group to suggest a different amount, currency, or how often the group pays.
Every member is asked. The group shows a message such as "Ada suggests changing from monthly to every two weeks", with a list of who has agreed, who has refused and who has not answered yet. Each member taps Agree or Refuse.
The change happens only when every member has agreed. If anyone refuses, nothing changes. The organiser or deputy can withdraw a suggestion that is still waiting.
A change applies to the rounds that have not opened yet. A round that is already open keeps its amount and its due date.

10. The record

Every action is written to the group's record. Entries are never deleted. A mistake is corrected with a new entry.
Everyone in the group can read the record.

11. Changes that need two people

Some changes to a group that has started need both the organiser and the deputy to agree: cancelling the group, setting the order of the turns still to come by hand, drawing those turns again, and swapping two members' turns.
The organiser or deputy asks from the group's page. The one who asks has agreed. The other is told, and chooses Approve or Decline. The change happens the moment the second leader approves.
The group's page shows each waiting request, who still has to answer, and when it lapses. A request nobody answers lapses on its own once the time set for it, shown on the request, is up. You can withdraw a request you made.
Only members who have not yet received their pot, and who are not receiving this round, can move in the order.
To swap your own turn, choose "Swap my turn with someone", pick the member, and ask. They have to agree. Then the organiser and the deputy both approve.
To cancel a running group, choose "Cancel this group" and say why if you like. Once both leaders agree, the group ends for everyone. Nobody can mark payments any more, everyone is told, and the record stays here to read.

12. Leaving a group

Before it starts, choose "Leave before it starts".
After it starts, leaving follows the group's rules, and the organiser or deputy can arrange a replacement.

13. Your account

Under Account you can change how you look at the app, see your devices and sessions, and delete your account.
Rotaro's staff can see which devices an account has used, to look into misuse such as one phone opening many free accounts. Every time a member of staff looks, it is recorded with who looked.
Help and Privacy are linked from the sign-in screens and from Account.

14. Waiting, long lists and the look

When Rotaro is working, you see a green arc turning round a ring with the Rotaro R inside. It appears in the same way when the app opens, when a list is loading, and on a button while it works. If your device is set to reduce motion, the ring stands still.
Long lists (your groups, payments, notifications, members, the record and disputes) show ten at a time. On a phone, choose "Load more" to see more; it says, for example, "Showing 10 of 43". On a wide screen you can choose 10, 25 or 50 per page and use Previous page and Next page. Your notifications go back as far as you have had them: "Load more" (or Next page) keeps fetching older ones, newest first.
A list with nothing in it says so in one short sentence and tells you what to do next.
On the phone, pull down on Home, Requests, Activity, Notifications, a group's page, a round, the record or the disputes to refresh them. The spinner turns in the green of your look and stops when the screen is up to date; if Rotaro cannot be reached, the screen shows the same "Rotaro could not be reached" message and keeps what it was showing. Forms, sign-in and payment pages do not refresh when you pull. The web version does not need pulling, because it refreshes when you come back to it.
The phone app stays upright when the phone is turned. It is made for portrait and does not offer a landscape layout.
Under Account, "Look" switches between Ink (dark), Paper (light) and Phone setting. The app opens in the look you chose, from the very first moment.
If Rotaro cannot be reached when the app opens (no signal, or a slow connection), you are not signed out: the screen says "Rotaro could not be reached" and "Try again" tries once more. A request that gets no answer for about twenty seconds is given up with the same message instead of waiting for ever.
On Home, when you have just one group, a card suggests what to do next (invite your members before it starts, or start another group; a member of a group that has not started is told it is waiting for the organiser). On the record, each line has a small "Dispute this line" button.

15. When two people act at the same moment

If you and someone else change the same thing at the same instant (for example, the organiser and the deputy both answer a request at once), only one change is saved. The other person sees "Someone else changed this at the same moment. Please try again." Nothing was half done: try again, and you will see what the other person did.

The same text is shown in the app.