BACHELORS'

Meal Manager

The complete, friendly guide to running your mess, hostel or shared kitchen — meals, bazar, money and balances, all in one app.
Covers Version 3.3.0  ·  Calculated & Fixed meal-rate houses  ·  by RED Z APPS

What's inside

This guide walks you through every screen and every button, with real examples you can follow along. If you're brand new, start at Part 1. If you already know the basics, jump to the chapter for your house type.

Part 1

Getting Started

From installing the app to running your first house — the essentials, step by step.

1.1 · What this app does for you

If you live in a mess, hostel or shared flat, you already know the monthly headache: who ate how many meals, who bought the bazar, who gave money to the manager, and who owes whom at month-end. Bachelors' Meal Manager does all of that arithmetic for you.

Everyone in the house shares one live picture. You log your meals, the manager logs the bazar and the money, and the app keeps every person's balance up to date every second — so nobody argues, and month-end takes zero calculation.

The three things it tracks Meals — breakfast, lunch, dinner (and half meals) per person, per day.  ·  Bazar & bills — what was bought and who paid.  ·  Money — what each person handed to the manager. From these three, it works out everyone's balance — money in credit (green) or owed (red).

1.2 · Create an account & sign in

Open the app and you'll land on the welcome screen. You can sign in with an email & password or with Google — both sit side by side, use whichever you like.

The welcome screen — Login with Email or Google.
Creating a new account: username, email, password. A verification email is sent.
Signing back in. Tap the eye to reveal your password; "Forgot Password?" emails you a reset link.
Good to knowYour username is what other people in your house will see, and it's also what the app uses to match you to your meal record when you join a house (more on that in 1.4). Pick the name your housemates know you by.

1.3 · Create a house — or join one

Everything in the app lives inside a house (your mess). The first time you sign in you have two choices:

The two doors: create a brand-new house, or search for an existing one.

Create a brand-new house

Tap Create house. You give it a name, choose its type (see 1.5), and you instantly become its manager. The app gives the house a unique House ID you can share so others can join.

Join an existing house

Tap Search house, paste the House ID a housemate gave you, check the details, and send a request to join. The manager approves it and you're in.

Members vs. PeoplesA house has Members (the meal names it tracks — e.g. "Rahim", "Karim") and Peoples (the real app accounts that have logged in). One person can be linked to one member slot. You can add member names even for housemates who haven't installed the app yet.

1.4 · Join requests & the clever name-match helper

Let's follow a real join from both sides. Say Ziad wants to join Green Mess, whose manager is Mehenaz.

1. Ziad searches the House ID. The house preview shows its name, manager and member count, with a Send join request button.
2. Request sent. Ziad now sees a "waiting for the manager to accept" card (he can Cancel anytime).
3. Mehenaz gets a red "Someone wants to join" banner and a badge on the House tab. Under Peoples she sees Ziad's request with Confirm / Delete.

When Mehenaz taps Confirm, the app adds Ziad as a person and then offers to add him to the meal Members list too — and this is where the name-match helper shines:

The name-match helper flags a member who already looks like the new joiner.

The dialog pre-fills the joiner's name ("Ziad") and scans the existing members. Because Green Mess already has a member called Ziad, it shows an ⚠ Possible match already in members: Ziad warning and highlights that member's chip in orange.

This stops you creating a duplicate. If the person already has a member slot (they do here), tap Skip — the app keeps the existing "Ziad" slot. If they're genuinely new, tap Add as member.

How the match worksIt flags a name if it's an exact match, one contains the other, or they share a whole word of 3+ letters. So "Md Rahim" would flag an existing "Rahim", but common short bits like "Md" won't trigger a false alarm.
Accepted — Ziad is now a member of the house. The request clears automatically.

1.5 · The two kinds of house

When you create a house you pick how meal cost is worked out. This one choice shapes the whole month, so here's the plain-English difference.

Calculated meal rateThe app works out the price of one meal at the end of the month, from the real numbers: total bazar ÷ total meals. Fair and self-correcting — the more the house spends, the higher each meal costs. This is the classic "mess" model. (Chapter 1.)
Fixed meal rateThe manager sets a fixed price per meal (say ৳45) up front. Everyone's cost is simply that rate × their meals. Predictable, and handy when a cook charges a flat per-meal price. (Chapter 2.)
Which should you pick? Choose Calculated if… bazar cost varies month to month and you want the true, self-adjusting cost per meal. Choose Fixed if… a cook charges a set price per meal, or you just want a simple, predictable rate.

1.6 · Your dashboard & the six tabs

After you're in a house, the Dashboard is home base. Here's the manager's view of our demo house, "JU Meals". Every number you see updates live.

The Dashboard, top to bottom.
  • 1House card — name, type, the manager, and the current month. The pencils let the manager rename, hand over, or switch month.
  • 2Share House ID — sends an invite link so people can join.
  • 3Total meals today — a live tally of today's breakfast / lunch / dinner across the house.
  • 4Bazar today — whose turn it is to shop (the rota, §2.8).
  • 5Deposit · Balance · Cost/meal — the house's headline numbers, plus the Analyse button for charts.
  • 6Member Stats table — every member's meals, cost, deposit and balance. Tap any row for their detail.

The top bar also holds three icons: PDF export, the Recalculate calculator, and Share.

The six tabs at the bottom Dashboardhome & balances Housemembers · people Bazarshopping · bills Mealthe meal grid Managermoney in Profileyou & settings
TipSwipe left/right anywhere to move between tabs — you don't have to aim for the little icons.
Chapter 1

Running a Calculated Meal-Rate House

The classic mess model, where the app works out the true cost per meal from your real bazar and meals. We'll use the demo house "JU Meals" throughout.

2.1 · How the maths works

In a calculated house there's one number that everything hangs on — the cost per meal. At any moment it's simply:

Cost per meal = Total bazar ÷ Total meals
৳810 ÷ 116.5 meals = ৳6.95 per meal
These are live JU Meals numbers — the more the house buys, the more each meal costs, automatically.

From that, each person's month comes down to three lines:

Cost    = (cost/meal × their meals) + their utility share + special meals
Deposit = their own bazar + money they gave the manager
Balance = Deposit − Cost   (green = in credit) / (red = owes)
Nice propertyAdd up every member's balance and you get the house balance — the money that should still be with the manager. The app checks this for you (see §2.12).

2.2 · The Member Stats table & sorting

This table on the dashboard is the heart of the app. Each row is one member, and the columns break down exactly how their balance is built:

Member Stats — sorted by name by default.
ColumnWhat it shows
TotalMeals + special meals (e.g. 19.5+3).
Cost (৳)Meal cost + special + utility share.
Deposit (৳)Own bazar + money given to manager.
Balance (৳)Deposit − Cost. Green if in credit, red if owed.

The little grey a+b line above each bold total shows how it was built, so nothing is a mystery. In 3.3.0 the row figures are lined up along the bottom and the balance is aligned on its decimal point, so you can skim a whole column at a glance.

Sorting — tap a heading

Any column heading is a sort button. Tap once to sort by it (low → high); tap again to flip the direction (high → low). The active column shows a little ↑ / ↓ arrow.

Tap Balance once → who owes the most floats to the top.
Tap again → arrow flips to ↓, biggest credit first.
Try itIt's the 25th and you want to see who to remind about money. Open the dashboard, tap the Balance heading once — everyone in red (owing) rises to the top, most-negative first. Tap Cost instead to see who's been eating the most this month.

2.3 · A member's detail page

Tap any row in the table to open that person's full story. It opens on the Balance tab — the same three-line maths from §2.1, shown as a tidy sum for that one person.

Balance — Cost, Deposit and Balance spelled out, long-hand.
Compare — this month vs. their own average and last month, per metric.
Meal — their meal calendar. Bazar and Manager tabs list their entries.
Why it's handyWhen someone questions their balance, open their detail page and read the sum together — every taka is accounted for, no spreadsheet needed.

2.4 · Adding meals (and half meals)

The Meal tab is a grid: members down the side (each split into B.Fast / Lunch / Dinner), days across the top. To log meals, tap the red + Add.

The meal grid. The number by each name is their month total. Also here: Special Meals, Month History, Edit History.
Add-meal: set the counts, tick who ate, tap Add.
  1. Pick the date (defaults to today).
  2. Set Breakfast / Lunch / Dinner with − and +. Tap a number to type it — fractions like 0.5 are allowed for half meals.
  3. Tick every member the meal is for (or tick the header to select all).
  4. Tap Add.
Half mealsAte only half a dinner? Type 0.5. The app counts it as half a meal in every total and cost.

Adding for one person is free; adding for several at once may show a short ad in the live app.

Entered a meal wrong? Two ways to fix it

Typed the wrong number, or logged a meal for the wrong day or person? Nothing is stuck — every meal figure can be corrected, and each change is kept in the Edit History. There are two ways to fix it:

Way 1 — Edit the cell

  1. On the Meal grid, tap the cell you want to fix — the exact box where that member's day meets B.Fast / Lunch / Dinner. It highlights and a bar appears at the top showing what you selected, with an ✎ Edit button.
  2. Tap Edit, type the correct number (or leave it empty to remove that meal), and tap Save.
Tapping a cell outlines it in red and drops a bar on top naming exactly what you picked — member, day and meal — with the Edit button on the right.
Edit opens just that one figure. Drag the slider or tap the number to type it, then Save.

The total for that member updates instantly, and the change is recorded in the Edit History.

Way 2 — Add it again (Replace or Add)

  1. Tap + Add and re-enter the meal for the same date and same member, just as you did the first time.
  2. Because a meal is already there, the app shows Entry already exists and asks how to apply it:
    • Replace — overwrite the old value with the number you just entered. Use this when the first number was wrong.
    • Add — add the new number on top of the existing one (increment). Use this when you missed a meal and want to top it up.
The app spells out which entries already exist, and what they currently hold, before you choose Replace or Add. Cancel leaves everything untouched.
Which should I use?To correct a wrong figure, either way works — Edit the cell, or re-add and choose Replace. To top up a meal you forgot, re-add and choose Add. Changing a meal that already exists needs the Meal Edit permission (the manager always has it) — see §2.10.

2.5 · Special meals

Sometimes you cook something fancy — a feast, a guest night — that shouldn't be priced like an ordinary meal. That's a special meal: it has its own rate for that day, split only among the people who joined it.

Flip the toggle to Special, set the special rate, choose who's in, and add.

Open Add meal and switch the top toggle to ★ Special. Set the special meal rate for that date, choose how many each person had, and tick the members. Their special-meal cost is added on top of their normal cost, and it shows separately in the table (the +3 in the Total column, the middle number in Cost).

Special meals get their own History and Edits log too, reached from the same star icon — see Seeing your special meals below.

The toggle at the top of Add meal: Meal for an ordinary meal, ★ Special for a special one.
ExampleEid lunch cost ৳300 a head and eight people joined. Log it as a special meal at ৳300 — those eight each pick up ৳300, and the four who skipped it pay nothing extra.

Seeing your special meals — and deleting one

A special meal is kept separate from the ordinary meal grid, so it never appears as a number in those B.Fast / Lunch / Dinner boxes. That is why people log one and then think it vanished. It has its own page, and the way in is the star in the Meal tab's top bar:

The top bar of the Meal tab. The star opens Special Meals; beside it sit Month History and Edit History.
  1. Open the Meal tab and tap ★ Special Meals in the top bar.
  2. Every date that has a special meal shows as its own card — the Rate used that day, each member's count and cost, and the day's total.
  3. To correct one, tap the ✎ pencil on that card and change the rate or the counts.
  4. To remove one, tap the red bin on that card and confirm.
One card per date. The pencil edits that day; the red bin deletes it.
Deleting always asks first.
Deleting removes the whole dayThe red bin clears every special meal on that date, for every member — not just one person's. To take a single person off, use the pencil instead and step their count down to 0 — the dialog says “Meals per member (0 removes)”. The pencil is also where you change the rate for that day.
Where the cost shows upSpecial-meal cost is added on top of a member's normal cost and stays visible as a separate figure in the member table — the +3 beside their Total, and the middle number in Cost — so it is never silently blended into the meal rate.

2.6 · Bazar & utility bills

The Bazar tab is the shopping ledger. Each entry records what was bought, how much, and — crucially — who paid.

The bazar list. Filter by person with the chips; the purple row is a utility bill.
Add bazar: date, item(s), cost, and Money From.

Who paid? (Money From)

When you add a bazar item you choose Money From:

  • Manager — bought from the shared pool. This is normal house spending; it feeds the cost-per-meal.
  • A member's name — that person paid out of their own pocket, so it counts as their deposit (a credit to them).

Utility bills — split fairly

Wifi, gas, the cook's salary, electricity — costs that aren't food. Tap the Utility toggle in the add screen. Enter the total, pick a type, and choose exactly who shares it. The app divides it evenly among them.

A ৳500 bill split among the selected members — the app shows the per-head share.
ImportantUtility is not part of the cost-per-meal (it isn't food). It's added to each sharer's Cost separately — that's the third number in the meal+special+utility breakdown.
Try itThe ৳600 wifi bill arrives. Add a Utility, type "Wifi", enter 600, and leave everyone ticked — each person picks up ৳600 ÷ (number of people). If someone was away all month, just untick them.

2.7 · Edit history, month history & trash

Nothing is ever silently changed or lost. Tap the chevron on any bazar or manager entry to expand it and reveal three actions:

History · Edit · Delete on each entry.
Month History — jump to any earlier month, read-only.
Trash — deleted items with who deleted them and when.

Edit changes an entry and keeps a full History of what it was before (so an edited item is tagged Edited*). Delete moves it to the Trash rather than destroying it. And Month History (top-right) lets you browse any past month's bazar, meals and money as a read-only record.

2.8 · Bazar Today — the shopping rota (with reminders)

New in 3.3.0: set up whose turn it is to do the bazar each day, so nobody has to ask. Open it from the little pencil on the dashboard's "Bazar today" line.

Members see the rota read-only — only the manager edits it.
As manager, each person gets an edit button.
Tap or drag across dates to assign — multiple people can share a day.
RemindersWhoever is assigned to a day gets a notification when it's their turn — so the rota actually happens. Today's shopper also appears right on the dashboard.

2.9 · Manager money

The Manager tab records money members hand to the manager (the "collection"). Each entry says who gave how much, when, and who logged it.

Manager money list — filter by person, expand for history/edit/delete.
Add: pick the member, type the amount, tap Add.

This money is each person's deposit. Balance is what's left after their cost, so a big deposit means a healthy green balance. Like bazar, entries can be edited (with history) or trashed.

Try itKarim gives the manager ৳1000 for the month. Open Manager → + Add, tap Karim, type 1000, Add. His deposit — and balance — jump by ৳1000 instantly on the dashboard.

2.10 · The House page & permissions

The House tab is where you manage who's in the mess. It has three sub-tabs.

Members — the meal names. Add or remove; rename or recolour the house from the card.
Peoples — the real accounts, with Make-manager / Remove.
Permissions — tick exactly what each person may do.

Permissions let the manager decide who can add meals, edit meals, add bazar, manage people, or grant permissions — so you can share the load without handing over the whole house. Members can also request a permission and the manager approves it (§4.3).

Appoint a new manager with one tap (Peoples tab).
Give your house card its own colour — saved just for you.
Share House ID sends a join link (and the raw ID) to any app.

Tap Analyse on the dashboard for the visual story of the month: the key totals, a cost-per-meal trend, every member's balance as a bar, and a meal-share donut.

Totals, the collection-vs-spending breakdown, and the cost-per-meal trend line.
Member balances (green up / red down) and who ate what share of the meals.

2.12 · Recalculate & the balance check

After a shaky connection or a lot of edits, tap the calculator icon in the top bar to Recalculate. It rebuilds every total from the raw entries and then shows you a reassuring balance check.

It rebuilds bazar, manager money, meals, utility, special meals and the house totals.
The proof: the house balance equals the sum of every member's balance.

The result dialog spells out the house balance — collection minus the manager's bazar, utility and special-meal spending — and confirms it matches the sum of all member balances. When it says “Balanced”, your books are provably correct.

When to use itAny time the numbers look off, or once at month-end before you settle up.

2.13 · Export a PDF report

Tap the PDF icon to turn the month into a shareable report — perfect for pinning on the notice board or sending to the group.

Choose what to include — Analysis, Meal, Bazar, Manager money — then Export.

The summary (totals, cost-per-meal, collection, remaining money) is always included; the tick-boxes add the detailed meal grid, the bazar list, the manager-money list and the analysis charts. The PDF supports different currency symbols and languages correctly.

2.14 · Months & switching months

Everything is tracked per month. The house sits on one "current month" that the whole house shares, and only the manager can change it (from the pencil on the house card).

The month picker — choose the year and month, tap OK.

When a new calendar month arrives, the app gently nudges the manager to switch. You can always go back to a past month to fix something — a persistent amber banner reminds you when you're viewing a month that isn't the current one. Members see past months as read-only.

Carry forwardStarting a fresh month, the manager can carry each member's ending balance into the new month so credits and debts aren't lost.
Chapter 2

Running a Fixed Meal-Rate House

Same app, same screens — but the cost of a meal is a number the manager sets, not one the app derives. We'll build a demo house, "Green Mess", at ৳45 a meal.

3.1 · How a fixed rate works

Here there's no "bazar ÷ meals". The manager decides one price per meal for the month, and every person's meal cost is just:

Cost = Fixed rate × meals
3 meals × ৳45 = ৳135
Simple and predictable — everyone knows the rate up front.

Deposit and balance work exactly as before (deposit − cost). The big difference is what happens to bazar: since the meal price is fixed, pooled/manager bazar no longer sets the rate. A member's own bazar still counts as their credit.

3.2 · Creating one & setting the rate

At creation, pick Fixed meal rate and type the cost per meal.
The dashboard marks the rate with a Fixed badge — tap the pencil to change it.
The manager can set a new fixed rate for the month anytime.
NoteThe house type is chosen when the house is created and can't be switched later. If you need the other model, create a new house. Only the manager sets or changes the fixed rate, and the rate is per-month.

3.3 · What changes vs. a calculated house

 Calculated houseFixed house
Cost per mealWorked out: bazar ÷ mealsSet by the manager (e.g. ৳45)
Manager / pooled bazarRaises the cost per mealDoesn't change the rate
A member's own bazarTheir credit (deposit)Their credit (deposit)
Utility & special mealsSame — added to CostSame — added to Cost
BalanceDeposit − Cost, in both

3.4 · A worked example — "Green Mess" at ৳45

We set the rate to ৳45, added five members, gave everyone breakfast+lunch+dinner for the day (3 meals each), recorded different manager deposits, and let Jamal buy ৳400 of bazar himself. Watch it all land on the dashboard:

Every member's Cost is 3 × ৳45 = ৳135. Jamal's Deposit reads 400+300 — his own bazar plus his manager money.
Jamal's detail confirms it: 3 × ৳45 = ৳135 cost; 400 + 300 = ৳700 deposit; balance ৳565.

Notice how the fixed rate flows straight through: nobody's cost depends on how much anyone else spent. Jamal's own ৳400 bazar simply boosts his deposit, so his balance is comfortably green.

Read a rowTake Rahim: 3 meals × ৳45 = ৳135 cost, ৳2000 given to the manager = ৳2000 deposit, so balance = 2000 − 135 = ৳1865 in credit.

Members and money are added exactly as in a calculated house — same Meal grid, same Manager tab.

Adding members.
The meal grid.
Manager money, varied per person.
Part 3

Everyone Features & Settings

The bits that work the same in every house — and how to make the app yours.

4.1 · Profile, currency & reminders

The Profile tab is your personal corner. Your username and email are visible to housemates; tap your Profile ID to copy it. There's also a built-in “How to use the app” tour if you ever want a refresher.

Profile top — name, email, the guided tour, and Appearance.
Currency symbol, meal reminders, and the More / Account sections.

Currency — pick your symbol (Taka ৳ by default); it's used everywhere, including the PDF.

Meal reminders — two daily nudges (default 3:00 PM and 9:00 PM) so you never forget to log your meals. You can move the times, but they stay on so the house data stays complete.

4.2 · Dark mode & themes

Under Appearance, choose Light, Dark, or System default. Dark mode is fully designed — not just inverted — so it's easy on the eyes at night.

Settings in dark mode.
The whole dashboard, dark — brand colours kept, balances still clearly green/red.

4.3 · Permissions — ask & grant

You don't have to be the manager to help run the house. A member can request the permissions they need, and the manager approves them in a tap. Here's the full round-trip.

The member asks

On the House card, a member taps Request permissions. The dialog lists only the permissions they don't already have — tick the ones you need and tap Send request.

1. Ziad ticks Meal Entry and Bazar Entry and sends.
2. "Permission request sent to the manager."
3. The manager gets an amber "Permission request — review it" banner on the dashboard.

The manager decides

Tapping Review shows exactly what Ziad asked for, with Grant or Deny.

The manager sees the member's name and the requested permissions, and grants them all in one tap (or denies). Granting flips those switches on in the Permissions sub-tab immediately, and the banner clears.

The five permissionsManage Peoples · Meal Entry · Meal Edit · Bazar Entry · Edit Permission. The manager can also set these directly from House → Permissions (§2.10) without waiting for a request.
Why it's handyYou're busy this month and want a trusted housemate to log the bazar. Instead of handing over the whole house, they request Bazar Entry and you grant just that — the rest stays with you.

4.4 · No-manager houses

A house doesn't need a designated manager. If the person who is manager leaves without appointing anyone, the house simply becomes a no-manager house — and then everyone acts as manager: any member can switch the month, edit the rota, manage people, and so on.

Claiming the manager roleIn a no-manager house, anyone can make themselves — or someone else — the manager from the Peoples tab. (When a house does have a manager, only that manager can hand the role over.) So you're never locked out if a manager disappears.
ExampleYour manager graduates and leaves the mess. The house keeps working with no manager — everyone can manage. When things settle, one of you opens House → Peoples and taps Make manager to take the role.

4.5 · What's New & About

What's New — the highlights of each update.
About — version and contact links.
The How-to tour — a quick 8-page walkthrough.

Tap What's New to see the highlights of each update, About for the version and contact links, and How to use the app for a quick guided tour of every feature any time you need a refresher.

Appendix

Reference

A · Log in / log out

Profile → Log out asks to confirm.
You return to the welcome screen; sign in again with email or Google.

Log out lives at the bottom of the Profile tab, under Account (alongside Reset password and Delete account). Your house data is safe on the server — logging back in brings it all straight back.

B · Quick FAQ

QuestionAnswer
Someone's balance looks wrong.Open their detail page and read the sum. Still off? Tap the calculator to Recalculate (§2.12).
Can I change my house from calculated to fixed?No — the type is set at creation. Create a new house for the other model.
Our manager left. Are we stuck?No. The house becomes a no-manager house where everyone can manage, and anyone can claim the role (§4.4).
I deleted a bazar entry by mistake.It's in the Trash (top-right of the Bazar tab), with who deleted it and when.
How do I invite someone?Share House ID on the dashboard, or send them the House ID to search.
Two people with the same name?Member names must be unique — the name-match helper warns you, and you can use "Ziad1", "Ziad2" style names.

C · Glossary

WordMeaning
MemberA meal name the house tracks (may or may not have an app account).
Person / PeopleA real app account that has joined the house.
ManagerThe person who runs the house — switches months, sets the fixed rate, manages people. A house can also run with no manager.
BazarShopping for the house (groceries, food).
DepositWhat a person put in: their own bazar + money given to the manager.
CostWhat a person owes: their meals × cost-per-meal, plus utility and special meals.
BalanceDeposit − Cost. Green = in credit, red = owes.
Cost per mealCalculated house: bazar ÷ meals. Fixed house: the rate the manager set.
UtilityNon-food shared bills (wifi, gas, cook, electricity), split among chosen members.
Special mealA higher-cost meal with its own rate, split only among those who joined it.

Bachelors' Meal Manager · Version 3.3.0 · Developed by RED Z APPS.   This guide was produced from the live app; your screens may differ slightly as the app improves.