Questions & answers
Asked and answered.
The questions families and agencies ask before they start. If yours is missing, email hello@kinbasecare.com and a person will answer it.
What does Kinbase cost?
Free for families to start. There is a paid plan in the app with a longer history and extra features once your record grows into it. Some families get Kinbase through their home care agency, which covers the cost for the families it serves. See pricing.
Is Kinbase HIPAA compliant?
HIPAA is a law that applies to hospitals, insurers, and their vendors. A record your family keeps about your own parent falls outside it, the same way your own notes app does. We treat that as a responsibility rather than a loophole: Kinbase is built to hospital-grade security standards anyway, and the promises that matter most are stronger than HIPAA's. Nothing that identifies your family is ever sold, and deletion means deleted.
Who can see our record?
The people you invite, with the role you give them. Family members can read everything and add entries. Caregivers write entries and read the handbook, without seeing the family's private notes. An agency sees only what you choose to share. You can change or remove anyone's access whenever you want.
Do caregivers have to install an app?
No. Everyone you invite joins from a link in their browser, including the logging screen caregivers use during visits. The iPhone and Android apps exist for whoever wants them, and most owners live in one, but nothing about the record requires an install.
What do we actually ask our caregiver to do?
One thing: a thirty-second voice note once a day, whenever it fits her shift. She holds the mic, says what happened, and taps to confirm. That single habit keeps the record alive, fills the Sunday summary, and writes the handbook for whoever comes next. The ask works best coming from you, at her first shift.
What happens when our caregiver quits?
The record keeps what she knew. Entries she logged stay in the timeline, and the habits she noticed live in the handbook. When the replacement starts, you send her the handbook link, and her first shift starts with the routine instead of a blank slate.
Our agency offered us Kinbase. What does that mean?
Some agencies sponsor Kinbase for the families they serve, which means the agency pays and your family uses it at no cost. The record still belongs to your family. The agency sees what you share, never more, and if you ever change agencies the record goes with you.
Can we keep records for both of my parents?
Yes. Each parent gets their own record with its own circle, and you can belong to both. Plenty of families run two.
Do my siblings have to use the app?
No. Anyone you invite joins from a link in the browser, and family who just want the highlights can read the Sunday digest that arrives by email. Many circles have one person who logs and several who only read.
Does my whole family need the app?
No. Only whoever writes needs an account, and even that works in a browser. Relatives who just want to stay in the loop can be added by email address alone. They get the Sunday summary in their inbox, with nothing to install and nothing to log into, and can unsubscribe themselves any time.
What if we switch agencies?
Nothing happens to the record. It belongs to your family, so a change of agency just means updating who can see what. The new agency can get the handbook and a care summary on day one, which makes switching considerably less painful than it usually is.
What happens to the record when my parent dies?
It becomes something your family keeps. The record shifts to a read-only keepsake, free, held for as long as you want it. Families tell us this matters more than they expected it to.
Can we get our data out?
Always. One click exports the full record in readable formats, including a printable book. And if you want it gone instead, deletion is real: removed from our systems, not archived somewhere.
Does Kinbase give medical advice?
No. Kinbase keeps the record; your parent's clinicians make the calls. In an emergency, call 911 first. What the record does is make you a better reporter when the professionals start asking questions.
Start your family’s record.
Name the book, invite the people who help, and the record starts keeping itself. Most families are set up inside ten minutes.
Free for families to start. Everyone you invite joins from a link or by scanning a code, and nobody has to install anything to read or write.