Help: your first steps
You can read this guide without an account. It explains how to use eBudget as a tenant or invited user. Your contract owner sets up the contract, meters and access.
1. Get access to your rental contract
An account and access to a contract are two separate things. Creating an account does not give you access to someone else's records.
- Ask your contract owner for an invitation sent to your own email address or an invitation link.
- Open the invitation link. Sign in, or choose the registration option on the sign-in screen if you do not have an account.
- Use the email address the owner invited. Complete email verification if asked; check your spam folder for the verification message.
- If the first-use legal screen appears, open the Terms and Privacy Notice. Accept the Terms and separately acknowledge reading the Privacy Notice to continue. Both boxes start unchecked. If you cannot continue, contact info@fortmes.com for assistance.
- Return to the invitation link and select Accept invitation. The contract will then appear in Rental contracts.
If the invitation is expired, revoked or intended for another email address, ask the owner for a new one. Do not share your invitation link or password.
3. Understand your financial overview
As a user, you can view the shared financial information made available for your contract. The owner manages these records.
- Open Dashboard for an overview. Check the selected month and currency before comparing amounts.
- Open Transactions to see individual income, expense and transfer records. Use the available filters to find the month or item you need.
- Open Accounts for the recorded account balances, Budget to compare planned and actual spending, and Reports for summaries.
- If an amount or description seems wrong, tell your contract owner which date and record you mean.
Users cannot edit the shared financial records. Supplier administration, original invoice PDFs, incoming email and recurring-rule administration are restricted to the owner. Members see the supplier display name on financial entries and can open the successfully prepared redacted invoice PDF after invoice posting or linking. Supplier account names and customer identifiers remain private. A recorded transaction is not an online payment action. Automatically generated invoice titles follow your selected language; custom descriptions keep their original text. The owner can save a financial account with the supplier recognition template for later invoice review. This records an account movement and does not debit a bank account. The owner’s received-mail view shows messages already collected for the contract’s submission address. Receiving an invoice does not by itself create a transaction; owner review may still be required.
4. Prepare to record a meter reading
Have your phone or a clear meter photo ready. Make sure you are looking at the correct physical meter.
- Open Meter readings in the correct contract.
- Find the meter using its displayed identifier, type, unit and location. Compare the identifier with the number printed on the meter.
- Check the recording period shown in the app. Use the app's dates; they can differ from the supplier's reporting period.
- If the meter is missing, its identifier is wrong or recording is unavailable, ask the owner to check its setup.
A reminder does not extend the recording period. Do not create a reading for a different meter just to get past an unavailable one.
5. Take or choose a clear photo
The photo should show both the meter's identifier and its display. Keep it sharp, well lit and free of glare.
- Start the reading wizard, or create a new reading for the meter.
- Choose Take a photo with the camera and allow camera access when your browser asks.
- Hold the phone still. The camera can take a burst of 3 or 5 frames and compare them locally to select a candidate. Check the selected photo before confirming it.
- If the camera cannot open, use the available photo upload or gallery option instead. You can change camera permissions in your browser settings.
Camera access needs HTTPS (or local development). The burst selection runs on your device and is not the credit-based AI analysis. Unselected frames are discarded from the app's temporary memory; the app does not delete photos from your gallery.
6. Enter the value and optionally use AI
You can enter the reading yourself. AI is optional and its suggestions still need your review.
- Check the reading date and the unit shown by the app.
- Enter the whole-number value requested by the form. If the meter has several registers or decimal digits and you are unsure which number is required, ask the owner before submitting.
- If you choose AI analysis, it uses the photo already selected or uploaded. Select an available model and review its displayed credit cost before starting.
- Wait for processing, then compare the suggested value and meter identifier with the photo. Correct any mistake and save the confirmed value.
AI analysis sends the selected photo to the configured EU AI service and uses credits. It does not finalize the reading. If AI is unavailable, you can still enter the value manually when photo storage and recording are available.
7. Finish and submit your readings
A draft is saved work, not a submitted report. You must finalize the reading to finish.
- In the wizard, work through the meters with Previous meter and Next meter / finish. You can skip a meter and return to it.
- Make sure each reading you want to submit has a photo and a saved value.
- At the end, check the summary and select Submit reports. Only complete drafts are included; skipped or incomplete meters still need attention.
- For an individual reading, save the value and select Finalize submission. Check that the status changes to Finalized.
- To discard an unfinished reading, open your draft and select Delete draft, then confirm. No owner approval is needed.
- After finalization, choose Correction or Deletion, open your own reading, give a reason and submit the request. Check Reading change requests for the owner’s decision. Select Include reviewed requests to see completed decisions.
The submitted reading stays unchanged until owner approval. Rejection includes a reason. A request becomes outdated if the reading changes before approval; submit a new request against the current reading. You cannot request changes to another member’s submission. The owner reviews requests on Meter readings, can reject them with a reason, and can still correct or delete readings directly with a reason. Deletion retains photos and history; deleted readings are hidden from ordinary users. Reminders can continue while your readings are drafts.
Invoice PDFs and masked identifiers
The owner can view the original invoice. Members automatically receive a separate redacted PDF after the invoice is posted or linked to an existing transaction and masking finishes successfully.
- On Transactions or recent activity, select the PDF named month–service–invoice, for example 2026-10-electricity-invoice.pdf. The month comes from the end of the billing period, otherwise the period start month, then the issue or upload month. You must be signed in and a current member of the contract.
- If there is no PDF link, processing or invoice posting/linking may still be pending, or masking may have failed. Ask the contract owner to check the invoice status. No separate PDF approval is needed.
- As owner, open Redacted PDF for members in the invoice review view. Automatic preparation covers both existing and newly uploaded invoices.
- Check every page. All of your customer, user, buyer, contract, account, payer and service-point and device-location identifiers, invoice numbers, barcodes and QR codes should be covered with xxxx. Meter identifiers and supplier details remain. This feature does not by itself mask names, addresses or bank account numbers.
- Drag a rectangle over missed areas or enter their coordinates. Save masks, wait for the new PDF, then open and check it. Image-only or unusual invoices and damaged, tiny or faint code images may need more manual masks.
- After successful preparation, the PDF for a posted or linked invoice is available automatically. Saving additional masks hides the previous member copy while a replacement is generated; the new copy becomes available automatically when successful.
The redacted PDF contains page images, so its text cannot be searched or copied. It does not replace the original invoice, which remains available to the owner. Automatic detection can miss information. Owners can inspect and correct the masking at any time, without a separate publication approval. Also check previous invoice numbers printed in late-payment interest details and other invoice references. Check repeated device-location identifiers and the actual code image patterns as well. The meter serial number is a separate field and remains visible. Masking affects only the PDF copy; it does not change the original invoice or stored business data.
8. Manage your profile and privacy
Your profile settings belong to you; they do not change another user's account.
- Open Profile to review your display name, language and appearance settings.
- Save your preferred language in Profile. Application emails and their links use your saved profile language when sent, including notifications already queued. Before you have a profile linked to your verified email, invitations use the language selected by the inviter. Sign-in and email-verification messages are managed separately by the sign-in service.
- If the contract's colors override your preference, check the profile option for ignoring contract themes.
- Use Sign out when you finish on a shared device.
- If you consider deleting your account, read the confirmation carefully. Personal profile deletion preserves shared contract and financial records; contact the owner about errors in those records.
- The footer links to Terms, Privacy, processors/transfers, cookies and your rights without login. Send data-protection requests to info@fortmes.com; do not include passwords or unnecessary identity documents. Acknowledging the Privacy Notice is not blanket GDPR consent.
If enabled, your profile also shows support-access history and lets you revoke an active support session. Never give support your password or a verification code.
9. Use the website on your phone
You can use the site in your browser, or add it to your home screen when your browser supports it.
- Open the site in your normal browser and use the installation option in the footer when shown.
- On iPhone or iPad, use Safari's Share menu and Add to Home Screen. On Android, follow the installation dialog or browser-menu guidance.
- Sign in again if the installed app asks. Its browser session can differ from the one in a normal tab.
- Keep an internet connection while uploading, saving and submitting. Check the saved or finalized status before closing the page.
Installation does not enable offline recording. Unsaved input can be lost when you reload or close the page. If an update is offered, save your work before refreshing.
10. When something does not work
Start by checking the selected contract, your account and your internet connection.
- For access or missing-meter problems, contact the contract owner. They manage invitations, membership and meter setup.
- If saving fails, read the message and keep the page open while checking your connection. Do not assume a photo or value was saved.
- If the app says the record changed, reload its current version before editing again. Check whether your previous submission succeeded before retrying.
- For a persistent error, use Technical details or Copy error details when offered. Send the error code, reference and approximate time through your usual support channel, without passwords or private photos.
Reminder emails depend on the owner's notification settings and a working email service. Not receiving an email does not remove a recording deadline.
Terms and Privacy Notice
Published policy updates require a new confirmation before you continue.
- Open both linked documents and read the current version. Accept the Terms and separately confirm that you have read the Privacy Notice; neither box is preselected.
- Select Accept Terms and continue. An earlier confirmation does not cover a new version.
- In Profile, open Notifications to turn policy-update emails on or off, then save. Emails are enabled by default and use your verified account email.
Disabling emails does not remove mandatory confirmation. Public notices and data-protection contact remain available without signing in.
Email Log for contract owners
Only the current owner of a contract can view its outgoing email history.
- Choose the contract and open Email Log. Search by subject or recipient, filter by status or email type, and use Previous/Next for more messages.
- Select a subject to inspect the saved HTML and plain-text content, recipient, language and outcome. You can copy the subject and plain text.
- In DEV/TEST, Email delivery mode in Settings defaults to Simulated: eligible emails are generated without being sent. Enabling Live requires confirmation and affects only the selected contract.
- Configure notification categories independently. The test action targets your own verified email: it is logged in Simulated mode and can actually send in Live mode. Check the outcome in the log.
Messages are retained for 365 days. Accepted means provider acceptance, not inbox delivery; Simulated is not delivery. Enabling Live never replays simulated history. Production has no mode selector. Incoming invoice emails remain in their separate history.