Busted (Fine Jar) Support

What is Busted!?

Busted! is the office or family fine jar gone digital. Someone swears, turns up late or tells a truly terrible joke, and into the jar they go. Everyone in the group sees a live scoreboard of who owes what, penalties update on every phone within seconds, and a suitably embarrassing sound plays on the guilty party’s phone when a fine sticks.

Nobody needs an account. You pick a display name, share a code and you’re playing. Fair warning: the person who runs the jar gets a crown next to their name and the power goes to their head almost immediately.

Setting up a jar (for the organiser)

1. Open the app and tap Create a Jar.
2. Give the jar a name, for example “Sales Team Swear Jar”, and enter your own display name.
3. You’re now the Controller, the referee of this jar. The app gives you a 10-character Join Code.
4. Share that code with everyone you want in the jar. Text it, shout it across the office, write it on the whiteboard.
5. The code lives at the top of the scoreboard. Tap it any time to copy it.

Joining a jar

1. Open the app and tap Join a Jar.
2. Type in the Join Code. Capital letters or small, it doesn’t matter.
3. Pick a display name that isn’t already taken in that jar.
4. You’re in. The scoreboard is live from this moment.

You can be in several jars at once, one for work and one for home perhaps. The My Jars screen lists them all. Tap any jar to switch to it.

Reporting a penalty

1. Tap the big red PENALTY button at the bottom of the scoreboard.
2. Choose who’s guilty. Yes, you can report yourself. Owning your crimes is half the fun.
3. Add a short comment about what they did, or pick one of the jar’s agreed rules from the dropdown. Optional but recommended for the audit trail.
4. Submit.

If you reported yourself the fine counts instantly and your phone makes the sound. If you reported someone else the fine sits as pending and nothing is added to their tally until they respond.

Accused? You have two buttons

When someone reports you a prompt appears: accept or dispute.

• Accept - your tally goes up by one and your phone plays the sound of shame. Take it with dignity.
• Dispute - the case goes to the Controller, who decides to uphold it (it counts) or dismiss it (it doesn’t).

One quirk of jar law: the Controller can’t judge a fine against themselves, so if the Controller disputes their own fine it’s dismissed automatically. Choose a Controller you trust.

Fined unfairly, or fessed up by accident? On your own row tap Request undo within 24 hours of an accepted fine and the Controller can approve or reject the reversal.

Rules

Every good jar has agreed rules and the Rules page keeps them in writing. Anyone can suggest a rule. The Controller approves or rejects suggestions and can add, edit or delete rules directly. Active rules appear in the penalty dropdown so fines can cite chapter and verse. You can export the rules as text to share with new joiners.

Running the jar (Controller only)

The people icon and the ⋮ menu on the scoreboard hold the Controller’s toolkit:

• Settle a player’s balance when they’ve paid up. Their tally resets to zero.
• Manage players - remove players or hand the Controller crown to someone else.
• Edit the jar name or regenerate the Join Code if it’s leaked to undesirables.
• Choose the penalty sound: air horn, duck, fart or silence for formal workplaces.
• View the audit trail - every fine, dispute, settlement and rule change with timestamps. Anyone can view and export it. Only the Controller can clear it.
• Close the jar when the fun is over. Everyone’s app returns to the home screen.

If a Controller ever disappears (leaves the company, loses the phone) the scoreboard shows a takeover banner and the first person to tap it inherits the crown.

Sounds, privacy and your data

The penalty sound plays on the guilty person’s phone when a fine is confirmed, using media volume. The Controller picks the sound or turns it off.

Busted! stores only your chosen display name and your jar activity. No email, no phone number, no account. The full details are in the Privacy Policy.

Need help?

Email thomas.d.stoker@gmail.com with your device model and a short description of the problem.

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