In order to manage funds in groups it is necessary to have a legal entity that holds your funds on a trust basis. Therefore an association is the simplest option. The membership in the association is free of cost and can be cancelled at any time. You can find more information here.

After registrating on the platform, please click on Create group, fill the form with general information about your group (for example the name and the aim of your group) and then determine the framework conditions for the group contract.

You can find more information here.

There are two different ways to enter a group:

• Creating an own group
• Entering an existing group

Under the menu "Groups" you can find all existing groups. Groups can may have different entry conditions:

• On member invitation
• On member invitation with vote.

The "Free to join" entry condition has been removed for security reasons.

In order to become an active member of the group you need to approve the group contract.

In your group you may find the section "Members", please click on "invite" and enter the email adress of the people you want to invite. They will be notified by email and can join the group after successfully registrating.

A group account is convenient, if you want to manage money jointly, democratically and digitally. The group account is not just an account, it partially replaces a legal form that you would otherwise need to start joint actions and manage the associated cash flows. Our users are activists, school classes, political groups or shared living projects.

The group account is not a private bank account, but a bookkeeping account, which is held for you by elinor Treuhand e.V.. This creates a kind of fiduciary relationship since the association holds the funds for you.

Everyone who registered on our plattform and joined the elinor Treuhand e.V. can create a group account.

Currently we do not offer any cards, but we plan to do so in the future.

Since we are not a bank, we do not offer association accounts. Since we ourselves are an association with a trust account at GLS Bank, we are not authorized to provide accounts for other institutions. We offer group accounts only to such groups, which due to their constitution do not have the framework to open a bank account themselves.

Incoming payments can easily be made via bank transfer. You can find your bank details in the dashboard of your group. Everyone can make an incoming payment, even those who don’t have an account on elinor and who are not members of your group. It is important to enter the code that you find under "Purpose", so that the payment can be assigned to your group.

For incoming payments by PayPal you can use this link:

https://paypal.me/elinorTreuhand?country.x=DE&locale.x=de_DE

Remember to add your specific purpose as message. Please note: Incoming payments via PayPal are imported every two weeks.

For incoming payments by PayPal you can use this link: https://paypal.me/elinorTreuhand?country.x=DE&locale.x=de_DE

Remember to add your specific purpose as message. Please note: Incoming payments via PayPal are imported every two weeks.

Yes, please do not forget to indicate the purpose that you find under "Bank details" so that our system can assign the incoming payment to your group account. However, if something goes wrong, please contact support@elinor.network with the description of the error.

Yes! When making payments to the group account you can add your own notes after the predefined purpose. So you have an even better overview of your transactions.

The purpose (Donation) is public. You can release it externally. Incoming payments to the elinor Treuhand e.V. bank account with this purpose will be credited to your group account as an external donation.

The purpose (Personal) is personal for each user. If a user transfers money to the elinor Treuhand e.V. bank account by using his/her personal purpose, the incoming payment will also be credited to the group account and additionally it will be assigned to his/her user account.

Please contact support@elinor.network with the description of the error.

An incoming payment will appear on your group account within the usual time of a bank transfer plus one day processing time. Over the weekend and holidays it can take a little more time.

Incoming payments via PayPal are imported every two weeks.

PayPal payments are imported every two weeks.

If two weeks have already passed since your payment, maybe it could not be booked because of a missing reason for payment. In this case please write us at support@elinor.network.

Please note that PayPal (test) payments under 1 € where a "goods and services" payment method has been chosen, cannot be booked, since PayPal applies a fee and we are not yet able to book 0 € incoming payments in the group account.

In order to make a transfer you need to request an outgoing payment. You can find out how to request an outgoing payment under: How can I request an outgoing payment?.

In your group you can find the button "Create payment" under "Transactions". Click the button "Request outgoing payment" and fill out the form by entering information about the outgoing payment, the amount, the purpose and the bank details of the recipient's account. At the end click the start button.

Every member of your group can request an outgoing payment.

We provide you with a voting procedure. You determine who should be able to decide on incoming and outgoing payments. In your group contract you determine whether all group members or selected ones may vote.

You also determine the majority ratio in your group contract. This is based on the total number of votes and not on the total number of group members. At least 50% of the members entitled to vote must vote for each decision. Each group determines for itself how long the voting is opened and when it will close to be evaluated.

No, outgoing payments can be made to all bank accounts that have a European or Swiss IBAN. Group members can save their own bank details in their profile under "Bank details" > "Edit".

Yes, from your group account you can transfer money to other bank accounts. You can find more information here: How do can I enter external bank accounts? and How can I request an outgoing payment?

When creating a request for an outgoing payment you can specify whether the the outgoing payment should be one-time or recurring.

You can set up a permanent money transfer order to the elinor group account in your own online banking. In your group you can find the exact bank details for your group account.

In your group you can find all the pending outgoing payments under "Payment orders". If you click on "Outgoing Payment", you can scroll down and delete the recurring outgoing payment.

When creating a request for an outgoing payment you can enter the bank accounts to which the payment should be made. You can check "Save for group" and add a description so that the other group members can also use these bank details when creating outgoing payments.

You can also save your own bank details in your user account. Click on your name in the upper right corner and then on the button "Create bank account". Fill in all the fields and finally click on "Save bank account". After saving your account, you can click on the gear icon and define in which groups the bank account should be visible. This will allow other group members to easily select the bank account when creating outgoing payments.

You can find the bank accounts that are associated with your group under the "create payment" panel. Here the group admins or the bank account owners can add a description to each bank account or delete the bank accounts from the group.

Payments made by direct debit are not possible on elinor because this could be used to bypass the group voting and we want to prevent misused outgoing payments.

All changes will be decided jointly. You can suggest a change to the group settings by editing the group contract. In the dashboard of your group account you will find your group contract. On the top right corner, you can click on "edit" and update the group contract. Finally, click on "create". The other group members will be notified of the change and can agree or disagree.

In your group contract you determine by what majority and in what period of time you want to decide on the closure of the group. You can find the button “close group” in your group contract.

The funds of a group must be paid out before the group is closed. When closing the group you will be asked to provide some bank details. If the group closure vote is successful, the remaining balance of the group account will be paid out to the provided bank details.

In your group you can change the role of every group member under "Members".

A group admin can’t leave the group. First of all, she/he/they has/have to assign the admin role to another member. (See How can I assign the admin role to someone else?)

In your group you can find the button "Leave group" under "Members". Please note: If you are an admin, you can’t leave the group. First of all, you need to assign the admin role to another member.

You can click on the gear icon next to the member's name under "Members" . This will open a new window. Here you can enter the reason and start the voting by clicking on the corresponding button. All members will be notified and asked to vote. The member whose exclusion is being voted on has not the right to vote.

Please write us at support@elinor.network

Your group profile page is a public page about your group. It helps you present your project and reach out to supporters. Customize your group profile and share the link by e-mail, messenger or on your social media, so everyone can contribute.

You'll find the link to your group profile page in the top right corner of your group. Group admins can click on "edit" and add or delete various widgets an then click on "Leave edit mode". The changes will be applied directly.

The group profile can be edited only by group admins.

You decide how much you want to contribute to the costs for the operation and development of elinor. This is why we call the user fee “elinor contribution“. In your group contract under „user fee“ you can choose between a percentage of each incoming payment or a fixed monthly contribution and determine how much it should be. You can find more information here.

For the use of twingle we incur additional costs. For this reason, the elinor contribution for the groups with a twingle account must be at least 2.5%. This corresponds to what is charged internally by twingle.

You can change the elinor contribution in your group under "Group contract" > "Edit". All group members will be notified so that they can vote.

The monthly elinor contribution is debited on the first day of each month, if the group account balance is sufficient.

Incoming payments have to be considered as donations in favor of your group. Incoming payments until 20.000 € are tax-free. Higher incoming payments are taxable. For this you can use the outgoing payment function of the group account.

Outgoing payments are not taxable.

The funds that are in the group account do not have to appear on your tax return.

We are not allowed to write donation receipts because our company ist not listed as non-profit.

elinor GmbH ist the company that provides the platform app.elinor.network

eloinor Treuhand e.V. is non profit-oriented association. The only aim of the association is: enabling the group accounts for projects, initiatives and groups, support of its members who need help after damages or particular living condition, research on different possibilities of risk prevention. The membership in the elinor Treuhand e.V. is a requirement for the use of elinor. The membership is free of cost. You can find more information here.

This association works as a container that keeps the funds of its members. To them he returns the most important rights and responsibilities. This is the peer-to-peer approach that we’re trying to use to decentralize the places of monetary decision-making. You can find more information here.

All money that flows through the elinor Treuhand e.V. in the respective group accounts is invested sustainably and ecologically at GLS Bank. GLS Bank is the world's first eco-bank. It offers its more than 300,000 customers all the services of a modern bank and makes money to an instrument of social shaping. You can find more information under www.gls.de.

All incoming payment in an elinor group account are held in custody by GLS Bank. GLS Bank is part of the legally recognized deposit protection system, which reimburses deposits up to 100,000 euros in case of bank insolvency. In addition, GLS Bank is a member of the protection scheme of the cooperative banks. This has been successfully fulfilling the task of averting imminent or existing economic difficulties at cooperative banks for over 90 years. For more information, visit www.bvr-institutssicherung.de.

The group contract is an agreement exclusively between the group members. The group itself is responsible for its observance. We can help as neutral facilitator in case of a conflict. Please write to info@elinor.network.

Do not hesitate to contact us. Use our contact form and write us your request.