DnD 5e PHB in Roll20

I've been looking for a way to host a game for some friends back in the midwest and came across Roll20 which seems to be just the ticket. I'm still getting used to how to do some things but it looks like it might fit the bill very well. In playing around with a character sheet today I found the OGL limitation of alcolyte as the only background. No problem there. As many who end up here, I already have hard copies of the main books. Many of my friends also already have the PHB in hard cover. So this brings up some questions. If I purchase the PHB here and my friends roll up characters in my game, will they have access to it in the charactermancer? (I believe that is what it is called) Is the PHB purchased here tied to the D&D Beyond PHB? It is the same online content, it'd be nice if the purchase made it available on both sites. Simple questions that have probably been answered already, but I'm trying to get up to speed as quickly as possible. Thanks

John B. said: If I purchase the PHB here and my friends roll up characters in my game, will they have access to it in the charactermancer? (I believe that is what it is called) Yes if you set the game to share the compendium in the Game Settings. John B. said: Is the PHB purchased here tied to the D&D Beyond PHB? It is the same online content, it'd be nice if the purchase made it available on both sites. No, D&D Beyond and Roll20 are two separate companies. 

As an alternative (if you're up for it) you can transcribe things from your physical PHB into Roll20. Having it in the app is extremely convenient though.

I went ahead and picked up the PHB here at Roll20. It really makes the character generator work nicely. Thanks for all of the advice.