Financial Management for Your Daycare Center

Daycare management software should always incorporate some financial management features. Finances can be complicated, and calculating the correct figures is sometimes a difficult undertaking. The daycare management software you employ should make your life easier in this respect. Tuition should be able to be calculated and charged based on the child’s specific schedule and actual attendance. Invoices should then be able to be printed out for mailing, or e-mailed easily with only a few steps. Some daycare management software programs even provide fully integrated payment processing tools which can process credit cards and bank account withdrawls (ACH) without the need to separate hardware or software installation. You can now even include payment links in emails that enable parents to pay invoices online with their credit card!

Some features to look for include:

• automatic posting of late fees
• automatic application of recurring fees (that can be personalized for each child)
• complete transaction audit trail
• financial abilities like accounts payable, general ledger and payroll functionality, and integration with other accounting programs
• handling of complex rate structures
• production of invoices, receipts, aging reports, bank deposit slips, and year-end tax statements
• security deposit management and third-party customers
• tools to process credit cards automatically

No daycare management software should be without these features, as they take the complex and tedious job of bookkeeping and financial management, and simplifying it so much that you feel almost like an expert!