Running a childcare center comes with crazy and hectic moments. That’s why it’s important to find ways to keep things as efficient as possible at your center. While this may seem like a daunting task, there are simple and effective ways to improve day-to-day operations at your center without expending too much time or too many resources.
Investing in a childcare management system, or CCMS, will completely change the way your childcare center or preschool operates for the better. Childcare management system software works to optimize your center’s current operations. By using software, you’ll be able to save time, increase efficiency, and improve your business. You’ll also be able to monitor the health of your business more effectively and manage payments ensuring money doesn’t slip through the cracks.
In this article, we’ll discuss ways childcare management system software can help simplify your center while maximizing efficiency.
Digitize Documentation
You’ve probably spent hours finding, updating, and organizing different documents for your center. With software, you can digitize any important documentation, not only freeing you from stacks and stacks of paper but also making it easier for you to update records. Managing both your families’ documents along with your staff’s important paperwork can be a struggle to organize and keep track of—software can help you store the information and keep it readily accessible when you need it.
This documentation could include:
- Attendance
- Immunizations
- Allergies
- Payroll
- Staff, parent, and children information
- Financial records and reports
Having documentation digitized makes it easier to reference and organize. Additionally, software programs will be able to automatically generate reports relevant to your center like invoicing, payroll, and enrollment reports. These will help you make informed decisions for your business and see your data in an organized manner.
Kangarootime’s software aging report example.
Automate Billing Processes
Managing billing processes can take hours upon hours every week for childcare center staff. On top of being time-consuming, it can be difficult and complicated to organize, manage, and send invoices. Through software, you’ll be able to cut down the amount of time you spend on billing significantly while making the process more efficient overall.
For example, at Kangarootime, we find that our customers who used to spend 8 hours on billing a week now only spend about one hour per week.
A software program will allow your center to:
- Send automatic invoices
- Manage payments
- Process ACH and credit card transactions
- Collect financial reports
- Track credits/charges
- Let parents pay online or within an app
Kangarootime’s billing platform.
Check-In/Out and Attendance
Manual check-in and attendance processes take up time and don’t ensure safety, causing more hectic and stressful situations for your center. By implementing software, your center will have a safe, fast, and contactless check-in process. For example, with Kangarootime, parents simply request to check in their child on their parent app. The request is then approved by a staff member who uses face-to-face recognition, making the process quick, easy, and secure.
When it comes to taking attendance, there’s no need to keep track of paper records throughout the day. With software, staff members can take attendance online making the process smooth and simple. These attendance records are usually tracked automatically and available for downloading or exporting within the software. With Kangarootime, staff members record attendance directly on their staff app. We even offer a rooming feature that gives you a visual overview of where each staff member and child is at any time. This is great for licensing and ratio purposes but also adds an extra layer of safety for your center.
Kangarootime’s check-in screen on the parent app.
Staff Scheduling and Payroll
Coordinating schedules, overtime, and vacation time is overwhelming and leaves room for human error. With a CCMS, scheduling your staff can be digital and organized. You’ll be able to see overtime hours, log breaks, and approve time-off requests. Staff can easily access their upcoming schedule in their staff app and request any PTO. When it comes to payroll, you can export the provided .csv files directly to your payroll provider. This makes the entire scheduling and payroll process easy and seamless.
Kangarootime’s staff scheduling module.
Digital Daily Notes
Parents love being connected to their child throughout the day. Digital daily notes make it easy for staff to communicate to parents what their child is doing without having to take time away from the kids. Using their staff app, staff members can send auto-populated messages directly to parents. They can even add photos for beautiful multimedia messages. Handwritten notes often get overlooked or left behind. By digitizing daily notes, parents can get a live look into their child’s day. This is a huge selling point for parents as they consider technology a necessity and convenience in their everyday lives.
View of a child’s daily notes on Kangarootime’s Parent App.
Faster Communication
With rapidly changing environments and situations, like the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s important to keep parents up-to-speed. Using software, you can communicate with parents much faster through in-app messaging or texting services. This allows your center to keep parents informed in the case of a school closing, new procedure, or virus outbreak. You can also send newsletters and update your calendar with upcoming events. Being able to communicate quickly makes it easier for your center to connect with parents and operate efficiently during emergency situations.
Kangarootime’s messaging feature.
There are a number of reasons to invest in software for your childcare center. Not only will it save you time, but it will also appeal to families and help elevate how your center is perceived. As technology is becoming more and more integrated with our everyday lives, it’s important to be aware of the ways it can help improve them. Software is an affordable and effective way to improve the operational efficiency of your childcare center.
If you’re ready to get started, check out our guides to choosing the CCMS right for your and your center:
Assessing Your Needs When Selecting a Childcare Software
Top 5 Features to Look for When Selecting a Childcare Management Software
5 Steps to Finding the Childcare Management Software Right for Your Center
Top 5 Considerations for Childcare Management Software
Kangarootime is the leading all-in-one childcare management software for daycares and preschools. With billing and invoicing capabilities, parent communication and staff management tools and classroom automation, Kangarootime helps childcare centers grow and scale. To learn more about optimizing your center with Kangarootime, visit kangarootime.com and schedule a demo.