Choosing a Childcare Management Software: Top 5 Features to Look For
An essential part of selecting the Childcare Management Software that will work best for you, your staff, and your families is assessing your needs. What software features would simplify processes and help you manage your center more efficiently? To help you out, we’ve compiled a list of the top five features to look for when considering a CCMS:
1. Child attendance
Daily attendance can be a timely process. Many softwares will have features to streamline attendance and make it more efficient. It’s important to understand each software’s attendance processes and how it can help improve your current procedure. Attendance tracking is especially crucial when it comes to childcare subsidy management. Faster attendance means more time to focus on the kids!
2. Billing Automation
Automated billing processes can be a huge asset to your center. This key feature will likely result in more timely payments from parents as they have easy access to invoices and can usually pay right from their smartphones. If you’re having trouble with your current billing system, look into how different softwares can help your center improve it.
3. Classroom Management (Daily Notes)
Instead of recording daily notes with a pen and paper, many softwares have classroom management features to make this process easier and faster. Staff can write daily notes right within the software program or app and this information can quickly be sent to parents. This is a huge time saver for teachers and also gives the parents a chance to be involved throughout the day!
4. Lesson Planning
Having the ability to plan and store lessons within your CCMS will be a huge value-add for teachers. By having a system that’s conducive to lesson planning, they’ll be able create more meaningful lessons without taking time away from the kids!
5. Staff App/Parent App
An app for staff members and parents is a crucial feature to consider when looking for a CCMS. Having these major stakeholders involved in the software by taking advantage of their features will make processes much more efficient. Staff can spend less time on administrative work and parents will love the connectivity the app brings.
There’s so many childcare management software features that it can be hard to decide what’s most important. As an additional resource, we’ve created a helpful Childcare Management System Prioritization Matrix. This matrix offers a comprehensive list of common features along with a rating scale for each one. Check it out and share it with your team for a great exercise that will help you decide what features would be the most beneficial to your center!
To download the prioritization matrix, fill out the form below.
