Child Care Tuition Billing Software

Revenue Management - Perhaps the single most important area for automation is the managing of tuition and center fees. Although most off-the-shelf accounting systems provide accounts receivable & billing, they are usually very poorly suited to the unique requirements of centers. Childcare centers have many specific needs such as providing parents with a year-end record of payments, managing parental and subsidizer fees, and automatic posting of recurring charges. Virtually any software designed for childcare centers will handle these needs. However, they will vary widely in their ability to accommodate various rate structures and the ease with which they allow you to work with ledgers and make postings. Good childcare software will provide adequate checks and audit trails to eliminate potential errors and ensure necessary financial controls.

Electronic Tuition Collection - Credit cards and other forms of electronic payments such as Automated Clearing House (ACH) or e-checks are being used by more and more child care providers. Most systems for processing credit cards were designed for retail swiped transactions and require time-consuming and error-prone keying of data into a credit card terminal. Childcare centers should look for integrated processing tools that allow them to process a payment directly within their ledger system. Today there are also systems that allow parents to make payments online or collect tuition automatically by ACH or automatic credit card billing. This technology offers the potential of more reliable cash flow, less administrative time and cost, enhanced convenience for parents, better security and control of funds, and allowing directors to minimize the need to act as a collection agent. This technology is widely used by health clubs, faith-based schools, and utilities, and is now available to childcare centers as a product called EZ-EFT.