Managing a childcare business is a unique role that means you have a lot on your plate. You know that staying on top of your parent payments is crucial, but it can fall to the wayside as you focus on the day to day tasks that keep you busy. For this reason, many childcare businesses struggle to track their parent payments – and this can make it hard to pinpoint where the losses are coming from.
Making sure that parents are making payments is key, so that you can spend less time pouring over records, following up with parents that are late and trying to identify where your money is going. We’ve compiled a quick list below to help centers like yours gain your time back and more importantly- stop losing money!
Make Paying Easy
Most of us don’t carry checkbooks in our purses or pockets anymore. If a business is only accepting cash or check, it becomes an obstacle to pay for that service, and much more likely to be forgotten.
Accepting credit or debit cards in house seems like a good move. However, that means you or your child care staff is taking the time to physically swipe cards and parents have to be present to pay (and again, may forget if they are rushing in our out).
The best solution is to allow parents to pay from anywhere. Using a management software that has an app for parents means that parents can manage their own payment information and make a payment from anywhere.
This reduces the pain points mentioned above, and you’ll get bonus points from the parents who will be happiest with a solution that is easiest for them.
Enforce Late Payment Penalties
No one likes late fees. Parents don’t like to pay them, and Directors and Owners don’t love giving them. However, enforcing them sets a boundary for your parents and lets them know that not paying a bill isn’t acceptable.
Additionally, if using a system to accept parent payments, it’s worth checking out one that has an automatic late fee feature. This helps to take some of the responsibility off your plate. Let your parents know if they are more than 24 hours late (or whatever time frame you allow), that a late fee will automatically be added to their bill and processed when they pay.
Setting that expectation up front means your parents won’t be surprised by late fees and you’ll feel less guilty implementing and enforcing them.
Require or Incentivize for Auto-payment
Allowing parents to autopay has become a necessity. Not only does that mean regular, recurring revenue for your center (with no follow up required on your part!), but it’s also the easiest solution for the parent. Many adults prefer to pay most bills by autopay, so they know they aren’t late and are on top of all of their bills.
Consider requiring autopay enrollment for all parents or offering an incentive to parents who set it up. We’ve seen centers do a small discount on tuition for parents enrolling in autopay or a small increase in tuition for parents who don’t enroll in autopay. You’ll know what will work best for your parents.
Once you’ve set up a system to manage your parent payments, along with automatic late payment fees and most of your parents are on autopay, you should be able to sit back and relax knowing that no revenue is getting lost in the cracks.
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