Daycare payments should be easy to collect, process, and track. This ensures simplicity for your families and allows you to focus on the most important aspect of your business: the kids. In this post, we’ll discuss what you should look for in a daycare payment system, as well as how to set up a childcare tuition policy.
Get Started With Daycare Payments
Whether you own a daycare, preschool, or early learning center, you do it because you want to invest in the health and well-being of community children. Keeping track of your finances is crucial to your success as well. When daycare payments are easy to make, families will be happier, and referrals could follow.
A solid daycare payment software and system can help you organize your finances. Ready to get started? Here’s the features to look for as you begin searching for a solution.
Payments made easy
Parents and caregivers nowadays are strapped for time. After a long day at work, picking up the kids from daycare should be quick and easy. They shouldn’t have to fumble over a checkbook and your employees shouldn’t have to facilitate the transaction.
This is where online payments come in. Allow your families to make payments anywhere, any time, using the form of payment they prefer, whether that’s a credit card or a direct deposit from their checking account.
What’s more, they need the ability to set it and forget it. Recurring billing schedules are a game changer when it comes to daycare payments. This technology allows parents to automatically remain in compliance with your childcare tuition policy and pay without a thought. The money will be charged or taken out of their account on a routine basis, and your business gets paid on-time, every time.
How are you accepting payments?
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Multiple daycare payment options
Parents should have options when it comes to making payments. This makes it easier for you to get paid without chasing down an invoice. There are three ways you should allow your families to make daycare payments:
- Online: Make it easy for your families to add payment information into a simple online payment form. This may be for one-time or recurring payments, as well as payment plans. Customers should be able to choose between using a credit/debit card or eChecks through ACH payment processing.
- Mobile: As always, your online payment experience should be accessible and optimized for mobile payments. If your website or online payment form is difficult to use when accessed on a mobile phone then you are at risk of losing a payment. By using a daycare payment system that is optimized for mobile, you won’t ever have to worry about this area.
- In person: A mobile app allows you to take an in-person payment quickly, securely, and on the spot whenever needed. It also allows you to accommodate families who do not want to pay online. With a solution like PaySimple, you can automatically sync mobile app payments with online payments coming in. Your parents will love the flexibility and you’ll have one solution to track all daycare payments in a single view.
Focused on security
Regardless of how you accept payments, you will undoubtedly have confidential information in your hands. With data breaches and identity theft on the rise, it is essential to protect your customers. Store any personal data and payment information securely with every precaution possible.
The software you choose should offer powerful security and encryptions to protect this information. Look for a solution that ensures PCI compliance at every step of the transaction. Doing so will ensure your clients’ information remains safe no matter how they decide to pay.
Integrated customer management
For bustling daycares, it’s important to have a daycare payment system that also securely handles customer information. You should have access to important contact details at a moment’s notice, from addresses to telephone numbers and emails. With this information in your daycare payment system, you won’t need to keep it on file somewhere written down or in a spreadsheet.
Furthermore, best daycare payment software will also allow you to integrate this information with other tools like email marketing. For example, PaySimple integrates with Constant Contact and MailChip to provide daycare businesses with the ability to email parents and collect payments all within one solution. If you ever needed to send out important information to families, promote a seasonal discount, communicate upcoming schedule changes, then integrated customer management is the solution.
What Should Our Daycare Payment Policy Include?
Once you have a daycare payment system in place, you can move forward with creating a daycare payment policy. An initial contract signed by both parties is an important part of enrolling children in your daycare. This document should provide extensive details to ensure there are no misunderstandings moving forward, especially regarding your payment policies.
Within your policy, list all of the available payment methods you can now accept and how to proceed with each one. Remember, the more details, the better. Parents should have a clear view of how to make payments, whether that is through your website or in person using a card reader. Next, think about any credit card merchant fees or late payments. You will need to disclose what these are and how much they will cost.
Finally, think about scheduling. When will tuition be due? Will parents have the option of setting up a payment plan? For example, some may prefer to make payments every other week instead of once per month. Try to offer flexibility while still maintaining an appropriate policy for late fees. Include additional information about your hours of operation and holiday closures.
This document is an important way to foster a good relationship with each family moving forward. As always, it’s best to consult with an attorney when drafting a childcare contract to ensure it is legally sound.
Explore Our Daycare Payment Software
When it comes to accepting daycare payments, there are so many options available. The key is to meet your customers where they are and make the process as simple as possible. Families want a system that is reliable, secure, and ready to use 24/7.
For the best daycare payment software, choose PaySimple. Our solution offers small business payment options for one low monthly price, with no contracts and no cancellation fees. You’ll enjoy access to many of these online payment options, like credit card payments, ACH, recurring billing, and email invoicing, under one simple platform.
No more juggling multiple systems; it’s payments made simple.
Are you ready to expand your daycare payment options?
