Improving your childcare business may seem like an impossible task. However, there are simple solutions that can greatly improve your business without expending too many resources. For example, a CCMS, or childcare management system, can help you manage and organize each aspect of your childcare business while helping you grow your center. With features like digital daily logs, staff scheduling, automated billing and invoicing, and more, you can manage your staff, engage with parents, and save time and money. This results in increased staff and parent satisfaction, therefore improving your business, adding value, and increasing enrollment.
In this article, we’ll outline the major ways that tools like a CCMS can improve your center and grow your business.
1) Save Time on Administrative Tasks
At your center, you’re probably spending countless hours managing and processing invoices, communicating with parents, organizing documents, recording daily notes, etc. An effective way to save time and money is by automating these processes through a childcare management software (CCMS). A CCMS like Kangarootime can not only save you hours each week but can also help you stay organized so you can focus on more important things—like the children in your care. At Kangarootime, we’ve found that users who used to spend eight hours a week on billing alone now only spend 1-2 hours at most. Automatic billing and invoicing eliminates room for error and also alleviates the stress of chasing down payments from families. Automating billing along with other processes is a huge time saver and also helps increase efficiency while reducing administrative costs.
2) Stay More Organized
Organization is key to having your childcare center run smoothly. With so many kids, classes, teachers, and rooms, it can be difficult to keep track of it all. Using a tool like a childcare management system allows you to manage documents and keep your records digitally. Within the software, you can store and update enrollment packets, allergy information, tax documents, attendance rosters, and more. By storing your documents in one place, they stay secure and are easily accessible. This also eliminates the need for paper which cuts down on clutter and reduces waste.
Another tool that can greatly benefit your business and improve organization at your center is a CRM. For example, LineLeader by ChildcareCRM will allow you to easily manage leads, prepare for upcoming tours, streamline your enrollment process, and more. By eliminating friction at your center, you’re more likely to increase enrollment, improve parent satisfaction, and improve your overall business. Before even starting your childcare business - you likely developed your daycare target market. Remember, you're marketing to today's Millennial parents.
3) Increase Parent Satisfaction
Parent satisfaction is crucial for a successful childcare business. The parents, guardians, and other family members of the children in your care love staying up to date on what their little one is doing. Through photos and daily notes, they’re able to get a glimpse into their child’s day, therefore increasing parent engagement. However, this can take your staff hours per week if done manually. By investing in a CCMS, you’ll have access to parent engagement features like a parent app, digital daily notes, online photo sharing, messaging, and more. Not only does this keep parents involved but it also makes it easier to communicate important information. These parent engagement features are a huge value add for your center and have become expected over the years. With added engagement features leading to higher parent satisfaction, you’re more likely to increase positive reviews and word-of-mouth marketing for your center thereby increasing enrollment.
4) Effectively Manage Your Staff
Manually managing your staff can be extremely difficult when it comes to scheduling, time-off requests, payroll, etc. A CCMS can make it easier to manage your staff and give them the tools to perform their job to the best of their ability. Certain childcare softwares, like Kangarootime, have the capabilities to allow you to schedule your staff, monitor breaks, approve time off, and more. This makes it easier for your staff to see when and where they are scheduled while monitoring their overall hours. A CCMS also makes it easy to manage payroll by allowing you to export your employees’ hours to your third party payroll provider. Staff play a crucial role in the overall value and success of their business. By making the work experience positive, you’re more likely to attract high-quality employees and families at your center.
5) Improve Classroom Management
Keeping track of staff and children, monitoring ratios, and managing classrooms is a top priority for center owners and directors. Use childcare management software to better manage your classrooms and oversee your center. With a CCMS like Kangarootime, you get a glimpse into each space at your center including where each child and staff member is in order to better monitor ratios. You can also see key information, like allergies, and record important daily notes. This saves you and your staff time, keeps your center organized, and creates a better experience for teachers and parents.
Kangarootime and LineLeader Integrate to Help You Achieve More with Less Work
Kangarootime is an all-in-one CCMS that comes with automatic billing and invoicing, a robust parent app, contactless check-in, classroom management tools, and more. For a high-level overview of our features, click here. If you have a friend or a loved one that needs a firm foundation to know how to start a childcare business, check out our daycare business plan for essential growth and start-up tips.
