Prepay Tuition? Or Do You Get Paid At The End Of The Week?

[kidkair]

What is MMK? I'm just starting up my daycare, and we have a few months before I get that all set up. I will definitely want to have an accounting program to keep everything documented, but was just going to use Excel. I also plan to do a food program, once I get licensed and can set that all up!

MMK is Minute Menu Kids. Many food programs use it and you can get information from them before you are licensed. I actually had my food program person come for a visit before I was licensed and just had to send in a copy of my license when I got.

[MyKzooFamily]

For everyone that does prepay, how do you work sick days or absent days?

They have already paid for a full week, so do they still pay even if they are home sick or have something come up and can't make it in?

When I was working, this was hard for me. If I had to stay home with my son, I didn't get paid at work, yet I was still paying for daycare. And it really stunk if I had to pay a back-up sitter AND still pay for daycare.

But.. at the same time.. then you would have lots of parents taking days off, and your income would be all over the place crazy. That is why I was thinking of a cheap prepaid amount, and then a more expensive amount due at the end of the week if they chose to pay that way.

However.. since the majority here is prepay.. and there are lots of good reasons to it.. maybe I should stick with that.

[Blackcat31]

5 day a week kids get one sick day per month (I credit them back their daily rate) and sick days do not roll over into next month.

4 day a week kids get 1 sick day per 60 days

3 days a week get zero sick days.

My tuition is weekly and payable 52 weeks a year.

[bice99]

My families get 1 week at 1/2 rate for every six months they are here. It has to be taken as a calendar week with one month's notice. It's credited the month following in case plans fall through for some reason. It shouldn't affect my ability to pay my bills if they decide to take a long weekend getaway or something. I take all stat. holidays paid. When I do take 1 or 2 weeks off in the summer, I credit them the following month. I have 5 paid days that I can take with or without notice. After that, I credit them a day's pay for any days I take. Credits always happen the month after the closed day.

[MyKzooFamily]

5 day a week kids get one sick day per month (I credit them back their daily rate) and sick days do not roll over into next month.

Great idea! I need to start working on getting my handbook put together.

[MyKzooFamily]

What holiday days do you close?

[Blackcat31]

What holiday days do you close?

I PM'ed you

[Ariana]

I don't do prepay but I do post dated cheques. That way I do have the $$ in my hand so to speak. No post dated cheques then no care. I get paid for all holidays and 5 personal and 5 sick days. I also get 4 weeks (20 days vacation) but I give the parents enough notice so we can recalculate cheques based on my vacay. I don't get paid for vacation.

[Countrygal]

Both..... Does that sound wishy-washy or what???

They are allowed to pay on the final day of the week, however, if they prepay for the month they receive a pretty good discount. The discount for prepay is only for regularly scheduled dcfamilies. Not for extremely part timers. They must be a minimum of 20 hrs per week and on a regular schedule to take advantage of the discount.

Still working it all out though. So far this is working for me, but ask me again in a year! ::

[AmyLeigh]

My situation is different. One family pays on Tuesdays for that week of care cuz that is when dcm gets paid. One family pays on Fridays following the week of care, and the third is state pay, so I get paid when the state decides to send me a check.
I have no problems with this arrangement. These families are long time friends and I know all of their employers, extended family members, church members, etc. They would have to leave the country to burn me on payment!
One was late on a regular basis (she would forget her checkbook) until I told her I would have to add a late pay fee because I was getting bank fees due to her money not being in my account on time. Now, the check in diaper bag every Friday morning!

[kidkair]

They pay for every week that I am open. I try for two solid weeks off a year so they pay for 50 weeks a year. Part timers pay for their days whether I'm open or not as long as I'm open that week (i.e. a MW part timer still pays for Labor day). They all pay if they take a separate week off from me. I've not yet had anyone argue about it though I did have some argue when I tried to go to getting my full week vacations paid so I dropped that and will add it back in once I have more years under my belt and then it'll just be for new clients.

[Sunchimes]

I have a mixture.
One pays me in advance for the next 2 weeks.

One gets paid every 2 weeks. She was paying me in advance, but she changed jobs and the pay periods got really messed up, so it worked out that she pays me for the week past and the week ahead. I just got around to doing a handbook, and I told her I'd like to work it out so that she is paying ahead. I think we are going to work out some sort of payment plan until she is paid 2 weeks ahead. I'm not really worrying about it though. I've been working along with her as she went through some tough times. I don't think she'd cheat me unless things hit rock bottom, and if they did, I'm not going to be the bad guy with a single mother having a crisis. She's doing the best she can, and sometimes, we need to give each other a little lift.

The other is drop in right now, but after her maternity leave is over, she's going to paying in advance for 3 days, and paying at the end of the week for anything over the 3 days.

[CheekyChick]

Prepay here.

[bunnyslippers]

Payment is always due the first day of care. No care without that payment the very first day. I had a family my first year that would forget to pay, then stay home the rest of the week, then forget again the next week, then skip a few days...It was a nightmare. I had to keep a running tally of what they owed me, and then chase them for it.

Don't feel as if you are asking for payment before the job is complete. You have weekly expenses that need to be covered, based on the children you have scheduled for the week: groceries, craft supplies, cleaning supplies, wipes, etc. It is necessary to be paid in advance to cover these expenses.

I also included a statement in my both my handbook and my contract:
Payment is due the first day of care each week. Please do not make me ask you for payment. It is uncomfortable for me and embarrassing for you. I will charge late fees for every day that payment is late, and will terminate care if it happens more than twice.

[Meeko]

"I will write that late payments are NOT allowed, and if a payment is not made on time, I will immediately discontinue childcare for their children at that time."


Too many parents won't care. They'll hop to the next day care that will take payment in arrears and get a free week or so from them too......