earlyyears.teachwire.net
63
nursery business
5 WAYS SOFTWARE
CAN BOOST YOUR
EFFICIENCY
2
Taking the high-tech approach to nursery management
can save you time and money, says
Chris Reid...
Unanticipated phone calls or
drop-ins from prospective
parents can often catch you
out in terms of your ability to
confirm whether or not you
have a place available for a
child from a certain date. Advanced
enquiry modules in nursery management software
mean you can access this information instantly, and
run key reports on your future occupancy levels
and income streams. Having this information to
hand means you will never turn down a potential
customer because of the wrong data.
A
s well as needing the passion to help children achieve their potential and reassure
parents, today’s nursery owners and managers need to be accountants, business
development managers and HR specialists – all while keeping up to date with the
latest Ofsted requirements. This can make leading a setting a stressful undertaking, but
the latest developments in nursery management software can help to streamline the
way your nursery operates, saving you time and money.
Account management and payment processing functions and communications,
enquiry and staffing modules can all be combined to revolutionise the way you
manage the running of your setting day to day and plan for the future – here are just
some of the key ways software can boost your nursery’s efficiency...
CONNECT CHILDCARE IS A SPECIALIST PROVIDER OF INNOVATIVE
NURSERY MANAGEMENT SOLUTIONS THAT TAKE THE HEADACHE
OUT OF ALL ASPECTS OF NURSERY ADMINISTRATION. FOR
MORE INFORMATION, CALL
0844 37 111 37
, EMAIL
INFO@
CONNECTCHILDCARE.CO.UK
OR VISIT
CONNECTCHILDCARE.CO.UK
Staff planning
Keeping your staff up to date with essential training
qualifications and DBS checks is a full-time job in itself, but
nursery management software can keep track of each individual staff
member’s training needs, their performance reviews and qualifications,
and can help you to quickly produce weekly or monthly staff rotas
and holiday lists, ensuring you always meet staff:child ratios.
4
Parents partnerships
Working with parents is key to the success of any nursery, but it is often
difficult to communicate important information to them when they are
rushing off to work, or picking their children up. Management software
can solve this by enabling you to send out newsletters, invoices,
statements and information packs. This communication could be
through an email or text message, and not only does it make it easier
for you to send messages out, it is also more likely to be read and taken
note of because mums and dads can access it in their own time.
GRANT MANAGEMENT
Whether children are entitled to 15 hours or 30
hours of funded childcare, and from the age
of two or three, it can be difficult to correctly
invoice parents for their unfunded hours and to
monitor how much you should be claiming back
from the government. Grant modules included in software
can automatically calculate all of your early years funding
and provide you with headcount reports instantly. This is
something that will become more important for nurseries
when the level of funded hours increases to 30 in 2017.
Financial
management
Nursery management software can
incorporate payment and billing
reporting tools, forecasts, targets
and bank reconciliation functions
to dramatically reduce the time your staff
spend chasing late payments. Data can
be exported into financial packages at the
click of a button, and it makes it easier for
parents to settle their invoices at any time
of day or night. For nurseries operating
over more than one site, managers can
access financial information for one
nursery or the whole chain quickly and
easily, making it simple to run reports as
and when they are needed.
5
1
3
FUTURE
PROJECTION
Chris Reid is the CEO and owner
of Connect Childcare.
