The most significant expense for childcare providers is labor, typically representing 70% of your budget. How much of that goes toward billing? 

There is no successful business without a budget. A childcare business, in particular, has high costs due to licensing requirements, labor costs, and location-specific costs. Monitoring your income and spend lets you plan ahead and identify unnecessary expenses you can safely remove from your spending.

Manually administering the payment circle can leave you with unpaid invoices, payments that fail to make it to the bank, and missed late fees. It just takes too much time and effort to keep up with billing, invoicing, and payment processing.

Daycare.com states that one of the most common problems childcare facilities face is nonpayment. Issues occur most often when operators allow families leniency in paying bills, which seems like the right thing to do when money is tight, but actually harms the business in the long run.

Over half of childcare providers reported losing money by staying open during the pandemic. Just under half reported taking on debt using a personal credit card to pay for supplies and other necessities. 

After months of waiting, the US Congress is finally moving on additional pandemic relief for small businesses, including childcare. $10 billion in Child Care Development Block Grant Funds (CCDBG) has been approved to reduce family copays and tuition plus other childcare provider expenses related to COVID-19 restrictions.

Federal funding is a major resource for afterschool programs in the United States. One of the most extensive programs, the 21st Century Community Learning Centers (CCLC) initiative, has been under fire in recent years by an administration intent on cutting educational funding programs. 

While federal funding isn’t the only resource for afterschool grants, it has the broadest impact. Many communities rely on it, especially in financially disadvantaged areas. Both rural and urban youth populations need a safe place to be in the afterschool hours. Research shows these programs decrease crime in the area as well as improve student achievement.

There is no doubt that afterschool programs are beneficial to students, parents, and the community. However, many programs are supported by grants and, while it has always been challenging to run an afterschool program in many areas of the country, grant-funded programs seem to struggle the most.

Your ability to maintain and grow your childcare business relies on your ability to obtain payment for your services. Regardless of the economic status of your clients or any reason they may have for paying you late or not at all, you need a steady cash flow to meet your own obligations.

While providing childcare can mean lots of fun and games, at the end of the day it is a business. Keeping track of billing and payment is part of the job if you want the business to stay in the black.