There are a lot of moving parts to operating a childcare facility. Between selecting a location to start a facility to tracking meals and monitoring finances, you can feel pulled in a dozen directions at once.

Every bit as important as a child's address, phone number, and attendance history is his or her immunization record. Not only is storing up-to-date immunization records required by state law, but you also need a way to show prospective clients that you have the best interests of their children in mind.

Every childcare center should have an emergency plan to address and mitigate risks. Since childcare is regulated by the state, you should verify the requirements for your facility.

In 2011, a survey by Edutopia.org found that an online parent portal was the second most desired ways parents wanted to receive news from their children’s school. At the time, nearly half logged in once or twice a week while another quarter of the parents surveyed checked in three to five times per week.

Meal tracking is an essential part of childcare management, particularly if your facility participates in government reduced lunch programs or other subsidized programs. The federal government leaves it to the states to administer federal programs, which simplifies filing for you but still makes you responsible for keeping track of all meals served to your kids.

Every morning and every afternoon the great parent stampede occurs. In the morning, parents line up to sign in their children so they can rush off to work. In the afternoon, they line up to sign out their children so they can rush home to fix dinner.

One of the most difficult challenges in running any business is managing the employees. Turnover in the childcare industry is one of the highest across all business segments and is an ongoing problem for childcare services.

Childcare management software is probably the best thing since sliced bread for running any childcare business. Just think what sliced bread did to speed up PB&J sandwich production. On top of spending time with the kids, their parents, and your staff, there are numerous other tasks to manage -- from activity enrollment and scheduling to newsletters and communication with parents.

If you are in the market for a new childcare management solution, you have plenty of options available. There is software for almost any business size, some with seemingly endless bells and whistles (also known as features), and others that look extremely simple to operate. You can choose from cloud-based solutions or installed (on-premise) software.

Whether you operate a daycare center, an after school program, or any other type of childcare service, there's a solution for you.

Customer satisfaction is a powerful driver of customer retention and customer loyalty. For childcare businesses, measuring and improving customer satisfaction is a two-pronged activity – the children are the receivers of the service, but the parents have the determination of facility.