It is never fun having to chase parents to collect daycare fees, but there are some things you can do to help make fee collection easier for everyone.
Collecting payments from parents can be one of the biggest challenges for daycare providers. It can be unpleasant to ask for tuition to be paid, and consistently remind parents to get their payments in on time. Luckily, there are ways that you can improve the daycare payment collection process and make it simpler for you and your staff members to collect the money you are owed. Read more here to learn about child care management.
Here are our essential tips for streamlining your process for collecting daycare payments:
1. Make Sure Your Policies are Clear
Ensure that your policies and schedules around collecting daycare payments are clear and well-communicated to your staff and your parents. Be strict in enforcing your policies at all times and make no exceptions.
2. Stay On Top of It
If a parent makes a late payment and you do not mention it, they may start to believe that late payments are acceptable. Make sure that you remind parents that their daycare payment is late as soon as they start to fall behind. The longer you wait to communicate with them, the harder it will be for the parent to get caught up with their payments, and it will become increasingly difficult to get your full payments.
3. Be Present on Payment Day
On the day that payment is due, make yourself present at drop-off and pick-up times. Without the presence of the daycare payment “collector”, some parents could forget or altogether avoid making their payment.
4. Set Up Automated Payments
If possible, arrange for parents to pay tuition via an automated payment process. This makes it extremely simple to collect payment as it will be deducted directly from a debit or credit. Automating this collection process will also make it easier on you and your staff when collection time comes.
Did you know? HiMama’s childcare software can help automate your payments for you! Ask us how.
5. Charge Late Fees
Naturally, parents will want to avoid incurring any extra fees when it comes to their daycare payments. By charging late fees, you’ll minimize the number of late payments you have to chase after. Implementing late fees provides an incentive for parents to get their payments to you in a timely manner.
