Here at Connect Childcare, our mission is to help settings streamline operations and save valuable time spent on admin tasks – eliminating the lengthy paperwork headache for good.
One key area our nursery management software targets is invoicing and payments – often one of the most complex and time-consuming tasks for groups.
For too long, payments and nursery management software have been kept separate, leading to disconnected processes, wasted time and missed opportunities. So, we brought them together with the introduction of Connect Cashflow.
We recently spoke with Liz Debenham, CEO at Wizard Nursery Group – a group of four childcare settings across Peterborough, Northampton and Ibstock which employs 46 early years educators.
The Wizard team was using legacy software for billing, which Liz described as “hopeless”.
The manual reconciliation of statements and other nursery operations took up more valuable time, and this approach wasn’t sustainable operationally or financially.
As a result, Wizard decided to overhaul its approach and make the switch to a reliable, digital and automated solution.
The group has integrated our contactless payments feature, which means that all parent payments made through the ParentZone app go directly into Wizard’s bank account – and they’re automatically reconciled against each customer profile.
This new technology has eliminated the need for the in-nursery card reader, which was an additional cost to the business.
But it’s not just payments the team needed to streamline. The team also spent hours each week completing learning journals by hand, and as a result of everything living in a different file or spreadsheet, it was difficult for the nursery to track children’s progress effectively.
The group now uses our full management, observation and communication suite.
With four sites to manage, the team now finds running the nurseries much more streamlined.
Everything is in one place, and all settings are aligned in how they operate. Liz said:
“Connect’s software gives us a greater, more accurate, understanding of the business.
“It enables us to better track child progress, monitors overall business performance, converts enquiries and build better relationships with parents.
“My favourite feature is the reporting and ‘today’ screen. You can put your selected widgets on there and see all the important information at a glance – occupancy levels, staff required, fees and bad debt, to name a few.
“It offers a complete window into the organisation.
“We’ve worked with Connect for almost a decade and we’ve never looked back.
“During our first-ever demo, we were so impressed with the innovative ideas and passion the team had – their ethos matched with ours and it was a natural fit – and we still feel the same way today.”
Connect Childcare is running an Easter Special offer until the end of April. Book a demo and quote #TEY20 for 20% off throughout April. Offer ends April 30th 2022.
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