Tuition Billing, Subsidy Portions and Late-Pickup Fees for Daycares

Operational workflows

Payment challenges

• The parent only pays part of the fee

  Once a subsidy covers the rest, the amount charged to the family is not the centre's rate and has to be billed apart from it.

• Siblings at different rates

  Two or three children in different age groups generate different amounts that still have to reconcile to one household.

• A stalled cycle is an occupied spot

  Places are capped, so a mid-cycle billing question has to be resolved without the centre putting the child's place in question.

Choose the right payment setup for Childcare & Daycare

• Choose daycare payment processing

  For Childcare & Daycare, map booking, the appointment, and follow-up, sign-up, scheduled billing, and renewal, and online checkout and remote payment before choosing a setup. Select channels that match those moments, then confirm that the chosen solution genuinely covers each channel.

• Payment hardware for Childcare & Daycare

  For Childcare & Daycare, physical hardware may be secondary to the checkout flow. Prioritize gateway or payment-page requirements first, then add a terminal only when an in-person payment point is genuinely needed.

• Compare payment processing fees

  For Childcare & Daycare, request a written fee breakdown covering scheduled billing, declined cards, and cancellations and online checkout and dispute handling. Compare the effective cost across the real card and channel mix; do not choose on a headline rate alone.

• Set up or switch Childcare & Daycare payments

  To set up Childcare & Daycare payments, document the checkout, confirmation, and refund path and deposit and post-appointment payment rules, confirm compatibility before purchase, then test a real payment flow before going live.

How this gets set up

• Parent portion set apart from the subsidy

  Enrolment starts by charging only what the family owes once the subsidy covers its share, so the recurring amount matches the parent's statement.

• Cycle matched to the centre, monthly or biweekly

  The tuition charge is dated to the centre's own cycle, whether that is the first of the month or every second Friday.

• Registration deposit and supply fees invoiced

  The one-time deposit and any annual supply or field-trip fee go out as invoices instead of being folded into tuition.

• Late-pickup fees added to the family record

  A late pickup is billed as its own line on the family profile, which keeps an awkward conversation at the door out of the tuition charge.

Integrations

• HiMama

  A family's HiMama account shows tuition settled for the period the charge covers, beside the daily reports parents already read.

• Procare

  Tuition ledgers in Procare clear as each cycle's charge lands, including a late-pickup fee added mid-period.

• Xero

  Tuition, deposits and fee income post into Xero on separate accounts for the centre's monthly reporting.

Operations, security and going live

• Reporting per child, billing per family

  Siblings sit under one family profile while each child carries their own tuition line, which is how a centre answers a parent asking what they are paying for.

• Cards refreshed so a cycle does not stall

  Account updater replaces an expired or reissued card before the next tuition run, so staff are not chasing a parent at drop-off.

• No card details in the enrolment binder

  The card sits tokenized against the family profile, not written on the paper enrolment form in the office cabinet.

• Intake month as the go-live date

  Onboarding is timed to a September or January intake so families set up payment once, with the rest of the paperwork.

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