7 Best Daycare Accounting Software (2024)

Although it is a responsibility of each of us to be available to our children, it is not possible to be with them always. At times, you have to spend some time away may be at work so that you can provide all the necessities. This doesn’t mean that you we don’t love them. If you live alone or your spouse has commitments, leaving a child alone is impossible. For this reason, daycare facilities are available virtually everywhere to provide tender loving care. These facilities offer virtually everything you can do to your child, including feeding, age-appropriate play, and education.

To add to these, software developers have come up with softwares to help you track your child’s progress throughout. With such softwares, you will feel the parent-child connection even though you are far away. Here are the best daycare softwares;

Upfront Conclusion

The best daycare accounting software right now is Illumine Software and Sandbox.

Illumine Software: The ultimate daycare software for beginners
Sandbox: The best tracking daycare software
LifeCubby: best daycare software for preschools, childcare centers, NAEYC programs, and home-based providers
Brightwheel: Best Software for Daycare directors, teachers, and ECE providers
Kangarootime: The best daycare software for tender age children
Daycare: The best management software for daycare centers
Procare online: Best daycare software for corporate providers

1. Illumine Software: The ultimate daycare software for beginners

The price starting package for Illumine is $0.50 per month.

Illumine is one of the daycare software with comprehensive childcare management systems for daycare providers. It makes it easier for parents and guardians to stay connected with their children. With Illumine, you can track what children are doing throughout their stay in a daycare facility.

Features

The app care shares the child’s progress throughout the day.
It allows the recording of live events.
If your child is on a bus, you can track the bust location.
You can view photos of fun activities.
It has a teacher-parent communication feature.

Reasons to choose Illumine

Illumine is cheap
It has all the features that modern daycare software should have.
You can track everything your child does throughout the day. You can know when they sleep, eat and everything. In addition, whenever they are in transit, you can track the location of the bus.
It is easy to navigate and has a very customer friendly support team—the parent portal is informative, has good organization, and has a visually appealing design.

Why you should not choose Illumine

It has a minor breakdowns that you can quickly solve by contacting the support team.
Suppose you send a message, but you think it’s inappropriate; you can neither delete nor edit it.
There is no option to enable both parents send messages.

2. Sandbox: The best tracking daycare software

Price: has a starter package of $59 a month.

This is a daycare software solution for tracking daycare activities, including schedules and payments. For parents, it is a good tool the maintaining child-parent connection.

Features

It sends automatic timely invoices to parents.
Account management feature where parents can easily manage account details.
You can print receipts or sort invoice issues through the software.
It has a customer relationship management (CRM) tool.
It has a complete inventory management feature

Reasons why you should choose Sandbox

The registration process is straightforward, even for old parents.
There are timely notifications on day-to-day activities.
Through the app, the care worker can access emergency contact information.
With Sandbox, daycare facilities can keep automated records for future reference.
Sandbox sends automatic payment invoices.
It has an outstanding customer service team.
Sandbox is easy to navigate.

Why shouldn’t you Choose Sandbox?

Sandbox software is costly.

3. LifeCubby- best daycare software for preschools, childcare centers, NAEYC programs, and home-based providers

Pricing: The cost of LifeCubby is $30 per month.

LifeCubby is an exclusive childcare software. Since its development, childcare collaboration between parents, providers, and an administrator has been straightforward—the software work on both android and iOS platforms.

Features

It has a digital check-in and check-out feature.
Parents and teachers can do live messages throughout.
With LifeCubby. Parents can track immunization and allergy histories to take the appropriate interventions.
There is a nutrition management tool for ensuring children are feeding on the appropriate food forage.

Reasons you should choose LifeCubby

It allows nutrition monitoring.
There is a full teacher-parent connection via messages.
It allows parents to monitor child immunization and allergic reactions.
There is a free trial period.
Parents can view photos of children’s activities.

Why shouldn’t you choose LifeCubby?

LifeCubby is confusing to some users. It has several options in one tab with information that you can’t consume at ago. Again, there may be delays in sending messages.

4. Brightwheel- Best Software for Daycare directors, teachers, and ECE providers

Price

The cost of BrightWheel is $15 per month. However, it has a free trial and a free version.

It is a cloud-based software that manages communication, payments, bills, and schedules. In terms of classwork, it enables tutors to share class recordings with parents, which reduces the burden of a lot of paperwork.

Features

Has performance tracking
It has a messaging feature that maintains constant communication between parents and daycare workers.
BrightWheel has an attendance tracking feature.
Lastly, it can create alerts and reminders to daycare workers and parents on what they need to do next.

Reasons to choose BrightWheel

It is relatively cheaper than other daycare softwares.
It has a free trial and versions.
BrightWheel is reliable.
It offers live event tracking through pictures.

The reason why you should not choose BrightWheel

Although BrightWheel is generally good, some users feel that it uploads many pictures.
At times, users fail to get timely notifications in case of a message; therefore, they may not respond in time.

5. Kangarootime: The best daycare software for tender age children

Price: has a free trial plan and a distinct subscription plan.

Kangarootime is a childcare platform for managing child activities, schedules, and expenses in real-time. It is a top-notch all-around platform that enables daycare centers and parents to participate wholesomely in the care of children. With Kangarootime, you can make payments, manage the business and maintain communication from a daycare giver to a parent and vice versa. It makes it easier to run a business through a computer, phone, or tablet.

Features

It offers a different portal for parents
Has document management feature
It has a self-check-in and check-out feature.
Offer nutrition support.

Reasons to choose Kangarootime

It is easy to bill and invoice.
It offers a different portal for a guardian or parent.
Offer nutritional support.

Reasons to avoid Kangarootime

Kangarootime sends a lot of message notifications that can be bothersome to many.

6. Zaycare – The best management software for daycare centers

Pricing: the starting plan is $50 per month.

Zaycare makes day-to-day activities in schools and daycare facilities easy. It applies a user-friendly feature that you can manage with virtually every device from anywhere. With Zaycare, you can track school attendance, grades, schedules, and attendance.

Features

Compliance management
Progress reporting
Can send payment receipts
Has automatic check-in and check-out features
You can track tasks throughout the day

Reasons to choose Zaycare

Buying Zaycare has several advantages, including;

A customer-friendly support team.
Reasonable pricing plan.
It has an easy-to-use site.

Reasons not to choose Zaycare

Has minor system breakages
Although not too expensive, its price plan is still higher than other softwares.

7. Procare online – Best daycare software for corporate providers

Price: has a distinct free and paid version

Procare is the ultimate facility and classroom software suitable for facilities with multiple classrooms and teachers.

Features

Keeps records for food programs
Has activity tracking
Procare has an electronic signature feature

Reasons to choose Procare online

It is suitable for schools with many classrooms and teachers.
Procare has food program records that we can use to monitor growth.

Reason not to choose Procare

It is too expense
It is not very user-friendly.

FAQS

What do you look for in a daycare software?

Although there are several good daycare software on the market today, it is good to buy one with all the following features;

A parent’s portal
A child care portal
A schedule management feature
An attendance tracking software
A teacher and parent communication feature
Automated tuition payments and child care accounting feature
A developmental milestone tracking feature
A user-friendly portal
Lastly, the software has different pricing plans; thus, choose the software you can afford to pay for without inconvenience.

What are the essential features of a daycare software?

A good daycare software must have the ability to enhance all the following;

Attendance
Analytics
Staff management
Office administration

What is the significance of daycare software?

Daycare software improves productivity and performance in daycare facilities in several ways;

It improves the morale of daycare workers. Since some of their tasks are performed by the software, they have more time to do tasks that the software can’t handle.
The software automates all paper and pen tasks.
It creates more time for daycare staff to spend with children.
A daycare software strengthens the connection between daycare facilities or schools with homes with promotes family happiness.
Daycare facilities offer deeper insights into child progress and development.

What is a daycare facility do?

A daycare facility, also known as a day nursery, is a facility that provides care and supervision for infants and children during the day when their parents are busy at work. The daycare facility offers tender loving care, including an age-appropriate play that is crucial for proper growth and development. In addition, they offer education and catering services for children; in summary, they offer everything a parent provides at home.