The Best Daycare Software

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As a Daycare Owner, professional and convenient software is important to manage your facility’s daily administration tasks. From managing children’s attendance to billing parents for childcare costs, you need a software that can do it all for you.

The best software you can use for your daycare includes

  1. Brightwheel
  2. EZCare
  3. Hi Momma
  4. Pro Care
  5. SmartCare

  6. Brightwheel


Brightwheel is trusted and supported by notable names such as Business Insider, CNBC, Tech Crunch, and Shark Tank. On their homepage, input your personal information and statistics about your daycare such as enrollment capacity and the center type. Once you provide your information, you can schedule a free demo of the Brightwheel software to see how it can benefit your daycare operations.

Features

  • Manage children’s attendance.
  • Electronically bill parents.
  • Have new families enroll their children at your daycare using Brightwheel.
  • Communicate with parents and guardians using the Brightwheel app.

Pros

  • Automate your childcare billing statements.
  • Parents can use a QR check-in code to check their children into class.
  • Can send all parents an announcement at the same time about school closings, center activities, and more.
  • Easy to digitize important newsletters to conveniently send to parents.

Cons

  • Would need to get a QR scanner for each classroom in your facility to support the check-in code capabilities.
  • Not all parents and guardians may have a smartphone to do the QR check-in.

  1. EZCare


Supported by the National After School Associate, NAEYC, and Association for Early Learning Leaders EZCare rolls all your administration tasks into one easy-to-use software. You can sign up for a free trial on their homepage.

Features

  • Easy to bill childcare tuition to parents and receive your weekly payments.
  • An online parent portal that can be accessed on a computer or smartphone.
  • For employees: a scheduling tool to make sure your daycare is within the mandated teacher to child ratio.
  • Variety of reports available such as schedules, birthday lists for the kids in the daycare, classroom rosters, and more!

Pros

  • Parents can use the EZ Smiles app to access the parent portal as long as you use EZCare software.
  • Reports are easy to navigate and divided into 4 main categories with a number of sub categories accordingly.
  • EZView features help you to see reports the way you want to see them. You can save these reports to refer back to using your preferred layout.
  • Digitizes various documents to reduce the amount of paper files that you have to keep in the office.

Cons

  • Parents may not agree with child immunization records being digitized on the EZCare software.
  • Billing and payment section of the software could take some getting used to with making sure you are going to the correct section to complete your intended task. 

  1. Hi Mama


Hi Mama has received a 4.5 star review with hundreds of reviews from clients. The daycare software has received news coverage from ABC, Fox, the CW, NBC, and CBS. What sets Hi Mama apart from other daycare software is that it has child care observation capabilities set for all 50 states across the country.

Features

  • Able to create a customized learning story based on the child care observations collected for each student.
  • Can provide photos, videos, and real-time text updates to parents who want to check on their child while he or she is in your care at the facility.
  • Can create breakfast and lunch menus as well as lesson plans using the software.

 Pros

  • Daycare staff can use the smartphone app to manage daycare administrative duties on-the-go.
  • Parents can use the smartphone app to keep in touch with their child’s teacher.
  • Parents love the real-time updates on their child’s progress throughout the day.

Cons

  • Not as convenient to scroll through the smartphone app to add comments to a post or make updates to reports.

Procare Solutions

ProCare Solutions has over 30 years of experience of supplying daycare software for facilities of all sizes. You can receive a free demo of ProCare once you submit your information.

    Features

    • Contactless check-ins and pick-ups with QR code capabilities on the app.
    • Can automate daycare’s administrative tasks by scaling the business.
    • Accounting features to track your business expenses and income.
    • ProCare Engage keeps students engaged in the classroom and parents engaged in their child’s learning path.

    Pros

    • Parents can view their child’s activities from check-in and check-out to any updates via his or her Daycare Teacher.
    • More accurate billing by updating check-in and check-out times digitally rather than the manual way.
    • Able to create activities for children to do and share it with parents. These activities are aligned with state standards for the child development curriculum.
    • No IT maintenance needed for ProCare Solutions.

    Cons

    • Since cloud-based or PC based, it can be a concern about the confidentiality of student information getting to hackers if on a cloud-based.
    • Transaction fees for processing parent payments for childcare tuition.

    1. SmartCare


    SmartCare originated in 2014. The company acquired Childcare Manager, which was revered as one of the most quality daycare software companies before SmartCare acquired it. Last year, SmartCare acquired Preschool2Me which led the lesson planning portion of the daycare software products industry. Meshing all of these company values and influence together, you have SmartCare as it is today.

    Features

    • Tracks daycare staff’s punches for in and out of work with a key card.
    • Multi-site dashboard to view snapshots of a variety of information at once.
    • Helps to manage class ratios with the kiosk check-in capability.
    • Receive reports in real-time.

    Pros

    • Great lesson planning software because SmartCare’s acquiredPreschool2Me.
    • Empowers teachers with the necessary tools and training to do their job efficiently.
    • Access to SmartCare University webinars to receive business tips to run your daycare.
    • Can personalize your daycare software package based on your needs.

    Cons

    • Set up fees required for whatever package you choose.
    • Parents have the option of turning auto pay on or off, so there could be late payments if auto pay is off and a parent forgets to submit a payment.

    Which Daycare Software is the Best Fit For Your Facility?

    With so many great daycare software options on the market, it’s challenging to figure out which one to choose as your daycare’s backbone to success. Remember a few key factors when making the final decision.

    • Determine if you need daycare management software, classroom management software, or both.
      • If you need daycare management software, you can choose from any of the 5 on this list.
      • If you need only classroom management software, choose SmartCare’s Preschool2Me package that helps devise and implement lesson plans in all of your daycare classes.
    • Decide what features are most important to your daycare’s operation.
      • Are more of your parents requesting the option to pay online?
        • Any of these software options provide online billing and payment options for parents.
        • Encourages contactless payment to keep safe during the COVID-19 pandemic.
      • Are you having trouble manually tracking teacher to child ratios in all of your classes?
        • Parents checking in and checking out their children digitally updates the teacher to child ratio for each classroom.
        • It takes the guesswork out of determining how to combine classrooms should there not be enough teachers or aides present at the facility one day.
      • Try out the free trials on all of the software programs in which you are interested to see which one is most convenient and easy for you, your staff members, and parents to navigate.

    Conclusion

    Whatever daycare software that you choose to scale your daycare facility, be sure it adds value, flexibility, and convenience to your daily operations. If you find that one software turns out not working for you, cancel your membership and try another one. In time, you will find that special software that works for everyone involved in the children’s education and development.

    Related Questions

    How do I set up a QuickBooks account for my daycare?

    You can set up a Quickbooks account for your daycare by:

    • Inputting your information.
    • Select “Other-service based industry” from the “Industry” list.
    • Select whether your daycare is Sole Proprietorship, Partnership or LLC, or Corporation.
    • Report what income and expense accounts you use for your daycare.
    • Add all of your employees’ names.

    Why does my daycare need management software?

    You should consider daycare management software to:

    • Simplify your daily administrative tasks.
    • Free up your telephone line from parents calling your daycare by using one of the software apps to keep in touch with parents.
    • Keep everyone more connected and engaged.

    Please note: This blog post is for educational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Please consult a legal expert to address your specific needs.

    Use your software to get started along with our startup course and documents.