Questions to Ask Daycare Software Providers

How to use these questions

Attendance

1. Show me a teacher checking a child in and out on a phone. How many taps is that?
2. Are check-in and check-out timestamped automatically, or entered manually?
3. Can I see attendance for one classroom on one day, and for one child across three months?
4. Can attendance records be corrected, and is there a record of the correction?
5. What do parents see about their child's attendance status?

Billing and payments

1. Show me creating a recurring tuition plan and generating this month's invoices.
2. How are partial payments, credits, refunds, and sibling arrangements handled?
3. What happens to billing when a child enrolls or withdraws mid-month?
4. Which payment methods do families have, and what are the processing fees?
5. Do both listed guardians receive the invoice and any reminders?
6. What financial reports can I give my bookkeeper, and in what format?

Parent communication

1. Show me sending a message to one family and an announcement to one classroom.
2. How do parents receive notifications, and what happens if they miss one?
3. How are photos shared, and who controls which families can see them?
4. How do separated or two-household families work in the system?
5. Can a director see the messages staff have sent to families?

Staff

1. Show me adding a teacher and restricting them from financial data.
2. What roles exist, and can permissions be adjusted per role?
3. How are staff assigned to classrooms, and can one person cover several?
4. What happens to records and messages when a staff member leaves?
5. Which staff workflows exist today, and which are planned but not yet released?

Enrollment and child records

1. Show me adding a new child with family contacts, allergies, and a document.
2. Is information entered once and reused across billing, attendance, and classrooms?
3. How do I move a child between classrooms, and what carries over?
4. Can I see classroom capacity when placing a new family?
5. How is enrollment status tracked over time?

Reporting

1. Which reports ship by default for enrollment, attendance, and revenue?
2. Can reports be filtered by location, classroom, or date range?
3. Are reports generated from live records, or built from exports?
4. What can I export, and in which formats?

Security and privacy

1. How is family and child data protected, and who at your company can access it?
2. How are user accounts secured, and what happens after repeated failed sign-in attempts?
3. Can access be restricted so staff only see children at their own location?
4. What is your process if a security incident affects our data?
5. Where is our data stored, and how long is it retained after we cancel?

Mobile access

1. What can teachers do from a phone, and what still requires a computer?
2. Is there an installable app for staff and families, or is it browser only?
3. What happens on a weak connection during morning drop-off?

Pricing

1. What drives the price — children, staff, locations, or features?
2. Is pricing published, and can I see the full fee schedule in writing?
3. Are setup, migration, or training billed separately?
4. How does pricing change when we add a classroom or a second site?
5. Is the price fixed for a term, and how much notice is given before increases?

Implementation

1. How long does a center our size typically take to go live?
2. What data can you import, in what format, and who does the import?
3. Can we run one billing cycle in parallel with our current process?
4. What training is provided, and for which roles?

Support

1. Which support channels exist, and during which hours?
2. What is a typical first-response time during a billing week?
3. Can any of our staff contact support, or only the account owner?

Data ownership and export

1. Can I export our children, families, attendance, and financial records myself?
2. Is export self-service, and is there any fee?
3. What happens to our data if we cancel, and how long can we still retrieve it?

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