Streamline end-of-year ECEC processes to build for success in the new year
The end of the year is a busy time for early childhood education and care (ECEC) services. You have to manage closures, payments and fee changes, and report updates to the Child Care Subsidy System (CCSS). Some end-of-year administrative tasks can be tedious, taking up a lot of valuable time, especially for large services. You can handle these more efficiently using technology-based solutions such as cloud platforms designed to streamline admin for ECEC services.
You’re likely also preparing for the new year, aiming to boost occupancy rates, enrolment and family engagement. Connecting with families and generating new business can be an overwhelming task if your service primarily uses manual processes to drive demand.
Let’s address both aspects of end-of-year ECEC management to help you prepare to close your service temporarily or reach out for new business before the new year begins.
Organise your end-of-year ECEC processes with your childcare management software
Here are a few processes you can complete using your childcare management software to successfully close your end-of-year ECEC operations for this calendar year.
Inform CCSS of your service’s temporary closures
If you are closing over the Christmas period, you can notify CCSS of temporary closures through PRODA. Once you’ve accessed the Provider Entry Point (PEP), go to “Manager Services” for options on reporting closures. Once you’ve entered the necessary information and submitted it for review, remember to communicate the closure to families.
Seamlessly update your fee structure
If you decide to increase your fees but the pricing of your session hours is going to remain the same, you can add a new effective date and price to edit existing fees. You can edit the fees in your software program and follow through the process by adding new fees for all fees that are going to be modified from a specific date.
Remember to leave the fee history in place so you can access old effective dates, prices and prior attendances linked to that fee. You can complete this via your Admin screen. If both fees and session hours are changing, new fees will need to be created to ensure that the history is not affected. The option of a bulk fee is available if your database contains multiple services.
Manage rolls to ensure accurate booking records
You can close the rooms in your childcare management software to ensure that no bookings are incorrectly added or charged. This is an advisable step if you are not charging families during the holiday or closure period and may apply to both single-day or extended closures. If you are charging families during this period, the Master Roll can be marked as absent.
Organise booking records
You may need to consider whether bookings for families will change once you reopen or if they’ll remain the same. If bookings for families will remain the same once the service reopens, Office admins will need to re-enrol families and update the Master Roll for the new year. If families have updated their children’s bookings for the new year, following the Office Bookings guide, these can be updated and reflected in Master Roll.
Report new fees and change of operating hours to CCSS
New changes to fees and operating hours need to be reported to the CCSS. In addition, if your service is closing for a period that is different from the public holidays, you must communicate the exact period to the CCSS. This must be done within 24 hours of becoming aware of the closure requirement. New fees will be sent through alongside your weekly CCSS data. Updating of hours and closures are to be completed through PRODA prior to the change commencing.
Your software service may list this as a “Service Temporary Ceasing” or similar, allowing you to enter details of the closure. These are then sent to the CCSS for due reporting. Similarly, any change in contact details will also need to be edited under Profile Information in your software program. You can submit this and notify CCSS under the Providers Interface.
You can find more information in the Administrator’s Guide for Office. For more tips on managing end-of-year ECEC tasks, please check out the End of Calendar Year in Office webinar.
Once you’re done with your end-of-year ECEC admin, it’s time to gear up for the new year
The new year can be a busy time for you and families as you’re both looking for new opportunities to grow. As an ECEC provider, you may be struggling to improve your business processes or may want to focus on boosting occupancy. Both are important considerations as you complete operations for this year and plan for the next.
On top of handling your end-of-year ECEC administrative jobs, your childcare management software should also be working to implement several new apps and integrations to make life better for everyone at your service and provide a well-rounded experience for new year engagements.
The Playground app for educators streamlines collaboration, helps document learning outcomes and allows services to manage health and compliance requirements. Educators can easily collaborate and complete administration tasks more efficiently. They can also use Playground to share information with families via the Home family app. The rich text editor in Playground Posts enables you to create more engaging content that helps families track their child’s learning development. If you would like to focus on increasing opportunities for generating and managing family enquiries, the MyWaitlist platform is the tool for you.
Digital archiving—save time and space
Depending on the type of documentation, ECEC services keep documentation for anywhere from 3 to 7 years. In cases of incidents or child protection records, you need to keep documentation until the child turns 25. Storing these records physically means they can be difficult to retrieve, subject to water/fire damage and can take up lots of space.
The Xplor Education childcare platform provides tools to support digital archiving for your ECE service. This helps you efficiently manage, store and retrieve essential records and documentation without needing extra space. Here are several ways you can leverage Xplor Education’s platforms for digital archiving.
Centralised document storage and automated record keeping
The cloud-based Xplor Education ecosystem offers a centralised storage system. This enables you to digitally store all documentation related to children, staff, policies and communication logs. This includes enrolment forms, medical records, incident reports and other documentation required for compliance or auditing purposes. By using Xplor Education, your service can reduce physical paperwork and securely keep files in one accessible location.
The platform can also automatically log key activities, such as attendance, billing and communications with families. This provides an ongoing archive of daily operations, minimising the need for manual record keeping and enabling easy access to historical records.
Compliance covered and secure data storage
Services using the Xplor Education childcare management suite can meet compliance requirements by archiving documentation that demonstrates adherence to regulatory standards. You can easily track important compliance information, including immunisation records, learning documentation and teacher certifications. Enjoy the confidence of knowing this information is securely stored, ready to retrieve quickly when needed.
All this data is securely stored on Australian shores with encrypted access, user authentication and permissions management. You can restrict access to archived documents to authorised personnel. This protects sensitive information helping ensure compliance with data privacy laws. This process is much easier for services that use Xplor Education’s SSO.
Family engagement, learning journeys and child development
You can archive all communications sent to and received from guardians with Xplor Education. This provides a record of important messages, policies and updates. This digital archive of communications can be beneficial for addressing any queries or concerns that may arise. It’s also great for tracking family engagement.
The child portfolio feature in Playground allows educators to digitally document each child’s learning journey, including observations, learning goals and developmental milestones. These records are automatically organised chronologically, creating a comprehensive digital portfolio for each child. You can share this archive with families or transfer it to other educators or schools when needed.
Securely stored in the cloud for efficient reporting and retrieval
Xplor’s reporting features enable quick retrieval of archived data. For example, you can retrieve historical attendance, fee payments and daily logs with a few clicks, making it easy to produce records for audits, reviews or specific queries. Archiving also includes easy-to-navigate categories, which streamline access to both current and past records.
By using Xplor Education’s platform to archive records digitally, your childcare service can enhance its organisational efficiency, reduce paperwork, save space and maintain a secure and accessible record keeping system that supports daily operations as well as long-term compliance and quality standards.
Managing all your ECEC tasks is easier with a complete ecosystem
ECEC managers wear multiple hats on any given day.
- Managing payments—childcare subsidy management
- Administrative tasks—payments, enquiries, bookings, attendance
- Child education and care—development of child learning programs
- Family engagement—connecting and sharing child progress with families
- Marketing and business promotion—increasing occupancy
As a single point of support, your software provider should be able to give you the best in-house experience. Without having to log in to multiple platforms, you can store and access all your data in one place using cloud-based servers. The ultimate goal is to enhance occupancy, reduce administration and streamline payments using technology at a time and money cost that is viable for all.
Managing enrolments for next year
MyWaitlist provides services with an all-in-one sales and marketing solution that helps convert website visitors into leads—and those leads into enrolments. The easy-to-use software automates several tasks, freeing you up to provide quality care to the children at your service. You can embed an enquiry form on your website so that you never miss out on connecting with prospective families. Families can book tours at their convenience using a user-friendly dashboard that connects them to you without any hiccoughs.
You’ll need to manage all your new enrolments and may have to manage your waitlist. The Booking Manager tab in Office has all your booking and occupancy information in one location. It helps you maximise occupancy, accept/reject booking requests and add booking requests on behalf of families. You’ll be able to visualise your daily occupancy at a glance to better maintain high occupancy. You can also action booking requests and add waitlisted children to rooms all from the same screen.
You also have the option of automating the process by setting up booking rules in Office or maintaining a more hands-on approach while referring to a single source of truth. The choice is yours.
Key features of reliable childcare management software
If you’re considering a fresh start with a complete childcare management solution that better meets all your needs in the new year, there are several factors to consider. Assess whether the platform will help unburden your staff by streamlining processes throughout your ECEC service.
Family engagement
Australia’s top-rated family engagement app, Home, offers families a level of transparency and peace of mind previously unavailable. Educators can easily share photos, videos and learning outcomes with families. Families can also use the Home app to manage bookings, view statements and share information on their child’s health. The Messenger feature also provides them with a direct line of communication with educators.
Digital payments
Secure, automated digital payments streamline things for both you and families. Xplor Pay enables families to set up Direct Debit so they can automate their payments. This helps boost cash flow for your service. Guardians can also make ad hoc payments from their mobile devices with Pay Now, providing them the ultimate in convenience.
All-in-one offering
To access and manage all your daily tasks without disruption, it is essential to know your options. Several childcare management platforms operate as multi-vendors. But they outsource applications and rebrand services to provide you with their version of an “all-in-one” experience. True single-platform operations offer ECEC services an experience that originates from one company and database. Single-vendor providers, such as Xplor Education, are actual all-in-one providers with a single support team for all your needs.
Child data security
When multiple vendors come together to provide a childcare management solution, ensuring that child data is fully secured at all levels can be tough. It is also vital that software vendors secure personal information and that you can provide complete child data security as part of your service.
When choosing a software provider, it can be helpful to find out if the one you are considering conducts Penetration Tests (PEN testing) or ethical hacking and whether it is Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliant, like Xplor Pay.
A single vendor minimises the risk of data breaches by storing it on one secured database instead of multiple applications. This makes it easier for families and services to protect their child’s information.
Xplor Education offerings, like single sign-on (SSO) in both Office and Playground, help you keep child data safe and make it easier for you to follow the National Model Code. If you’d like to learn more about ECE cyber security, you can check out this guide.
Future-proof data management
Software systems that house essential child data need to ensure that they will continue providing service for 3–5 years. As a single-vendor solution, Xplor Education can demonstrate it has the investment and resources to provide services with ongoing service. With better accountability and the “best in class” experience, it is an established software provider that caters to both enterprise-level and small services looking for customised solutions.
Completing your end-of-year ECEC tasks is a great way to assess your needs
As you wrap up the calendar year and finalise your end-of-year ECEC admin, take stock of how well your current ECEC management solution meets your needs. If you decide it’s time to check out a true all-in-one childcare management suite that can meet all your needs, supported by a unified support team so you don’t waste time being passed back and forth between teams, get in touch. We’re happy to discuss how Xplor Education’s childcare management platform can meet the unique needs of your ECEC service.
Dean Comeau
Marketing Team Lead
