Getting Paid on Time

[cece123]

I have a problem that I need some advice on. I run a dayhome and have a hard time getting people to pay me on time. I have asked for payment on the 1st of the month and by the middle of the month I am still asking. I always get "oh yah I forgot" or "what is it the beginning of the a new month already" Okay and if that is enough, at the beginning of the month I am to take two weeks holiday which no one pays me for but to top if off I did not get paid at all as they told me they would pay me when I came back in holidays - did they ever think I might need the money. I don't know to pay bills, buy groceries or go on vacation.

[CareDC]

Collecting money is always an issue with any business. The only thing you can do is make sure your business has enough float to carry you through until you receive the money. You can implement penalties to combat that issue but in most cases they won't work. The only method that could work is if you implement a prepay system where parents pay ahead (you might have issues with this for part time spots). Although this system would solve your money collection issue, you'd have to be prepared to potentially lose clientele because some parents might not be willing to do that. If you run an established business that's in demand the chances of parents leaving are of course minimized. General consensus is that your clients should be given one month to pay the bill, and your contract should clearly state that IN WRITING.

[spud]

I have always(as does most daycare centres in my area ) charge for my services in advance of care taking place. Fees are due at the beginning of the month for the upcoming months care. I also require one full calandar month notice should a family decide to terminate care...therefore, I do not get "screwed" from my pay and my required one month notice. This is all clearly indicated on our parent agreement and contract.  I know far too many people who have not been paid for various reasons by daycare parents..I will not run that risk and my dc families have no problems paying up front; they always have paid up front..including their sick days etc..also, this way, if they do get sick I am not inclined to give a break or parents dont get the chance to try to under pay me due to their absense.  Good luck, you can say you are changing some of your policies to meet up with other local daycare policies...and this includes payment at the beginning of the month or every 2 weeks for the upcoming weeks of care.
I also provide FEE SLIPS to my dc parents about one week before fees are due, indicating the number of days of care in the upcoming pay period x their fee = the total I expect on the upcoming pay date.  Be forward and assertive, you deserve to be paid for the care you are providing in a timely period. It costs a lot to care for kids, and why should we be expected to buy everything upfront..I buy things based on my enrolment and the advance fees funds this.

[Christine]

I have a contract that they sign saying they will pay me on a certain day- I have the Monday of each week-because then that way if they want in they have to pay.

I also have also stated in my contract that if they do not pay me, then a late penalty applies to each day I do not have my money.

A dear friend who provides care told me from the beginning, sign a contract and then you have something to fall back on when they don't pay.

You can also say that you want post dated cheques for the 1st and middle of the month.
INFORCE your rules or they will continue to "oppps, I forgot" everytime. It's like telling a child they will have a consequence and then never following through with it-they learn that you don't mean what you say.

You can do it!!!

[Icare]

ADAVANCED FEES is the only way TO GO!!

TRUELY THE BEST WAY I HAVE EVER dealt with the matter of getting paid on time!

BE a smart entrupreneur and implement this policy today...
with existing clients and new ones!

I have only operated in this mannor... after the ONE & ONLY ONE TIME after getting BURNT
for 400.month many many years ago now...as it was 20$ day back then..lol...
Switched to advanced fee payments ONLY in 1998 & this is in little ol' SASKATCHEWAN!(S'toon)
at Robyn's Nest Childcare Home~est'd in 1996.

REMEMBER:  Once youve implemented this policy...DO NOT FOLD or CAVE... so to speak,
IF they ever ask or come to you saying 'they don' have the funds'...etc.
(As they will come up with fees if they have too!!! Trust me!)

MAKE IT CRYSTAL CLEAR...in your Manual & in person...
YOU DO NOT PROVIDE SERVICES WITHOUT ADVANCED PAYMENT !

& ALWAYS, ALWAYS....STICK TO YOUR POLICIES!!!

[Icare]

Also, once ADVANCED PAYMENT POLICIES ARE implemented...
 you WILL now begin receiving fees ...

#1)  ON the VERY FIRST day of any NEW attendee or enrolement child!! 
       No,more waiting for 2 wks! After all you start using supplies IMMEDIATELY for their
       child...ie.) food, juice, craft items etc. Right??

#2)  When families or you go on holidays NO MORE WAITING for two weeks, on TOP of all the
       holiday down time TO BE PAID!!
       It's a great System! & one that really works for US & their child; I say too!
       I have employed the advanced fee payment policy, for over 10+ yrs now!
       W very few complaints, either!!! 

       Just thought I would add in above....those NOT so noticable PERKS, that come with
       implementing ADVANCED FEE PAYMENTS ONLY;  AS STANDARD DAYCARE POLICY!!

       INFORM PARENTS THAT ADVANCED PAYMENT FOR DAYCARE SERVICE SHOULD ALSO
       REASSURE FAMILIES THAT THE SUPPLIES NECESSARY FOR A NEW ATTENDEE IE: 
       FOOD/SUPPLIES ARE AVAILABLE FOR FIRST 2 WEEKS etc., WOULD FOR SURE
       BE MADE AVAILABLE & ACCESSABLE w your pre-payment...

[CareDC]

MAKE IT CRYSTAL CLEAR...in your Manual & in person...
YOU DO NOT PROVIDE SERVICES WITHOUT ADVANCED PAYMENT !

& ALWAYS, ALWAYS....STICK TO YOUR POLICIES!!!

Agreed. If you provide that information  before hand, breaking away from your contract would be the worst thing to do.

[neon6536]

Hi There
I am new to the forum....I am a supervisor at a large daycare, (78 children from birth to age 12) the owner is getting ready to retire and hand everything over to me to look after. In October she went away on holidays for 6 weeks for the first time in 6 years...she gave me the accounting books and said here look after these from now on...well to start off with they were a mess...but she had parents that haven't paid their fees all year, she didn't send out invoices or even go after parents there weren't paying....sometimes she would wait till the end of the month to take cheques to the bank....well when i took over i rewrote all the accounts showing parents how much they owe for each week starting from january 2008 to October 2008, and i took the cheques to the bank every monday, needless to say i had some shocked parents, and some bounce cheques even though they were dated for when i put them in the parents didn't expect them to be cashed so soon. A lot of the families we have are on subsidy and some are only paying .50 cents a day and still aren't paying, we do have a late payment policy with a charge of 1% for overdue payments but she has never enforced it.....now that i am running it i want to enforce it, but i know most of the parents probably don't even know about this policy, just as an example we have one parent that owes us over $5000.00 but nothing has ever been said to him....
i am pretty sure it has that policy written in our parent handbook, but my question is should i give them warning that this policy will now be inforced, or should i just do it because it is in our parent handbook.....
we were having parents coming in up to half an hour late picking up their children and of course it was always me having to stay to close up the daycare which meant i was staying up to an hour after closing time....the $1.00 a minute late charge was never enforced either, so with all the monthly invoices i sent out on Jan. 5th i put a notice in saying that it will now be added to their end of the month invoice if they are later than 5:30 picking up their children...i have only had to stay back 1 day and that was because of a snow storm and the parents called to say they were both stuck on different highways (didn't charge for that)
well thanks for letting me rant,
i hope someone out there can give me some advice

[Laura]

Hi Neon6536,

First and foremost, welcome to the Godaycare.com Website and Forum.

Secondly, in regards to your questions, keep in mind that individuals take changes difficultly.  Give the parents ample time to adjust to the policies being followed.  They haven't had to follow the rules up to now, so it will be difficult for them to do so now.   Give them a date(deadline) when you will be putting this change into effect.   If you make an exception for one individual, another parent may soon follow.  Be consistent and firm in your decisions. Be willing to make exceptions to the rule for acts of nature such as snowstorms, blackouts, etc.

A good way to make sure that all the parents know about the rules/policies is to give each parent a copy of the parent handbook attached to a monthly newsletter.

I hope this helps. 

Keep us informed of your situation.

Laura

[neon6536]

i sent out an invoice for all the parents that are late in paying and gave them until the end of this month to make a payment, i don't expect the ones that owe alot to pay in full, but at least they can make payments without any extra charge, if they don't make an effort they will be charged the late fee, i think that sounds fair doesn't it?

[spud]

HI! welcome to the forum
Yeah entirely, you need to straighten up the books. I would give the parents a chance to be upfront with you with their needs (ie when their pay periods are) and ask for a payment plan to pay back any owed fees.
You will need to either write off that one family as unpaid fees or see if they can afford to pay up. Either way, its gotta be addressed! If you are calling it dead fees then start up fresh for Jan making it clear that families will be suspended once fees are one month in arears. its too expensive to carry that. If you think they can add on 100 per month on their reg fees to bring it to an eventual balance then do so. Be clear about when fees will be cashed and even send out reminders each time just to help them along with the new system (that should have been in place before!!) soon, things will balance out as they should be. You ahve a big job to take over by the sounds of things -but you also sound liek the person to do it!