Chasing after parents for payments and worrying about creating invoices can be frustrating. This area of your business can feel like a full-time job. This takes away from the mental and emotional energy that you could spend improving your child care facility. Tuition management is tough.
How do you prevent collecting payments, creating invoices, and tracking funds from being a full-time job? The answer is a tuition management system. With an automated system that manages things for you, you can spend less time worrying about collecting money.
In this article, we will dig into the details and benefits of a sound tuition management system. By the end of this article, you will be able to determine if those benefits are worth it for you.
Download the Free TUIO Child Care Invoice Template
- Free fillable child care invoice template
- Print out, or fill on your computer
The Eight Benefits Of Relying On A Tuition Management System
Tuition management systems take complications out of billing. Below are the ways how that remove these complications:
#1: Tuition Management Systems Prevent You From Needing To Produce Receipts
A good portion of a school administration’s time is spent producing receipts. For understaffed child care centers, this can be a long and arduous process. There is a good deal of math that goes into this.
While some software may make it easier, the point of automation is to take this step out of your hands. A tuition management system will produce these receipts for you.
#2: Tuition Management Software Handles Payment Reminders
A whopping 35 percent of people report missing a bill because they forgot about it. This information comes from a 2018 study, so we imagine 2020 hasn’t contributed positively to that percentage.
A sound tuition management system removes that need to remind people out of your hands. Through automated reminders, that’s one less email you have to send. Also, this increases the chances of you receiving on-time payments.
#3: Tuition Management Programs Support Automated Payments
For the extra-forgetful parents, you have the option to activate automatic payments. Many parents already have this set up with other services; why not yours?
This not only reminds them of the payment but makes it for them. There is virtually no chance of parents missing your scheduled payment needs. When selecting TUIO for example, you can have that peace of mind alongside no hidden fees if the parent has a funds issue.
#4: Receive Faster Payments With Tuition Management Programs
Compared to having to cash a paper check, where the processing time can take several days, online payments can be instantaneous. The issue of accepting checks can be doubly frustrating if your bank, or the parents bank, puts funds on hold.
Electronic payments are faster, more efficient, and less wasteful. You even have the option of declining cash payments altogether. The less time you spend sorting this out, the more time you can spend elsewhere on your business.
#5: Good Cash Flow
The problem that childcare centers have with not receiving on-time payments comes from a consistent cash flow. Without cash flow, bills go unpaid, and potential upgrades get delayed. Dipping into your savings because one of your parents forgot something important is never a fun experience.
Electronic payments through tuition management systems increase your potential for regularity. With this, you can be confident in your ability to pay bills without having to make an uncomfortable call.
Good cash flow also allows you to make informed business decisions based on real-time data. With an available dashboard, you can see your monthly revenue with relative ease. This makes tax payments and other compensation means and upgrades more effective.
#6: Allows You To Focus On What Matters Most
When you first started your own business, you probably thought you would have all of these fantastic ideas. You may have been inspired by other daycares, jotting things down until the day you started your business. After juggling high-energy kids and medium-energy parents, the remainder of your “me time” is devoted to crunching numbers.
Having some level of automation is necessary to give you the emotional energy you need to commit to your business. Taking receipt production, parent reminders, and payment is taken out of your hands to develop new ideas.
The most innovative day cares have managers who have already discovered this. With enough energy at the end of the day, you will be able to contribute to your daycare.
#7: Time For All Of The Other Important Business Stuff (Marketing, Social Media, etc.)
The 21st century has added several opportunities for businesses to speak with their clients. In the daily drudge of your business, it can sometimes be difficult to remember those things. To remain competitive, you need to perform regular checks on your social and marketing channels.
With less time spent on busywork, you will have the energy to engage potential audiences better. Maybe the time you previously spend crunching numbers can be done writing a blog. Engaging parents by providing them with regular advice will cause your business to grow.
You can also consider some effective PPC (price per click marketing) campaigns to drum up interest for open slots. With that increased cash flow, you can more easily fund such a campaign.
#8: Vacation
An easy-to-access financial dashboard will help you in planning future efforts. One of those efforts (or the lack thereof) is some actual me time. Planning a vacation is far more comfortable when you take things off of your plate.
Automation allows you to take some time to plan a day with your family. This time will enable you to recharge your energy cells, allowing you to be more effective at what you do. Any job, regardless of how passionate you are about it, has a brick wall of exhaustion. Remember your self-care.
Final Thoughts
Tuition management software is another way schools and daycares can take a problem out of their hands. It is easy to be overwhelmed when you include yet another task in your to-do list. Take that busywork project out of your hands and give it to a system that can do most of the work for you.
With this extra energy, you can work on innovative ideas, new improvements, and planning that long-overdue vacation. If any of these benefits sound appealing to you, we recommend checking out our tuition management system.
