As a childcare provider, managing your workforce can take up a significant amount of your time. While essential for the smooth operation of your service, tasks such as creating rosters and organising payroll can prevent you from focusing on what matters most – providing quality education and care for children. This is where childcare management software comes into play! By utilising a tool such as Kinder M8 Workforce, you can simplify all aspects of workforce management with advanced efficiency, saving precious time and resources. In this blog, we explore the remarkable features of Kinder M8 Workforce and how you can take advantage of our all-in-one childcare management platform to streamline your operations.

ADVANCED ROSTERING SOLUTIONS

Organising a roster for your service doesn’t need to be a complicated or time-consuming task. Kinder M8 Workforce simplifies your rostering process, allowing you to unlock the full potential of your team and create and adjust schedules with ease. Here’s how:

• Maximise team efficiency. With Kinder M8 Workforce, tailored to the unique needs of the childcare industry, you can predict ratios and rostering needs and assign educators with the click of a button. This seamless scheduling ensures the right staff are in the right place when needed.
• Maintain staff ratios. Our innovative rostering solutions not only optimise staff efficiency but also enhance the quality of care provided to every child at your service. With Kinder M8 Workforce, you can take advantage of advanced ratio controls and forecasting tools to meet staff-to-child ratios at all times. In doing this, a safe environment is created and upheld for every child’s learning and development at your service.
• Minimise staffing costs. With organised schedules clearly showing required ratios, you can optimise your workforce and reduce any unnecessary costs. This enables you to maximise your service’s capacity while adhering to the required ratios.

TIMESHEETS MADE SIMPLE

Record keeping, including clocking in, noting breaks, and signing out, is required by law but is often a dreaded task for both staff and employers. Fortunately, timesheets are made simple with Kinder M8 Workforce. Through the platform, you can easily record clock-in/out times to monitor staff working hours. Additionally, timesheets can be synced with pay rates, eliminating the need to manually input hours worked to calculate your staff’s pay each cycle.

AUTOMATED PAYROLL SYSTEMS

Gone are the days of manual calculations, including when it comes to paying your staff! With Kinder M8 Workforce, all aspects of payroll are made easy, ensuring each team member is paid accurately and on time. Here’s how childcare management software can improve and simplify your payroll systems:

• Calculate pay. Kinder M8 Workforce exports timesheets to MYOB and Employment Hero for accurate and efficient calculations of staff pay.
• Distribute payslips. With integration with Xero, you can effortlessly schedule and send payslips all at once, not individually, for every staff member.
• Generate reports. Generate financial reports in seconds and include data from other platforms, such as Kinder M8 Centres.

In addition to the above, Kinder M8 Workforce seamlessly integrates with popular payroll systems and other software to improve the efficiency and capabilities of your payroll processing. 

STREAMLINED RECRUITMENT

Finding and hiring quality staff can be difficult, especially when dealing with different platforms and recruitment companies. However, a childcare management software can make all the difference. Here’s how Kinder M8 Workforce can streamline your recruitment process and ensure a smooth onboarding process for all new staff:

• Job vacancies. Kinder M8 Workforce’s job postings feature and vacancies widget unlock new ways to find suitable candidates for your team.
• Staff onboarding. Our childcare management software offers a dedicated Staff Onboarding Learning Management System (LMS) with a comprehensive onboarding process for new staff. This feature equips new members of your team with the tools and resources they need to succeed. It also ensures a consistent understanding of processes and expectations across your entire workforce, improving your service’s overall quality of care.

EFFECTIVE STAFF MAINTENANCE

As well as streamlining your childcare operations, Kinder M8 Workforce provides remarkable benefits for your existing staff. By improving how you manage your workforce, staff, in turn, feel valued and engaged. This leads to long-term employee satisfaction and increased staff retention. Here’s how Kinder M8 Workforce can assist in effective staff maintenance: 

• Manage leave requests. Kinder M8 Workforce makes it simple to review, manage, and approve leave requests with ease. You will also be notified when a member of your team requests time off so that you can respond quickly.
• Prepare for unavailability. Staff can set their availability and request time off directly through our platform, enabling you to keep track of your team’s availability. This allows you to plan for when a staff member has time off and find a cover if need be.
• Prevent conflicts. With Kinder M8 Workforce, you can see your staff’s availability and time-off requests at a glance. This enables you to prevent conflicts and ensure enough staff is available when someone is on leave.

 

A childcare management software puts control at your fingertips, making it easy to manage time-consuming tasks relating to your workforce. This allows you to find a balance between managing your workforce and providing better outcomes for the children in your care. Embrace the convenience of Kinder M8 Workforce and dedicate more time to delivering exceptional childcare services! To learn more, contact Australia’s most trusted name in childcare software today.

In recent years, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has presented new ways for technology to make our lives easier and free up as much as 90% of our time. Now, an AI assistant specifically designed for educators is here! Our K-Buddy platform is a simple yet powerful tool that dramatically reduces the time needed for documentation. In doing so, educators are able to focus on what matters most; providing quality education and care for children. In this blog, we’ll explore the remarkable benefits of K-Buddy and how it can be used to improve the overall quality of your service.

WHAT’S SO SPECIAL ABOUT K-BUDDY?

Unlike other AI technologies and services, K-Buddy is built particularly for the childcare industry. It has several specialised features designed to support educators, reduce stress, and improve the quality of care and education for children. For example, you can choose a specific writing style based on your service, whether this be Reggio, Montessori, or your own! All content produced by K-Buddy will be written in a style that complements your service’s tone of voice and values.

K-Buddy also simplifies childcare management without compromising any sensitive data. To protect the privacy of the children in your care, no sensitive information is provided except for a child’s first name and the situation. This allows you to take advantage of the benefits of AI while safekeeping data!

 

Let’s take a look at some other impressive benefits of a fully-integrated AI system like K-Buddy:

GENERATE CONTENT IN SECONDS

Documenting in a childcare setting, whether this be writing observations or planning lessons, can take up valuable time. In fact, a study found that the average educator spends around 45 minutes per day on such tasks. Fortunately, time spent on documenting can be drastically decreased with the help of K-Buddy. By harnessing the power of AI, K-Buddy enables content to be generated in seconds. Simply enter a prompt and watch as it comes to life! Here are some examples of what you can create with K-Buddy:

• CHILD OBSERVATIONS: Documenting child observations doesn’t need to be a complicated or dreaded task. With K-Buddy, you can document observations and create detailed analysis of each child’s learning experience with ease. This efficient way of recording child observations enables educators to spend more time listening and watching the children. By being more attuned, more observations can be made for each child, resulting in a better understanding of individual learning needs. See K-Buddy in action; watch how an observation is generated in less than 60 seconds.
• LESSON PLANS: Effortlessly create lesson plans with the assistance of K-Buddy! Just select your inputs, add the details of your lesson plan, and watch as AI creates a comprehensive lesson plan on your behalf. 
• DAILY JOURNALS: With the assistance of AI, you can generate detailed daily journals in seconds by simply inputting a short sentence that includes the child’s name, activity undertaken, and other important details you wish to include. K-Buddy can also help you analyse these journals and tailor suggestions to improve learning outcomes for each child.

 

Not only is documentation essential to capturing a child’s educational journey, but it’s also a requirement of the National Quality Framework. During Assessment and Rating, the integration of K-Buddy into our all-in-one childcare management platform enables you to access any documentation required with the click of a button. This helps your service be prepared and remain compliant during Assessment and Rating time.

MAKE DIRECT LINKS

As well as generating content in seconds, K-Buddy allows you to make direct links within your documents. For example, a specific Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF) can be tagged when creating an observation. This specific EYLF can then be referenced throughout the document with direct links to the observations made. You are also able to sort by specific EYLFs and access all related observations with ease.

By being fully integrated into our all-in-one childcare management software, observations and plans produced through K-Buddy are directly linked to an individual child’s record. When documenting, simply tag the name of the child that it relates to. This ensures that all documentation relating to a specific child is saved, organised, and easily accessible at any time on their file.

EFFORTLESSLY SHARE WITH FAMILIES

K-Buddy is readily integrated with our Family Hub, meaning that observations, lesson plans, daily journals, and other materials can be easily shared with families through the childcare engagement app that KinderM8 offers. You can also instantly translate documents to multiple different languages, enabling non-English speaking families to share in their child’s development at your service. Parents are notified in real-time when a new document becomes available for their child, enabling them to stay informed throughout the day about their child’s progress. This improves relationships with families as detailed documents and regular updates are shared through the Kinder M8 app, building trust and giving parents peace of mind.

 

From generating content in seconds to effortlessly storing and sharing documents, a fully integrated AI digital assistant like K-Buddy has many remarkable benefits. By allowing more time to be spent with children, not documentation, K-Buddy can significantly improve the quality of your childcare service and foster positive relationships with families. To find out more, contact Australia’s most trusted name in childcare software today.

With almost every industry turning to mobile, a great childcare engagement app is now a must to ensure the successful operation of your early learning centre. Designed to connect you with families like never before, Kinder M8 can centralise your communications, assist in record-keeping, maximise your revenue, and streamline your accounts’ management. In this blog, we will explore our Families app and the many ways that it can benefit your centre. Let’s take a closer look!

Fast and effective communication

A mobile app centralises all of your communications, making it easier to connect with families. You no longer need to alternate between emails, handouts, and social media messages. Instead, you can have all of your conversations in one place, allowing you to keep track of important information and ensure nothing is missed.

 

For effective communication between educators and parents, a childcare engagement app makes all the difference. Kinder M8 enables two-way messaging between parents and educators at your centre. This can be done through a variety of communication channels, including push notifications, news feeds, and email. With so many different ways to stay updated, it can give parents peace of mind and eliminate the need for them to constantly check in with phone calls and emails. Parents can also directly respond to these updates and start a conversation with educators, resulting in a better experience for everyone!

Documenting daily activities

Our Families app allows for comprehensive child record-keeping and developmental documentation to enable families to get involved with their child’s experience at your centre, even when they are at home or work. With the Family Hub, it is easy to update families on their child’s progress, health, and milestones throughout the day. The developmental documentation and monitoring feature on the app allows you to share photos, videos, and real-time updates instantly with families. This can help parents feel more connected to their child’s experiences at the centre and ensure they never miss a moment. This builds trust and confidence to create stronger relationships with families. The history of these interactions can also be accessed during Assessment & Rating for proof of parent engagement. It’s a win-win!

 

Additionally, Kinder M8 can help keep families informed about the plan for their child’s future education. You can create and share learning plans via the Families app, which provides parents with insights into educational activities and development opportunities. It also encourages families to get more involved in their child’s education and makes it easy for them to do so. Parent feedback can be collected with ease by communicating via the app. With these opportunities for engagement, parents can stay informed about their child’s progress at your centre, which fosters a collaborative environment to support their overall development and well-being.

Increased revenue

You may find it frustrating when attendance is well below 100% at your centre. A childcare engagement app enables you to respond by allowing parents to secure casual bookings directly within the Families app. By offering parents both temporary and permanent childcare options, you can maximise revenue for your centre as additional income can be generated through casual bookings.

Accounts management

With a childcare engagement app, you can efficiently manage your accounts, access statements and transactions, and update billing information, all while offering convenience and transparency for parents. With traditional billing processes, parents often miss payments due to the lack of reminders and flexible payment options. The Families app allows you to keep parents up-to-date about current and future payments due. Instead of resorting to uncomfortable conversations, families can be notified by email when a new invoice is sent. This makes it easy for parents to manage and keep track of their childcare expenses. In addition to this, parents can access their active statements within the Families app at any time. A range of payment options are also available, including direct debit, on-demand payments, and BPAY. Parents can choose the right payment method for them, meaning that payments are more likely to be made on time. Overall, a childcare engagement app can simplify your accounts’ management, all while keeping parents updated regularly and offering support along the way. 

 

From fostering great communication habits to increasing revenue, there is no doubt that a childcare engagement app is an indispensable tool for any early learning centre. To find out more, contact Australia’s most trusted name in childcare software today.

KinderM8 and LineLeader are excited to announce an extension of their strategic integration. This integration enables LineLeader customers to seamlessly sync data across platforms, streamline the enrolment process, and enhance the user experience for families, educators, owners/operators, and their enrolment teams.

Furthermore, KinderM8, “Australia’s most trusted childcare management platform,” and LineLeader, “the leading provider of childcare enrollment and marketing software,” are committed to cross-promoting the benefits of this integration in Australia.

 

Simplifying Childcare Management Through Integration

The integration of Kinder M8 and LineLeader platforms will continue to deliver a host of benefits to childcare centres:

• Enhanced User Experience: Both platforms will work seamlessly together, providing an improved and more intuitive experience for users.
• Seamless Integration: Automatic status updates and effortless connectivity between Kinder M8 and LineLeader will ensure that all relevant data is synchronised across both platforms.

By combining their strengths, KinderM8 and LineLeader empower childcare centres with the tools and resources needed to provide an outstanding enrolment process and onboarding experience. Both companies are dedicated to supporting and uplifting the childcare industry through this strategic integration.

“The KinderM8 team is excited to extend the integration and be included on the LineLeader Marketplace. This collaboration will continue to streamline the experience for customers of both KinderM8 and LineLeader, allowing them to effortlessly connect platforms and automatically update statuses in LineLeader as changes are made in KinderM8.”– Niroj Sri CEO/Founder

“KinderM8 has emerged as one of Australia’s premier platforms for childcare management, so we’re excited by the extension of this strategic integration and look forward to contributing to KinderM8’s continued success.” said Brett Neller, CEO of LineLeader.

 

About Kinder M8

Established in 2015, Kinder M8 has quickly become Australia’s most trusted name in childcare management. The platform offers a comprehensive, cloud-based solution that includes finance management, centre and family management, and workforce coordination. Kinder M8 also has a dedicated onboarding and customer support team, providing online chat, email, and phone support. In 2023, Kinder M8 achieved an industry-first customer retention rate of 99.88%.

 

About LineLeader

LineLeader provides award-winning CRM software for Early Childhood Education and Care providers. Founded in 2009, LineLeader’s Enrol platform is the leading marketing automation and enrolment operations tool for early care and education providers across the globe and is used by many of today’s top-performing childcare businesses across Australia.

For more information on how this integration will benefit your childcare centre, visit https://kinderm8.com.au/ or https://lineleader.com/en-au/.

 

A successful childcare business requires more than just a passionate team. It demands efficiency through organisation, structured communications, and streamlined processes. When exploring ways for your centre to operate as efficiently as possible, an area that is often overlooked is finance management. Over recent years, childcare management tools and software have emerged as a game changer for centres, working wonders for billing processes and overall financial management. This article will explore 5 ways that Kinder M8, Australia’s most trusted name in childcare software, can streamline your business operations, ultimately saving you time, money, and resources. 

Automated billing

People often underestimate all the finances a childcare centre has to manage. From learning materials, meals, and equipment to marketing, staff training, and rent, there are many expenses involved in operating a centre. It is easy to feel overwhelmed when you have to keep track of so many expenses. In a childcare setting with varying schedules and fees for each child who attends, Kinder M8 can automate your billing process. By centralising all aspects of your childcare management into one platform, including finance, CRM, centres, families, and workforce, you can integrate all aspects of your business operations and automatically gather the data you need when making or requesting a payment. Our childcare billing software also has a direct API connection with Services Australia, ensuring your centre remains compliant and updated with government requirements. 

 

Kinder M8’s childcare billing software will gather data for each child automatically so that you can efficiently send invoices to families. This streamlines your business operations, saving you and your staff valuable time. It also reduces the risk of any errors, since data regarding a child’s attendance is recorded on the same platform. 

Convenient and secure payment options 

Unlike traditional invoices, Kinder M8 offers a range of digital payment options. Flexible options include direct debit, on-demand payments, and BPAY, making it easy for parents to manage and plan for their childcare expenses. This means that payments are more likely to be made on time. We also take the security of your finances seriously. Kinder M8 is partnered with Ezidebit to provide you with secure, reliable, and low-fee payment processing. Our childcare billing software is Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliant, providing Level 1 Payment Protection to safeguard sensitive information. 

Customisable statements

To have impactful branding, all communications, including invoices and statements, need to be consistent. Kinder M8 offers multiple layout options for your billing and payment templates, allowing you to customise your statements to match your childcare brand. You can add your logo, contact details, and other elements too.

 

Also, Kinder M8 makes it easy to share invoices and statements. They can be downloaded, printed, and emailed with the click of a button, ensuring your childcare billing processes are as efficient and accessible as possible. 

Informative dashboards and reports

Dashboards offer real-time access to financial data, keeping you updated at a glance and helping you make more informed decisions. The Kinder M8 dashboard can be personalised based on your needs and the types of data you would like to analyse. You can also manage multiple centres through the central dashboard, which simplifies the operation of multiple locations. This provides valuable insight to effectively monitor cash flow, track payments, and manage budgets.

 

As well as the useful dashboard, reports can also provide valuable insight into your centre’s financial performance. With Kinder M8, all financial information is in one place, which means intuitive reports can be created and downloaded with a few simple clicks. This ensures you have a clear and accurate overview of your finances so you can budget and continue to operate a successful childcare centre.

Scheduled reminders

It is essential that bills, invoices, and childcare fees are paid on time. If a payment is missed or late, it can impact your budget and overall finances. To avoid this, centres must keep track of every payment required from each family, send reminders, and take action when overdue. Manually, this is a tiring and time-consuming task. With Kinder M8, we strengthen communication between centres and families. Payment reminders can be sent automatically, and families can be notified in real-time when a new invoice comes through. Families are unlikely to forget about a payment when they are being notified regularly through multiple communication channels, including the families app and email.

 

Finance management can seem like a never-ending challenge for childcare centres. Choosing an efficient childcare billing system such as Kinder M8 can make all the difference. Childcare billing software offers efficiency, improved parent satisfaction, and enhanced productivity. This contributes to overall streamlined business operations and maximises revenue over time. If you are ready to streamline your business operations, contact us at Kinder M8 to book a demo today. 

You may find yourself feeling stressed, overwhelmed and unprepared when it comes time for assessment and rating. Having a centralised childcare management system can make a huge difference and ensure everything is organised for educators, management and authorised officers. This article will explain the key steps involved in assessment and rating, and how Kinder M8 — Australia’s most trusted childcare software — can help you during this time. 

What is assessment and rating?

Assessment and rating is a national process that regulates, assesses and rates education and care services across Australia against the National Quality Framework. The purpose of assessment and rating is to ensure the health and safety of children, refine educational outcomes, and promote continuous improvement. Assessment and rating should not be seen as just a compliance check, but rather a great opportunity to showcase what your centre does every day to further support, educate, and care for children.

 

To prepare for assessment and rating, it is recommended that you review your processes, operations and facilities beforehand to make a judgement on how well you think you are meeting compliance. This involves self-assessment and quality improvement planning.

What is self-assessment?

The National Quality Framework emphasises how important continuous improvement is in relation to childcare services. Self-assessment is a key step in this process. It involves reflecting on your strengths, checking if regulatory requirements are being met, and exploring areas of improvement. In Australia, all education and care services must complete a self-assessment. 

 

For self-assessment to be most effective, it is recommended that you look to the broader community rather than limiting it to just educators and management. This can include seeking input from families, children and the wider community. Kinder M8 can help make gathering this information easy. You can access a range of communication channels, such as SMS and email, to connect with your community and gain valuable input for your self-assessment. You can also refer to existing CRM insights and analytics through the Kinder M8 platform to collect further data.

 

Quality Improvement Plan (QIP)

After self-assessment has been completed, the improvements and suggestions identified can be actioned and prioritised in a QIP. A QIP provides childcare services with the opportunity to self-reflect on the quality of education and care provided, and help plan ahead for clear and targeted improvements. The QIP is also used during the assessment and rating process. To make sure this plan is followed, good communication and tracking systems are vital. By using Kinder M8, you can ensure a smooth roll out of your QIP. The daily tasks and reminders feature allows you to set, track and manage tasks so that everything is completed on time.

Assessment and rating visits

On the day of assessment and rating, an authorised officer from your state or territory will visit your centre to observe and discuss your practices. Your service will be assessed against each of the 7 National Quality Standards, which are:

 

1. Educational program and practice
2. Children’s health and safety
3. Physical Environment
4. Staffing arrangements
5. Relationships with children
6. Collaborative partnerships with families and communities
7. Governance and leadership

 

This results in an overall rating for your centre. There are 5 quality ratings that can be awarded:

 

1. Excellent
2. Exceeding
3. Meeting
4. Working towards
5. Significant improvement required

 

These ratings are published on the National Registers and can be viewed by the public. This makes assessment and rating an important process to consider.

What to expect

Your service provider will be notified a minimum of 5 days prior to an assessment and rating visit, and is responsible for informing you about the date it will be taking place.

 

When the authorised officer arrives at your service on the day of A&R, they will discuss with the service provider or Management team what the assessment day will look like, while they are at the service. During their visit the assessor will sight, observe and discuss to collect evidence that reflect the information you have provided in your self-assessment and to be able to assist in their report to make the final decision about your services’ rating.

How can a childcare management software like Kinder M8 help with A&R?

The authorised officer will be required to sight some documents to provide as evidence to support the particular practices that are implemented at the service.. Some of the documents that an assessor might want to sight are:

 

• Staff and Visitor Records
• Documents under regulation 178 of the Education and Care Services National Regulations
• Documents relating to the educational program
• Examples of engagement and communication with families
• Documents relating to children with any health and medical conditions
• Policy and procedure documents 
• Documents of your planning cycle and assessment for children
• Documents relating to self-assessment and your Quality Improvement Plan
• Hygiene practices

 

If any additional or specific documents are required, your service provider will be notified via phone and/or email prior to the visit. They are responsible for passing this request onto you.

 

It is important that these documents are easily accessible and ready to show the authorised officer during an assessment and rating visit to make the process as smooth as possible. Having an all-in-one childcare management system like Kinder M8 will ensure efficiency, ease of access, and convenience when it comes to gathering information and documents required. 

 

As well as being practical, Kinder M8 offers continuous benefits to help streamline your operations. Every centre has good intentions when it comes to the health and safety of the children in their care, but without effective communication channels, there is often the risk of messages being missed or unclear. Policies and changes may not be consistently upheld, or may only be followed for a short period of time. This inconsistency can impact your centre during assessment and rating. 

 

Fortunately, Kinder M8 enables the centralisation of all communications which fosters accountability among service providers and educators. This ensures that when assessment and rating time comes around, the process is holistically understood throughout your centre. It also shows the authorised officer that your centre deals with issues relating to the health and safety of children effectively and efficiently. Also, the Kinder M8 system can pave the way for smooth implementation of any changes that may be required to action after a visit. 

 

Assessment and rating can be stressful, but it doesn’t have to be. If you are looking to get your self-assessment and Quality Improvement Plan under control, as well as make assessment and rating easy, a centralised childcare management system can make all the difference. Contact us to schedule a demo or learn more about how Kinder M8 can help you stand out from the pack.

Aurrum Kids is a childcare and preschool provider across New South Wales and Victoria. With approximately one hundred permanent employees and 20 casual employees, they care for around 300 children per day across their Mornington, Ballarat and Penrith centres.

While their primary service is early education and care, Aurrum Kids is particularly focused on community partnership programs and connecting parents with services within their local area, such as speech pathologists, dentists and local schools.

Established in 2021, Aurrum Kids is already looking towards future growth, according to Executive Director, Brodie Tebbutt.

“Despite our organisation being only 18 months old, we have established a strong operating methodology with the adoption of technology and best in market software partners.” said Brodie

“Although,” he adds, “Most providers these days are having to head in that direction to remain competitive and compliant,  whilst continuing to provide the best customer and employee experience.”

The all-in-one software solution that just works

When Aurrum Kids set up the business, they were looking for an end-to-end, Childcare Centre Management System (CCMS) solution.

Brodie explains:

“In child care, we need three key pieces of software:

• A childcare Customer Relationship Management (CRM) type software, to manage our enrolled and prospective families
• A CCMS which is the childcare management software managing payments, accounts and government subsidies
• And a documentation tool to communicate with families, share photos and child updates, etc. “

Brodie advised there are limited solutions that provide this in the market  which was a driving factor for the partnership with Kinder m8.

Seamless payments

Kinder m8’s software is fully integrated with Ezidbit’s all-in-one payments solution. Aurrum Kids found this feature particularly attractive.

“Within the Aurrum Kids team there are people who have experience with different CCMS software platforms. There are certain things that Kinder m8 does really well that other software providers can’t do. And a lot of that functionality is around processing of fees, discounts adjustments, additional subsidy funding etc. That’s where this platform is strong – in the processing and connection between government systems and the management software. It’s quite seamless.

“We’re a cashless business due to a recent regulatory change requiring all providers to take payment electronically. Out of our 300 families, around 10 pay us directly because of their work arrangements. We have almost a 98% adoption rate of payers via Ezidebit so it works well for almost all families.”

Payment automation has also worked well for the business.

“Other software providers require you to manually enter adjustments on accounts as you go through your payment cycle, each week or fortnight. Kinder m8 allows us to set that up in advance, put it on recurring frequency, set date periods and it processes automatically. We can also run reports on any discounts to understand over a period of time what that impact might be to the family or the business. That is an improvement that has worked really well for our organisation.” said Brodie.

Customer service

Aurrum Kids recently did some work on customer experience to understand the end-to-end process from first enquiry point, right through to exit, which is ideally graduation when the children are five or six.

“Customer service is important for us. We know we’re a small provider relative to the sector, but Kinder m8 has been a great supporter in developing a product that addresses our business needs. We have monthly partnership meetings with Kinder m8 where we cover our user experience, software and development updates, and maintain connection.”

On the payments side, Brodie has also been happy with support provided by Ezidebit. “If we have ever had questions around the Ezidebit process, the support team at Ezidebit have always been accessible. Whenever I’ve had interaction with the team it’s always been positive.”

User friendly

Another thing that has impressed Brodie with Kinder m8 is the product’s progressive user interface.

“There’s some software in this sector that is not being reinvested in to update the product. So that impacts the user interface for clients of that product, and what the parents are experiencing. We need the software to complement how we communicate with families and how we connect our brand. How that presents on the other side is important.”

Similarly, another feature that has worked well is the gateway to the government portals directly into the Kinder m8 system.

“The gateway connection allows us to submit requests in Kinder m8 which talks to the government, we then get paid as an operator for it, and you can report back as required. It’s really seamless, which has not always been the case when it comes to processing and managing accounts in this sector.”

Positive outcomes

The biggest positive outcome from Brodie’s perspective is the time that has been saved through automation, setting scheduled payments and seamless integration of systems.

“As we work through that end-to-end process flow, it allows for automation of payments and quick reporting on follow-ups needed, without dampening the family or user experience. It provides for really quick data entry for additional subsidy payments that might need to come through the gateway with the government orders. And that, over a period of a year with multiple services, is material.”

Fair Play OOSH is a provider of out of school hours care (OSHC) with a difference. Operating across 11 centres in the Newcastle, Port Stephens and Hunter regions of New South Wales,  Rebecca Phillips and her husband, Pete, have been helping families in the region for around six years.

Their philosophy is simple – a total commitment to customer service, while ensuring their staff are number one.

“Pete and I don’t have qualifications in childcare, but we do have high values, passion and drive to ensure we never over-promise and under-deliver with our staff, little OOSHIES, families and community. We often joke and say we have a ‘masters in life skills’. I always say this – and it’s not just a selling point for anyone to use our service or to come on board as a staff member,” says Rebecca (Bec).

“We’re known in the industry for delivering excellent programming, and our communities know we’re driven by quality, not quantity.”

What makes Fair Play OOSH unique is their focus on providing children with lifetime memories while ensuring money is never a barrier for families. But their biggest difference is their focus on wellbeing for families that are struggling with various issues.

“I wanted us to be a hub for the community,” said Bec. “So we work with local family support teams, the schools, community groups, and governing bodies to ensure we’re giving all families in our community the opportunity to attend a quality driven OOSH.

“We’ll work with children that have below 50% attendance rate. We’ll go to their home, pick them up in the morning and bring them back to OOSH. We’ll top up their lunch box, braid or de-nit their hair, give them brekkie, change their shoes if they need it – whatever’s going to make them go to school feeling more included.”

And they’re seeing wonderful results. Over the last five years school attendance rates have increased from as low as 20% up to 90%.

“And that doesn’t just get them to school, but gives inclusion, a sense of belonging and self-love. We’re changing and planting seeds, and also keeping families together.”

As their business has grown over time, Bec and Pete were looking for ways to automate processes, without compromising on customer service. Their current childcare management system wasn’t user friendly and they wanted to use more online documents.

Having experienced Ezidebit’s payments in a previous debit system, Bec was looking for an integrated solution that included Ezidebit’s powerful payments solutions and support.

“We missed Ezidebit when we were forced to go over to a new debit system. We missed their awesome customer service and went looking for a new software platform. We went with Kinder m8 due to their personal contact and ‘no problem’ attitude.”

Kinder m8 is a premium all-in-one digital childcare management platform that simplifies the daily workload of childcare operators. This includes online enrolments, bookings, invoicing and payment collection. Their payments product, KinderPay, is supported by Ezidebit’s stable, secure, and easy-to-use automated payments system.

When shopping around for a new provider, Bec had only one requirement.

“Our number one question to new platform providers was: tell me about your customer service team. With customer service, comes success. As long as you’ve got a masters in life skills and customer service anything is possible.

“That’s what we found with Kinder m8. When we need something from them, they hear us loud and clear and they deliver.”

Customer service is just as important to Kinder m8, which is the reason for such a successful three-way partnership between Fair Play OOSH, Kinder m8 and Ezidebit.

 

Three years on into the partnership, Bec is still happy with the decision to move to Kinder m8 and Ezidebit. She describes the implementation as “seamless”, as they just needed to sign off on documents then the rest was taken care of from the back end. All along the journey Kinder m8 and Ezidebit kept their client updated and provided whatever support they needed.

Bec says automation features like SMS or email reminders are a new best friend. Online reporting and management has made Fair Play OOSH more sustainable and gives Bec, Pete and their 82 team members extra time to achieve more for the children in their care.

“I’m no longer chasing families with paperwork to sign their kid in or out because it’s all online. And it’s all on one platform. Keeping it all together is a bonus.”

“Whether you’re a working family, wellbeing family or anyone else, we understand you want value for money and quality. And we were looking for customer service. Pricing was not a high priority. I’d be happy to pay more if it meant better customer service but I don’t need to because the customer service we’re getting is on point.”