The first of the month is not a good day to find out you are $4,000 short. Most childcare owners have been there. Payroll is due, the lease is due, and four families have not paid, two of them because a card expired and one because a subsidy payment has not come through.
Collecting tuition is mostly a set of habits and a small number of decisions. This post covers the decisions, and what the software can take off your hands.
Decision 1: Make autopay the normal path
Families pay late for ordinary reasons. They forget, the card expired, or the week got away from them. Autopay removes most of the ordinary reasons.
What helps families say yes:
- Offer autopay at enrollment, as the default. A parent who has to opt in later usually does not.
- Charge on a date that follows payday, and say the date in writing.
- Send a reminder two or three days before a card is charged, and a receipt after.
- Let a family pay by card or by bank transfer. ACH usually costs you less.
In Bloomz Pay, tuition can run on recurring plans with autopay, and you can add one-time charges for registration, supplies or a field trip. The published rates for childcare are 2.95% on cards and 0.6% on ACH (with a 50 cent minimum and a $2 maximum), with no setup or monthly fees. Many centers choose to pass on a card fee, or to nudge families toward ACH. Whatever you pick, put it in the handbook first.
Decision 2: Write a late-fee policy you will actually enforce
A late fee you waive every month teaches families it is optional. A fee you enforce without warning feels like a trap. A policy in the middle is easier to defend.
A policy that works in practice:
- State the due date and the grace period in the enrollment agreement.
- State the fee as a flat amount or a percent, and whether it repeats.
- Say what happens at 14 days, and at 30 days (for example, a call from the director, then a pause on new enrollment benefits).
- Say who can waive a fee, and in what case. Keep a note of each waiver.
Check your state’s rules and your own contract for what you may charge. Bloomz Pay applies the late-fee policy you set, so it does not depend on whether the front desk remembers.
Decision 3: Keep the subsidy share apart from the family copay
If some of your families receive help from a state subsidy program, you have two payers for one child: the family, who owes a copay, and the agency, which pays the rest, later. Mixing them in one balance causes most of the confusion.
Keep them separate from the first day:
- Family copay. A fixed amount the family pays on a schedule, often by autopay.
- Agency share. An amount the agency owes you, which arrives after you report attendance to the agency.
Do not charge the family for the agency’s share because the agency is slow. And do not mark a child “paid” when only the copay came in.
Bloomz Pay tracks subsidy agency awards against balances today, so you can see what is expected from the agency separately from what a family owes. Hourly plans, and a clearer copay and agency split on the invoice itself, are coming soon, in the next release.
Be clear on one limit. Bloomz does not replace your state’s subsidy attendance system. You keep reporting attendance there, as you do now. Bloomz is where you see who owes what.
A monthly rhythm
A short routine beats a heroic cleanup:
- Day 1: invoices go out, autopay runs.
- Day 3: look at failed payments. Contact each family by message, not by a note on the door.
- Day 8: late fees apply. Call anyone more than a week behind.
- Day 15: check expected agency payments against what arrived.
- Day 25: list next month’s one-time charges, and tell families.
Open the same screen on the same day every month. Collection improves when it is routine.
Talking to families about money
Most parents who pay late are embarrassed, not careless. A message that starts with “We noticed your payment did not go through. Here is a link to update your card” gets paid sooner than one that starts with the fee. Send it in the parent’s language. The whole Bloomz app is translated into 250+ languages, so the invoice, the reminder and the payment page read the same way for each family.
What to ask a vendor
- What does a family see when a card fails?
- Can I set my own late-fee policy, and does the fee appear on the invoice?
- Can I see agency awards and family balances separately?
- What are the exact processing rates, and when do funds reach my bank?
- What is live today, and what is coming?
You can see the billing features on the childcare billing page.
Pricing
Bloomz is quoted per center on a short call. The Best Price Guarantee beats a competitor’s written quote by 10%. It is free for families.
