Well I was thinking a while ago that when I start my business it would be great if there was one of those log in (like those punch-in clock things) they have at some work places where when the parent come in they swipe their child's card so it is marked what time the child arrived/left (if it is early or late or on time) so that way parents cannot argue with late fees because the time would be according to the time on the clock of the computer used. Or maybe if it had a list of the children enrolled and the parents just find their child's name and click on it and the time starts from when they click on it. maybe have 2 lists on the screen like one for logged in and logged out. It should be able to hold up to 30 enrolled kids and make it were you can delete children and add children when ever needed.

Just make it easy where the provider has control over the default rates (hourly, daily, weekly, bi-weekly, monthly and can also include early drop off/ late pick up fees) and where it can be different for every family- especually if they have more than one child. It should be easy for the provider to be able to adjust it everyday if needed but still have it set on default of the agreed upon schedule hours (which may very from day to day) for the child's regular days but can change it if the schedule changes or if you agree to 1 day of extended hours for a flat fee- It should just be for attendence purposes and have a setting where if you charge when they do not attend that you can adjust it and make sure that the absents/ paid holidays doesn't affect what it says on the bill- they only thing that affects it is if they pay hourly or if they leave their child off early/ pick them up late. The late fees should have an OPTION (not default) of a small grace period like 1 to 5 minutes before starting the early drop off/ late pick up fee. a late drop off and early pick up should NOT affect the default payment unless the provider wavers it on their own. The rates should be able to be adjusted every so often for when the provider decides to increase her rates but also have a small section for where she can make different rates for new families that don't effect the old families- if she charges new families a higher rate. It should have an option where you can see the layout of what they attended daily, weekly, and monthly. It would be great if it had a feature where the provider can e-mail a weekly or monthly report to themselves so that they can print it out and save it in a folder on their email account so they don't lose it or have to worry about computer memery. And also have a setting for swipes for after hours care/parent's night specials on certain days the provider picks (can be at night or on weekends) for a flat rate for a few hours and another for overnight care and an option of a late fee or switching the child from few hours to overnight if the paren't pick up their child late.

It would also be nice to have one file for when you have substitutes or a part-time/full time assistants that they can have another swipe in system connected to that but only for the assistants so that way you can make sure they aren't arriving late and trying to pass off as being on time or so they cannot say that they stayed later than they really did to try to fudge the times to make a little extra money (when I worked for one provider, one of my co-workers would do that all the time). It can have their regular pay as a default but also maybe an OPTIONAL (not default) bonus for holidays/birthdays/ or for filling in for the full day alone. It should have an option where you can see the layout of what they worked daily, weekly, and monthly. This should also be able to send a weekly or monthly report to your e-mail (if they have internet) or print out for records. Maybe a feature were you include a 2 hour 1/2 paid or non paid lunch option since a provider may need them for the ratio but cannot afford to pay them a full amount to not do anything. It will also come in handy to have another folder for volunteers (like high schoolers or people who want work expierince) with no payment features just for record keeping. It should also be an option to beable to switch a volunteer back and forth into a paid assistant if needed on some days- maybe as an option for regular assistants/subs too if they decide or need to volunteer for school or something.It should be able to hold up to 5 volunteers or assistants at a time.

The provider should be able to log out and the log ins should still stay logged in when opening a new window or when the computer is off. All of this information should only be available to the provider through E-mail or they have to provider their screen name and phone number, a safety question, or a password on the computer softwear- but they should be able to change it at anytime if they want. It should NOT need regular internet to run normally all day and the provider should be able to move the information to another computer with the same softwear either by typing in the E-mail account (with internet connection just to transfer) or by saving the information using a USB drive or disk; if needed due to viruses or the computer breaking (that is where an E-mail acount access would come in handy).

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