I am deeply considering charging hourly, billed on Friday at pick-up, and to be paid Monday before drop-off. I have done flat-rate before, and haven't had problems with it, but I was only watching 1-2 children max, and the parents never abused the times.

After working full time, and sending my own children to daycare, I saw how many parents abused it. If I'm going to bill for 'over hours' and 'too early hours', I might as well just bill hourly. I can do an hourly rate, and bill based on the sign-in and sign-out hours. I can hand them a tuition bill Friday at pick-up, and they can bring me cash or check Monday morning during drop-off, or pay online over the weekend.

I like that flat-rates are easy, though. However, if I'm supposed to do 9am to 5pm, I don't want to have to mess with 'billing' for 8:25 to 5:45. I feel like if I do hourly, parents will be encouraged and motivated to get here on time, and not drop them off too early. Plus, if they pick them up early one day, I can give them a discount.


Anyone else bill hourly? Or does everyone just do the flat-rate with contracted hours, and bill extra for overages?

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