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Daycare Center and Family Home Forum>Sproutary Daycare Management App
Michael 02:24 PM 01-01-2021
As many of you know, I'm never willy nilly when it comes to advertisers. I turn down most if I do not believe the product is advantageous to our businesses.

I accepted Sproutary for their Daycare management software options. Take a look and see if their product is a something that may help you. https://www.sproutary.com/
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Blackcat31 02:34 PM 01-01-2021
It looks fairly easy to use..
I have a few questions that I messaged the about but it looks easy enough to use so I might give it a try!
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Michael 02:38 PM 01-01-2021
Would be interesting to get your take on it. Many here respect your opinion. I noticed that there is an email address for questions and also a chat box. It would be interesting to see if they actually chat on New Years Day.
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erichelgeson 07:05 PM 01-01-2021
Thanks for accepting us as an advertiser! I'm the founder and happy to answer any questions.

I actually just missed someone on live chat as I was doing the dishes Happy new year!
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284878 09:57 PM 01-01-2021
@erichelgeson

One of my biggest things with apps is not being family home care friendly but based on center or preschool needs. How family home friendly is this?

Example one app that I tested wanted me to create class for each age group and assign a teacher.

Another question is privacy, how much info can other families see about each other?

Example another app I tried allowed parents to see other parents info, photos and when they were no longer connected to the app.
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Blackcat31 07:53 AM 01-02-2021
Originally Posted by Michael:
Would be interesting to get your take on it. Many here respect your opinion. I noticed that there is an email address for questions and also a chat box. It would be interesting to see if they actually chat on New Years Day.
I’ll try them out and I will definitely give a review!
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erichelgeson 08:00 AM 01-02-2021
Hi @284878

I'll say in general you're right - most industry daycare apps are focused on the daycare centers market. That being said we do have a few home daycares and work with them to make sure it fits their specific needs. Our smallest customer has 7 "sprouts" (what we call kids in our system) and our largest has 26 locations they manage with over 2000.

In general we allow you to manage your families, classrooms, etc however you want. It's your business, so the layout should meet your needs.

I'm a pretty big privacy buff - and I carry that into the design of Sproutary. Families only see their data, but you can of course share updates, photos, etc to the entire location too. As a parent of four - I'd not want other families to see photos of my child after they're no longer at our location.

If you're curious I'd encourage you to sign up for the trial and check it out! Even if it's not for you right now I'd love to get your perspective. We are customer driven - we listen and take their needs seriously.
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Pandaluver21 11:43 AM 01-02-2021
I'm currently using Daily Connect, and I do like it, however there's a couple things I miss from when I was using Brightwheel.
1)The ability to have employees clock in and manage the app as well.
2) Being able to upload more than one picture at a time.

I see that it allows employee clock in (yay!) but does it allow more than one picture uploaded at a time?
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erichelgeson 01:49 PM 01-02-2021
Hi Pandaluver21

Employee time cards was one of the first features we added. Our center was using manual paper punch clock/cards for employees and children and it was such a hassle.
Now she just runs a report and sends it to her accountant each week.

Multiple photo uploads? Currently no, but we'll add it in this week (and I'll report back here when it's done).

We're here to get your feedback make it the easiest and most useful for you.
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Blackcat31 03:54 PM 01-02-2021
Is there any type of option to track yearly training requirements for the provider, director and or staff?
I didn’t see any info on the site unless I just missed it.

I know each state is different but tracking training is one thing I struggle with every year so just curious.
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284878 04:50 PM 01-02-2021
@Eric

I like it so far, it has a clean look, easy to use...

I created a child care account and a parent account to see the difference.

1. Love the allergy list and vaccines, easy to use but your allergy list needs more items, or at least SOY added and a other box (I have a kid that can not have beans, peas, and lentils along with soy and nuts), and a check all box for the vaccines would be nice when entering a new child.

2. I love that instead of deleting a family I could achieve them, but the delete option did not tell how to achieve or where to go to do that. Will achieving the child remove the parent from logging in and can you achieve a child as they age out? (or in my case the foster kids unenroll but the bio child stays)

3. I would like to personalize the message to the families for them to sign up. (I do not do pictures at all unless it is for my records, so I would not want parents to expect them) but that is not a deal-breaker.

4. I like that I can have each child scheduled at a different time. All my kids have different schedules.

5. Chatbox is great but since I do not see an app in the app store. My tablet is a kindle fire, is this kindle friendly?

6. Easy check-in and out but no check-in on parents screen, this might be common but currently... My covid policy is that they text me (pick up or drop off) from outside to check in the kids, so I need something they can use from their phone.

7. I could not enter an employee, I got an error 500. I tried a few times.

8. Love the variety of reports. I was able to test most of them.

9. Would you consider adding a note section for each child that only the employees/owner can see? Like anecdotal notes? Or maybe a calendar that we could add notes too. (X was sent home sick today, M was a no show, T will be absent on x day, P had a temp of xx at snack, H slept longer than normal, W had a bruise on his check at arrival, Z pushed S down, K is teething, J threw a fight at circle time...) Having a way to add notes will be a selling point for me.

10. Would you consider adding a weekly schedule/calendar? (theme, letter, color, shape... of the week.)

11. I could not find a way to assign a pin to the family, I even in the parent account. Am I missing something?

12. I see the cost for this app is $1 per kid for the month. I currently have 6 kids, all part-time and 1 starting soon. So my cost would be $6/7 a month? What would be the cost of using the payment option?

13. Like I said I have never found an app that fits my needs. My church uses a program called Breeze (I was part of the team that voted to us it) and if they did a child care app, I would be first in line. One feature that they have that I love is being able to create forms. Any thoughts on adding that to your app? I would love to be able to have a covid check-in form that would have to be completed in order to check-in.

14. If there is an issue with the network on your end or mine, is there a way to correct a child's check-in or out time?

15. Do the parents have to create an account to receive messages that I would send out like the daily reports?

In closing, I would recommend this App for its features and ease of use.
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erichelgeson 04:59 PM 01-02-2021
Originally Posted by Blackcat31:
Is there any type of option to track yearly training requirements for the provider, director and or staff?
I didn’t see any info on the site unless I just missed it.

I know each state is different but tracking training is one thing I struggle with every year so just curious.
This fall we added Employee documents - this allows you to upload certifications, document, and set reminders when their trainings are due. Our next step is to allow you to add in categories you require for each staff so you can track them across your entire organizations.

We are currently making videos for each section and documenting all the new features we added last year, so there are still a few gaps in our marketing material vs the live features, we'll be closing that gap soon!
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Blackcat31 05:02 PM 01-02-2021
Originally Posted by erichelgeson:
This fall we added Employee documents - this allows you to upload certifications, document, and set reminders when their trainings are due. Our next step is to allow you to add in categories you require for each staff so you can track them across your entire organizations.

We are currently making videos for each section and documenting all the new features we added last year, so there are still a few gaps in our marketing material vs the live features, we'll be closing that gap soon!
Awesome! Thanks for the reply!
I’m also fellow Minnesotan.
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Annalee 05:02 PM 01-02-2021
If I understand correctly, payment comes through Stripe which cost a percentage per payment. Am I reading that right?

I currently use Zelle which is free.
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erichelgeson 05:22 PM 01-02-2021
Originally Posted by 284878:
@Eric

I like it so far, it has a clean look, easy to use...

I created a child care account and a parent account to see the difference.
Last year we did a complete redesign on our look and feel - glad you like it!

Originally Posted by :
1. Love the allergy list and vaccines, easy to use but your allergy list needs more items, or at least SOY added and a other box (I have a kid that can not have beans, peas, and lentils along with soy and nuts), and a check all box for the vaccines would be nice when entering a new child.
Agree, I've added these to the list next week!

Originally Posted by :
2. I love that instead of deleting a family I could achieve them, but the delete option did not tell how to achieve or where to go to do that. Will achieving the child remove the parent from logging in and can you achieve a child as they age out? (or in my case the foster kids unenroll but the bio child stays)
A family in our system is "archived" when no sprouts are active. Delete in our system is really only if you made a mistake or want to remove all records of the family. Though I do agree a more an "archive" function to remove them from drop downs, reports, etc makes sense.

Originally Posted by :
3. I would like to personalize the message to the families for them to sign up. (I do not do pictures at all unless it is for my records, so I would not want parents to expect them) but that is not a deal-breaker.
That makes sense. We can add in that easily so families get a custom welcome message.

Originally Posted by :
4. I like that I can have each child scheduled at a different time. All my kids have different schedules.
We use this schedule to alert you on late pick up and drop offs as well.

Originally Posted by :
5. Chatbox is great but since I do not see an app in the app store. My tablet is a kindle fire, is this kindle friendly?
It is! We regularly test on Kindle, IOS 13 & 14, as well as Android/Chrome. There is no app to install - our site is what you call an PWA or Progressive Web App - meaning we can do almost everything an app can do - without being in the app store.

Originally Posted by :
6. Easy check-in and out but no check-in on parents screen, this might be common but currently... My covid policy is that they text me (pick up or drop off) from outside to check in the kids, so I need something they can use from their phone.
Correct - We actually did allow that for a while but unfortunately had too many bad apples checking out early to avoid fees, so we have removed it. We have added the ability for you to record who dropped off and picked up. And adding a "QR" code the family can scan to checkin via their phone to avoid bad apples.

Originally Posted by :
7. I could not enter an employee, I got an error 500. I tried a few times.
I saw that - my apologies! All software will have errors once in a while. We'll have it fixed tomorrow (watching the new Croods movie with the kids tonight!)

Originally Posted by :
8. Love the variety of reports. I was able to test most of them.
Thanks! We add more all the time when talking with centers.

Originally Posted by :
9. Would you consider adding a note section for each child that only the employees/owner can see? Like anecdotal notes? Or maybe a calendar that we could add notes too. (X was sent home sick today, M was a no show, T will be absent on x day, P had a temp of xx at snack, H slept longer than normal, W had a bruise on his check at arrival, Z pushed S down, K is teething, J threw a fight at circle time...) Having a way to add notes will be a selling point for me.
Sprout notes, documentation, calendar - everything you just mentioned we are currently working on and expected in Q1 this year.

Originally Posted by :
10. Would you consider adding a weekly schedule/calendar? (theme, letter, color, shape... of the week.)
Yes! We've talked to quite a few of our customers about how they'd like the calendar to look and features, those included.

Originally Posted by :
11. I could not find a way to assign a pin to the family, I even in the parent account. Am I missing something?
To assign a PIN you must have PIN required checked in the Settings - after that you'll be able to assign the PIN.

Originally Posted by :
12. I see the cost for this app is $1 per kid for the month. I currently have 6 kids, all part-time and 1 starting soon. So my cost would be $6/7 a month? What would be the cost of using the payment option?
If you had one starting soon (eg "Active" not checked) - you would not be billed for them. So $6 in your scenario.

Originally Posted by :
13. Like I said I have never found an app that fits my needs. My church uses a program called Breeze (I was part of the team that voted to us it) and if they did a child care app, I would be first in line. One feature that they have that I love is being able to create forms. Any thoughts on adding that to your app? I would love to be able to have a covid check-in form that would have to be completed in order to check-in.
Currently no - we did talk to our customers about what they would like for records on covid checkin, but they all thought adding that level of questions to the Sproutary checkin didnt make sense. Though always happy to reconsider.

Also I'd love to hear more about your experiences with Breeze and forms. Let me know if you have a few minutes next week and willing to chat.

Originally Posted by :
14. If there is an issue with the network on your end or mine, is there a way to correct a child's check-in or out time?
Yes! It also records who edited it and what changed (again, some bad apples, we record changes and deletions and who)

Originally Posted by :
15. Do the parents have to create an account to receive messages that I would send out like the daily reports?
You creating their family account and adding the email address is enough. They can optionally login and see, but they'll revive emails, communications, updates etc just by you adding them.

Originally Posted by :
In closing, I would recommend this App for its features and ease of use.
Wow! I am honored by the detailed review and endorsement. We take feedback from customers seriously and I'll follow up with each and everything mentioned here.
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erichelgeson 05:26 PM 01-02-2021
Originally Posted by Blackcat31:
Awesome! Thanks for the reply!
I’m also fellow Minnesotan.
Great! Just went sledding at the lake - we have some snow at last. I live on a farm about 20 minutes south of St Cloud. Have Fiber here so can run a business, work, and live in the country
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erichelgeson 05:30 PM 01-02-2021
Originally Posted by Annalee:
If I understand correctly, payment comes through Stripe which cost a percentage per payment. Am I reading that right?

I currently use Zelle which is free.
You are correct. Zelle is great if it works for you but there are some limitations with small businesses/etc that it's not something we can offer as a feature on our platform. Stripe does take a percentage. Most of our customers use ACH (electronic check) through Stripe and that fee is very low. It is also much lower than setting up your own merchant account for larger centers.

All that said we look at all the new payment platforms for opportunities to integrate with.
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284878 08:53 PM 01-02-2021
Originally Posted by erichelgeson:
Last year we did a complete redesign on our look and feel - glad you like it!



Agree, I've added these to the list next week!



A family in our system is "archived" when no sprouts are active. Delete in our system is really only if you made a mistake or want to remove all records of the family. Though I do agree a more an "archive" function to remove them from drop downs, reports, etc makes sense.



That makes sense. We can add in that easily so families get a custom welcome message.



We use this schedule to alert you on late pick up and drop offs as well.



It is! We regularly test on Kindle, IOS 13 & 14, as well as Android/Chrome. There is no app to install - our site is what you call an PWA or Progressive Web App - meaning we can do almost everything an app can do - without being in the app store.



Correct - We actually did allow that for a while but unfortunately had too many bad apples checking out early to avoid fees, so we have removed it. We have added the ability for you to record who dropped off and picked up. And adding a "QR" code the family can scan to checkin via their phone to avoid bad apples.



I saw that - my apologies! All software will have errors once in a while. We'll have it fixed tomorrow (watching the new Croods movie with the kids tonight!)



Thanks! We add more all the time when talking with centers.



Sprout notes, documentation, calendar - everything you just mentioned we are currently working on and expected in Q1 this year.



Yes! We've talked to quite a few of our customers about how they'd like the calendar to look and features, those included.



To assign a PIN you must have PIN required checked in the Settings - after that you'll be able to assign the PIN.



If you had one starting soon (eg "Active" not checked) - you would not be billed for them. So $6 in your scenario.



Currently no - we did talk to our customers about what they would like for records on covid checkin, but they all thought adding that level of questions to the Sproutary checkin didnt make sense. Though always happy to reconsider.

Also I'd love to hear more about your experiences with Breeze and forms. Let me know if you have a few minutes next week and willing to chat.



Yes! It also records who edited it and what changed (again, some bad apples, we record changes and deletions and who)



You creating their family account and adding the email address is enough. They can optionally login and see, but they'll revive emails, communications, updates etc just by you adding them.



Wow! I am honored by the detailed review and endorsement. We take feedback from customers seriously and I'll follow up with each and everything mentioned here.
How was the New Croods? We went to a makeshift drive in a few weeks ago to watch it and my kids loved it, my son loved the monkey scene the best.

Thank you for your feedback on my comments. I would be willing to talk to you about Breeze. I/my church has been using it for about 5 or 6 years.

And, I loved that I could mark who picks up and drops off, that was a great feature also.
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erichelgeson 09:10 AM 01-03-2021
New Croods was good! Kids really liked the Thunder Sisters and "wanta jump it?"

Sent you a email about chatting next week.

Saving new employees should be fixed. We have 1000's of automated tests but seems it missed a one! Thanks for helping to make it better.
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InTheNest 12:07 PM 01-03-2021
The page looks great and I'm very interested! My one concern is health and incident reports. I'm currently using procare but have also used Brightwheel. The number one thing I use most often is incident reports. So and so bumped their head; baby has a temp; child was bit on the arm; etc. I need something that allows me to log it in, attach photos, send a notice to the parent in real time, and also allow me later go in and print it out for each child so I have it to put in files. Both Procare and Brightwheel have something like this, but both were lacking the whole shebang. I would totally be willing to pay $2 a kid if it meant I could organize the hazardous lives of toddlers in a way that parents are promptly updated and notified and my licensor has the hard copies she desires.
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erichelgeson 03:27 PM 01-03-2021
Hi InTheNest,

I really like that idea of adding the ability in our activity feed to start an incident report for the child. I mentioned above but child documents (such as IDP, incidents, etc) will be here in Q1. Thanks for the feedback on that!

We have had a lot of customers switch from using both procare and brightwheel to us - saving them quite a bit. We're here to be the "whole shebang"!

On pricing - we know we're the lowest cost and have seen other raise prices on their existing customers. Just want to assure everyone that if we ever felt the need to change our price it would never apply to current customers.

Starting 2021 off great with this thread. Keep the feedback coming!
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Pandaluver21 12:11 PM 01-04-2021
So I created a parent and teacher account to check it out. I'm having a bit of a hard time figuring out how to use it. I found "daily reports" but I'm not sure how to input their daily activities. I assume I'm missing something!

Also, is there no-touch sign in (QR code) if so, how to I enable it?
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284878 12:21 PM 01-04-2021
Originally Posted by Pandaluver21:
So I created a parent and teacher account to check it out. I'm having a bit of a hard time figuring out how to use it. I found "daily reports" but I'm not sure how to input their daily activities. I assume I'm missing something!

Also, is there no-touch sign in (QR code) if so, how to I enable it?
After you check in a child, click attendance (I think) and in the lower right hand corner there is a plus to add what the kid did. Then the parent will receive a message.

I liked the ease of this but I tend to enter info during downtime for me and not when it happens.
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Pandaluver21 01:37 PM 01-04-2021
Originally Posted by 284878:
After you check in a child, click attendance (I think) and in the lower right hand corner there is a plus to add what the kid did. Then the parent will receive a message.

I liked the ease of this but I tend to enter info during downtime for me and not when it happens.
Found it under messages, thank you
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Cat Herder 01:42 PM 01-04-2021
I plan to check it out, too. Probably next week, though, since this week is task saturated.

* I do love the idea of being able to upload more than one photo at a time. That takes up so much of my time right now with Daily Connect.

I need to keep milestones and assessments, though.
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gumdrops 05:35 AM 02-18-2021
I still have huge hopes of starting a center some day, so I'm waiting to do the trial until I'm closer to opening a center.

Those who have tried this program, do you like it?
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284878 08:13 PM 02-18-2021
Originally Posted by gumdrops:
I still have huge hopes of starting a center some day, so I'm waiting to do the trial until I'm closer to opening a center.

Those who have tried this program, do you like it?
Yes, I like it and would recommend it. It works well with home daycares. I would recommend trying it (just use a different email than your business one) and checking it out, you may decide to start using it now.
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Tags:app, business software, management software, software for daycares, sproutary
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