Guest Posted September 14, 2009 Share Posted September 14, 2009 Hi. i was thinking about investing in EY Essential (http://www.ey-essential.com/) through the PLA to make life easier at pre-school. Does anyone else use this and would they recommend it. It will cost £250 + VAT, so quite a lot of money but worth it if it saves time writing registers/producing invoices etc. Does anyone else use nursery management software that they would recommend? Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted September 14, 2009 Share Posted September 14, 2009 I'm sorry you have not had any replies - yet! We don't use EY Essential so can't help on that one, but can say that we have just given up using Enurseries and have moved to First Steps. It is looking OK, despite a few teething problems, but hope they are sorted out soon. Jury's still out. Gruffalo2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kristina Posted October 9, 2009 Share Posted October 9, 2009 (edited) Hi I have also posted asking about this software (done a forum search and nothing came up so started a new topic woops!!). I cant find anyone either who uses this software, even asked my Pla devlopment officer and she couldn't help in any way. Like you just trying to save some time, and the systems seem to be even more expensive!! Hope someone comes along soon!! Kris Just had a hunt through the forums and there is already a thread for this but I don't know how to attach the link Sorry!!! But from what I have read someone posted that they have this software and aren't very impressed, nursery net seems to be the one! However they did offer a trial software package but having looked on their website they now only offer a full version which is £495.00 + VAT which is way too expensive for me!! Hope this helps. Edited October 9, 2009 by kristina Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deb Posted October 9, 2009 Share Posted October 9, 2009 I would be interested to hear if this system is considered to be a good one too. We have bought the trial version of the Datamove/Nursery Management software. It is OK but am rather disappointed. We effectively have 5 different sessions each day ie breakfast, morning, lunch, afternoon and after school. I want to know how many children in each session, how many 2 year olds and how many 3/4 year olds to plan ratios etc, plus number of staff but this system apparently cannot do this. We only have one main room so cannot subdivide by room especially as a few children attend all 5 sessions. Very disappointed! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
julie 12 Posted October 10, 2009 Share Posted October 10, 2009 Hi, Have a look at First Steps, it is very expensive and you need to pay every year to keep the technical support,BUT we have used this system for years and never had a problem, we have many different sessions, you name them...we do them!!! The support team have always enabled us to customise our registers. My only ctisicism is how much paper the registers use, as we print out a weekly one each week, but we are working on that...ps how long to you keep your old registers for? Julie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bigsue Posted October 10, 2009 Share Posted October 10, 2009 We tried 'Pre-schooler' had to pay yearly as well, not impressed, but i am not completely ICT brilliant Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deb Posted October 10, 2009 Share Posted October 10, 2009 Hi Julie So just to clarify you can see at a glance how many children are in for breakfast club, how many are in for the morning session etc, their ages and the required staffing ratio? We only have one room as it were, not different aged rooms. Have only just started this system, cannot remember exactly how long registers have to be kept - quite some time if I remember rightly! It is our only register. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smiles Posted October 10, 2009 Share Posted October 10, 2009 Statutory requirement is 2 years after last entry smiles Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kristina Posted October 10, 2009 Share Posted October 10, 2009 Hi Just thought I would let you know that I am having an interactive demo with instant nursery manager Monday afternoon so will let you know how it goes. I think this is the one that Maz mentioned a while back, but unfortunatly they have stopped the trial version so you do have to purchase the full version at £495 + VAT! Seems an awful lot of money so I hope the demo is good!! Kristina Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deb Posted October 10, 2009 Share Posted October 10, 2009 Kristina That's the one we bought the trial version of - Instant Nursery Manager (aka Datamove) Pre-Schooler. It has one big draw back as mentioned previously. Because we do not have individual rooms for each age group, I cannot see instantly how many children we have in for breakfast, morning etc for each session, by the age group so cannot tell instantly how many staff I need or if there is a space for extra children. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 10, 2009 Share Posted October 10, 2009 Do not, whatever you do go to Parenta/Abacus, the system is dreadful and has a complete mind of its own!! The support team are good though, probably because we phone them so often!! As a group of nurseries, there's 6 of us, we are in the process of investigating another supplier thankfully!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kristina Posted October 11, 2009 Share Posted October 11, 2009 Deb Can I just ask with the Pre-Schooler software at the moment I only run 5 morning sessions a week, and I only have one room (we are based in a school), so I'm assuming that for this the Pre-Schooler would be ok. However we are about to intoduce lunch club and although we are a private provider the school have asked us if we could offer breakfast/after school club, is this where the system is flawed when you want to offer more than one session but with only one room? Hope this makes sense!! I know someone earlier on mentioned First Steps software, I have been on the website but can't find anything about costs?! Thanks Kristina Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deb Posted October 11, 2009 Share Posted October 11, 2009 Yes Kristina That is exactly my problem, unless anybody else can throw any light on it. I have been onto the owner who says he cannot help me - he claims that he has many other settings who don't have a problem with the register - I found his attitude rather unhelpful. I felt I had a genuine need to know how many children are in each session, and their ages so that I can see how many staff I need and what spaces there are. It just seems so fundamental to me that I thought I must be missing something so my administrator and I contacted the owner on two separate occasions but he just said he could not help. He said he has lots of other settings who do not have a problem with the register. Perhaps he would have been more helpful if I had bought the full system but as it stands at the moment I will not be buying it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HappyMaz Posted October 11, 2009 Share Posted October 11, 2009 That is exactly my problem, unless anybody else can throw any light on it. I don't use the register bit so I can't comment but I wonder if you've talked to the people who wrote the software? I get the impression that they are very willing to give help and support and really if their software doesn't do something so fundamental to your setting then perhaps they could either show you how it does work (assuming it does what you want it to do, but the manual is less than helpful in explaining how), or alternatively they could tweak something to help you do what you want. Having only purchased the trial version I only use it in a limited way, however if I'd spent hundreds of pounds on it I'd want it to do everything it claims so I can well imagine how frustrating it is for you! Good luck! Maz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 11, 2009 Share Posted October 11, 2009 If it's just for registers and not for producing invoices etc, then I devised my own register, it calculated; ratio needs / occupancy levels by age / space calculator / morning session, lunch session, afternoon session - a breakfast and afterschool club could be added. I also included fee's income calculations for termly budgets and termly forecasts. I even differentiated between funded and non funded attendence, it did take a while to input the initial information. I used excel. Peggy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kristina Posted October 12, 2009 Share Posted October 12, 2009 Hi Well I have had my demo on the instant Nursery Manager and I have to say I am quite impressed so far. It seems to cover everything that I would need and more, it would certainly cut down on the amount of time I spend on paperwork!! It just still seems a lot of money as they have stopped the trial version that Maz has. Maz if you read this, now that you have been using it for a while when you reach 50 children would you upgrade to the full version? Thanks Kris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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