Superfox - Does Anyone Use It?

[Cait]

Is there anyone out there who uses Superfox? If so, can you tell me what you think of it and if it's worthwhile? I don't want to spend time putting it onto my system if it's not going to give me anything I haven't already generated.

 

Edit to say - I have a register I've generated myself in Excel and payroll software

Edited March 9, 2012 by Cait

[Panders]

Hi Cait, I've been on the training and it is an impressive programme which has been designed and is updated fairly regularly. For my purposes I felt it overkill. I don't have lots of different sessions, different groups and lots of staff, I don't have to produce lots of different registers for different reasons, i.e. outings etc. and I don't need registers of children's birthdays, allergies, frankly the list is endless. I did install it. I did spend best part of a morning loading in names, rates of pay blah blah blah and then abandoned it!

 

I have worked my tailor made system for 10 years, it will take a lot for me to abandon it!

[Cait]

Hmm, that's what I thought. I may have a play at Easter if I've got a 'window'

[Guest]

i too did training about 4 yrs ago, it is impreesive but i already had stuff in place so did not see thepoint or have the time to work out how the system would benefit me. Let us know if you go for it, would be interested

[narnia]

we also went on the 'training'.........................and installed it...........................and abandoned it..........................good job it was free!

[Lyanne]

Can I ask why it was free to your setting, is it because your LEA has signed up to it? Because they quoted my setting about £300 for it, and I know my LEA has not signed up to it ;-)

 

I haven't tried it yet, but am really interested, and have the Directors' agreement but haven't had the spare 5 minutes to breathe phone them back to arrange the payment & download.

 

We have about 60 children on roll at the moment with different allergies, dietary requirements etc and different children doing different sessions each day, different staff in each day... We're getting an admin person after Easter (Yay!) and that will ease things but there's no clear & simple system in place at the moment for her, so I felt it looked like Superfox would help us tremendously, and now I'm worrying that it won't be worth the money (that I could use to get 2 wooden buggies from CP instead B) )

[Cait]

I enquired about it as it came up on my Quisp - one of the questions was 'Does your setting use Superfox?' My advisor just sent me a disk - no instructions mind!

[narnia]

yes, our LEA paid for it, so free to every setting. cait, we didn't get a manual or anything with it, there was a booklet at the training, but the chap delivering the session demanded them back and checked all of us to make sure we HAD handed them back

[Cait]

Hmmmmm

[Pimms o'clock?]

You don't need a handbook/manual as there are Tutorial and guides built into the system that explain how everything works as per the list copied from Superfox below, so you can see it does the lot. Hope this helps

 

Cait... you can do wages up to a point as in gross wages which can be used to prepare a payslip but you have to do your deductions etc on HMRC and either manually enter this onto payslip using a good old pen or you can save the payslips as docs and enter deductions on computer - if you get what I mean.

 

If anyone wants to know any thing else you can pm me for my phone number and I would be pleased to sing the praises. I have been asked this week to write a testimonial for their website as I have been using it since it was first introduced in Kent.

 

 

Software for Childcare Superheroes

 

 

Tutorials and Guides - Overview

This section has tutorials and guides - select the one that is most relevant to your query:

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[Panders]

Can I ask why it was free to your setting, is it because your LEA has signed up to it? Because they quoted my setting about £300 for it, and I know my LEA has not signed up to it ;-)

 

I haven't tried it yet, but am really interested, and have the Directors' agreement but haven't had the spare 5 minutes to breathe phone them back to arrange the payment & download.

 

We have about 60 children on roll at the moment with different allergies, dietary requirements etc and different children doing different sessions each day, different staff in each day... We're getting an admin person after Easter (Yay!) and that will ease things but there's no clear & simple system in place at the moment for her, so I felt it looked like Superfox would help us tremendously, and now I'm worrying that it won't be worth the money (that I could use to get 2 wooden buggies from CP instead B) )

 

Lyanne you sound like the perfect candidates for the Superfox system. Lots of variables which once loaded in to the system is easy to print out for different occasions and reasons. Kent did indeed buy the system in for it's settings and so it is free for us to use.

[Lyanne]

Lyanne you sound like the perfect candidates for the Superfox system. Lots of variables which once loaded in to the system is easy to print out for different occasions and reasons. Kent did indeed buy the system in for it's settings and so it is free for us to use.

 

Thank you Panders, now if only I can convince Suffolk to buy it for us then I can get it for free ;-)

 

Really, I will buy it for us, but think I'll put in a call to County first to check they're not planning to buy it later this calendar year - that would be very annoying! I can cope with the idea that they might buy it in the future, especially if we're giving it a glowing recommendation, as it will save so much of my (unpaid) time but would be rather fed up if it were this year.

[Panders]

How about offering to be the guinea pig for the county to make up their mind! ~they pay for it and you test it out for them.

[Pimms o'clock?]

...I wish I could be paid for being a guinea pig the time I have spent helping to get rid of "gremlins" but getting to perfection is probably worth it.

Edited March 10, 2012 by Pimms o'clock?

[Deb]

I really like SuperFox, like Lyanne it suited us because we didn't have a system in place and we had a new administrator starting so it seemed ideal for our needs. It is easier to use than our previous system that I bought. Our LA gave the software to every setting. We use it for registers, invoices, birthday list, keyperson list etc. It also produced a report at our end of year as evidence of income. I'm sure there's much more we could do with it.

[Cait]

Well, having spent a ridiculously frustrating 4 hours on it this evening I have to say I'm not impressed so far. Input loads of children's info that took ages, staff info, sorted children into groups and then came to do register bit and I apparently have no children. Thanks for that - that's 4 hours I'll not get back!

[Steve]

I liked your post in sympathy Cait. That experience is always frustrating - hopefully your data is just hiding somewhere and not permanently lost!

[Pimms o'clock?]

Hi Cait, you need to do each individuals child's "timesheet" and input some services before you can produce any

registers, then you will get starting and end time etc for parents signature. If I can work out how to blank out names I will PM you a sample. Hope this makes sense, if not get back to me, if you were a little closer I would pop over and show you!!

Edited March 19, 2012 by Pimms o'clock?

[Cait]

I've done that, spent another couple of hours on it this evening and I won't be wasting any more time with it. Put all the children's regular bookings in and they don't come up on any registers. I've gone through the tutorials so I know I've done stuff in the right order.

 

I'll stick to Microsoft Excel where I can see instantly, at a glance, what children are doing right across a week/term etc and how much is owing and what vacancies I have, all addresses, contact details, staff details, dates of birth etc etc.