westMidlands

Isnt Abacus a bit expensive? Do anyone use Xero or Quickbooks for the invoicing etc?

thanks for the above Broadoaks

Dear all,

I am wondering if people out there use any invoicing software such as Xero, QB or express invoicing to create invoices? We are one part of 2 nurseries, so we need a good solution that helps us to get rid of all the hours it takes to do manual invoices. We charge by hours, sessions, days, lunches etc. thank you, your help will be mostly appreciated.

Hello peeps, does anyone know of any good book keepers in west midlands area ? thank you in advance.

Thanks everyone for all their suggestions.

Dear all,

Our nursery is mostly busy term time and am sure a lot of you folks probably are in the same boat as me. Recently, the company's policy became stricter requesting term time staff not to take any holidays during term time and only in exceptional circumstances (medical, sickness etc), they can have a day off. This is because of the pressures it put on the rest of the staff.

Yesterday, one of the term time staff came to ask for half a day off before may bank holiday. The reason was that she can leave early to go to her holiday place. I declined the request owing to the above. I explained to her gently that she needs to take holidays outside term-time.

Today, we had another term time staff requesting 3 term time days off because she has to take her mum to the doctor. I have asked her to see if she can re-scheduled the appointments to non-term time, but also understand the need for her to be with her mum. Obviously, I do not want to be enforceful but at same time term time staff need to understand their availability is paramount in term time.

Any thoughts peeps?

thanks for your kind advice. i think we will try your approach.

Hello peeps, I am wondering if you have any arrangement on how to deal with emergencies at the nurseries in out-of-hours (for example, alarm going off). It will be useful to know especially if the big chain operators manage this. Is the manager or regional manager responsible for attending the nursery in case of emergencies like this?

Has anyone bought sundaela from boards direct website? If so, which ones do they recommend to go for?

Thanks for all the tips everyone

Dear all, It would be interesting to know what other nurseries have in the way of displaying children's art work. Currently, we seem to stick the display with a staple gun on the wall however i have noticed that the plaster is starting to come off a bit on certain walls. Do you suggest using cork boards or felt boards to display? i am just slightly concerned about safeguarding issues with pins used on cork or felt boards. Any ideas will be appreciated. thank you

No doubt some commentators have cited transition as the reason that schools might be using the tactic, I do not think that tells the true picture. I think they resort to unscrupulous tactics in order to up the numbers rather than the care about "good transitioning" for the child. What does it tell about transitioning when a child at age 2 is being removed from a perfectly happy environment (according to their parents) and moved to another setting because the parent has been told that they will get an automatic place. It is not within the remit of the LA school to decide who gets a place in their school. The head teacher is under pressure to maintain the numbers and hence allowing these practices to continue under his watch.

I am happy to become the "feeder" nursery for the school in question and hence work in partnership with them but I feel they are resorting foul play on this front.

This is what i am going to do and please let me know if someone disagrees:

1. Speak to LA admissions policy about the school. Let them know what is going on.

2. Perhaps send a letter to the head of board of governors for the school (ccing the school headteacher).

3.I am going to send out an email/letter to all the parents alerting of this unscrupulous behaviour of certain schools around us.

Wait for the outcomes.

Dear all,

We have had 2 parents coming up to us telling us that the nearby school (who have early years provision) informed that their children will get automatic place in the school at reception age if they bring their children to their provision. This in my opinion is foul play and misleading parents that the school decides whether the children get into the school or not. I spoke to the headmaster and he brushed it off saying that they have had to deal with competition from other school opening by. He didn't clearly state that they are using the scare tactic but seemed like he was insinuating that they do resort to it due to "government pressures".

Please can someone advice what I can do here? Can i go to the board of governors or go to the local authority admissions' policy to complain of foul play? The parents have said that they love our nursery and only taking them out because of the promised automatic place in the school.

Thank you

yes, it is a benefit to employees with children indeed.

Hi I had a question regarding the withdrawal of childcare voucher scheme. One of the owners has decided to withdraw the childcare voucher scheme as of 30th June 2016 as she doesn't see the need for it. However, she is the one who introduced it a year ago at the nursery.

One of the staff approached me recently that she is 10 weeks pregnant, but without any formal notice in writing. She is having a scan soon. She asked me where she stands with respect to childcare vouchers as she has been receiving it at the time of introduction for her son.

Reading upon on internet, it says that it is a benefit that the employer can withdraw at any time. Not sure what to tell her.

Your advice would be appreciated (although I understand it is more a employment related question).

Thanks,

I Was quoted around 180+vat per month for a 14 staff setting (that is with Employement and Health/safety aspects both) with Citation.

We use wirehouse, I carnt speak highly enough of them. As part of sign up to them they re do all contracts and provide blank contracts ready for new starters, complete staff handbook and guide you through the implementation of these also phone and online advice service. I must ask a question per week online about various things, we are looking at extending hours and adding in training claw back statement and I just throw it to them and they deal with it.

It's very much ask and they will tell you what your options are in the best interest of your company.

Legal assurance too in event of any claim as long as you follow their advice during any issues ie disciplinary.

After dealing with law call and acas during a very tricky time these guys were amazing much better service. The guy that I speak to is lovely I have his contact details somewhere if you want them X

Thanks a lot ForeverYoung.. I will give them a call X

Hello, I am looking for someone to consult on our employment contracts or someone to speak to any employment matters. Thanks

Hi, please can anyone recommend any good hr/employment lawyers within West Midlands or nationwide? Came across citation from ndna but they seem a bit expensive. Thank you

Just FYI, no new nursery has opened or we have not had negative ofsted + we are heavily marketting using online space and leafletting.

Hello all,

I am not sure but we seem to be a bit quite this term and the spring term next year. We were extremely busy last year and hence we had hired one extra staff. I hope things pick up otherwise i am concerned that the owner might make some changes.

Two years ago we experienced similar occupancy levels, am hoping this year is just a blip ..

thanks you people, i think we are swaying towards NMRU. However, hoping we dont regret the decision not to go with Coolmilk. I am not so concerned about what Coolmilk charges the government but more so about the convenience/admin work related to claiming the money back.

Dear all,

We ordered milk from local farm shop at our nursery. We are looking to change the process to order it from the supermarket now to reduce costs. I was wondering if I can claim money back for milk from the council/government and if so, is the process trivial?

Thank you in advance.

Ooooo I think Yay! Few issues but nothing major does what I need for £30 per month. I've been using it since September so only just done my second round of invoicing. E-mail questions are answered quickly, did an over the phone chat with him and he took remote control of my pc to help me set up where I had hit brick walls as our sessions where difficult to input with us being pack away the days/times vary a lot.

Set up was not too bad at all once I got used to it, I don't use the register print outs as I don't like the format and would use masses amount of paper, I'm yet to fully embarke on entering our waiting list.

As for invoicing it took me all of 30 mins other day to generate and print 70 invoices, I scanned through and checked accounts where I felt it looked weird or if I'd entered payed instead of funded, but this was all done in 30 mins whoop!!! Massive time savings there.

Parents like the invoice template too. The tracking of paperwork for monies recieved is thankfully a thing of the past as i enter it all onto system takes seconds per entry to do.

Birthday list for coming month is good as keeps me up on wishing kids happy birthday lol.

One downside is that they should have launched a remote register for use on mobile devices which I was looking forward to in my ever fighting battle to go as paperless as possible but there has been a delay in its launch, I don't use all the services it provides but for me it's great.

I did not go with option of paying extra to have data backed up on a remote system, I do it myself onto usb sticks (I use two just in cases lol) which I back up weekly.

For price I certainly am not complaining, and after instant nursery managers hard sell (made me really uncomfortable) and high prices I'm glad I choose this guy!

Thank you so much for your feedback. We are definitely going to go for it as the invoicing is something that takes a lot of time. We are still living in the ages of paper receipts. It works but just too time consuming. Have you used the parent portal by any chance? Is it any useful? I agree with you about instant nursery management, the guy was so rude when asked about whether he can demo it again to the deputy manager. He just said take it or leave it. Anyway, our experience with the guy at Kindersoft was very pleasant as well. Kindersoft it is then !! thanks

 

Are you talking about running a private company or as part of a chain operation?

As a manager of a private company you can set up the way you want and what works for the business. Therefore you could buy in resources for wages/admin/food etc etc and spend more time on the floor ....if you work for a chain then I suspect you may have less freedom to chose.

(we have 52 children on role and my deputy does 2 days admin ...I am on the shop floor ALL the time! and key work!)

It is a private nursery and not part of any chain. There has been big push from the owner to reduce costs and hence contemplating obtaining meals from external source. Payroll is outsourced at moment. Kindersoft is something we are looking to get as a nursery software management to ease some paperwork burden. Essentially, the owner is keen on managers reconnecting themselves back to the room as that way it is more cost effective as well for him to run the nursery without lagging behind on admin/food.