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As a part of brightwheel’s commitment to innovation, improvements are constantly being made to the billing platform. These updates are in direct response to feedback from early learning providers, and they all enable programs to save time, get paid faster, delight families, and stay on top of who owes what.
Below is a roundup of the biggest feature releases to billing over the last three years.
💰 Next-day deposits: In July 2021, brightwheel launched next-day deposits to brightwheel billing. This means payments from families are deposited the next business day to a childcare program's bank account. We understand how important it is to have funds available to run early learning businesses. This turnaround time is the fastest in the industry, and it ensures programs get paid on time, every time.
💰 Attendance-based billing: Starting August 2021, providers can bill families based on the time their children were in attendance each day. This allows for greater flexibility and control for part-time, drop-in, and before/after care tuition. This also enables early drop-off and late pick-up fees.
💰 Billing activity feed: In March 2022, we added a real-time feed to the At a Glance dashboard in brightwheel billing. Administrators can now quickly see if they should take action on critical updates such as payout deposits, autopay turned on/off for a student, failed/disputed payments, and more. This means a provider can manage their program more easily while also saving time.
💰 QuickBooks compatibility: In June 2022, billing reports were updated so brightwheel data can be seamlessly imported into QuickBooks online. A comprehensive guide was also published to walk through how to quickly export the information needed without extra manual work.
💰 Family flexibility: As of July 2022, any student contact (not just parents) can be made payers in brightwheel. On top of that, invoices can be assigned, charges can be split, and autopay can be enabled across multiple payers. For example, 45% of a child's tuition can be assigned to Mom, 45% can be assigned to Dad, and 10% can be assigned to Grandma. Each payer will receive their own invoice for the charges assigned to them. This enables programs to bill more inclusively for the many different families in a community.
💰 New revenue report: In October 2022, we released a new report that gives a consolidated view of revenue by charge category and summarized fees. What's more? It's quick and easy to see both billed and paid amounts, and providers can also see how much they should expect to receive from posted invoices billed in the future.
💰 Sibling payments: In November 2022, we introduced a simpler way to invoice families with siblings. Thanks to feedback we heard from customers, payers can now view balances for all children together and pay for multiple invoices with a single payment (and a single fee!).
💰 Subsidy management: In December 2022, brightwheel billing was updated with an all new subsidy management experience. Providers now have an easy way to track a family's balance across both private and agency payers. It's now quick to add and edit agencies, associate them with students, and assign agency payments.
💰 Custom billing reports: In June, billing data was added to the Custom Report builder in brightwheel. Administrators now have greater flexibility as they pull revenue and aging data for reporting needs. With this improvement, it’s easy to answer questions like, "How much tuition was paid? How much in credits was applied? How much did agency vs. private payers pay?"
💰 Bill plan templates: In July, it became even easier to "set it and forget it" with brightwheel billing. With bill plan templates, programs can preset invoice frequency, charges, and invoice send date to save time as they create new billing plans for students.
💰 Individualized autopay requirements: As of August, autopay settings can be customized for specific families. This means a childcare center can have mandatory autopay across the program, but it can be turned off for certain individuals. They can also require autopay for some families but not others. This flexibility allows providers to get paid on time while accommodating unique situations in their community.
💰 Security, reliability & support: We know how important it is to use an online platform that is safe and secure, especially when it comes to finances. We also understand that urgent questions need to be answered quickly. In 2022, we rolled out Two-Factor Authentication to ensure each early learning provider is the only one that has access to their brightwheel account and associated information. We also increased the size of our support and engineering teams to support fast responses via Live Chat, 24x7 monitoring, and 99.9% uptime.
💰 Coming soon: improved year-end summaries! This tax season, it’ll be even easier for families to download year-end summaries directly from brightwheel. Families will have a direct link to their statement, and they’ll be notified when it’s ready to download. Administrators will also have direct links to student statements for reference.
These are just the highlights, and we aren't stopping here. In 2024, more improvements are coming to enhance the provider experience using brightwheel’s automated billing platform.
Brightwheel is the complete solution for early education providers, enabling you to streamline your center’s operations and build a stand-out reputation. Brightwheel connects the most critical aspects of running your center—including sign in and out, parent communications, tuition billing, and licensing and compliance—in one easy-to-use tool, along with providing best-in-class customer support and coaching. Brightwheel is trusted by thousands of early education centers and millions of parents. Learn more at mybrightwheel.com.
