The 7-Step Guide to Stress-Free Childcare Billing
An organized childcare billing system is essential to the financial success of your business. This guide covers seven steps to create an efficient billing process.
Brightwheel makes billing stress-free with easy setup, secure payments, and tools to track every dollar with ease.
Save up to 5 hours each week with automated invoicing, payment notifications, and autopay. Get set up fast: 94% of admins say brightwheel billing is easy to set up.
90% of preschools see an increase in on-time payments. Eliminate late payments with automated billing services and payment reminders.
91% of admins report that families find it easier to pay online with brightwheel. Offer families a variety of easy and secure ways to pay.
Keep an eye on money owed and received with the at-a-glance billing dashboard. See customizable billing reports in real-time.
Save up to 5 hours each week with automated invoicing, payment notifications, and autopay. Get set up fast: 94% of admins say brightwheel billing is easy to set up.
90% of preschools see an increase in on-time payments. Eliminate late payments with automated billing services and payment reminders.
91% of admins report that families find it easier to pay online with brightwheel. Offer families a variety of easy and secure ways to pay.
Keep an eye on money owed and received with the at-a-glance billing dashboard. See customizable billing reports in real-time.
Easy onboarding trainings
Get 1:1 support from an onboarding specialist for quick and seamless billing set-up. You’ll also receive guided training through brightwheel Academy, a comprehensive learning tool to help you, your staff, and families master using brightwheel.
Speedy support team
Brightwheel has the industry’s largest support team and will ensure that you get quick answers through live chat whenever you need them (response times are less than 1 minute!). Brightwheel’s support team plays a pivotal role in enabling new users to maximize every feature of the software.
Roster and rate card upload tool
Switching to brightwheel is easy when you upload your student rosters. The brightwheel team will import your roster and tuition rates into your brightwheel account so you have all of the information you need from day one.
No hidden service fees
When you use brightwheel billing, you’ll only have two service fees ever—one for card and one for ACH. We’ll never surprise you with hidden fees so you’ll always know exactly what you and your families are paying.
Brightwheel vs. Procare
Switch to brightwheel for a modern billing experience that saves time with automated invoicing, offers flexible payment plans, and ensures secure transactions—all included without hidden fees.
Build quality connections with families and staff. 95% of administrators & staff report brightwheel improves communication with families.
Simplify administrative tasks with brightwheel’s all-in-one app & save up to 20 hours per month. Stay compliant with digital check-ins, health checks, and room ratio tracking.
Upgrade to get Experience Curriculum: A complete, easy-to-implement curriculum system with digital lessons in brightwheel and hands-on learning materials mailed to you.
Billing administrators can easily issue invoices for recurring charges in billing plans and for one-time charges, including attendance charges and late payment fees. Invoices generated through brightwheel will include the detailed information: Invoice number, program name, address, EIN, invoice date, dates of service, assigned payer name, due date, current amount due, charge type and description, and optional notes for payers. With brightwheel billing, administrators can easily set up and send automated recurring invoices in a weekly, biweekly, bimonthly, or monthly billing cycle.
Families can connect and pay tuition online directly from their brightwheel app using bank account transfers (also known as ACH or direct deposit), credit cards, or debit cards. It is entirely up to your program to decide what payment methods to accept. Most programs on brightwheel today receive electronic payments via bank transfers. If you accept cash or check payments, you can still use brightwheel to log payments. This makes it easy to track all payments in one place and at a glance know what’s outstanding.
With brightwheel billing, you’ll get your money by the next business day! We have the shortest turnaround time in the industry, and don’t charge an additional fee for faster deposits. Online payments submitted by families by 7pm ET (4pm PT) will be deposited the next business day. Business days include Monday – Friday, but not weekends or holidays. Please note some financial institutions, often smaller credit unions, may have longer deposit times that we aren’t able to influence.
Brightwheel’s billing system offers a modern, user-friendly experience designed to simplify financial management for childcare programs. With automated invoicing, flexible billing plans, and secure online payments powered by Stripe, brightwheel streamlines the entire billing process. Families can easily pay online with options for recurring payments, and programs can customize plans to include agency payments, family payments, and even pass service fees to parents if desired.
Additionally, brightwheel includes features like digital signatures on tax statements, real-time payment tracking, and the ability to combine multiple payment types on a single invoice—all at no extra cost or hidden fees. These capabilities make brightwheel a comprehensive and efficient solution for managing your program’s finances.
Brightwheel’s latest billing platform is compatible with Quickbooks Online. Using brightwheel reports, administrators can easily download billing transaction data from brightwheel manually and import them into Quickbooks Online — No need to manipulate the data first before importing. While this is not a complete, automated integration, the ability to transfer billing data to Quickbooks enables administrators to complete their accounting processes more efficiently. Please refer to our Quickbooks Compatibility Guide.
Yes! The Subsidy Dashboard is a subsection within the Billing section of brightwheel. After adding agencies, this will be the primary location to see a birds-eye view of each agency’s and student’s balances. These balances reflect the total amount still expected from a given agency for an individual student.
Yes, brightwheel now accepts online payments in Canada. Canadian schools can use brightwheel to accept online payments through credit/debit card or PADs and these payments will be received directly in the linked deposit account. Families can also easily make payments to Canadian schools through the brightwheel app they are already familiar with. Plus, leverage autopay to get paid on time every time.
When you sign up for brightwheel billing, you also get access to a fully customizable platform that enables you to build quality connections with families, simplify administrative tasks, create lesson plans, and more—from one convenient place.
We’re here to make tax season as easy as possible for administrators. Brightwheel can help you gather essential billing reports and get your local, state, and federal taxes filed automatically with payroll. Additionally, brightwheel has simplified tax season for families by providing direct links for accessing their year-end payer tax statements independently. There’s nothing for you to do!
Yes, you are able to assign specific staff roles, such as an accountant or bookkeeper, with access to only billing information in brightwheel. The Billing Only role can take the same actions as administrators from the billing page (e.g. create/void charges, pull billing reports), but cannot view any additional student information or invite families. The role does not have access to edit billing settings, non-billing reports, or account deposit information.
Once a payment is successfully processed through brightwheel, the receipt is sent to the payer’s email address on file. For payments made via credit card, expect prompt receipt delivery. ACH payments, however, may take up to 5-7 business days due to processing times.
To effectively manage the payment history, log into your brightwheel account where you can generate a payment summary report for any specified timeframe, allowing you to view and print detailed invoices or statements. For further details about how brightwheel simplifies issuing receipts, visit our childcare receipts page.
Yes, you can collect payments from families as you move them through your enrollment process. The form sent to families from brightwheel includes all the charge details they need to make a payment for items such as registration or deposit fees. This eliminates the need to manually create invoices when registering new families.
Brightwheel’s new tuition agreements streamline the enrollment and billing process by allowing you to create and share customized tuition contracts with families. These agreements include your program’s policies, pricing, discounts, and assigned billing plans, ensuring clear communication and expectations.
Families can review and sign the agreement digitally while adding their payment method in one seamless step, reducing administrative work and ensuring a smooth start to billing. This feature helps improve compliance, enhances professionalism, and simplifies financial management for your program.
An organized childcare billing system is essential to the financial success of your business. This guide covers seven steps to create an efficient billing process.
Learn more about how expense management software can support your childcare business and how to choose the right business expense tracker.
Learn how to track child care payment logs using a billing software so you can save time, minimize errors, and spend more time in the classroom.