Web-based

Benefits of Online Daycare Software

Online daycare software has many advantages over locally installed software. For example, directors, teachers and parents can use the software and access your daycare's data anywhere, anytime. Web-based daycare software may allow parents to view and pay their statements online. There is usually no software to buy or install on your local computers. The service is typically billed monthly which often translates into a much lower initial cost.

Some services allow parents to register and update their own data online, reducing data entry workload for you and your staff. Furthermore, parents can interact with your business (registering, signing up for events, updating their records, etc.) 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Parents may even be able to make payments online.

If the daycare software provider conducts frequent backups, your business may be at less risk of losing data.

Daycare centers with multiple sites can more easily manage and share their company's data between sites.

Important Things to consider

While there are many benefits to using online daycare software, there are also some important considerations you should be aware of when evaluating web-based daycare software.

One consideration is data security. Regardless of whether or not you will be accepting payments online, you should make sure the software offers 128-bit SSL encryption. This security measure ensures that your clients' personal data will be safe and protected.

If the daycare software provider charges a monthly fee, the long-term cost may be higher than paying a one-time charge. However, whereas some standard software companies charge a fee for upgrading to the latest version, with online daycare software you're guaranteed to have the latest version usually at no charge and without the hassle of having to update the software yourself.

Another concern is uptime. Uptime is the percentage of time the online daycare software is live and functioning. If the daycare software is offline or nonfunctional during business hours, your business' administrative operations may come to a virtual halt. Make sure the software company performs maintenance after business hours and provides advance notice of any planned system downtime. They should also provide redundancy and monitoring in case of a system failure and frequent backups in case of data loss.