Getting started & setup
What is the recommended setup order for a new Kindergarten account?
Start with company/invoice/VAT/email settings, then School Year, Teachers, Classes, Activities / Extra Fees, Children, Parents, dismissal times, safety/medical data, Parent Portals and finally monthly billing. Create one complete test family and test invoice before entering the full school.
What should I check before issuing the first real invoice?
Check company details, invoice numbering, VAT, currency, date format, payment terms, SMTP, class fees, activities, dismissal-time charges, billing parents, sibling discount, scholarships and deposits.
Can I hide Kindergarten menu sections that we do not use?
Yes. Use Kindergarten sidebar visibility in Settings. Hiding a menu item does not delete its data or remove the underlying feature.
Can entry forms open automatically?
Yes. Enable Open Entry Forms by Default in Settings for supported forms.
Can I enable a mobile-only experience for teachers?
Yes. Enable Mobile Teacher Portal in Settings → Kindergarten. It changes Teacher accounts only; Manager and Administrator screens remain unchanged.
Should every user share the same Admin account?
No. Create separate users for administrators, managers and teachers. This provides cleaner access control and safer operation.
Dashboard
What do I see on the Kindergarten Dashboard?
You see Current School Year, Active Children, Active Classes, Teachers / Staff, Attendance Marked Today, Absent Today, Active Medical Alerts, Quick Actions, Classes Today, Billing This Month, Setup Health, Medical Alerts and upcoming Birthdays.
Can I click Absent Today?
Yes. It opens a modal with today’s absent children and their classes. From there you can open Attendance directly.
How can I see today’s attendance per class?
Use Classes Today. Each class shows the total number of children and a Present / Absent badge in the form Present/Absent. The badge colour also indicates whether attendance has been completed for the class.
How do I see whether a child is missing this month’s fee?
Billing This Month shows fee coverage and a list of children without a monthly fee for the current month.
What does Setup Health check?
The current Dashboard checks four conditions: Missing Class, Missing School Year, Missing Parent / Guardian and Missing Billing Parent.
Can I click a Setup Health warning?
Yes. It opens the Children page filtered to the records that need attention.
What are Medical Alerts on the Dashboard?
They are active Allergy / Medical / Other child notes that need operational attention.
Which birthdays appear?
The Dashboard shows upcoming birthdays for the next 30 days, up to the displayed list limit. Each entry shows the birthday date, how many days remain and the age the child turns.
Children, parents & families
How do I add a child?
Open Children → Add Child. Enter the child details and, where applicable, class, school year, dismissal time, billing parent, notes and activities.
Can I create the primary parent while adding a child?
Yes. The child-entry workflow supports a quick primary parent with name, email and phone so the relationship can be created immediately.
Which child statuses are available?
Active, Waiting List, Graduated, Withdrawn and Archived.
Where do I find graduates or withdrawn children?
Use the Children status views or Inactive Records.
What can I see in a child profile?
The profile can show DOB, identification number, class, school year, status, dismissal time, billing parent, notes, parents, siblings and assigned activities / extra fees.
Can I move many children to another class at once?
Yes. Use the Children bulk actions for class, school year, status or activity changes.
Can siblings share one family record?
Yes. One Parents / Guardians family record can be linked to multiple siblings.
What is the difference between Parent A and Parent B?
Parent A is the primary family contact and is normally used for billing and Parent Portal access. Parent B is an additional family contact.
Who receives the invoice?
The selected billing customer receives the invoice. In the standard family workflow this is associated with the primary family contact.
Can a child accidentally have two conflicting billing parents?
The Kindergarten workflow contains protection against conflicting billing-parent assignments.
What happens to a parent record when all linked children leave?
The parent can become inactive while the family, invoice and payment history is retained.
Can I hide a child from normal operational lists without deleting the record?
Yes. Enable Private Children List and mark the selected child as hidden. The record and its history remain stored.
Where is a Hidden child excluded from?
A Hidden child is excluded from normal Kindergarten lists, Attendance, Monthly Fees and Setup Health warnings. Unhide restores the child immediately without deleting history.
Teachers, staff & classes
How do I add a teacher or staff member?
Open Teachers / Staff and add the person’s name, email, phone, notes and status.
Does every teacher need a login?
No. A staff record can exist without a login. Sign-in is optional.
Which staff access levels are available?
Teacher and Manager.
What can a Teacher account access?
A Teacher has a restricted Kindergarten Dashboard and Attendance access for assigned classes only. The full administration and billing environment is not exposed.
What can a Manager access?
A Manager has full Kindergarten-module access according to the configured permissions.
What changes when Mobile Teacher Portal is enabled?
On phones/tablets, Teacher Dashboard and Attendance use mobile cards, larger touch controls and a fixed bottom navigation for Dashboard, Attendance, Guide and Logout. The normal desktop Teacher view still works.
Can I disable sign-in without deleting the staff member?
Yes. Disable Allow Sign-In.
Can one class have more than one teacher?
Yes. Multiple teachers can be assigned to a class. The first selected teacher can act as the primary teacher for compatibility.
How do I create a class?
Open Classes / Groups and set the class name, base monthly fee, VAT rate, assigned teachers, notes and Active status.
Where does the child’s base monthly fee come from?
From the Base Monthly Fee of the child’s assigned class.
How do I record a staff absence?
Open Staff Absences, select the date, mark the staff member Absent and choose Full Day or By Hours. You can add a reason and note.
Can I create a staff-absence report?
Yes. Select From Month and To Month and generate / print the report.
What does the Staff Absences daily summary show?
It shows Active Staff, Absent, Full-Day Absences and Hourly Absences for the selected date.
Activities, dismissal times & monthly fees
What types of Activities / Extra Fees can I create?
Monthly and One-Time. A fee can be tied to a class or be General / All Classes.
What is a Monthly activity?
A recurring extra charge that is included in eligible monthly billing while assigned to the child.
What is a One-Time activity?
An extra charge that is applied once for the selected billing month.
Can I apply an activity to an entire class?
Yes. Use Apply Activity to Class / Month and choose the activity, class and month.
What does the number under Activity Status mean?
It shows how many eligible current children have that activity actively assigned. When Private / Hidden Children is enabled, hidden children are excluded from the count.
What happens to an open monthly fee after I change an activity?
Eligible open monthly fees can be recalculated. Already issued invoices are not silently rewritten.
Where do I set each child’s dismissal time?
Open Settings → Dismissal Times. Children are shown by class for the current school year.
How do dismissal-time fees work?
In the Fees tab, assign an amount to each dismissal time. A value of €0 means no extra charge. The charge is added once to the child’s eligible monthly fee and appears as a separate invoice line.
Does a dismissal-time fee charge the child every day?
No. It is a monthly charge based on the child’s configured normal dismissal time.
What can a monthly fee include?
Base Class Fee + Dismissal Time Fee + Monthly Activities + One-Time Extras, with family discounts and credits applied where applicable.
Can I create a monthly fee for one child?
Yes. Choose the child and month and optionally Create Invoice Immediately.
Can I create monthly fees for a class or the whole Kindergarten?
Yes. Bulk Monthly Fees supports one class or All Classes, with selection of all or specific children.
What is the blue amount shown under each child in Bulk Monthly Fees?
It is a month-aware preview of the charge that will be created. It follows the selected month and includes the Class Base Fee, Dismissal Time Fee, active Monthly Activities and eligible One-Time charges.
What do I see when I open the fee preview details?
You see a breakdown of the components included in that monthly charge. The preview is before invoice-level scholarships, deposits/prepayments and sibling discounts.
Does the fee preview update when I change the month?
Yes. The preview reloads for the selected month, including eligible One-Time charges for that month. Already invoiced monthly fees are shown as locked and are not silently recalculated.
Does bulk monthly billing continue if I close the browser or computer?
Yes. Kindergarten bulk billing is scheduled as a persistent server-side background job. After the confirmation appears, the server continues creating fees, family invoices and invoice-email queue entries independently of the browser.
Where can I monitor background billing?
Monthly Fees shows the two most recent jobs with status/progress. Use History to open the full billing history, see every job, processed children, created invoices, email-queue status, attempts and errors.
What happens if a monthly fee already exists for the same child and month?
The duplicate is skipped instead of creating another monthly fee.
What happens if a selected child has no billing parent during bulk billing?
The workflow checks billing-parent readiness before creating a new batch so the issue can be corrected first.
What results are shown after a bulk monthly-fee / invoice run?
The result summary can show Created Fees, Skipped Existing, Invoices Created, Invoice Errors, Emails Queued, Already Queued, Already Sent, Paid Skipped, Cancelled Skipped, Missing / Invalid Email and Queue Errors.
Why are paid monthly-fee rows not shown by default?
The Kindergarten Monthly Fees list defaults to Excluding Paid so the operational list stays focused on open work. Use the Status filter and choose All statuses or Paid whenever you need them.
Where do I see invoice status and deposit information in the Monthly Fees table?
For Kindergarten, status is shown directly under Total. Applied deposit and remaining deposit balance appear underneath only when the amount is greater than zero, reducing unnecessary columns and empty information.
Attendance, pickup, emergency & medical
How do I take attendance?
Open Attendance, choose Date and Class, open the register, mark each child Present, Absent, Late or Excused, add optional notes and save the class.
Can I mark the whole class Present quickly?
Yes. Use Mark All Present and then change only the exceptions.
Can I correct attendance after saving?
Yes. Reopen the same date and class, make the correction and save again. Existing child/date records are updated rather than duplicated.
Can I print attendance?
Yes, for Admin / Manager. The printable register includes child, DOB, dismissal time and status.
Is there attendance history?
Yes. You can filter by date, class, child and status.
What happens when I click a child’s name in Attendance?
Pickup Details opens, showing authorised pickup information and the child’s parents.
Are the parents always visible in Pickup Details?
Yes. Parent A and Parent B, when present, are shown so the teacher can identify the parents.
Can a Teacher see parent phone numbers and emails in Attendance pickup details?
No. The pickup view intentionally hides parent and pickup-contact phone numbers / emails while still showing the necessary names and notes.
How do I add an Authorized Pickup Person?
Open Authorized Pickup Persons, select the child and enter the authorised person’s name, email, phone, notes and Active status.
How do I add an Emergency Contact?
Open Emergency Contacts, link the contact to the child and enter the required contact details and notes.
Can I hide Emergency Contacts if the school does not use this section?
Yes. Hide the section from Settings. Existing records are retained and reappear if the feature is shown again.
How do I add an allergy or medical note?
Open Allergies / Medical Notes and choose the child, Type (Allergy, Medical or Other), Title, Notes and Active status.
Can I keep an old medical note without showing it as an active alert?
Yes. Make the record inactive instead of deleting it when history should be retained.
Sibling discounts, deposits, scholarships & payments
Can siblings be combined into one invoice?
Yes. Children with the same billing customer and billing month can be grouped into one family invoice while keeping separate invoice lines for each child and charge.
Can I configure a sibling discount?
Yes. The discount can be None, Percentage or Fixed Amount and applies to additional siblings according to the configured rule.
How do I record a child deposit / prepayment?
Open Monthly Fees → Child Deposits / Prepayments and record the child, amount, received date and optional notes/reference.
When is a deposit used?
Available deposit balance is automatically applied to the next eligible Kindergarten monthly invoice.
What if the deposit is larger than the invoice?
Only the amount required by the invoice is applied. The remaining balance stays available for a later invoice.
Can I delete a deposit that has already been used?
A deposit is intended to be deletable only while fully unused. Applied history must be preserved.
How do I add a scholarship / sponsorship?
Open Settings → Scholarships and select the child, monthly amount, start month, end month, notes/reference and Active status.
How does a scholarship affect the invoice?
The service value remains visible and the scholarship appears as a credit that reduces Balance Due. Example: services €450, scholarship €100, balance due €350.
Can the same child have overlapping active scholarships?
No. The workflow protects against overlapping active scholarship periods for the same child.
Will changing a scholarship rewrite an invoice that already has real payments?
No. Invoices with real payment history are protected from automatic rebuild. Eligible unpaid invoices can be recalculated when safe.
Is there a scholarship report?
Yes. Select a month range to see the scholarship amount per child and total scholarship values and print the report.
What happens if I remove a scholarship that already has application history?
The history is protected. A scholarship with existing application history is made inactive instead of deleting the financial history that has already been applied.
Can I record a partial payment?
Yes. For example, an invoice of €400 can receive a €100 payment and remain Partially Paid with €300 Balance Due.
Which payment methods can I record?
Cash, Card, Bank Transfer, Cheque and Other.
Can a payment be allocated to a specific invoice line?
Yes. Payment allocation can target the invoice generally or a specific invoice item.
Can I send a payment confirmation?
Yes. When recording a Kindergarten payment, Send payment confirmation by email is available. The confirmation shows the payment date, amount, method, invoice total and new remaining balance, and it can also be resent later.
Can Mark Paid send the confirmation automatically?
Yes. Enable Automatic payment confirmation with Mark Paid in Settings → Email. Mark Paid records the outstanding amount as a payment and queues the confirmation automatically.
Does a payment-confirmation email include the invoice PDF?
Yes. The email worker generates a fresh copy of the same invoice PDF at send time, so the attachment reflects the latest Paid / Partially Paid state, deposits, payments and remaining balance.
Is the payment confirmation a fiscal receipt?
No. It is an acknowledgement that a payment was recorded against the invoice; it is not presented as a separate statutory or fiscal receipt.
Can I remove an incorrectly entered payment?
Yes, from the invoice payment history when the appropriate payment-delete action is available. Always verify the invoice balance again after removing a payment.
Invoices, bulk email & reminders
What can a Kindergarten invoice contain?
Monthly fee lines, dismissal-time fees, activities, one-time extras, sibling discounts, scholarship credits, deposits/prepayments and payment/balance information.
Can invoices be created during bulk monthly billing?
Yes. Enable Create Invoice Immediately.
Can invoices be queued for email during bulk billing?
Yes. Enable Queue Invoice Emails for Safe Batch Delivery.
What happens when I use bulk invoice email?
The system creates queue entries instead of sending every email inside the same browser request. Emails are processed in safer batches to reduce timeout and interruption risk.
What happens if a billing email is missing or invalid?
That invoice is reported as Missing / Invalid Email while other eligible invoices can continue through the queue.
What does Already Queued mean?
The invoice already has an active email-queue entry, so another duplicate queue item is not created.
What does Already Sent mean?
The invoice has already been delivered through the relevant bulk-send flow and is not needlessly queued again.
Are cancelled invoices sent by the bulk flow?
No. Cancelled invoices are skipped.
Are genuinely paid invoices resent by the bulk flow?
No. Invoices with actual payment history are protected from needless resend in the bulk flow.
What if an invoice reaches €0 because a scholarship or deposit fully covers it?
It can still be sent so the parent receives the invoice PDF and can see the service value and the credits that covered it.
Can I send a payment reminder manually?
Yes. Eligible unpaid / partially paid invoices support manual reminders.
Are automatic payment reminders available?
Yes, when enabled. The system sends one reminder per outstanding eligible invoice per month, on the first eligible cron run between the 10th and 15th of the month.
When is an invoice eligible for an automatic reminder?
It must be an open invoice with a positive remaining balance and a due date on or before today. Paid and cancelled invoices are excluded. If no separate due date exists, the invoice date is used.
Are paid invoices included in automatic reminders?
No. Paid invoices are skipped.
Does the automatic reminder include the invoice PDF?
Yes. The queued reminder keeps its reminder text and attaches the same current invoice PDF used by normal invoice email delivery.
How are reminder and payment-confirmation emails sent?
They are queued in Communication Center and delivered by the normal email cron, rather than making the user wait for SMTP inside the browser request.
How can I limit the Communication Center email history?
The email table opens with Last 7 days by default. You can switch to Last 1 month, Last 3 months or All, and combine the date range with the existing search and Status filters.
Can the reminder include an online payment link?
Yes, when Online Payments is available and the invoice is eligible.
Kindergarten Reports & financial control
Where do I open Kindergarten Reports?
Use Kindergarten Reports in the Kindergarten sidebar. The page is available to Admin / Manager accounts, not Teacher accounts, and can be hidden from the sidebar through Kindergarten sidebar settings when a school does not need it.
Can I filter reports by month and class?
Yes. Select the billing month and either one class or All classes.
What do the top report cards show?
Monthly Charges, Invoiced, Scholarships, Deposits Applied, Payments and Outstanding for the selected month/class.
What is Collection Rate?
It compares recorded payments plus applied deposits with the amount the family is required to pay after scholarships for the selected report scope.
What is included in Charge Breakdown?
Base Fees, Dismissal Charges and Activities / Extras are shown separately so you can understand where the monthly charges come from.
What does Pending Billing show?
It shows monthly charges in the selected period that have been created but are not yet linked to an invoice.
What is in the Monthly Billing Report table?
Per child it shows class, parent/customer, Base, Dismissal, Extras, Charge, Invoiced share, Scholarship, Deposit, Paid, Balance and Invoice/status.
Which date is used in report Payment History?
The actual payment date stored in the payment ledger, not simply the invoice date.
What does Outstanding Aging show?
Outstanding balances are grouped as Current, 1–30, 31–60, 61–90 and 90+ days, and the oldest balances are listed for quick follow-up.
Can I see deposit balances and scholarships in the report?
Yes. Separate sections show total/available child deposit balances and scholarships applied for the selected month.
How does Kindergarten Reports print?
The print layout is forced to landscape and the monthly billing table is compacted to fit the page width as reliably as possible.
Parent Portal
How is a Parent Portal created?
It can be created manually or through automatic/bulk portal creation when the family meets the requirements.
What is required before a Parent Portal can be created?
A billing parent/customer, a valid Parent A email, an active child or outstanding invoice, and an email that is not already used by another portal account.
How do I create many portals?
Use Parent Portals → Create Next Portals. The safe batch creates up to 10 portals at a time and can be repeated until all eligible families are processed.
Why does a parent not have a portal?
Check billing customer, Parent A email validity, whether the family has an active child or outstanding invoice, and whether the email is already used by another portal.
How do I reset a parent password?
Use Send Password Reset. The system does not need to expose the current password.
Can I disable portal access without deleting the account?
Yes. Portals can be activated or deactivated while retaining history.
What can I manage from the Parent Portals administration page?
You can search by parent, email, phone or child, see portal status and last login, identify families without a portal, activate/deactivate access and send password resets.
What happens if the child leaves but the family still owes money?
The portal can remain available while there is an outstanding invoice so the family can view and settle it.
What can a parent see on the portal dashboard?
Their children, classes, monthly-fee information, invoice information, current-month attendance summary, invoice totals, outstanding balance and recent invoices.
What can a parent see under My Invoices?
Invoices and their Paid / Unpaid / Partially Paid status, Balance Due, scholarships, deposits/prepayments, payments received and PDF documents.
Can a parent pay online?
Yes, when the subscription includes Online Payments, Stripe is connected and the invoice has an eligible outstanding balance.
School years, rollover & inactive records
Do I need a Current School Year?
Yes. The current year is a core reference for normal Kindergarten operation and should be configured before entering active children.
What information is stored in a School Year?
Name, Start Date, End Date, Notes, Current and Active status.
What if some children have no School Year?
The setup tools can identify them, and the Current Year can be assigned where appropriate.
How do I start a new school year?
Create the new School Year, review/create classes, open New School Year Rollover, choose From Year and To Year, map each class action, Preview, review child exceptions and then Apply.
Which rollover actions are available?
Keep Unchanged, Move to another class, Mark Graduated, Mark Withdrawn and Archive.
Can I override the rollover action for one child?
Yes. Preview supports per-child exceptions before Apply.
Does rollover delete old invoices or attendance?
No. Historical invoices, monthly fees, attendance and financial records remain intact.
Where do graduated or archived records go?
They remain available through Inactive Records and historical views.
What is Inactive Records used for?
It centralises inactive children and parents with reasons such as Graduated, Withdrawn, Archived, No Active Child or manual deactivation, while retaining history.
Maintenance, duplicates & Test Mode
What is Possible Duplicate Records?
It is a diagnostic tool that looks for possible duplicate Parents / Guardians, Children, Teachers / Staff and Classes / Groups using signals such as email, phone and name. It does not automatically change or delete records.
Does the duplicate tool also check billing/data consistency?
Yes. It also checks important consistency cases such as duplicate monthly fees, duplicate invoice numbers, multiple billing parents, duplicate attendance and multiple Parent Portal accounts for the same customer.
Does Possible Duplicate Records merge anything automatically?
No. It is diagnostic only. Possible matches are presented for review, including confidence such as High Confidence or Possible Match, so the administrator decides what to do.
What is Kindergarten Test Mode?
It is a controlled testing mode that allows eligible test invoices to be removed so the linked monthly fee can be tested again. Paid invoices or invoices with real payment history remain protected.
Does hiding a sidebar item remove the feature or its data?
No. Sidebar visibility changes only the menu presentation.
Does hiding Emergency Contacts delete existing emergency contacts?
No. The data remains stored and returns if the section is shown again.