During this year’s administrator’s meetings, we polled our centers on center management tools. Below is a list of the most commonly mentioned Child Care Management Software and their comparisons by main features. Please be aware that many of the features of each program require upgrades and additional costs. The packages below were listed with all features included.

Feature Child Care Sage Minute Menu EZ-Care Online Childcare Manger ProCare
PC or Web Based  PC Web Web PC PC
Student Information          
Store child, parent, and pickup person information plus bus run information, enroll dates, tuition, and schedule ● ● ● ● ●
Store Photos for child, parents and pickup persons  ●     ● ●
Track child immunizations  ● ● ● ● ●
Daily child log (progress reports, incidents, daily checklist, daily forms, etc)  ●        
Staff Information          
Store staff information including photo, employment dates, and work schedule  ●   ● ● ●
Store Photos for staff  ●     ● ●
Track staff Certifications  ●   ● ● ●
Child Attendance          
Separate Time clock Program to let parents sign their children in/out  ●     ● ●
Graphically track child attendance in main program  ● ●   ● ●
Print attendance reports that show child counts, and arrivals/departures (useful for staffing)  ● ●   ● ●
Child Billing          
Basic fixed amount billing  ● ● ● ● ●
Flexible billing that includes tuition, overtime, expenses,  hourly/daily/weekly/monthly/part time/full time billing  ●     ● ●
Agency Billing (tracks copay payments, state balances, etc)  ● ●   ● ●
Supports ACH and EFT automatic payment processing  ● ● ● ● ●
USDA Meals Program          
Plan menus, print production reports,  check CACFP compliance  ● ●   ● ●
Print Meals Count Charts and CACFP reimbursement tables  ● ●   ● ●
Staff Attendance          
Separate Timeclock Program to let staff sign themselves in/out   ●     ● ●
Graphically track staff hours in main program  ●     ● ●
Print staffing reports that show staff counts for each class for each day of the week, and daily attendance schedules that count staff arriving and leaving per hour and staff schedules  ●     ● ●
Staff Wages          
Flexible wages that includes salary, overtime, expense reimbursement, hourly/daily/ weekly/monthly and part time/full time wages and automatically generates staff paysheets  ●   ● ● ●
Accounting          
Create accounting reports that show payments receivable  ● ● ● ● ●
Create accounting reports that show wages payable, and net income  ●     ● ●
Typical Cost for Complete System for up to 60 Family Centers $495 $49/Mo $149/Mo $2,305 $2,136
Typical Cost for Complete System for Larger Centers $895 $49/Mo $149/Mo $3,030 $4,077