Day Nursery Accounts

Day Nursery Accounts

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Hi, my partner is going into business with a friend, to start-up a childrens day nursery. The two ladies are putting in an equal amount of capital. Does anyone have any advice on which type of accounts should be produced and can this be done on Sage? (I'm a book-keeper for a manufacturing company). Thanks if you can help.

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By Manchester_man
04th Nov 2014 18:02

Partnership accounts

If that's not the answer you were looking for, you'll have to enlarge on what exactly you mean by "which type of accounts should be produced"?

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James Reeves
By James Reeves
04th Nov 2014 18:07

Day nursery accounts

As it's a day nursery, the accounts should clearly be made up using either abacus beads on a wood and wire frame, or little coloured magnetic letters on a metal whiteboard.

I'm not sure if Sage can do this though.

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James Reeves
By James Reeves
04th Nov 2014 18:11

Or alternatively...

...ensure that they take professional advice up front to ensure they cover all the bases such as setting up a partnership agreements, working out methods of remuneration and all the usual legal/insurance issues etc.  Then, much further down the line, worry about what format the accounts should be in (or rather let their accountant worry about it).

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blue sheep
By NH
05th Nov 2014 08:16

what is the structure of the business?

First question I would ask you is have they decided on the structure of the business? Partnership or Company would be the two options really.

Then you can decide how to keep the books, what entries will ne needed.

And, yes, Sage will be able to handle the books and is as good as any software.

It would be as well to consult an accountant at the outset to advise on structure, tax implications etc.

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By Gem7321
05th Nov 2014 08:48

As it's a start-up company, unless they have already have access to sage, they may want to mitigate any excess costs and therefore sage might not be the best software solution. 

 

Agree with others, they need to speak to an accountant.

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Glenn Martin
By Glenn Martin
05th Nov 2014 10:38

Maybe not just Sage

In my last FD role we opened a Day Care Nursery and struggled with the invoicing side of things using sage.

The problem was that many people change day at short notice and there also several streams as there are government grants employment vouchers etc all which work very differently.

we got into a bit of a mess very quickly as you generate a lot of small value invoices and those using the service get very irate with staff if bills are wrong.

in the end we got some specialist invoicing software that had been developed by our local authority for use in their own services which worked on a diary system and could also handle all the different income streams and all the billing issues.

this bolted onto Sage and worked quite well but may well work with other software.

You need to be also hot on rota management as staff costs work on a child to staff ratio which is quite tight so over staffing will  mean you will not make any cash.

another we learnt was we set up to take kids from 0 - 5 and assumed all classes would gradually fill. However in reality new referrals come as babies and stay with you for the 5 years, what doesn't happen is kids switching from other sites at 3 etc. So you will find it takes maybe 3 years to get into a position of making profits and having the occupancy you expect unless something happens like a nursery nearby closes down. 

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By shaz
05th Nov 2014 10:42

Day nursery accounts and software

Hi 

The legal structure has been covered above.

You could use a cloud-based solution like Xero. There are specialist software packages which will mainly help you with managing the day nursery alongside raising invoices in line with the number of children who have signed up. A typical annual fee for this type of software will be around £1,000 and onwards.

Happy to point you in the right direction if you want further help?

Hope this helps.

 

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By caresoftwareuk
17th Dec 2014 22:00

Hi all,

We develop a product called Nursery Genie. We interface with Xero and a number of other systems.

I have to say, being a developer and business owner - Xero is brilliant. I've been told a UK payroll is going to be launched next year too.

I can't wait!

 

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