Why Cash Should Not Be"King" in Childcare Centers in 2019

Safety and Customer Expectations Top The List of Reasons for Preschools and Childcare Centers To Go Cashless in 2019 

By Jim Shields, Enterprise Architect @enrollsmart

In the United States, more than 90% of childcare centers are owned and operated by women. This is a proud fact because quality preschool/childcare has become increasingly important to the development of young children as well as the stability of the US economy.

Now, given the fact that preschools and childcare centers do not have the budgets that school districts do and, their workforce is more than 90% female, it makes safety sense that preschools and childcare centers begin converting their payment options to "cashless" for safety reasons. I go to childcare centers all the time and I see receipt books lying around indicating when and how much parents have paid the center in cash.

But wait, aren't checks, money orders or ACH withdrawals safe? Ummm... well, first of all, it will soon be 2019. How many of today's parents want to write checks or go and pick up money orders?  Not very many. Secondly, the payment cycle for childcare is weekly and, it can take a check up to 3 days to clear. I've seen bounced checks at my client's a number of times. If you accept checks, you can lose money if a check does not clear; bottom line.

Now, as far as money orders are concerned, this is a very inconvenient way to accept payment and it requires so much on the part of both the parent and the provider. Parents have to go to the store to purchase the money order, they have to fill in out and then deliver it to the provider.  The provider has to accept, secure, record, deposit and then wait for the money order to clear.  


In my opinion, online payments through a website, the Square card reader and the Cash App FOR BUSINESS (not the regular cash app) have emerged as the best ways to accept tuition payments.  

According to the website moneyunder30.com, (read the article), there are pros and cons to going cashless.  However, in my opinion, the pros far outweigh the cons as cashlessness relates to the preschool/childcare industry.  Why? Well, the average consumer of childcare services in America is about 27 years of age. Does a 27-year-old today want to write checks, pick up money orders or go to an ATM? I don't think so.  

Finally, the recordkeeping and reconciliation of tuition when it comes to accepting cash, checks and money orders can be more difficult and, why pay someone to do that task when it can be done by a website ties to a web service?  

Conclusion: Going cashless is the best option for preschools and childcare centers.  It is much safer, better for recordkeeping and it is the option most demanded by the consumers of childcare today.  Enrollsmart offers several services that will allow preschools and centers to go cashless. 


Jim Shields is Enterprise Architect at Enrollsmart.  Enrollsmart provides operational, financial and web technology to childcare centers. Enrollsmart was built based on more than 15 years of childcare center ownership.  

To learn more about Enrollsmart, visit our childcare center information page at https://www.enrollsmart.net

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