If you own a daycare center, you have the huge responsibility of making sure children are well-taken care of, properly fed, and have fun while under your care. This takes up a lot of your time, and you definitely don't want any unnecessary distractions. But you still need to bill families for your hard work, which can take up a huge chunk of your day between writing and proofreading each of your invoices.
While this is without a doubt a time-consuming task, you can make this process a lot more efficient by creating a daycare invoice template, specially designed to cover all the necessary information with minimal effort. But what exactly is the necessary information your invoice template should include? Read on to find out!
Note: If you want to step up your invoicing game, check out Bonsai's all-in-one product suite especially built for small business owners like you. You'll find flawless invoice templates, accounting tools and a useful tax software to keep your finances under control. Open an account today.
Essential Elements of a Daycare Invoice Template
When creating your daycare invoice template, always make sure you clearly cover the business-related information for accounting purposes, as well as a detail of all the important services provided. The easier it is for your client to understand, the faster your payments will come through.
For perfect daycare invoice templates, make sure to include the following information.
Business Information
To begin your daycare invoice template, include a section for your daycare business name and contact details such as phone number, address, email address and website. Don't forget to add all required licensing information, as well as special services you offer such as special needs care, health checks, or adult daycare.
For more professional invoices, add any business branding such as your company logo or industry-related imagery that can make your child care invoice template stand out and easily recognizable for your customers.
Customer Information
Next, add a section for your client's information starting with their full name, phone number, billing address and email address in case you want to send out a digital invoice. You may also include the customer ID number if you have them registered in a database.
Child Information
In a separate section, specify the child's information (or adult if you are running an adult daycare) such as name, age, and special requirements. You could also include the details of how many days the child was taken care of as well as the times when they arrived and left the daycare center. Using a time-tracking tool will make this very simple for you, and you can provide useful information for your customer's peace of mind.
Invoice Number and Date
Make sure to assign a unique invoice number to all of your invoices. This will help you track payments easily, and keep your accounting records well organized. Also, specify the date when the invoice was sent out, which will also help you determine the payment due date (usually 30 days after the invoice date) and apply late payment penalties accordingly.
Daycare Services Provided
Leave enough space on your daycare invoice template for an itemized list of the services provided. This could be as simple as stating a monthly, weekly, daily, or hourly rate, and the total cost for the daycare services. However, if you provide any other service such as special meals, tutoring, activities, or materials billable to your customer, make sure to include enough detail for each of the extra charges and the total cost. Make this section as easy-to-understand as possible to avoid leaving your client blindsided or confused about the charges.
Totals
In the totals section of your daycare invoice template, you want to separate the total cost of services before taxes (subtotal), then add the applicable taxes, and finally the total amount to pay. In case you are adding a discount for multiple children, financial assistance, etc., include it in this section, subtracting it from the subtotal amount before you factor in the taxes. You could highlight this line with a different color for added impact.
Payment Details
Providing clear and detailed payment instructions can make a big difference in getting paid promptly. Your daycare invoice template must include all accepted payment methods such as online payments, checks, debit/credit card, cash or ACH transfer. Don't forget to add the corresponding account numbers, payment links, and mailing address for checks.
In this section, you can also specify your payment terms such as late fees, partial payments, payment arrangements, refund policy and even early payment incentives. Give your customer all the information they need to keep a good payment record with you.
Notes
Finally, leave a small section at the end of your daycare invoice template to include a personal note or thank you message for your clients. This will help strengthen your relationship with them and maybe even lead to more business or valuable referrals. If you have enough time, you can personalize it by mentioning any significant achievements or progress made by the child.
Use Bonsai's Free Daycare Invoice Template
With so much time invested into keeping your daycare business under control, you probably don't want to spend hours behind the desk creating your own invoice template. Luckily, you don't have to. Simply download Bonsai's free daycare invoice template, which is fully customizable so you can adapt it to each client's needs. Skip the hassle of Google docs or Microsoft excel, and send customizable, unlimited invoices with Bonsai today.
With just a few tweaks, you'll be ready to send professional invoices that guarantee consistency and help you get paid quickly. Once you've adjusted the layout, fonts, colors, and ensured all the details are covered, you can save your invoice template in your preferred format and use it to quickly bill the rest of your customers. This will save you a lot of valuable time that you can invest in growing your business.
Want more help? Bonsai has your back! Use our complete invoicing software with tools designed keeping freelance workers and small business owners in mind. You'll be able to automatically create and send invoices, schedule payment reminders, get viewing notifications and even apply late fees to overdue accounts. Make your billing process a bliss and keep your business finances under control.
Create a daycare invoice with Bonsai today.