Has anyone allowed parents to do this?

[Crayola kiddies]

Well if she wants to pay at the beginning of each month for the whole month then I would agree to that although I would try to compromise and suggest bi weekly but if she would rather give me a whee months feed at once then ok!!
I take a deposit equal to two weeks fees that is applied to the last two weeks if already commenced care. As well as I charge a $250/month Holding fee for start dates more then 4 weeks in advance non refundable and does not go to anything other then holding the spot (since its available now). If she was going to a centre daycare and the spot was available now she would have to pay full fees or lose the spot. Now if you are having trouble filling your spots then only you can decide what is going to work for you but if you have people lined up for the spot then that us more to your advantage.

Remember though if you negotiate with her now she will believe everything is up for negotiation ..... Been there .... done that .... And termed because of it !!!

[sunnydays]

I love it when parents pay monthly! Just think, yuo have a whole month paid in advance...if they decide to leave without proper notice, you are covered unless they leave at the end of the month. It is less accounting and just all around easy (just make sure you calculate the number of days in each month and let them know what they should pay for each month...otherwise they might try to just pay you for 4 weeks or something). But, for the holding fee....it would be non-refundable and I would also ask for a two week deposit to be held for their LAST two weeks of care. If you have a space open now, you are passing up potential clients that could start right away in order to hold the space for them. They are paying the holding fee to offset this....it is not refundable and it cannot be applied to their first two weeks fees!

[cfred]

As nice as it might be to be paid in advance for the whole month, my thought is this:

You have established weekly payments. This is how you've always done it and this is part of the contractual agreement with your other clients. If you want to be paid weekly, then so be it. It's your business. Her desire to pay monthly is not your issue. Of course, if you want to compromise, there are benefits, but if you don't want to, then don't. As mentioned in a previous post, these compromises may lead to more compromises in the future.

Soooo, she wants you to hold a spot for several months for free? Am I understanding that correctly? I get the whole notion of not wanting to pay for a spot that's not in use, but jeez, you could turn away other clients while waiting for her start date, with only a deposit that is used as her final 2 weeks. I'm not sure that's fair to you. I charge $150/month holding fee for any hold longer than 2 months. I instilled this after being left high and dry by a client who left the 2 week deposit (non-refundable) but ended up not needing the spot after a 4 month hold. I had turned away several families who had already found alternate care. Nope, never again! That was a lot of lost income for a piddly 2 weeks of pay.

You could, in the spirit of compromise, tell her that you will continue to advertise the spot, but let her know when there's serious interest. At that point, she can either pay the deposit and holding fees or move on to someone else. That's fair I think? But you do run the risk of her moving on without consideration of this compromise. I don't know. I hate this part of the business!

[Spixie33]

I think I am in the minority but I will hold a spot without a holding fee if the family seems like a great match.

It sounds like you two have not officially met or interviewed yet so I wouldn't get into too many details until that happened and I woudl know for sure that I want to go forward with the family and if they are a good fit.

I have held spots for 6 months before and I would get a 1 or 2 week non refundable deposit and signed contract back before I would hold the spot.

I was pretty confident that I could replace the family if they did bail on me and it was only because the spots were not my bread and butter spots that I held it/them. I can afford to be down 1 or 2 children and not be too burdened in my wallet.

If you need the income sooner and can't afford to lose income for 4 months then you would have to weigh that into your decision too.

I have never been paid monthly but it seems strange that she would want to do a lump sum payment rather than break it down weekly. I guess it wouldn't make much difference to you since she is paying at the start of every month.

At the end of the day - it is your business and you have to listen to your gut and decide what works for you and what you are comfortable with. good luck