Shortchanging you at payment

[Crayola kiddies]

If a personal cheque goes NSf in your account from a parent, you do not get charged a penny. A business account is different but as we aren't registered businesses this is not an issue. You don't have to set foot in a bank to pay cheques in, drive thru cash machine and deposit them that way and they are available immediately. You could do this while grocery shopping etc. EMT's are fine until you get that parent who innocently gets side tracked and you can't get hold of them to remind them to pay. You may not have come across this problem yet, but ultimately they are the ones in control of when they pay you, not you, versus cheques which are banked prior to any care being given, so there is never an issue with late payment as you have the cheques in hand from the start and if they don't bring them, then there is no care provided.

As 5 monkeys stated some banks do charge NSF fees to the receiving party but what if I had money coming out based on the money that was going in and now my cheque bounced ? Then I would be charged fees for that as well .....plus when you get an emt you never have to worry that it will bounce ever. Fortunately I do not live paycheque to paycheque but I do know that some providers do. In the 4 years that I have been operating I have not had one issue with emts.... For me it works.... I have very stand up, honest, responsible clients. They respect and are grateful for what I do, day in and day out. I also have a two week deposit to be applied to the last two weeks of care from each family .... So I have no worry about being stiffed. I like the convienience of receiving my pay without leaving my house. With five of my own kids time is always of the essence and I prefer not having one more errand to run on weekends.

[Lima1969]

I create an invoice and give it to the parents the day before the payment is due. This way they don't forget any late pick-up fees they may have from the previous/current week. I also encourage for them to use e-transfer from their bank account to mine via a secret password given by e-mail. Helps eliminate the bounced cheque and counting cash in front of them.

[Wonderwiper]

If this is something that happens often you need to change your policies.

Get paid in advance always. You could make payment due on Friday for the following week. That gives you the weekend to count the money and send a quick text if amount is incorrect. They bring the balance in cash at drop off on Monday or they don't come in. Easy. Bet it won't happen again.

[kimg]

I would definitely start emailing them a total for each week, in advance, with a reminder of when it is due.