Regardless of what you decide to do about getting the owed 2018 fees, this is an ideal opportunity to review the lessons learned and see if you can protect yourself going forward with an new client.

Think about changing your policies so this cannot happen again - we all get caught out by a bad client sooner or later but it's a great way to tighten up policy going forward.

1. Take a deposit or entrolment fee for a new client on signing and don't spend it. Set that money aside to be applied to their final weeks of care. If they give notice properly, you have the money and if they don't, you have the money.

2. Require all clients to pay their fees in advance. That way there is never a child on the premises who hasn't already paid for today's care. If they show up on the day that fees are due and they haven't sent the fees, then do not give them access. No fees = no care. Most parents will just have genuinely forgotten and will send the fees electronically there and then. If a parent is messing you around, it's amazing how quickly they find the money they don't have due to that unexpected bill, when they realize they have no child care today until they have paid.

3. Include both a late payment fee in your policies and also a late collection fee. Anything from $10-$20 a day for late payment and $1 a min for late pick up. This means that if fees are due Friday for the following two weeks of care, when they show up Monday, they owe 2 x late payment fees and the actual fees and cannot leave their child until they have paid. You won't be the last person to be paid with penalities adding by the day.

4. Have a clear and written contract that the parent have to sign before joining your day home. Never allow someone to arrive on the first day without first having received that contact. I don't care if they forgot it, or any other excuse, without a contract with signatures they have no agreement for care to be provided and you have no agreement to be paid.

5. Make sure your contact included the days they are registered for care, the fees, when the fees are due, any penalty for late payment, and the fact that care will be denied if fees are not paid in time.

6. Whatever policy you decide on, document it in the contract and enforce it. If you permit children to come when fees are due, you are making the contract hard to enforce because if you aren't going to stick to it yourself, you cannot expect client's to.

7. Any time someone is late collecting their child, or paying their fees, charge the penalty. Do not feel guilty about applying the fees. It's really important the first time it happens to charge the fees as it sets a firm expectation. When you don't charge the fee the first time, the expectation is that you won't charge it the second or third time and that creates a situation where you feel even more guilty about applying it if you didn't before and where they are expecting to be let off the charges.