Anyone will to share their contract?

[Momof4]

Holy crap! Reggio went into research overdrive last night! Now Reggio is a magnificent researcher, but treeyholm, you can do this job two ways, the hard way or the simple way. It's completely up to you of course.

I have a contract, medical forms, picture permission form, a receipt book, the children's daily logbook and my receipts. That's pretty much it, no fancy forms at all for injuries, etc. just open communication daily with my dcparents and good relationships with everyone. Now, if I ever run into a family who have some paranoid feelings about daycare or their children I may have to invent a couple of simple forms but I don't see myself ever accepting that kind of family into my daycare really.

I believe that everything should be worded simply because, let's face it, my dcparents are not lawyers, they are hard-working people with a lot to handle and remember. They are juggling their working and home & family lives and I want them to remember all my rules so they had better be simple and straightforward and make sense.

Also, I don't want to drive myself crazy with too much information and I work very long days without complicating my life more with paperwork that isn't necessary. I have field trip days, teaching days with crafts and my theme of the week books and games, etc. and I have imagination days, usually on rainy days. That is how my daycare days run, with great routines and good nutrition and fun and exercise and learning every day no matter what we are doing. So why would I drive myself crazy with excess paper? That's how I run my daycare.

[Inspired by Reggio]

Holy crap! Reggio went into research overdrive last night! ....

Nope ~ cute and paste that directly from the government website

Just did not want her or others to feel she could not charge for Stats or negotiate a pay for the space regardless into her contract with her clients for service because some third party has told her it 'blurs' the lines of being employed verses self employed business person ~ IMO based on the above criteria we are CLEARLY self employed according to the government definitions up there ... there are far more indications for self employed and providers adding in additional financial perks into our service contracts should not negate that

I think that sometimes 'suggestions' out there from other agencies are OLD and have not been updated by the people whom work there - the come from a time back when the CRA did not considered 'home childcare' a business but a 'hobby women did for mad money' back when we did not even have to claim our income as taxable income or have any rules around what we could write off, did not pay into CPP and so forth ~ important to find out research and information that is current

[treeholm]

I found it! It's from the child care providers resource centre in Ottawa. The link is:

http://www.ccprn.com/en/information-...or-caregivers/

"How many holidays can I take?
Caregivers are self-employed and therefore are not entitled to "paid sick time", or "paid vacation". To accommodate for this some caregivers charge more per day and bank the extra money for when they are sick or on holidays. Others use statements similar to the one below:

"Weekly fee for care is _____, totaling an annual amount of ______. Payment is expected for the agreed upon hours/days whether the child is in attendance or not. Payment will not vary due to statutory holidays, child’s illness or appointments or parent vacations. Fee will be negotiated if caregiver takes excess of ____days off annually."

Another term for this is being "paid by enrolment". The language is very important in case of an audit by Revenue Canada. If you are audited and your contract mentions "paid vacation" and "paid sick time", Revenue Canada can request the parents pay CPP and UI Benefits. Remember also, Revenue Canada can go back 6 years."

[Inspired by Reggio]

I found it! ... "How many holidays can I take?
Caregivers are self-employed and therefore are not entitled to "paid sick time", or "paid vacation"....

Ugggg .... no offence to CPPRN cause they are an awesome resource to providers but IMO entitled is a horrible word to use and it propagates the belief in clients hearing that come from a professional association

But yes this is true we are not 'entitled' under the Employment Standards Act for any of the protection of that act because we are self employed and because we ARE self employed IMO we are ENTITLED to negotiate anything we want into individual contracts with clients as long as the market will bare it and the client signs and agrees to the terms of payment for the service being offered under that contract

IMO that is just nit picking of potato and potatoe as for as wording is concerned and likely done more not for CRA concern over employed or self employed but to EDUCATE home childcare clients and to make it seem 'fairer' to those who are stuck in that ' we are not 'entitled' to stats holiday / vacation thinking themselves

This is why I have TWO payment options for clients .... one where they pay a much higher fee and do not pay for my closures but do if their child is sick/on vacation and another where they pay for the 'space' regardless and that included 10 stat closures, 10 vacation days, 10 paid personal days ~ if I go over those closures than I would 'credit' clients accordingly ... but I do define those 'days' so it is clear to clients later!

[treeholm]

I appreciate your input, and I agree with you. I do like the wording in that section though about payment not varying for weeks with stat holidays, and that is what I will go with for now. Yes, that does mean stat holidays are paid, but it doesn't call them paid holidays per se... hopefully that satisfies Revenue Canada... I probably seem a bit paranoid, but I'm a business professor in my other life... way too cautious when it comes to the authorities LOL I can't wait to have fun with little people instead of obsessing about the paperwork!

[treeholm]

And it sounds amazing, Momof4!