How to write a childcare provider invoice

What goes on a childcare provider invoice

Six things, in the order they belong on the page. The invoice generator opens a childcare / nanny document with the lines already in place, so most of this is checking rather than typing.

1. State the regular hours and the rate. Weekly contracted hours, so the base figure never changes without a reason.
2. Show additional hours as dated lines. Which day, how long, and why. Never folded into the total.
3. Bill late pickup at a stated rate. It has to exist before the first time you need it.
4. Set out the vacation and sick leave position. Paid, unpaid or retained, decided at the start rather than in August.
5. Price per child with any sibling rate shown. Two children is more work and parents expect a stated rate for it.
6. Itemize expenses separately. Activities, outings, food and mileage are reimbursements, not your fee.

The lines a childcare provider invoice usually carries

The generator opens with these lines when you pick Childcare / nanny. The figures are placeholders to type over, not a going rate.

Add, rename, reorder or delete any line, and set tax per line where it applies. Priced as they open, that comes to $840 before tax.

How to write a childcare invoice, step by step

1. Take the hours from your log, week by week. Open the childcare / nanny invoice and enter the regular hours for the period at your hourly rate. A parent budgeting to the week wants to see the hours, not a monthly sum.
2. Add extra hours and late pickups as dated lines. The Tuesday the parent was held up at work goes on as its own line with the date and the minutes. That is the record if it becomes a pattern.
3. List overnights separately. An overnight covers the evening routine and being on call through the night, so it has its own rate and its own line, with the dates.
4. Attach the receipts for expenses. Zoo tickets, craft materials and lunches out are passed on at cost with the receipts, never folded into the hourly rate.
5. State the vacation and sickness position, then send. One line in the notes saying how family vacations and your own sick days are charged saves the conversation later. Set 7 days and send it the same day each month.

Childcare invoice example, filled in

A month of regular care for one child, with two overnights and one set of outings. The period and the child's name sit at the top, so a parent paying for more than one arrangement knows at once which one this is.

Subtotal $840, tax $84, total $924. The overnight line is where most childcare invoices go vague. Two nights at $120 is clear; a monthly figure with the overnights inside it is the version that gets questioned. Receipts for the $60 of outings go out with the invoice.

Regular hours, retainers and keeping a monthly invoice boring

The best childcare invoice is one a parent glances at and pays, and that comes from the base figure being identical every time.

Invoice the contracted weekly hours as a single stable line, then add anything unusual beneath it as its own dated line. A parent who sees the same base amount every month and one clearly labeled extra understands the bill instantly.

Where you hold a place through a quiet period, a retainer is the normal mechanism and it should be named as one. A retainer line makes it clear the parent is paying to hold the place rather than paying for care that did not happen, which is a distinction that matters a great deal to both of you.

Late pickup, extra hours and charging without damaging the relationship

Childcare is the trade where the commercial relationship is most personal, and that is exactly why the charges need to be written down rather than raised in conversation.

Put the late pickup rate in the agreement at the start, usually per fifteen minutes or per part hour, and then apply it consistently on a dated line. Applying it sometimes is worse than never applying it, because it turns a policy into a judgment about a particular parent.

The same holds for additional hours. Agree them at the time, invoice them with the date and the reason, and keep the rate the same as the contracted rate unless there is a stated out of hours premium.

Vacations, sickness and the weeks nobody works

Every childcare arrangement eventually hits the week the family goes away, and the outcome should already be written down before it arrives.

State the position plainly: how many weeks of paid vacation, if any, who chooses them, what happens when the family is away, and what happens when the provider is ill. These are the terms parents most often say they were never told.

Then reflect it on the invoice. A line reading week commencing a stated date, family vacation, charged at the retainer rate is a fact both sides agreed to months earlier. A silently unchanged monthly total is a question.

Hourly, fixed price or per unit: how childcare providers price the work

Childcare is priced per hour or per week against contracted hours, and the thing that makes it work is predictability. Parents budget to the week, so the base figure should be identical every month with anything unusual shown beneath it.

Late collection needs a stated rate agreed at the start and applied consistently. Applying it sometimes is worse than not having it, because it stops being a policy and becomes a judgment about one particular family.

Working out what to charge

Childcare rates depend on where you live, how many children and whether you drive, so a number from a web page tells a family nothing. The service price calculator starts from the hours you can work and what you need to earn, and the hourly invoice calculator totals a month of logged hours.

Getting paid once it is sent

Families pay on payday, so invoice on the same date every month and set the due date a few days after it; a care agreement that asks for the month in advance removes most chasing entirely. If the due date passes, the late fee calculator works out what your terms allow and the due date calculator sets the new date.

Five dates decide whether a childcare provider gets paid on time, and four of them are set before the work starts.

Mistakes that cost childcare providers money

• Extras folded into the monthly total. A parent budgeting to the week cannot see what changed.
• No late pickup rate agreed at the start. It becomes a personal conversation instead of a policy.
• Vacation position undecided. Every August turns into a negotiation.
• One rate regardless of the number of children. More work with no stated sibling rate.
• Expenses mixed into the fee. Reimbursements that look like a price increase.

Childcare / nanny invoice questions

Free childcare provider invoice template

The free childcare provider invoice template opens with the lines above already priced, in any of 6 designs, and exports a print-ready PDF with nothing saved to a server. Opening a design needs a free account.

Invoicing guides for related trades

Everything on this site, set up for childcare providers

The whole toolkit, with the reason each one matters to childcare providers rather than in general. The five marked links open with childcare / nanny already selected.