Childcare Subsidy Tracking is Easy with Sandbox

Tracking parent subsidies can be time-consuming and a difficult task for child care owners and supervisors. First there’s the task of figuring out how much the parent owes each month versus what the subsidy owes. Then you have to keep track of when parent make payments as well as when you receive payments from subsidy. Throughout the month things can come up that require you to adjust the subsidy amount, and possibly even bill the difference to the parents. All of these things add additional complexity to the already difficult task of managing your regular account receivables. Thankfully, Sandbox Software makes it much easier to calculate subsidy amounts for parents, and also keep track of what’s been paid as well as what is still outstanding for each parent. Here’s how to use subsidy tracking in Sandbox.

First, enable Subsidies under the Billing section in the Sandbox Settings.

Once you’ve enabled Subsidies, you will have three available options for how to track subsidies at your center:

1. Set Parent Amount - This option enables you to set a fixed amount that the parent pays each billing period. The subsidy amount will be automatically calculated as the remainder of the regular tuition fee.
2. Set Subsidy Amount - This option enables you to set a fixed subsidy amount for each billing period. The parent amount will be automatically calculated as the remainder of the regular tuition fee.
3. Set Parent and Subsidy Amount - This option enables you to set a fixed amount for both the parent and the subsidy for each billing period. This two amounts will not necessarily add up to equal to the regular tuition fee.

Once you’ve completed the process of enabling subsidies in Settings, you will need to set up subsidies in the enrollment section for each subsidized child. When enrolling a child, you will notice there this is now an Enter Subsidy button in the payer details section. Click the Enter Subsidy button to configure the subsidy for each individual child. Once you’ve set the amounts, save the enrollment for the subsidy details to take effect.

You are then able to manage tracking subsidy payments as they come in through the Subsidy Tracking section under the Billing tab. When you receive subsidy payments, add them into the subsidy tracking section, including the amount paid as well as the payment date. You can print off Subsidy Reports for your records under the Billing Reports heading in the Reports section.

Setting up subsidy tracking in Sandbox is simple, intuitive and extremely helpful. It will help you to simplify the process of tracking subsidies at your center and put the cumbersome manual methods behind you. If you have any other questions about setting up subsidy for your Sandbox account, contact our support team at 1.800.385.7930 x1 or support@runsandbox.com.