im I doing myself out of money or is this right?

[samgeordie]

Ive been childminding about 6weeks now and I have a before/after schooler mindee. As both parents work shifts her hours vary week to week and I get a note of the hours required 4 weeks in advance. What I decided to do was to charge for 40hrs a month basic as this is the minimum hrs that would ever been required and get paid the fee for this upfront, then invoice the mum at the end of the month for any surplus hours. So far there have been approx 10-14hrs extra used.

However Im not sure whether Im doing myself out of money due to way i work out the hours - eg 7.30-9am - i put 1.5hrs, 3.15-5.30 - 2.5hrs. I then add up all these 1.5, 2.5 hrs etc to get the total. Is this the way you would do things or would you round it up to 2hrs, 3hrs etc?

Just thought id ask and get your input before i start on my invoice for this month, hope it makes sense. The mum is really nice and seemed surprised that her bill was lower than she thought last month.Thanks

[fionamal]

Your doing it how I would do it. I round mine up to the nearest half hour. The only thing I would say is watch you dont get diddled as I did. I work 8-6 in general and was asked to start at 7.30 every other week and I forgot that before 8am i have an enhanced rate and never charged it for 6 months to the parents.

[samgeordie]

thanks for that, she does sometimes start at 7.30 and i charged my other mindee a higher rate between 7-8am the other week for being an unsociable time, but it was a one off and i don't have that mindee usually in the mornings, and i didn't state an unsociable rate in the contract for this mindee.

[Lou]

I round up to the nearest hour, but then my after schoolies are siblings of ones i have in day time so are on a lower rate anyway due to discount if that makes sense!!!

[breezy]

I round up to nearest half hour, but I know others who always round up to the hour.

[Chatterbox Childcare]

I charge a flat rate for before and after school. £5 per morning and £14.00 per afternoon.

If I was on flei time like you I would put a minimum on the week (that would need to be set by you as the minimum you would accept) and then anymore on top as required.