Add years fees and divide by 52 - does this work?

[RedDragon]

I currently have 3 children from the same family.
Apart from the understandable hiccups of paying a day late every now and again they are excellent people to work with.

Because I look after their children over the holidays as well as term time the fees for holidays are very high - so we add everything up for the year - I take out my holidays and then parents pay a set amount each week.


Now, the thing is, I am happy to do that with the other children but what happens if say parents hours change mid way through or child leaves.

Is there a simple way of working out how much has been paid and how much should have been paid up to a certain point?

I'm not too bad with figures but wondered if someone had a fool proof way of working it all out?

[sarah32]

I did this with one parent.

Worked out fee's, took off my 4 weeks holiday and then devided to get a monthly figure but then half way through she cut me a day so decided to not take off my holidays anymore.

If you dont take off your holidays I dont see it wont be a problem.

[Mummits]

I've been puzzling about that too, but I think the way I do it I will generally be slightly in pocket if they leave "early", as August tends to be the most expensive month for most customers.

I offer to split the bill into equal monthly amounts if that is what parents prefer. I work by school year, so if they start mid year I add up the fees for the rest of the year to (including) August and divide by however many months left, but if they start in September (as some are about to do) I'd work it out for a whole year. I just then have a fixed monthly charge of x pounds (not broken down by hours or anything) so if they gave notice to leave mid month, I'd just adjust the final month's fees to be say 50% of the normal, not rework the whole lot. I do tell people this is what I would do, so they could be slightly better or slightly worse off but no-one has raised any objection, so I guess it must seem fair. I'm not too bothered if I lose out a bit or if I gain a bit - I'm not sure how I'd work it out so I don't think I'll worry about it!

Does that make sense?

[RedDragon]

Yes, I think so. :)


What I might do is put in 1 column the amount owed and in another column put in amount already paid - that way if parent leaves early or changes then I could work it out to the nearest months money.


I have 1 child who I have been caring for full time but he is going to school September. He will be with me after school and holiday time - mum offered to pay same each week - but the thing is the holidays are quite hard work - and I don't know id psychologically I would benefit more in getting a nice amount in the holidays rather than slightly more every week all year.

[The Juggler]

I currently have 3 children from the same family.
Apart from the understandable hiccups of paying a day late every now and again they are excellent people to work with.

Because I look after their children over the holidays as well as term time the fees for holidays are very high - so we add everything up for the year - I take out my holidays and then parents pay a set amount each week.


Now, the thing is, I am happy to do that with the other children but what happens if say parents hours change mid way through or child leaves.

Is there a simple way of working out how much has been paid and how much should have been paid up to a certain point?

I'm not too bad with figures but wondered if someone had a fool proof way of working it all out?



I would say if they change the contract, then you just start afresh with a new monthly charge.

[The Juggler]

If child leaves, you have been contracted to work that for the year.

However, if you do t-t only and only charge over 12 months you could be out of pocket so you'd need to offer payment over 12 months as an option only on condition there would be an adjustement if they leave before end August. You could offer this to your all year parents too and pay them back the difference but I find most parents prefer to have the cost spread out so August is not so financially crippling.