As the title suggests, I have always used the minimum wage but I think my average hourly rate is higher but don't know how to work it out. Any ideas? :idea:
As the title suggests, I have always used the minimum wage but I think my average hourly rate is higher but don't know how to work it out. Any ideas? :idea:
No problem - hubby has helped me.
You work it out by totalling the hours you work a week and totalling the amount you get paid a week and dividing it. Hurrah :clapping:
Doesn't that just give you the gross £ before the usual day to day expenses though eg food, heating, insurance etc etc?? That isn't what you are actually earning.Quote:
Originally Posted by Jexer72
xx
It all depends on how you do your accounts.
I know how much I earn , my expenses per month and how many hours I work per month.
This Is how I did mine, worked out over the year.
Total income for year minus 10% = A
Total expenditure for year including costs such as gas, electricity etc = B
Total number of hours worked in the year = C
Hourly rate = D
Here goes; ( A - B ) divided by C = D
(Don't worry about how much tax,NI etc you have paid, as 'normal people' would say they earn £20 per hour as per their contact, and not say they earnt say £16 per hour after tax, NI, pension contributions etc )
This is how I do it too :thumbsup:Quote:
Originally Posted by k1rstie
xx
Why do you want to know a rate for paperwork and planning? just curious as I know we cant put that through our books?
Ah, I have just read the title of the thread!!! Whoops!! I don't add this into any figure anywhere.Quote:
Originally Posted by mama2three
Thank you ladies for your help.
When I first started childminding 3 years ago I was told we should add to our expenses (under admin) the time we spend planning, doing observations and accounts. They said you can either use the minimum wage or work out your average hourly rate if it is higher.
I've always used the minimum wage and added about 3 hours a weeks (I do a lot more!).
All the childminders round my way do. We're in Somerset ::happy banana::
At the end of the day if we worked in a nursery or preschool we would do the paperwork in working hours but we don't get that luxury. Why not claim for our time?
But claim what? You can not claim a wage as you are a sole trader?! We run our own businesses so we spend as many hours as we want but there is nothing to 'claim'... I would certainly recommend checking with HMRC.Quote:
Originally Posted by Jexer72
Im absolutely sure we cant do this , there have been previous posts on the forum back when there were a couple of very tax savvy contributors. I understand the way you are drawn in when ''everyone else does'' but please get some confirmation from hmrc before continuing.
I took part in a HMRC webinar for CMs and this was never mentioned so I agree with others you should clarify this.
I've never heard of this before and not sure how it would work?!?
I do all my paperwork in hours anyway and don't understand why anyone would need to be doing 'Out of hours paperwork' when we work a full 10hr day. I know some childminders do and that's their decision but I can't think of anything worse that spending weekends and evenings doing paperwork :panic: This job already takes over my life without out of hours paperwork. :D
Admin is just as much part of thej ob as is cleaning up , setting up , going on training courses and actually caring for children! we cant claim our time for any of those things so why would we be able to for admin?
Please please please help me with this! How do you manage to fit it in your day? I spend so long at weekends and evenings doing Learning Journeys and accounts, I thought it was just normal for childminders to have to do this. Any advice gratefully receieved....Quote:
Originally Posted by JCrakers
I do very little outside minding hours- but I have 3 babies/toddlers who nap at the same time. I plan to get them all sleeping at the same time to achieve this and have managed it with 11 different children over 5 years.Quote:
Originally Posted by sarah1975
If you are doing so much, you may be doing too much. This link came up recently on the Independent-CM facebook page:
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/big-f...?trk=prof-post
Accounts- when I buy something I immediately put receipt into a plastic sleeve in my accounts book and write it in (Pacey accounts book). Once a month I tot up and fill in month's totals- 20 mins work. Once a year add up for annual totals- only once a year do I work out my utility bill percentages, add in my mileage money etc.
LJ- I am on line (Tapestry).
Obs I add during nap time, 3-4 a week (so 1-2 per child per week roughly as I have 3 full time children over 4 days), which is a 1-2 photos upload + 1-2 sentences and tick a few age/stage areas of learning and charateristics of effective learning, write an immediate next step if relevant- so 5-10 mins per obs.
6-monthly review of progress and tracker update- 1 hour per child.
I do not do written planning, just spontaneous activities with a good knowledge of the children and where they are and what they are doing and following seasonal themes and ideas (easter, spring, mothers day etc).
No paperwork at all, I do not print photos, all online and parents read online and give input and add comments online.
Can you meet up with local CMers and see what they are doing? Sharing ideas often comes up with ways you can save time or cut our unnecessary work.
Thanks Moggy... I really need to look into online LJ's as it's those that take up my time. I guess I'm set in my ways from working at a nursery and yes I think I am doing too much as I'm spending so long printing photos at weekends etc. I have a couple of days a week when the children sleep at the same time but not always and I tend to fill this with tidying up and getting meals or activities ready... maybe I should re-think this.
The accounts bit I think is ok, I spend about 30 mins on a saturday morning just tapping totals etc into a spreadsheet and I'm happy with this.
I've only been childminding 6 months so I really want to change this now before I get too stuck in my ways again!
I use Orbit online and it is free. So maybe you could try it to see if you prefer it to paperwork and then, if you want, swap to an app that you pay for. I think going paperless for lj's is the way forward. Also send emails to parents for everything. The thing that I found in the past was updating policies and risk assessments. But I've got organised and they are now all saved together on a disk and any updates are quickly emailed to parents. Try to think 'how can I do this quicker and get the same/neater result?'Quote:
Originally Posted by sarah1975
Thanks BallyH, I will look into Orbit.Quote:
Originally Posted by BallyH
I've also just read that blog that Moggy mentioned in the post above and it's made me realise I can definitely cut down some of the things I do.
I'm looking forward to getting my weekends back! :clapping::clapping::clapping: