ProCare

Hi. I’m Carla Snuggs, Day Care feature writer for Suite101.com and a reviewer for Child Care Software Store dot com.

I am going to take you on a tour of ProCare, daycare management software program developed by Professional Solutions.  This software allows childcare businesses to effectively manage clients, employees, and accounting information.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-233891039088650328

ProCare offers a variety of modules so that childcare providers can pick and choose the options that are applicable to the needs of their business.

Family and Accounting Module

Main Features:

• Creating family records is simple and straightforward.  Businesses can create customer groups and subgroups in order to sort clients by Private Pay, DHS, DFACS, Head Start or Employee. This helps keep information highly organized allowing efficient retrieval for reports and billing functions.
• Childcare providers can search records by client name, address, child’s name, emergency contacts, or authorized pickup. These options allow for versatility in searching which is a definite time-saving feature.
• ProCare software allows you to select and count groups of families based on a variety of criteria such as food program status or customer balance making it easy to create and send email or billing in batches.
• The Reports function helps create and organize vital business information.  Important forms like roll call sheets, sign in and out forms, attendance tracking, and immunization reports help support child safety.  Daily Schedule reports help keep parents informed and help providers document the happenings of day or week.  Childcare businesses can create customizable reports for each customer which helps businesses run more effectively.
• Bill creation is clear-cut and flexible. Clients can be billed by the day or month as well as weekly, biweekly, and quarterly. There is also an option to create bills manually or automatically.

Employee Data & Payroll Module

Main Features:

• Employee time cards helps childcare businesses keep track of employees’ hours worked, time spent in training, vacation time, and sick time. Business owners can create batches of payroll checks, time cards, and receipts, which is another time saving feature.
• Employee reports such as schedules, earnings, and withholdings summaries, along with weekly sign in/sign out forms are quickly customizable and printable for easy distribution.
• Employee immunization reports help manage immunization summaries and reminders. This keeps children safe and your business compliant with state laws.

Accounts Payable Module

Main Features:

• The Accounts Payable module allows you to keep track of assets, liabilities, equity, revenue, and expenses. ProCare makes it simple for novices and experts to manage the accounting functions of childcare businesses.
• ProCare helps childcare businesses keep track of vendors and their payment terms.  Childcare providers can easily print out vendor reports and create vendor log notes.
• ProCare allows for accounting on a cash or accrual basis. Also, printing checks is a cinch. Employers can batch print checks with the click of a few buttons.

General Ledger

Main Features

• The General Ledger allows you to create your Chart of Accounts which allows childcare business owners to organize all of its financial information, and then create journal entries and general ledger reports such as Budget Information and Income Statements.
• The Check Reconciliation function lets you reconcile checks posted in ProCare against your bank statement and lets you know which checks have cleared. This helps daycare businesses stay within their budgets and as well stay on top of all of their financial information.

What I like about Pro Care is…

• The software is very simple to navigate. If you get stuck, you can easily click on a red question mark (available on every screen) and instructions will guide you through the process. Records are very easy to sort and retrieve. Sometimes you can buy software, input data, and then spend more time searching for it than it took to enter it.
• In its entirety, ProCare is relatively expensive. However, businesses don’t need to purchase all of the modules and can purchase those modules that meet their needs and budget.
• You can upload photos of clients (children and parents) and this helps personalize your records and keeps children in your care safe.
• The forms and reports are customizable. Childcare business deal with multiple age ranges, pay rates, classrooms, and family structures. The software easily accommodates all sorts of variables that childcare business owners encounter.
• ProCare provides excellent customer support, which is an important when purchasing business software

There weren’t many drawbacks to the software but…

• Keeping up with all of the features of ProCare can be challenging. Taking the video tours and reading the literature helps.  You will also receive 30 minutes of Live Online Training for free with your first time purchase of ProCare.

Overall:

ProCare is extremely comprehensive and allows childcare professionals to easily manage most aspects of their business.  I like that most of its forms and reports are customizable. As well, the software pays for itself fairly quickly over time because of all of the time-saving features; it definitely helps businesses become more efficient. Although ProCare is somewhat pricey, you can add software modules as your business expands. I would purchase several, if not all, of the modules of ProCare software for my family daycare business or preschool.

Editor's Rating:

Visit ProCare.
Request a Free Demo of ProCare

About the Author

Carla Snuggs is a freelance writer from Southern California. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Family and Consumer Science with an emphasis in child development and also holds a Master of Library and Information Science degree.

Add Comment »