brightwheel Pricing

The auto draft option for the parents, and how they can pull their financial reports anytime they like. I can add a one time charge if they are late or require additional hours of service. The reports are easy and setting up the parent insurance information is a breeze. I also like the chat feature - when I have a question or concern.

That the parents can not use their HSA credit cards. The staff have said it is fixed, however my parents still have failed payments and can not use the card due to the system saying we are a day care service. If that could be fixed and placed under health services- the parents would be much happier, and I would not have to run their card manually and pay an extra cost for merchant services.

My families love this app, it makes communication easy. I feel like the increase in communication through this app during the day has helped me build deeper relationships with my families, help foster more positivity and trust, and help me help them with parenting topics, concerns and encouragement. The feature I love the most is autopay, all of my families use the payment feature. I never have to worry about chasing checks or manually adding payments for tax season.

I have had many issues sharing multiple photos at one time. I kind of gave up using this app as my primary way to share photos and set up a private group on social media for my families instead. I did enjoy how the app would keep an archive of the photos, but it was too much of a hassle for me to get them to upload, even after doing lots of troubleshooting. I don't use this app for this primary purpose, though and still feel the value is absolutely there with all the other features.

I like that parents can see what's going on in our program--pictures, activities, and send messages to teachers, without teachers using their personal information.

The billing feature just isn't up-to-par. Bills are automated, but are done separately, so it doesn't keep running totals of how much money a parent owes or a credit they may have. So I spend lots of time trying to keep up with with invoice a payment credits toward or how much money they have leftover. It's very confusing and time consuming. I have to open up different buttons to see where payments were credited. I just spent 45 minutes going over payments with a parent--all because I can't see how much money they still have on their account. I also thought the price was a little high.

The fact that it brings most used features into one easy to use package. Updates are frequent and mostly useful, increasing the functionality of the app (also listed as a con below). I can also trust that parents can figure out the app fairly easily without having to teach each family how to use it.

Cost - while not a lot on a per child basis, it does add up. Especially given the fact that the documentation part of the software is messy and not as user friendly, which makes it unusable at this point. There is also a greater up-front cost with iPads/Tablets. App updates - updates are good, but features are updated without notice. This leaves the user/teacher scrambling to figure out the new features and changes before children get in. Lack of supervisor control - the app could use more lock down features so management can limit what can be done from a single user.

We’ve been using brightwheel at our school since May 2016. It’s super easy to use and they keep enhancing the software and making it better. Invoicing is super easy. The cost is relatively low for the value that we get. It allows me to track kids and know who is here and ratios with ease.

There are a couple of things I don’t like. For example once a parent has issued a partial payment on an invoice, you can’t change/edit the invoice. I also don’t like that brightwheel isn’t integrated with PayPal. A lot of our families want to use PayPal which requires me to go in an manually mark payments as paid.

It is easy to use, my parents love that I can communicate with them through the app daily. I keep logs of attendance, naps, diapers, food and snacks and can also log medication given, accidents or any other things I need to log. It is easy to talk to parents through the app. I also use if for billing and tracking my hours worked. It's my one stop shop for all the things I need to run my childcare home.

I wish that you could access billing on the mobile app. It would make things easier. Also, parents should be able to set their own check in code, in the beginning they can never remember and I have to go into the desktop version to find it, that part is a hassle. I do wish the credit card fees were cheaper.

-Technical support = SUPER QUICK and personable -Brightwheel is open to new suggestions/improvements and implements those -Easy to use for parents, staff, and myself as the owner -Billing easy to use (reoccurring or individual invoices, auto payments, print off billing summary for taxes,etc) -Price reasonable for all you get with the app -Check in/out for kids and staff (makes payroll so easy!) -SO easy to add pictures, videos, food, meals, naps, incidents, etc for individual kids or the whole group quickly

Love the app, and cannot think of a con at this time.

Everything. I love everything about Brightwheel. From the bill pay to the daily feeds for the children. My parents love it too. It makes communication and payments with my families seamless. I really like that you can print yearly reports of your deposits, meals, and milestone tracking. This program helps me keep everything logged for my state license and Paths to Quality, the quality rating program I participate in.

The deposit fee. I already pay a monthly fee for the program which is relatively cheap considering what you get. However, the deposit fee per transaction gets pricey. It would be great if you could be like a flat rate. Maybe add it to the monthly cost instead of charging it with every transaction.

The ease of use, the pleasing and well designed user interface, app functionality.

So much improvement is needed, billing needs lots of work, lots of recommendations and feature requests go ignored, price is very high for the lack of features, other software platforms offer more and cost less.

Being able to share photos with the parents instantly is wonderful. Also having the option for parents to pay online is very convenient. I also like how I can just click on a student and print reports out. It helps cut down steps for me in the reporting process.

Being a small non-profit preschool, the monthly fee is a on the expensive side for us. but it's worth it in the eyes of me as a teacher, the board I work with doesn't always see it that way.....but I'm working on them to change their mind :)

It helps me stay in touch with parents and keep them informed about all we accomplish in the day and allows after hours communication if needed

It is a little expensive for the full version I cant spend the extra money to get the full it doesn't fit in my budget but the free version is worth it

This software is very user friendly. My staff can easily talk to parents through the messaging feature, we use it for our staff time cards as well as keeping track of student attendance, and parents are able to easily see pictures or updates about their child throughout the day. I pay based on the number of kids I have and they are generous with waiting to increase the price. Customer service is wonderful! They quickly respond to any issues I have and take suggestions to improve their software.

My biggest frustrations come from the staff side of the software. Staff can clock each other in and out so if you have untrustworthy staff then they can really mess up some time cards. Also the administrator cannot create a time card so it takes some extra steps in order to create a time card if someone forgot to clock in or out. The staff cannot see their hours within their own accounts and have no...

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I felt my grandson was safe at school when I had to care for him after a family emergency. It was easy to use and set up.

Ability to turn off and on text messages would be a great bonus for this software. I have no other ideas because it was such an awesome app

It's relatively easy to upload pictures and videos (and other information) to let parents know what is happening at school. I have also used it as a parent for my kids' daycare and I felt like I was missing out when they began elementary school (where it wasn't used).

With the increase in cost, my children's daycare had to start charging parents just to continue to use it. With this additional cost, I would like them to find a new tool. Also, it's frustrating how it does not show the messages my wife sends to teachers (I only see the reply from the teacher).

I love that it keeps my clients and I connected and that I can communicate to everyone at the same time when we have events or policy changes. I absolutely love the photo option as well, especially for those parents who don't want their children's pictures on social media. The biggest thing for me, however, is the amazing customer support I've experienced. Any time I have a question or suggestion, I am able to communicate with a live person who ACTUALLY listens! It's pretty rare these days, so I value that a lot!

There aren't any aspects of this app is dislike. There are a couple of things I'd like to see added to it, but per my conversation with customer support, it sounds like those things are on their way!

What won me over was the support team and Brightwheel’s overall commitment to giving our school the platform we wanted. As the Teacher/Director, there were features I found I needed. Brightwheel looked into my request and found ways to accommodate my needs even if it required new programming on their part to create it. Impressive service!

Cost. I have found after several recxomendations that the cost is top of the market... something most schools have difficult time justifying.

There are many features to use in the premium account but also has nice options in the free version. It is a great tool to promote your business and increase parent communication. It makes the business run smoother. The tool has frequent updates.

Some smaller providers have complained about the cost of the premium service. But for me it has been a great tool that made my business easier to manage.

This software is very easy to use, very easy to get the hang of. I was thrown into a new role very suddenly and had to become very familiar with Brightwheel and how we use it for our daily needs, and by the end of the week, I was very confident in knowing the ins and outs.

I would like to see a more flexible messaging option on the computer interface. Like being able to search a child's name, instead of just which room they're in and then scrolling through that room's messages. I also would like to see a sort of "instant message" feature on the computer if I were to receive a message. Have something pop up on that tab, or in the bottom of my screen.

I love most of the features of brightwheel, but I think my favorite is how easy it is to get in contact with parents. When a question or concern arises, it is much easier to ask them and receive a timely reply. It is also easy to send them a message when a child is running low on diapers or wipes rather than relying on closing staff to remember to let parents know at pickup. Another feature I like is the incident/accident report. It lets parents know when it happens and whether or not it is serious enough for them to be concerned.

Although I like this feature, it can be a con as well. It’s nice to be able to reach out parents so easily, but there are times when it can become a hassle based on the parents preferences for their child etc.

I was a parent and a teacher with the use of brightwheel at my last center. As a parent I absolutely being able to check on my child without having to call. We all know very well that phones are pretty much Everything and being able to pick mine up and see pictures, notes and activities that my child/children we doing was amazing!

I personally feel that if we were going to have to pay for the program to just include it within our price for childcare. My center we had to enroll which I didn’t like as well because I worked there. Also it was a separate payment to make instead of just one payment. As far as the app itself and the use of the app , I had no problem. Of course I am very tech savvy

The program is easy to use and easy for our parents to use. They continue to add more features and functionality to make it more user friendly. The cost for premium is comparable to competitors and I feel that this is a better product.

As a premium member I can't log in from my phone and pick the location I want to see. I have to do that through the laptop. Therefore I can only be logged into one school at a time on my phone and I have to remember individual emails and passwords, as the same email can not be used on one account. Communication in regards to services is not flawless, not sure if it was how quickly they grew or not. Hard to get someone to email you back when you need assistance.

I will preface by saying I have only used as a free trial and through observing demonstrations. Based on those, the software seems more than capable of helping manage a child care facility. But not steps above my existing software that would warrant the time and investment of switching (if there was any value to the change, which I don't believe they truly offer more than what I already have).

I have been put off by sales pitches saying they are the "ONLY" one that can do x, y and z. In reality, most child care administration software can do it.

Really easy UI to manage schools/day care. Billing system is very actractive and easy to use. Can Interact with parents as at teacher via this application much better.

The cost is bit higher for small schools and day cares. Sometimes crashes happened. Billing function not available via mobile app.

It is very user-friendly, and it is a great tool for communicating with parents.

We originally began using Brightwheel at no cost. After a short time, we had to subscribe to the premium version to still utilize all of its great features. We are non-profit facility and work hard to keep our costs low for our families. It would be helpful to have a lower cost for using Brightwheel premium. I also wish we would be able to upload photos or files in messages.