brightwheel Reviews

Ease of use Instant communication between families and staff Reduces Paperwork Aids in documentation

I can't really think of anything. I've been a true fan ... since before it's introduction on Shark Tank!

Brightwheel staff are available during the day (and you can even leave a chat message after hours). They are responsive to your issues and they actually follow-up after resolving an issue to make sure that it remains fixed. The support team is knowledgeable, helpful and polite! They leave you with the impression that they care.

We offer flexible schedules. Some families' schedules vary day to day. It would be a great asset if actual attendance could be calculated against billed attendance. Right now, this is a manual process and leaves us open to mistakes.

I love that this software is mobile, offers billing as well as parent communication. My clients enjoy the timeline viewing of the daily reports.

Families are unable to save videos sent via app. The reports feature is very time consuming. The employee timecards and many other reports require you to change settings within your excel etc to view regular times, dates, etc. Reports have to be individually emailed to you to view. Billing does not allow a way to show credits on accounts. Billing feature does not allow you to track and bill...

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I like how the parents at my daycare see photos and videos of their child/ren that our staff posts on their throughout the day. I also like the messaging piece between teacher & parents as ell as administrative and parents too. I like how teachers can keep track of their children and post activities regarding the Mother Goose curriculum

The integration with Brightwheel within my center was ease, I have no cons about Brightwheel it is amazing and helps us a lot at my center!

It's very easy to use, very user friendly and has so many helpful features. It really is a one stop shop because of everything it offers. I don't have to use other programs for various reports or tracking and even billing. It has brought peace to office chaos and helps parents with convenience and peace of mind.

There are always new things that a center looks for to help processes become more efficient or comprehensive. So yes, there are things that can still be integrated in brightwheel, but they are always open to suggestions and feedback. As soon as ideas come up, they put things into play. Keep in mind, all things take time.

The alert system that tells families what is happening in their billing and with their children in real time keeps the center very accountable. It is also easy to catch and correct any mistakes right then.

I do feel there are a few things that could be integrated to make it even more efficient - like an alert that tells you when someone is clocked in more than 8 hours or 10 hours (or whatever the user sets). Also, being able to alert teachers when a child has not been updated in their class after 2 hours or 3 or whatever the user preference is. I would also like to be able to input staff vacation into the system somewhere. It would be helpful with payroll.

Brighthweel has made my admin duties so much easier. Whether it is billing or onboarding it takes less time than our previous childcare managment.

We wish you had payroll options so we could fully get rid of our last product

Billing!! What a time saver! Attendance & Staffing time saver! Communication with Parents time saver! Easy to learn and this is from a person that's not the brightest person on technology. (I was 63 years old now 65)

Make longer videos to send to parents. That's it.

employees love this nationwide , read reviews and they are great

was a little on the pricey side. overall worht the money but wish i could get a better deal

I love the efficiency it offers in the daily management of my care center. I can track attendance, keep health and medication records, schedule activities.

Well, sometimes I experience connectivity problems, which makes it difficult for me to access the platform at critical moments.

The Brightwheel app enables our employees to easily communicate with parents anytime of day or night and keeps them from giving out their personal phone numbers. The system is very user friendly and has easy to follow instructions and prompts.

The reporting from a financial side is not very clear if you are coming from another system with a lot of information in reports. Inputting immunizations could be a little quicker like putting a date and selecting the immunizations that were given on the date would be great.

I love the fact that the one program takes care of communications with faculty and parents, billing and payments, and student information. All of it quickly accessible by computer or cell phone. Customer service is attentive and thorough.

There are some areas where improvement is necessary. Sometimes when you export information, you may need to tweaking the organization of the information to look the way you want it. The thing is, they invite you to share what you believe needs to improve. In the short 7 months of using this software, and they have made significant updates many of these aspects.

I love Brightwheel! We've been using BW since 2015 and have saved so much time having billing, attendance and time cards at our fingertips.

Tracking children's immunizations is not as fluid as it could be. Too much data entry. It would be better if parents could do the data entry and admin could check against paper records for accuracy.

The customer support has been spectacular. I am a small school and don't pay much but I'm always treated like I could be their biggest client. I get a quick response when I have a question and they are always polite and professional. This has made my job so much easier on a daily basis. The billing would be my second favorite aspect. So much less check handling, deposits, chasing down parents that owe money, etc. The overall professional appearance this software gives my school. Okay, the grandparents don't always love it but everyone else does. :)

There are a few things that changed with the billing that I don't like as much. I liked going to the overview page and seeing recent transactions without having to click on other links. Also, ALL of my children are billed the first of the month, billing ends May 1, notice goes out 3 days prior to bill being due. There should be a way to "lock" these features and change them only when needed. I have...

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The most impactful features of "brightwheel" may vary depending on the specific needs and goals of a school or childcare provider. However, some of the most commonly cited impactful features include the parent/student portal, financial management, daily reports, communication management, and attendance tracking.As for ease of use, "brightwheel" is designed to be user-friendly and intuitive. The platform...

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Some users have noted that while "brightwheel" is generally easy to use, there may be a learning curve for some features or settings. For example, setting up the financial management feature may take some time and effort to configure properly. Additionally, some users have suggested that the platform could benefit from additional customization options, such as the ability to customise reports and forms.Regarding...

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This is one of the best, if not the very best, solutions to make my life easier managing my school. We started using this app just in our after school program and soon adopted the check-in/out system for our entire attendance tracking solution. We are able to run reports to see who, when, and where someone was checked in for any given day in our school year. All of my suggestions have been heard and considered and almost all (if not all) have eventually been added. I love how well they receive feedback and how they want to serve institutions of all sizes. Having been a long time user since their infancy, I have had the opportunity to talk to many people with the company and they are all wonderful. I wish more companies were like them.

I feel like the free version is quite limited. It used to have many more features and I sang its praises to everyone. Now I have to start the conversation by discussing the financial part of the system, which limits some potential users. I wish it integrated with student information systems so that I didn't have to export and prepare csv to upload to create students. It would be much simpler to have an automated sync each night to create or remove students based on our current student system, Renweb. I'm beginning to realize that part of this is due to their growing attempt to take over the educational information realm, but they are not there yet.

1) It has aloud our staff members to connect with families more on a daily/weekly basis. 2) Staff are able to post pictures without using their phone storage. 3) Parents can sign-in & sign-out easier. Easier to add extra pick-up people. 4) Easier to obtain tuition payments from families. 5) Easier to have a visual of the school in one location (I can switch rooms and see who is there and the staff in the room. 6) Bi-monthly payroll is much easier with the time sheets.

1) There is no way to message staff members all at once or for them to receive a message as well. (example, I post the newsletter for parents and the staff would have to open a student file to view it or I mass message the parents but the staff do not receive the mass message as well. 2) I wish you could post pdf files to the parents versus just image files. (My newsletters and forms always have to...

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-I am really happy using this software as it is user friendly and you don’t have to technically sound for understanding this software which is best - Easy navigation and notification alerts - Daily able to monitor my kids activities through this app once teacher update it - easy interaction through one to one message and group interaction too - One touch accessible photos of my kid - Parents like us can get real time activities update of their kids through this app and check daily activities and learning they are doing -

So far nothing as we switched from another software and found this very reliable and ease to use . Only issue is with payment through app , sometimes it gets stuck or shows loading screen so we have to redo it and cancel the whole thing which is little frustrating.

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.

Our center has been using Brightwheel for over a year now and we absolutely love it! I love the connection with parents through this software. Parents can stay up on how their child's day is going. I also like having the finances linked through the app. It is so convenient for parents. As an administrator it has become very user friendly and helps me to keep up on each class and ratios from my phone.

I do not like that any time I want a special report I have to submit it to be emailed. I would love to have access to more of the information as an administrator. This also goes with the financing I would like a little more control over when I send invoices dates on invoices etc. I also don't like how everything is alphabetized by first or last name. In the childcare industry birthdays are a great option to organize rooms as children move to the next room by their birthday and that is not a feature available on the app at this time.

I really appreciate most aspects of the communication system for staff and parent clients as well. I like the billing and account systems a lot. I appreciate that lesson plans, invoices, in real time teacher-parent communications are all in real time and at access to the parents at all times.

I wish there were a way to upload our curriculum goals ad objectives into the system in order to make lesson planning, learning observations and child assessments more connected and seamless. I also wish that there were a way to pause messaging overnight or weekends short of signing out. It would be great to be able to set an out of office on messaging.

The ability to upload photos with descriptions as well as categorize them into subjects/learning domains. It was exciting for parents to see photos in real time. It was also SUPER helpful that accident reports could be added in real time. Altogether the BEST feature was not having to write up separate accident reports, messages or newsletters to different parents by email or phone calls. Guardians provide their email to administration so that photos, messages, accident reports and newsletters go to all responsible parties easily. Then everyone is on the same page.

It was challenging to go back into newsletter/messages to edit. Parents complained they couldn’t send messages freely without choosing one of the pre-made options of the app. For instance, a parent could send a message to say that their child woke up once during the night and had trouble falling asleep as a heads up to the teacher that the child may be tired or cranky. Instead they had to choose an option such as the child would be absent that day. Additionally there was a very limited number of characters for parents to use in messages. Was not able to upload video successfully after many attempts.

I love that brightwheel provides an "all in one" way to communicate to families and document daily activities. It's easy to use and our parents love it. What I like most about it is it has a two way messaging system so parents can send messages and staff can get right back to them. It completely eliminates the need for parents to have to try to get through by phone or email, they have direct access to their child's teacher.

One of the things I dislike about brightwheel is that the billing portion keeps changing. Our management staff will get used to how to do invoices and check reports and then once again the format will change. It definitely throws us off so it'd be nice for it to be figured out and kept that way.

Our daycare provider uses this software and as a working Mom it is very nice to have the technology available to stay in touch throughout the day. It is fairly simple to use and when I did have a problem the support team returned my email quickly.

It is sometimes quite slow. There is a long delay when I check the kids in our their Dad picks them up. I don't often get notifications for 15 - 20 minutes later. This can cause unnecessary stress when worried about whether they got picked up on time or if they need assistance. I will also not utilize the payment features because it requires tiny deposits into my personal bank account just to set up a payment method. Seems like outdated technology and makes me nervous. Some other small issues I believe are due to the provider not utilizing the technology to it's full potential which is not a software issue, but may be something for Brightwheel to consider when evaluating the training offered to facilities.

Just the mere fact it exists in my world, it is amazing.

I'm not overly computer literate so I didn't realize there were certain things that I had to do on my computer and I couldn't do on my phone. I spent a couple of days feeling like a bit of an idiot until I figured that part out.