Procare Software

Kommentare: We love this program. It provides us with one place to quickly find out so much information. Log-in and see total enrollment, enrollment by classes or ages. Tracks child information without searching through files or looking in multiple places. Tracks employee attendance and any other info you might want to add like: Date of Hire, schedules, vacation time accrued or used, etc. Many things a pre-programed, but you can personalize it yourself or request assistance from a fantastic customer service person. This makes my job so much easier, especially with continual changes to State Day Care Licensing regulations. You do have to enter each child's information when they enroll, but once and it's done. Can update any information with only a few clicks and everyone that you assign a role can see everything.

Vorteile: Simplicity of use. Saves paperwork. Can be used to create reports. Easily see everyone who is still in the building (children and staff members). Records many different types of information (attendance, immunizations, medicals, state required paperwork, Food Program info for the USDA CACFP, tuition fees, and other misc info.) You can program it to add user specific information such as allergies, restricted pick-up, authorized individuals for pick-up, etc. We even have a door unit that stores fingerprints of authorized individuals for pick-up and then allows the door to unlock for entry.

Nachteile: W e have had to replace the door unit after someone cracked the screen and someone just chipped the fingerprint reader which may need replaced (it is still working). This is the result of individual user misuse though and not an actual flaw of the program or hardware. There is an annual update fee, but it is well worth the cost for the time and paperwork it saves.

Kommentare: PROCARE helped to decrease the amount of time spent in the office doing administrative paperwork. But currently with all of the many changes and updates that have been made and the additional and higher costs, I’m looking at other alternatives

Vorteile: The thing I like most about PROCARE is that you have everything you need in one place to successfully run your program whether home based or a large / multiple centers.

Nachteile: There are two things I dislike about the software is that after spending thousands of dollars for the software to run multiple programs, now we have to pay monthly fees just to keep up with the many changes and upgrades that have occurred over the years but without a discount. We are paying the same thing everyone else pays who didn’t have to pay all the money for the program.
There was no option for being grandfathered in or paying a reduced payment.

Kommentare: I have that it's on a cloud. I love that it's a one stop shop for all of our needs.

Vorteile: Functional and Easy to Use. GREAT customer support.

Nachteile: Parents are easily confused by the statement. The App or mobile check-in is a work in progress.

Kommentare: Procare saves us many hours every week. We do not figure accounts or depend on spreadsheets, or even correct data entry. We do have about 5 parents that like to pay cash, but the other 50 or so families all pay with debit card or auto debit, which automatically posts to their account and updates. It helps us to look professional and current. It is also a great safety feature. Procare has a place for pictures of each child, parent, and anyone the parent authorizes to pick up their children. So we can quickly access who can pick up a child and what they look like. Everyone at my center loves Procare and it improves the quality of my business.

Vorteile: Our Parents are always impressed that we are set up on a computer system for checking their children in and out. They really enjoy the fingerprint option for the most part. Some of the grandparents and a few parents do not have fingerprints that can be distinguished well enough to use, but they do have the option of using a code. Being able to look at their account, pay their account, and get their receipt emailed to them is just genius. It works perfectly, and requires no time on our part at all. The only thing we do is update the accounts on Monday morning. It truly is a great program for child care centers.

Nachteile: I would have to say, for the parents that do have to use a code instead of a fingerprint, have to use 2 separate numbers; a code, and a pass code. They get used to it, but at first grumble a bit about it.

Kommentare: Overall, it has helped with time sheets and is a consistent database for basic information about children that we share administratively. We have not liked the Food Program component and have chosen not to use the Tuition Express, since all of our Accounts Receivable is in QuikBooks, which works well for us. This also means double work, when we thought it would reduce our workload. The immunization information is fabulous, as we need to do annual reports for the State and this can be done with the click of a button.

Vorteile: We like the Time Card reports and the Immunization Reports work pretty well.

Nachteile: It is really clunky to use. For example, if we want to change a time in/out, we have to do three different strokes: the hours, the minutes or a.m./p.m. This is time consuming. We purchased the Food Program component, but because it doesn't separate children in different classrooms, we don't use it. ProCare is not compatible with Teaching Strategies Gold, which is our curriculum and assessment system, so that we have to enter demographics twice. There is no place for demographics, which we need several times a year for multiple funding sources. Everything takes too many steps. Unless we input a child's schedule, that child will not show up as being enrolled. If you put in a withdrawal date before the effective date, the parents cannot sign the child in or out: the child disappears instead of waiting for the effective date.