Paying the CM

I define late payment as a day late. I invoice 2 weeks before the end of the month, so plenty of time for parents to sort out payment at their leisure. I had a parent apologise to me this month, because they only paid me a day early and paid in two separate payments. I had to ask them what they were apologising for .

Childcare should be paid upfront. Stops any messing around on either side!

Think what others have posted here are good ideas. I think you may need to be a little lenient and define late payment as being more than 7 days late as us mums and dads get pretty busy. Currently I am lucky if I get to the computer for 5 minutes and I hate doing banking and admin on my phone. Personally I am pretty anal about paying on time but my career was always finance related. However I take a dim view of people who start chasing payment perhaps a little too early like less than 12 hours after their shift. They know I am beyond busy and me hiring them is to help me out. Like places where I work, hiring a person in a very poor financial position to come into your home can be a potential reason for undesirable conduct.

Childcare is an essential bill. If money is extremely tight I'm more likely to negotiate late rent with the landlords than fall behind on the cm's fee.

I manage a nursery so can commiserate
We never let parents pay in arrears
I had a coule look round for spaces for 2 children as their nursery is closing down

She later rang and said the current nursery let her pay in arrears and would we allow that?
I said sorry, no. It's fees in advance
I haven't heard back from her but no wonder the nursery is closing down if they allow parents to pay in arrears

We charge a late fee and some do complain about it but I point out that I could exclude their child in our terms and conditions
I have excluded a child, I didn't enjoy it. The child was drops off by her grandad who happened to be a famous example footballer and I had to tell him he couldn't leave her.
It was embarrassing for both of us
But fees were paid and she did return

Childcare is top priority for me. I would never pay it late. It just wouldn't be fair.

I'd let your current teacher parents know that from September they need to pay in advance, and if you haven't received the two months they owe you, plus September in advance, by the 31st August, you won't be providing care until it's all paid. And if there is a late fee in your contract starting charging that too.

My co-childminder and I insist on payment in advance (paid on 28th of previous month) by standing order.

Occasionally parents don't set up that standing order, despite reminders - so we have a £2 a day late payment charge. If payment hasn't been made by close of business on the 28th, we email a polite reminder, including a reminder of the late payment fee

Do you use Pacey contracts? There is a clause in the payment section that says the childminder can suspend the contract and refuse to care for a child until all unpaid fees have been paid. We highlight that sentence with asterisks.

The contracts also includes, as a reason for a childminder to terminate a contract without notice (wording from memory: 'non-payment of fees for [you select the period of time] or repeated non-payment of fees'.

Always take a months fees deposit

Stiff late charges of 10% every 24hrs and tbh if they Havnt paid you and no deposit /in advance then I would refuse to have their child next time they knock on the door

I pay 4 weeks in advance.

Don't worry, most CMs tighten up their policies after an incident like this.

Payment in advance. Late payment fees as a daily charge.

I would get rid of them, without a doubt! Cheeky fckers!

Absolutely switch to payment in advance.

I have seen my CM worry about other parents not paying (she's a friend as well as my CM so I hear bits of her worry, never names).
I always tell her that she should just refuse to look after a child until the payment is received - that would focus the mind, if she refused to provide child care until payment was made, especially if she did a day or 2 warning and then no more childcare.

To me it is an essential bill after mortgage because if I didn't work and earn money I couldn't pay the mortgage and I couldn't do that without paying for childcare.

Nurseries always charge in advance, so there's no reasons you can't. I've never paid any childcarer late.

I run a Rainbows group and we've also started asking for fees in advance as I'm so sick of chasing people for subs.

Childminder here is paid every week with sometimes a couple quid on top. I would never ever dream of paying late, let alone 4 weeks, shocking!

We pay our CM in front for the coming month. I think it's unusual to pay in arrears, isn't it?

So they pay in arrears? I'd consider changing to paying in advance for future customers.

I pay in advance, always have - and when I was a CM, I charged in advance.

My CM bill is my second most important bill after my mortgage!

I would be add I g late fees and termination rapidly to contracts

Payment date 1st month.
10% of fees to be payed additionally for every 24hrs payment is late
If no fees received by the end of 7 days, termination of childcare.
Take 6 weeks deposit upfront to cover those last weeks of no payment before next child arrives.

Actually I would probably get all childcare paid upfront also. Most childminders here ask for 6 weeks deposit, which is held incase of no payment and returned when childcare finished like you would with renting a house. Then ask additionally for first month upfront. That way you havent provided a service if they don't pay.