Just posting for info really - since September our DD (4) has gone to the local village playgroup/preschool on a Monday (she already does 2 days a week in private nursery near my office, but this will hopefully help her make some local friends as I work half an hour from home).
We received our first invoice from the playgroup by email the month before she started, all fine and paid before the deadline. It occurred to us last week that we'd not had an invoice through for this new term so contacted the finance manager to check we hadn't missed the email, but it turns out that they don't actually email invoices out, they just stick them in the kids' bags.
Obviously it's completely our fault for missing it and I apologised profusely, but is this the norm? It doesn't seem like a very reliable way of making sure you get paid on time, especially as every Monday DD's bag comes home stuffed with newsletters, sponsorship forms, activity sheets and god knows what else. The invoice was apparently sent in November; the same week we had 2 different newsletters about the Christmas Play and Fair, an appeal for raffle prizes and a request for photos for a wall display.
I hold my hands up to being terrible at keeping track of bits of paper - the nursery invoicing is all done electronically over app but I understand a small village pre-school won't necessarily have the same tech.
My DSIS says I need to pull my socks up before DD starts school in September. I've bought a pinboard for the kitchen and all playgroup paperwork will go straight on it from now on...😅