How do you track nursery bills and tax-free childcare payments?

[James7575]

I use Famly for my nursery bills and every month I find myself on a spreadsheet, child care tax calculator online (full of adverts) and reviewing each child / their allowances etc trying to work out how much the government has actually topped up, how much I still have left this quarter, and what I actually owe per child.

It's a nightmare, especially with more than one in childcare.

Yes its not that hard but bit of a hassle every month. Just curious how everyone else manages etc?

This sounds really OTT. I know I get £500 a quarter so just keep track and know that by the third month I’ve used my £500.

I just worked out how much I needed to pay in once, at the beginning, then paid the same amount into the childcare account each month and paid the bill whenever it came in 🤷🏼‍♀️. You know you can have a positive balance/pay over the top-up limit into the gov account, right?

I don't use it now, but I used to just work out how much I needed to pay into TFC each month to end up with the right amount for my child's whole bill. Then I set up a standing order to TFC, and a regular payment from TFC to the nursery and never thought about it again. The annual nursery bill was more than £10k so I paid in more than the amount that the government would top up.

Edit: whoops, just realised this was the same as PP who explained it better.

Like everyone else I don’t 🤷🏻‍♀️

worked it out once, set it up, let it go…!