Childcare billing and attendance for Phoenix programs that run on Arizona time

Attendance records are only useful if the time on them is unambiguous. DCare records check-ins and check-outs against the time zone set on your account. For a Phoenix program that is America/Phoenix, which stays on Mountain Standard Time all year. There is no spring-forward or fall-back night, so a check-in at 7:05 a.m. in March means the same thing as 7:05 a.m. in November.

This matters most for families whose employers sit in another time zone. A parent who joins 8 a.m. Pacific calls from home might arrive earlier in summer than in winter by the Phoenix clock, even though nothing changed on their calendar. If a question ever comes up about a late fee or an arrival time, the record in Arizona time is the one to point to.

Make sure the account time zone is set correctly during setup. DCare does not guess it from the browser of a parent who might be travelling.

Picture a home-based provider in the west valley with nine enrolled children. From late May into September, the program moves outdoor time to early morning and some families start earlier to avoid driving in the afternoon heat. Opening moves from 7:00 a.m. to 6:30 a.m. for the summer.

1. 1
   Change the closing time when hours change. If summer hours also move closing earlier, update the closing time in Settings so late pickup charges are judged against the right hour
2. 2
   Let the kiosk show who is in. At 6:35 a.m., with one adult and a sleepy toddler at the door, a four-digit PIN is faster than a pen and a clipboard
3. 3
   Keep rates steady unless you decide otherwise. Earlier opening does not change invoices automatically. If you charge more for early care, adjust the rate for affected children
4. 4
   Tell families in one message. A single message in the parent portal announces the summer schedule, so nobody hears about it second-hand at pickup

Start, at $49 per month for up to 25 enrolled children, fits a program like this. The example is hypothetical; your own summer schedule and policies are your decision.

The Phoenix area sees families who spend part of the year elsewhere, whether for work, extended family or simply the weather. For a small program, that means children who enroll for October through April and leave for the summer, or who return after a few months away.

DCare handles this through the child's active status. Mark a child inactive when they leave, and they are skipped on future invoice runs while their records, invoices and attendance stay intact. When they come back, mark them active and confirm the rate. If your policy is to hold a place over the summer for a fee, set the reduced rate for those months and change it back on return.

This approach keeps one continuous history per child, which is helpful when a returning family asks for a statement covering both stays.

Now imagine a center in the east valley with about forty enrolled children, including a group of school-age children who arrive at 6:45 a.m. and leave for school on a bus run, then return in the afternoon. Tuition is monthly, with the school-age program billed weekly during the school year.

The kiosk gives the director a simple view: who is checked in right now. When school-age children leave for the bus, staff sign them out; when they return, they sign in again. DCare records each event with a time, so the record for the day reads as it happened. DCare is not a transportation log and does not track vehicles, but accurate presence records support whatever transport procedures the center keeps.

Billing runs on two schedules side by side: weekly for school-age children and monthly for the rest. Families with children in both groups still receive clear invoices for each run. Standard, at $99 per month, covers up to 60 enrolled children.

Parents see invoices and balances in the parent portal. If the provider has a configured, eligible Stripe account, parents can pay by card through Stripe Checkout; otherwise staff record payments received by check, transfer or cash. The dashboard shows what is outstanding and which families are overdue.

At year end, owners can export data as CSV or JSON. Families often ask providers for a statement of payments for dependent care accounts or tax purposes; having every payment in one place makes that a short task. DCare does not prepare tax forms and does not give tax advice.

DCare does not process child care assistance payments or submit claims to any agency, so programs serving families with assistance should keep their existing process for that part.

During the 14-day trial, which needs no card, a hypothetical Phoenix provider might create the account with the United States region, set the time zone to America/Phoenix, add families and rates, and run the kiosk next to the paper sheet for a week.

Once the times line up, she drafts the first invoices, checks every total, and invites parents. If DCare is not right for her program, the trial ends without a charge. A paid subscription only starts after explicit confirmation in Stripe Checkout.

Programs that see families come and go through the year tend to collect registration fees more often than programs with stable enrollment. In DCare each registration, supply or activity fee is a one-off charge on the family with its own due date. Returning families can be handled however your agreement says: charge a reduced re-registration fee, or none at all.

Hypothetically, the west valley provider described above might waive re-registration for a family returning in October after a summer away, add a supply fee for the new school year, and reactivate the children so their monthly rate starts again on the next billing day.

Because Phoenix does not change its clocks, a parent whose employer is in another state may find that a meeting which ended on time by their calendar ends later by the local clock for part of the year. A good handbook makes clear that pickup times are in Arizona time.

DCare stores your closing time and late pickup fee in Settings and time-stamps each sign-out in your account's time zone. Nothing is charged automatically. If you add a fee, include the recorded time in the description so the parent sees exactly what the record shows.

With early summer openings, the person who opens is often not the person who closes. The kiosk record is the same for every authorized user, so whoever is closing can check who is still signed in. DCare does not calculate staff ratios or alert you about them and should not replace your own supervision procedures; it just keeps presence information in one place.

Confirm the account time zone is America/Phoenix, then check each child's rate and frequency, the billing day, and your closing time and late fee. If you run summer hours, decide now whether you will update the closing time in Settings when they start, and put a reminder in your calendar.

Print QR cards for families who prefer scanning and place the tablet near the door you actually use. Draft the first invoices and read every one before parents can see them. If you plan to accept card payments, make sure your Stripe account is configured and eligible; otherwise plan to record payments yourself.

Keep your paper sign-in sheets from before the switch in your own files; DCare does not import them, and older records may still matter to you.

Send a short message telling families that all times on their records are Arizona time. For parents who work across state lines, that single sentence prevents most confusion about arrival and pickup times.

One more Phoenix-specific detail: if a staff member or parent sets up a phone or laptop while travelling, the device may show a different local time from your records. That is expected. The account time zone, not the device, decides how DCare displays check-in times, so a record made at 7:05 a.m. in Phoenix still reads 7:05 a.m. on the provider's own screen. Mention this in your handbook if your families travel often between states, so a screenshot from another time zone does not start an argument about a late fee.

US accounts are billed in dollars at list prices, not converted from euro: Start is $49 per month for up to 25 enrolled children and Standard is $99 per month for up to 60, excluding applicable taxes. Both begin with a 14-day trial that needs no card. Your account region and currency are fixed when you sign up; reading this Phoenix page does not change an existing account.

DCare is deliberately narrow. It covers families, tuition invoices, attendance and parent access for one setting. It does not do lesson plans, photo sharing, multi-site management or subsidy claims, and it does not interpret Arizona or local rules.