CHILDCARE Sage: Professional Childcare Management Software

(866) 842-7806

ChildCare Sage
Professional Childcare Management Software
"The Only Professional and Affordable Solution"

(866) 842-7806

Childcare Sage™ Pre-Purchase Case Studies

The Truth behind Childcare Management Software Pricing

Having good, affordable software makes you more productive and increases your center's revenue. With a good system, past due balances don't fall through the cracks, and all childcare charges including late pickups, additional classes, and late payments are tracked and charged. Most centers would love to purchase and use software, but many centers don't use software because they think the costs are too high, something that our competitors have spent a lot of time, money, and effort to convince you of. The simple fact is that good, professional, Childcare Management software doesn't have to cost thousands of dollars; we are the alternative.

We receive many calls from centers comparing our software to the competition. After asking functionality questions and seeing that our software is complete and comprehensive, the question that we are always asked is why our software is so much less expensive than our competitors. The answer has been the same for the last decade. There are 2 reasons for our prices. Our goal was to create software that any center can afford. Software in general is expensive to create, but less expensive to update and support. Since we have been doing this for a decade, the ongoing costs to update and support our software are modest, and we pass along the savings. The second reason for our pricing is that we don't make you pay for our advertising and marketing. Full page ads in every childcare magazine are an expensive way to convince you that childcare software should cost thousands of dollars. We would much rather keep our prices reasonable so that all centers can afford to purchase our software. The real question to ask is not why our software is so affordable, but why our competition's software is so expensive?

When looking at software pricing, be sure to look at the complete ongoing cost of using the software. If you have to pay a monthly charge to use software, those costs add up very quickly and those costs never go away. In addition, always look at the costs to update to newer versions. Some of our competitors make you repurchase their software whenever they release a major update, which can be every 2-3 years.

Case Studies from Actual Customers

We speak with many centers each week looking at our software. Since we want to ensure that our software will work for the centers, and fairly compare our software to our competitors, we always discuss the center's needs and sometimes talk about quotes from our competitors. The following are overviews of pricing and functionality discussions from centers looking at our software. (In the case studies below, we used our large center version, the value is even better if you have a smaller center.)

1) Center is Forced to Repurchase its Childcare Program to get New Version: This center has been using Competitor A's software for several years and have now been told that they need to repurchase the software (at a discount,) to get the newest version and continue receiving support. In addition, they also need to repurchase their check-in keypad because the old one is incompatible with the new version. The price to repurchase the new version comes to over $1500. The original purchase price for the software was over $3000.

Our software is $895 complete. As long as you renew your support each year for $100, you will always receive our updates free, along with free phone, email, and online support. If you let your support expire, you can repurchase our software for 1/2 the retail price. This is a far cry from spending $1500 to update your software, after you spent over $3000 to buy it, and you have been paying your $100 annual support.

2) Company with 7 Centers Quoted $19,000 for Software: This company owns 7 centers that are administered from a central office. They would like to setup a timeclock at each center for children and staff. Competitor B gave a quote of $19,000 which included 7 software packages, a central module, and 7 timeclock keypads. In addition, annual support for the system would be over $1500.

Our software is $895 complete, including 2 timeclock licenses. This user would need to purchase 5 more timeclock licenses (at $80 per license after discounts,) for a total of $1295 to run the company. Our software and licensing has flexibility to deal with any situation at reasonable prices. We work with our users to meet their needs in the most cost effective manner.

3) Center Forced to Manually enter Charges with $3000 Software: This center uses Competitor A's software to keep track of childcare charges, including a fixed weekly charge, and a daily, ad-hoc stay and play where they charge parents daily if the child stays at the center from 1pm-3pm. The center reviews each family account each week to manually enter charges for their stay and play program. This is very time consuming and they are looking for a better solution.

Our software is $895 complete, with the most advanced billing system on the market, period. With our software, this center can easily set a rate that charges a flat fee, or by the hour, if the child is at the center from 1pm-3pm.

4) New Owners of Center Forced to Repurchase Childcare Program if they want Support: The new owners of this center bought the center with Competitor A's software which was purchased by the previous owners. They called Competitor A for support and were told that the software was registered to the prior owners, and they would have to purchase another copy for use at their center.

Our software is $895 complete, and our license is fully transferable to the new owner at no additional cost, increasing your center's resale value.

5) Drop-In Center can't find Childcare Software to Bill Their Clients: This drop-in center can't find software to correctly bill their clients, and are forced to manually add up the charges on a calculator. This is time-consuming and results in lost revenue. They looked at the competition, but couldn't find a package that goes beyond just billing by the hour.

Our DropInCare Sage software is $1,195 complete, with specific drop-off center functionality that no other system has. Now this center can charge one rate for weekdays, another rate for weekends, can automatically apply sibling discounts if the children are at the center at the same time, can automatically apply coupons (buy an hour, get an hour, etc,) and can reserve slots for children in specific rooms for any day or time.

Childcare Sage™
Rockville, MD USA

Have questions? Contact us at sales@childcaresage.com