Finance
Funding Changes in Early Years: What They Mean in Practice, and Why the Bigger Picture Matters
Early Years Funding Changes: What and Why? The Early Years Funding sector has changed again, and for many nursery owners, managers, practitioners, childminders, and teachers, it can feel like the ground keeps shifting beneath our feet. Expanded...
The Expanding Free Childcare Scheme – Everything You Need To Know!
The UK government has recently introduced a new ‘free childcare’ scheme aimed at supporting working parents/carers and providing children with quality early education. This scheme is designed to alleviate the financial burden of childcare costs...
Simplifying Financial Management for Early Years Nursery Managers
Managing a nursery comes with immense responsibility, and while childcare is at the heart of the role, nursery managers often find themselves overwhelmed by financial administration. Invoicing, payment tracking, and fee collection can quickly...
10 Tips to Resist Influencers’ Temptations and Control Spending
Have you ever bought something you didn’t need, would never wear/use or that didn’t suit you just because you couldn’t resist? We all do it, from a chocolate bar at the checkout to the latest trendy gadget, we have all bought things we don’t...
Essential Energy Saving Tips To Unlock Savings
Renewables Energy Saving Tips To Celebrate Big Energy Saving Week Everyone’s talking about saving energy – not only to save the planet through reduced CO2 emissions, but we all need to make our pennies go a little further. It’s not always easy...
DfE Cash Splash: Nursery Game-Changer!
The DfE (Department for Education) has announced that early years nurseries are set to receive a £204 million cash boost as part of the Government’s promise to deliver the largest-ever investment in childcare. The plans from the DfE, which were...
Cost of Living Alert: Setting Capacity Warning
Almost all councils are warning that an escalation of nursery closures linked to the cost-of-living crisis “will undermine capacity” when the government extends free childcare. Nine out of 10 council representatives surveyed have said they fear...
Key Strategies for Supporting SMEs in 2023
SMEs - starting and growing a small business takes courage, commitment and a certain amount of luck. There seems to be so much to think about and organise that things can sometimes get a little daunting for owners of small and medium-sized...
Childcare Funding: Councils Hoarding Funds
Childcare Funding - Freedom of Information requests submitted by the NDNA have revealed that local authorities are failing to pass on the money for funded childcare places, showing councils were holding back millions of pounds to offset deficits...
Childcare Funding Constraints in Early Years
We know, of course, that the early years childcare sector plays a vital role in the development of children, providing them with essential skills and nurturing their cognitive and emotional growth. However, none of this is possible without...
Cost of Living Crisis: Surviving The Squeeze
With the cost of living crisis, there’s no doubt that 2022 has been a tough year. Just as we thought we were coming out of the financially turbulent years of the pandemic, the war in Ukraine took most of us by surprise. We then faced a cost of...
Mastering the Art of Fundraising for Success
Fundraising - let’s face it, who doesn’t need some extra money for their setting? Fundraising is an option that many nurseries use, and there are tried and tested ways to do this. We’ve put together a list of some old favourites as well as some...
Government Rejects Childcare Funding and Affordability Review
Childcare Funding Breaking News: The government has rejected a petition supported by tens of thousands of people to review the cost of childcare in the UK. The petition, which gathered 113,713 signatures, called on the government to launch an...
Government Unveils Expanded Job Support Scheme
The government has announced that its Job Support Scheme (JSS) will be expanded to protect jobs and support businesses required to close their doors as a result of coronavirus restrictions. What is included in the expanded Job Support Scheme?...
Financial Reporting: Getting The Numbers Right
Financial Reporting - What is it about numbers that makes them so unappealing to many nursery owners and managers? Just the mention of break even points, ratios, turnover and balance sheets causes many eyes to glaze over and heads to fall. I get...
Tax-Free Childcare Services
Press release Tax-Free Childcare is a new government scheme to help parents with the cost of childcare, allowing parents to work, or work more, if they want to. Parents can apply for Tax-Free Childcare through the childcare service – a new...
6 tips to grow your business for free
Growing any business presents a challenge. However, having limited resources and finances to grow your business makes that challenge even greater. The childcare sector is feeling the pinch, with providers contending with the delivery of the...
Managing the roll-out of the 30-hour offer
Acorns Nursery is a 50 place setting based in the grounds of Oaklands College, St Albans. The nursery provides day care for children from 3 months up to 5 years of age. We interviewed Wendy Taylor, the nursery’s manager, to find out how the...
5 finance reports in Abacus that will help your setting
Our Customer Service Team picked their top reports in our nursery software which they believe are the most useful for childcare settings to be aware of. Find out more about what these are and how to generate them, below. 1. Revenue Report "This...
How much do apprentices get paid?
Before deciding whether or not to do an apprenticeship, one of the first things people want to know is how much they’ll be paid. It may surprise you to learn that the average weekly wage an apprentice earns is £257. As of April 2017, if an...
3 tips to help maximise your setting’s financial resources
The sector is currently under huge financial pressure, having to face issues such as annual increases in the National Minimum Wage, rises in business rates and the introduction of statutory pensions. Added to this, settings must decide whether...
5 top tips to save money on your staffing costs
Regardless of the size of your business, staff are typically your most expensive asset. After pensions, NI contributions, training costs (the list goes on!), it’s easy to see how typical estimates put the cost of employees at 60% or even 70% of...
5 ways Abacus can help your setting save money
With the sector as a whole facing huge financial pressure at the moment, childcare settings need to be more efficient than ever with the way they run. This year, the introduction of statutory pensions, annual increases in National Living /...
How will the new apprenticeship reforms affect the way you train staff?
As part of a national drive to train 3 million new apprentices by 2020, the way the Government funds apprenticeships in England is changing. Employers with an annual wage bill of £3 million or more will be required to pay a levy which will come...
What settings should know about the Tax-Free Childcare scheme
The Tax-Free Childcare scheme will be launched from early 2017 and will offer working families 20% support towards qualifying childcare costs. The new scheme will be open to almost two million households in the UK and will be delivered by HM...
What are the benefits of reducing your supplier base?
Nowadays, both for domestic and business services, we’re told to “shop around” to get the best value for money. In principle, this makes sense. But could there be benefits to keeping your utilities or services with just one company? Consider the...
Is your childcare business ready for the new year?
In December, we often find ourselves thinking about making changes to improve our well-being for the new year. However, the festive period is also the perfect time to review the health of your business and reflect on what direction you'd like it...
Is your nursery underinsured?
With the winter months setting in and the weather worsening, there really is no better time to check your insurance schedule to make sure everything’s up to date. The colder months herald a host of weather-related issues which can hamper or shut...
What’s next for early years funding?
Responses to the consultation on the way three- and four-year-old entitlements to childcare are funded are now being considered by the Government. In the wake of this, we've put together a timeline for the proposed changes to early years funding...
5 ways Abacus nursery management software can simplify your finances
Nothing is more important in helping your setting become sustainable than making sure the money coming into and going out of your business is well managed. Parents being invoiced for the wrong amounts - or not being charged for extra sessions –...