Inspirational and Empowering Child Care Business Owners To Build Successful Child Care Businesses

Posts tagged ‘childcare’

Getting Organized To Issue Tax Information To Parents

I’ve been preparing and issuing yearly Child Care Payment totals for parents since 1999 and I have found that it is vital that I keep track of parent payments to assure that parents are issued accurate totals for their tax return.

In 2011, two parents questioned the payment totals that I issued to them (for 2010 childcare payments) and I thought that was impossible, because I was using Quickbooks to keep track of my weekly parent payments.

Moreover, I discovered, that I failed to record several payments in my payment receipt book, which resulted in two payments not being entered into the computer. I  praised those parents for doing such a great job on keeping track of their childcare payments and thanked them for bringing the tax error to my attention.

In fact, I was so grateful for the error, because it inspired me to be more diligent about recording payments that I receive from parents.

Tom Copeland writes a great blog for Child Care Providers and I strongly suggest that you check out his blog post titled: A Family Child Care provider asks:Is it income if I don’t report it?

As I was preparing to issue Child Care Payment totals for 2011, I was reminded again of the importance of keeping track of parent payments and how time-consuming the process is.

According to Tom Copeland, “In any situation, however, money you receive from parents for child care is taxable income and must be reported on IRS Form 1040 Schedule C. If you fail to report all of your income there are several ways you can get caught:

* A parent who previously agreed not to claim the child care tax credit may decide later to go ahead and claim the credit when she realizes how much it can be (the maximum is $1,050 for one child).”

Furthermore, be sure to give parents a notice that indicates the following information:

  • Your Tax Id number
  • The Name and address of your business
  • The amount that the parent paid you for childcare services
  • The name of the child or children that you cared for
  • Your phone number
  • It’s also a good idea to add the following words on the Tax Letter Please keep with your “Tax Year” Records

The IRS does not look for any form in particular from you to issue to parents, however, the parent will need the information above to claim a child and dependent tax credit.

My final tip to you is to have a back-up system for keeping track of childcare payments and this includes:

  • Creating a back-up file on a flash drive
  • Keep a copy of the written payment receipts issued to parents
  • Have payments stored in your computerized financial software for easy access

Have you prepared your tax statements or letters to issue to parents for 2011 yet? If so, how was the process for you? I look forward to your comments and tax payment ideas.

With your Child Care Business in Mind,

Shiketa

Are You ready to expand your business? Frustrated with the level that you are on?  Check out the Going to Another Level, 21-Day Mastermind e-Club.

Category:

Business Management, Family Child Care, Record Keeping, Taxes

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Observation in Your Preschool Program

Observation is a vital part of assessing the preschoolers in your program. I first discovered the importance of observation when I was enrolled in the childcare field base program here in St.Louis through the local community college.

Observation is simply writing down the behaviors that you see in your environment.

If you happen to  be very experienced at recording observations this blog post may simply be a refresher coarse of what you may already know about child observation.

If you are not experienced at writing observations or not sure why it should be a vital part of your preschool program, this post will walk you through the process and how you can use observations to assess the children in your preschool program. Furthermore at the end of the post, I have attached links to more observation resources.

Here is an example of what an observation of two preschoolers in the Block Area:

It is 9:30am and Johnny and Karen are playing in the block area. Johnny was building in the block area alone. Karen walked over and asked, can I play? Johnny yelled…”NO!” Karen walked  away crying.

After reading the observation above, what did you discover about both children? I am going to guess that you discovered an opportunity to encourage kindness and friendship. Also, an opportunity to encourage Karen to use her words and to teach Johnny to share.

Moreover, the observation above could be used as an inspiration to read books about being kind to our friends and promoting sharing in the play areas.

You may have come to other conclusions, However, I just wanted to give a brief overview of why observation is so important in preschool and how it allows you to determine what the children in your care really needs.

When I hire new teachers, they usually ask me, how often do I expect them to record observations. I tell simply them to record as many observations as they desire, because the more that you observe young children; the more  you will discover about their developmental needs.

Just in case you are a home provider or your teachers may complain about the paper work, I would like to share with you how I make the observation process in my center easy and convenient.

  • Carry sticky notes in your pocket
  • Have observation forms copied and already labeled with each child’s name on a clip board in the classroom.
  • Record the classroom for 30 minutes a day and then go back and write down the observations on paper
  • If you have a digital camera system, use the camera system as an observation and training tool for staff

I hope that you have been inspired to use observation in your preschool program. If you are already using observation tools, keep up the good work!

Here are some child observation resources:

Forms for Observation

Guidelines for Preschool Learning Experiences Free e-book!

Learning Through Child Observation Free e-book!

Child Profile Observation Form

 

To Your Success in the Business Of Child Care,

Shiketa

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I want to help you to Succeed!! Feel free to email your childcare business questions to me at childcarenews@aol.com.

Category:

Assessment, Child Care Center, Family Child Care, Lesson Planning, preschool, Quality Care

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