Child Care Seer Release Spotlight July 6, 2022

Tuition Assistance

Tuition Assistance has arrived! What is Tuition Assistance? In addition to state subsidy agencies, there are many providers that may assist in paying a child’s tuition, such as an employer, the military, a religious organization, and many others. Now Child Care Seer® allows you to track provider information and commitment details, in addition to helping you collect accurate copays and even add charges for excess absence. We’ll help you apply assistance to programs, visits, hourly care, or extra charges as specified in each contract.

Easily start by adding a new Commitment to a child on their Money page.

Then simply apply the assistance to any eligible service. Seer will take care of the rest--we record all the commitments each provider has made, we bill the parent for the copay amount, we allow you to adjust the assistance amount as needed, and we provide a report of all the details.

Child Care Seer understands that Tuition Assistance is a complex topic, and we want to provide training to get you started as quickly and easily as possible, while also giving you some tips and tricks along the way. Please indicate your interest in our upcoming webinar by signing up here (be sure to select “Upcoming Tuition Assistance Webinar” as an interest). We’ll send more details to the email you provide. As always, the Help button is available to all our customers for assistance with Tuition Assistance or any other Seer feature.

Companion Mobile App for Staff The Child Care Seer companion mobile app, previously only for adults, is now available for staff! Be sure to visit the AppStore or PlayStore and search for Child Care Seer to download. Adding the app to your phone will enable you to receive real-time notifications whenever you’ve got a new message from the center. In addition, all features available in the web-browser mobile view will be available on your app. Keep reading for more details about features added with this release! Please note, due to the Apple/Google review process, there is generally a 3-5 day delay after product release before the latest app is available on the stores.

Live Dashboard (and other admin features) on Mobile

Your live center dashboard is now available on your phone! No matter where you go, check in on your center and make sure things are running smoothly while you’re away from your desk. Do you need to check on an expected payment, or send a message to a parent? Those things are now available on your phone as well! View a child’s profile or a staff member’s schedule, or simply make sure your ratios are good – we’re excited to provide visibility and control of your center from wherever you are. Mobile features are available via your phone’s internet browser or the Child Care Seer companion app.

Staff Inbox/Center to Staff Messaging Staff members now have an Inbox in Child Care Seer. In addition to messaging families from the Center Inbox, you can now select staff members when starting a new discussion. Staff will receive messages in their personal Seer Inbox, which can be accessed via the desktop, mobile, or companion app view.

Parent App Experience Improvements

Recently, we completed a survey asking parents what they would like to see improved in the Seer companion app. We are happy to introduce significant improvements to the app experience as a direct result of responses received! Everything you can do on Parent Portal via your phone is now also available in our Child Care Seer companion app. Easily switch between the Family Connection feed and your child’s account information. Send a message to the center, pay your bill, or change your contact information with ease and convenience. Thank you for your continued feedback that helps us make Seer better for all! Please note, due to the Apple/Google review process, there is generally a 3-5 day delay after product release before the latest app is available on the stores.

Proration of Enrollments Put away your calculator--Child Care Seer does proration! When a child enrolls in the middle of a billing period, you’ll now have the option to prorate the first bill based on the number of days the child will attend in the shortened term. We’ll show you the full breakdown, including proration of any extra charges or credits added to the enrollment.

Parents Pay from the Kiosk

Thank you to Karen in Virginia for suggesting we let parents pay at the Kiosk with a payment method already on file, saving them a stop at the front desk before check-in or check-out, and saving your staff time on a busy morning! Now, in addition displaying a status of unpaid, our kiosk will show the amount owed and provide a Pay button. Parents simply click Pay, see a detailed list of charges, and then select a payment method from those saved on their Seer account.

Absent Report

There are two new reports in Child Care Seer! Easily see which children and staff were absent during the period you specify. Or, select a specific person to view only their absences. As with all our reports, you can make them your “favorite” or export in multiple formats.

Missed Checkouts Made Easier

While we recommend making sure all staff and children are checked out at the end of the day, we recognize that forgotten check-outs happen often. To make this easier to notice and correct, you’ll find a new section on your Dashboard called “Missing Checkout” when there is an issue. We show you which staff and children need to have their Happenings adjusted, and even provide a group checkout button to easily correct several children at once.

“Other” Time Reporting Changes

Did you know you can add “other” hours to staff happenings for things like off-site training, at-home planning time, or even PTO or sick time? We’ve updated this option to report these hours more accurately, especially when calculating overtime for hourly employees. In addition, we’ve updated the Scheduling page to show “other” hours added. We’ve also provided a more accurate and informative Weekly Summary for each employee to better display the information you need at your fingertips when making decisions about schedule adjustments or overtime projections.

Treat Child As Different Age for Billing/Enrollment

Sometimes a child should be treated as a different age for ratios or billing or both! Now in Seer, you can assign a different age group to a child while maintaining their actual birthday. Seer can use the specified age when suggesting programs, billing based on age, or keeping an eye on your ratios. It’s up to you! Our previous option, “treat as school-aged” is still available as part of this updated feature.

Thank you to Loren in Ohio for this suggestion.

Copy/Paste in Activity Calendar

Save time putting in your center’s classroom activities by using the new copy/paste features in the Activity calendar on the Schedule menu. After you enter an Activity, you may paste it in any class on any day that you like. Or, if you’d rather copy and paste a whole week and then simply edit the details, you can do that, too! Please note, copied activities can only be pasted in the same center location. Look for our multicenter solution soon.

Other Things You’ll Notice in Child Care Seer…

Use Open Hours Quickly schedule a new child for all day by using the “Use Open Hours” option when adding an enrollment.

Hide Absence Notes in Inbox

Is your Inbox overflowing? Are Absence Notes making it hard to find important messages? Now you can hide absence notes in the Center Inbox to help you more easily find other messages.

New Setting for Absence Notes To give you more control of your Center, we’ve added a new setting on the General section of the My Center menu. We let you decide whether to automatically approve absence messages and move the child to Planned Absent.