A daycare rarely chooses a management system, and it lives with the choice for years. In a demo, every system looks like it works. The differences only appear in daily life: when you need a substitute at six in the morning, when the city asks for figures, or when the invoice arrives with lines nobody mentioned.

This is a list of questions worth asking every vendor. They work whichever systems you are comparing, and it pays to ask for the answers in writing.

What the price includes

The first question is simple, and the answer is often long. Quotes typically include a setup fee before anything is in use, a separate support contract or hourly billing, an extra charge for the guardian app or the mobile apps, and modules sold separately: communication, staff ratios, reports.

Ask directly:

  • What does the monthly price include, and what is billed separately?
  • Is there a charge for onboarding, and who does it?
  • Does support cost extra, and how is it limited?
  • Is the guardians’ app included or an add-on?
  • Does the price change as you add users, units or devices?

With Knuut, all six apps, onboarding, support and updates are included. Onboarding is not billed separately. You can have unlimited users, units and devices. Compare this with your own quote line by line.

Where staff ratios come from

Staff ratios are where systems differ the most, because the term means different things to different vendors. For some it is a spreadsheet someone types figures into. For others it is a forecast derived from the shift plan. For others still it is calculated from check-ins as the day goes on.

Ask:

  • Does the ratio update when a child or an employee is checked in?
  • Are children under 3 and over 3 counted with their own coefficients?
  • Can an employee be marked present without counting them towards the ratio?
  • Can the unit’s own staff see the ratio, or only admins?
  • Can you see the figures for several units in the same table?

If the answer to the first question is no, the ratio is calculated after the fact. You can report with it, but you cannot run the day with it.

What devices are needed

If the system requires a tablet in every group or a reader at the door, that is a purchase cost and a maintenance cost, and one more device that can break.

Ask whether the unit can check in with an ordinary phone, whether every employee needs their own device, and what happens when a device goes missing. With Knuut, one ordinary iPhone or Android phone per unit is enough, and each employee opens it with their own PIN code. Admins use a browser, and guardians, substitutes and management use their own phones.

Where data is stored and who can access it

A daycare processes children’s personal data, and as the data controller the daycare is responsible for it, whoever’s system it sits in. Read the vendor’s answers to these questions carefully.

  • In which country are the servers?
  • Is data in transit encrypted?
  • Is the data used for anything other than the daycare’s service?
  • Is a data processing agreement (DPA) signed, and when?
  • Are access rights role-based: does a guardian see only their own child, and an employee only their own unit?
  • Does every change leave a log showing who made it and when?
  • How are backups taken, and where are they kept?

Knuut stores all data about children, guardians and employees on servers within the EU. Data in transit is encrypted (TLS 1.3). Data is not sold, handed to third parties or used for advertising. Access rights are role-based, and substitutes have no access to children’s data at all. Every change to a child’s data is logged with who made it and a timestamp. Backups are taken daily and kept in a separate location. A data processing agreement is always signed as part of onboarding.

How guardians are contacted

Guardian communication is the part guardians see, so it shapes how the daycare looks to families. Ask who a bulletin goes to and how recipients are chosen, whether staff can see read receipts, whether a survey can be answered per child, and whether each child has their own conversation or there is one shared group.

Also ask who is allowed to message guardians. In Knuut, substitutes have no messaging rights, so only the organisation’s own employees communicate with guardians.

How onboarding works and how long it takes

Onboarding is where projects stall. Ask who brings children, guardians and employees into the system, how long it takes, and whether you can try the system before committing.

Set aside about two hours for Knuut onboarding. During that time the data is imported, every app is walked through, and the system is in use the same day. Every daycare can try it free for a month across the whole organisation.

Does it work for your size

A single-unit daycare and a ten-unit chain need different things. A unit director needs the day’s list and the staff ratio. Chain management needs a view of every unit at once, and unit-level admins who see only their own unit.

Ask how units relate to the organisation, whether a substitute can take shifts from several units, and what happens to the price as you add units. In Knuut, units belong to the same organisation, each unit can have its own admins, and substitutes see open shifts in every unit.

The question not to forget

Finally, ask who is responsible when something does not work, and how quickly they respond. The quality of support only shows in use, but agree on the response time and channel before you sign anything. Knuut support is available by phone, WhatsApp and email, and it is included in the price.

If you want to go through this list for Knuut, book a demo. Bring your own quote, and we will compare it line by line.