Your first week with NestliCare

Take these steps at your own pace. The checklist on your dashboard tracks the key ones: add your first family, invite the parent, then turn on online payments. Request online payments early, since setup takes a business day or two. Each step links to a detailed article.

Prefer short clips? Each step below also has a narrated video, about a minute each:

• Find your way around
• Add your first family and invite the parent
• Add a teacher and get them clocking in
• Set up your rooms
• Set your opening hours
• Check children in and out
• Set up tuition and automatic invoices
• Turn on online payments

1. Get your families in

1. Your account is ready. Signing up created your organization, your center (with the address you entered), and your first room (Room 1, with your capacity set). You land straight on your dashboard. Its checklist follows the same order as this page.
2. Confirm the basics. Check your daycare's name and time zone under Settings → General. Each center also has its own time zone, which check-ins and schedules use.
3. Bring your data, or add your first family.
   • Moving from another system or paper? Don't retype your roster. Go to Settings → Data Migration and upload what you have. Set it up yourself with NestliAI, or send the files to our team. Free either way. See Move your data over.
   • Starting fresh? Go to Families & Children → Families and click Add Family. One form takes the children (name, date of birth, room, days they attend, optional tuition plan) and the parents. See Add your first children.
4. Invite the parents. Adding a parent sends nothing. After Add family, click Send invite on the Family created box, or click Later and use Invite on the family card when you're ready. You can also send every invite at once with Send app invites on the Families page.

Allergies and emergency contacts don't go in the Add Family form. Add them later from each child's profile, under Details.

2. Shape your rooms

1. Make Room 1 yours. Go to Organization → Rooms, rename the auto-created Room 1 to what you actually call it (Sunflowers, Toddlers, Preschool), and check its capacity.
2. Add your other rooms. If children are grouped into more than one room, add the rest. Capacity here feeds your ratio reports later.
3. Multi-site only: add centers. Most daycares have exactly one center and it already exists. If you run more than one location, add the others under Organization → Centers.

3. Add your staff

1. Add teachers and admins. Go to Staff & Time → Staff → Add Staff. New staff show Not invited until you click Send invite on their card. Then they get an email and can install the app.
2. Set their home room. It's the room their app opens on when they aren't on the schedule. They can tap over to any other room at your center.
3. Post the clock-in QR code. New daycares require staff to scan a QR code to clock in. Print it from Check-in code in the sidebar, or turn the requirement off.

See Invite your team for the full walkthrough.

4. Turn on billing

1. Request online payments. They aren't self-serve. Go to Invoices & Finances → Finances and click Request payments setup. We set up your account by hand, usually within 1–2 business days. Then you finish identity and bank setup on the same page and choose who pays the convenience fee.
2. Create your billing plans. Go to Invoices & Finances → Billing and click Create Plan. A plan defines how much you charge and how often. Examples: "Full-time toddler, $1,200/month", "Drop-in, $60/day".
3. Give each child a plan. Pick it when you add the family, or set the Billing plan in the child's profile under Details.
4. Let invoices run themselves. Turn on Auto-Invoice Generation so every family is billed on their plan's schedule.

Invoice emails don't carry a pay link. Parents pay in the app, so make sure they're invited. See Set up billing for the full walkthrough.

5. Run a normal day

1. In the morning, check children in. Teachers use the app's check-in screen, or families check in at the kiosk.
2. Throughout the day, post activities: meals, naps, diaper changes, photos.
3. At pickup, check children out.

You're live. 🎉

Optional polish

• Add your logo to your enrollment page. Go to Admissions & CRM → Enroll Page → Hosted Page → Branding, click Upload logo, then Save Hosted Page. It shows on your public enrollment page once that page is turned on.