Link rooms that share staff

Some programs keep groups in separate rooms for their records but supervise them with the same staff. A family home with a full-day group and a before and after school group is the common case: each group has its own room in NestliCare, and during the hours they overlap, the same caregiver watches both.

Without a link, a staff member counts in one room only, so the other room shows children with no staff and reads as out of ratio. Linking the rooms fixes that. Each room keeps its own children, attendance, check-ins, and reports. Only the ratio check is shared.

Link two rooms

1. Go to Organization → Rooms and pick the center.
2. In the Linked rooms section, click Link rooms.
3. Tick the rooms the same staff supervise together. They must be at the same center, and a room can be in only one link.
4. Enter Children per staff member, across these rooms: the most children one staff member may have when the groups are together.
5. Optional: if a different number applies at set times, click Add a time window, pick the days, the start and end time, and the number of children for that window. You can add more than one window, for example one before school and one after school.
6. Click Link rooms.

Use the numbers your license gives you. NestliCare does not decide them for you, and rules differ from place to place.

To change the rooms or the numbers later, click the pencil next to the link. To stop sharing, click the bin: each room goes back to its own ratio straight away.

What changes once rooms are linked

Ratio is worked out across the linked rooms together: every child checked in to any of them, against every staff member clocked in to any of them, using the number for that time of day.

• Room Insights and the dashboards: both rooms show the same ratio result. A linked room's card says which rooms it is linked with, how many children are there together, and the limit in effect. A caregiver from the other room appears on the card marked as covering from a linked room.
• Moving children: the warning when you move a child checks the destination room's own capacity and the linked rooms' shared ratio. Moving a child between two linked rooms does not change the shared ratio.
• Room Day Log: the ratio timeline for a linked room shows its own children, the staff covering the linked rooms, the total across the linked rooms, and the limit for each stretch of the day. It says which rooms it shares staff with.
• Staff schedule: the planner's ratio dot for linked rooms looks at both rooms' expected children and scheduled staff together.

What does not change: each room's roster, capacity, attendance records, filters, and every report that lists children by room.

The iPhone and Android apps show linked rooms' ratio as well. Linking and unlinking is done on the web dashboard.

Related

• Before and after school care
• Check occupancy with Room Insights
• Add a room