Check your child in and out

Your daycare decides how drop-off and pickup are recorded. Most centers give parents one or both of these: scan the daycare's QR code with the NestliCare app, or type your 4-digit pickup code on a tablet at the door. Teachers can always record it for you from their own app, so nothing is lost if neither works one morning.

Whichever way you use, the record is the same: the time, which child, and who did it. Your child's teacher sees it right away, and it shows in your child's feed.

Scan the QR code with the app

Your daycare prints its code as a poster by the door, or shows it on the tablet there.

1. Open the NestliCare app and go to the Dashboard tab.
2. Tap Check In (or Check In All when you have more than one child there). The card says Scan QR code underneath.
3. Point the camera at the code. The check-in completes on its own; you'll see the confirmation and your child's card flips to checked in.
4. At pickup, do the same with Check Out / Check Out All.

With several children, the All buttons cover every child who is due that day in one scan. A child who is already checked in, or marked absent, is left out automatically.

Type your pickup code on the door tablet

1. On the tablet, enter your 4-digit pickup code.
2. Your children appear with a Check in or Check out button each. Tap the one you need for each child.
3. Tap Done. The tablet clears itself after a short pause so the next family never sees your children.

Some centers ask for a quick signature on the tablet. Sign with your finger and tap Confirm; one signature covers all your children for that visit.

Your pickup code is yours alone: it identifies you at the door, like a bank PIN. Grandparents, partners and babysitters use their own code. See Use your pickup code for where to find it and how to reset it, and Add a pickup contact to give someone else theirs.

Keeping your child home

You don't have to tell the app, but it helps. On the Dashboard tab, open your child's card and tap Mark Absent; add a short reason if you like. The teacher sees it before the day starts. A message to the teacher works too; see Running late or changing plans.

If you forget to check out

Tell your child's teacher. Staff can set the real pickup time on the record; you don't need to do anything in the app. If your child is on a state subsidy program, the rules are different and you fix it yourself within six days: see Signing in a child on a state subsidy program.

Troubleshooting

There is no Check In button on my Dashboard. Your daycare has turned phone scanning off. Use your pickup code on the tablet at the door, or ask a teacher to check your child in.

Check In is greyed out. Your child is already checked in, or has been marked absent for today. Check Out is greyed out the same way when there is nobody to check out.

The code won't scan. Make sure the app has camera permission (the scanner tells you if not), and that you are scanning the daycare's current code. Some centers use a code that changes every few minutes and only shows on their tablet; a printed copy of that one will never scan.

The tablet says "Kiosk check-in is turned off." Your daycare has switched the door tablet off. Scan the poster with the app, or ask a teacher.

The tablet doesn't accept my code. Codes stop working when they are reset. Check the current one under YOUR PICKUP CODE on the Dashboard tab (or the CODE button on the Home tab if you're a family member with limited access), and if it still fails, ask the daycare to look it up for you.

I checked the wrong child in. Tell the teacher; they can undo it in seconds.