Open Discussion Forum

  • 1.  Brightwheel

    Posted 08-06-2019 10:35 AM
    I am the director of the preschool at our church. We are a half-day program with about 90 students. We are considering switching to Brightwheel for our billing and parent communication platform. Currently, we use Procare for billing and Remind for parent communication. We used Brightwheel for parent communication before, but switched when they started charging because the cost was not in our budget.

    If you have experience with Brightwheel accounting/billing, I would love to hear your opinion. Is it user friendly for your office staff that handles the accounting side of things? Do you parents like it? Have you encountered any issues? Any insight would be appreciated!

    Thank you so much!


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    Sheri Young
    Director
    First Baptist Academy
    Hendersonvlle NC
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  • 2.  RE: Brightwheel

    Posted 08-07-2019 11:36 AM
    Hi Sheri!

    I am the Assistant Director of the preschool at our church! I know you are asking about Brightwheel's billing, and while I am not well-versed in their billing, I can tell you we switched from Brightwheel in August 2018 to Kinderlime and couldn't be happier with it and our parents love it. We originally used Childcare Manager and Smartcare bought them out which wasn't a good fit for us.

    We, too, switched from Brightwheel due to budgeting in addition to lack of features we were in need of. Like you, we had considered using Remind for communication and another platform for billing. We did extensive amounts of research and when we found Kinderlime, we requested a demo and the CEO, Akash, called to give us the demo (we didn't know that at the time). We were thoroughly impressed with what they had to offer and were even more impressed once we found out the CEO took the time to reach out to potential clients. We've since met some of the team and Akash has checked in to see how we are enjoying Kinderlime. The Kinderlime team has been such a pleasure to work with and they have been extremely receptive to our ideas for additional features or any improvements.

    They have recently partnered with Procare- so we're not totally sure what that is going to look like, but we know it will be even better than what it already is. 

    I know that didn't answer any of your questions- just wanted to share another church's preschool experience! Hopefully someone more well-versed in Brightwheel can better answer your questions! 


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    Sara Fox
    Assistant Director
    CrossRoads Children's Center
    Simi Valley CA
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  • 3.  RE: Brightwheel

    Posted 08-09-2019 12:14 AM
    I am the Director of a small Co-op where parents handle tuition billing and collecting.  We switched to Brightwheel a couple years ago as an option for our parents and have been very happy with the system.  It is easy for the Accounts Receivable parent to navigate and turn over to the new parent (the person handling that job changes every 2 years)

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    Shannon Skeens
    Pleasant Valley Co OP
    Camarillo CA
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