Product Review of ChildWatch

ChildWatch provides monthly cloud-based childcare management services for PC, Mac, or mobile devices. It offers solutions for businesses of all sizes; services include QuickBooks compatibility, employee time clock, messaging and events calendar, electronic payments, portable meal capture, and more.
Website: https://childwatch.com/
What Users Love About the App
“ChildWatch has been a lifesaver when it comes to being user-friendly for staff, families, and myself. My administrator staff really loves the amount of data we can provide on ChildWatch to give us the reports we need, as far as tracking attendance and their billing aspect on the software. The attendance feature makes sure that we are accounting for the children in our facility and billing where it is needed. It also allows us to know where our children vs staff ratio need to be for the day. Our billing feature lets us set up everything per household instead of individual clients which is very time-saving for our families. Also, I personally love the amount of information I can submit about my staff. Anytime I have had a question and I reach out to ChildWatch’s support team, I receive a response the day of!”
“The software is very easy to learn, use and train others to use. There are a lot of features for a cost which is a great bonus when you are on a tight budget.”
“I liked the ability to use different programs and/or rooms for the different ages. I like the ability to add photos for the kids and parents. I especially liked the calendar and parent portal.”
“Our parents and employees were able to easily clock-in/out on any device and had access to the information/features specific to their role. We were able to easily record transitions, milestones, daily sheets, meal counts and so much more.”
“The program was very easy to use and get around. The tutorials are a great help. Turnaround time for help is fast. Great way to keep track of shot records updates.”
What Users Dislike About the App
“There is not a perfect software out there but, for the cost, ChildWatch is a really great option. I think the biggest problem that we encountered was about the check-in/out interface with parents having issues. Some of these were most likely user errors and some Wi-Fi capability issues.”
“I would like to be able to “cafeteria” style choose what I need to have on my account. There may be a way to do that already, but that would require me to delete categories. I’d prefer to add on as needed.”
“The meal count form should be the same as the actual paper form that is reviewed by the State. That way, when they come in to review, you can show them your counts on paper on the State approved form.”
“Support and training sucked. They only had paid phone support. I had to submit written questions and wait for answers on a limited schedule. If the program crashed, you were out of luck. There was no searchable help. The online training was minimal. We had live training sessions with people who did not know the program. The program is rather simplistic, yet not clear at all and I am very experienced using software. Inexpensive, but still not worth it. Also, there is no connection to QuickBooks’ Cloud.”