Product Documentation

Welcome to the ChildCare Pro documentation. This guide covers setup and day‑to‑day workflows for administrators, staff, and parents/guardians. It reflects common childcare management best practices researched from reputable sources (e.g., state childcare guidelines, Stripe docs for payments, and childcare software patterns), adapted to our product features.

• Create staff accounts and roles; add classrooms and capacity.
• Add children and parents; invite parents to the Parent Portal.
• Configure billing settings and Stripe keys (see payments section).
• Set timezone and organization profile. See docs/TIMEZONE_SYSTEM.md.

Use role‑based access control to limit data access appropriately:

• Admin: full access; configure organization, billing, and security.
• Teacher/Assistant: classroom operations, attendance, activity logs.
• Parent/Guardian: access to their child(ren) via Parent Portal.

• Record child demographics, emergency contacts, allergies, and authorized pickups.
• Assign primary classroom and start date; upload enrollment forms if applicable.
• Keep medical notes up‑to‑date; follow center policies and regulations.

• Record daily attendance; capture drop‑off and pick‑up times and guardians.
• Use ETA and authorized pickup workflows to streamline end‑of‑day traffic.
• Export attendance reports for compliance or billing.

• Create classrooms with capacity; assign teachers and assistants.
• Build daily schedules and activities; children’s current room updates dynamically (see Find Child page).
• Use color themes and labels for quick identification.

• Track allergies, medications, dosage, and schedules with reminders.
• Acknowledge and print Medication Reminders for staff handoff.
• Log incidents and follow center and state reporting requirements.

We do not store credit card information; all card processing is handled by Stripe.

• Set up products/tuition plans and invoice schedules.
• Use Stripe Payment Intents for secure card flows; see README-stripe-integration.md and Stripe docs.
• Support for split payments, refunds per childcare policies, and payment history.

• Parents can view schedules, messages, invoices, and pay securely.
• Communication preferences and consent tracking supported.

• Send announcements and reminders (e.g., tuition due, events, medications).
• Use priority levels and due dates; staff can acknowledge items.

• Attendance, billing, financial, and maintenance reports.
• Export to CSV/PDF where available for audits and compliance.

• If schedules don’t appear, ensure classrooms are loaded before schedules (page auto-refreshes every 30s).
• If builds warn about lockfiles, remove duplicate lockfiles and reinstall node modules.
• Check environment variables for Stripe keys and database connection.

• ETA: Estimated Time of Arrival notification for pickup/drop-off.
• Parent Portal: Secure portal for guardians to view and pay.
• Schedule Entry: A time block assigning a child to a room/activity.

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