Brightwheel vs. Procare vs. Kangarootime: Tuition Payment Fees

On this page 7 sections

1. How Child Care Platforms Make Money on Tuition Payments
2. Brightwheel vs. Procare vs. Kangarootime: Card and ACH Fees Compared Side by Side
3. Passing Fees to Parents: What Each Platform Allows
4. Payout Timing and How Fast Tuition Reaches Your Bank
5. Subsidy, Sibling Discount and Late Fee Handling
6. Switching Platforms Without Losing Parents' Autopay Details
7. Next Steps for Your Center

Key takeaways

• Compare platforms by effective cost per tuition dollar: add transaction, platform, payout, return and chargeback fees together.
• Get each vendor's current card and ACH pricing in writing, because rates vary by plan and contract and change over time.
• Passing fees to parents depends on platform settings, card brand rules and state law, so confirm before you turn it on.
• Before switching, ask how stored card and bank details can be migrated securely so parents don't have to re-enroll in autopay.

If you're weighing brightwheel vs procare, or adding Kangarootime to the shortlist, the subscription price is only part of the decision. The larger and less visible cost is often the processing on every tuition payment. This guide shows you how to compare card and ACH fees across the three platforms, who ends up paying those fees, how fast tuition reaches your bank, how each platform should handle subsidies and discounts, and what to plan for if you ever want to switch processors.

We don't list specific rates for any platform here. Child care software pricing depends on your plan, enrollment size and contract, and it changes over time. Use this as a framework, and get current terms in writing from each vendor.

How Child Care Platforms Make Money on Tuition Payments

Brightwheel, Procare and Kangarootime are child care management platforms that offer tuition billing alongside online payment options. Confirm with each vendor exactly how its payments work. When billing and payments are bundled, attendance, invoices, family accounts and autopay all live in one system. That is convenient, and it also means the software company or its processing partner may earn revenue on each payment.

That revenue can come from several places:

• Per-transaction pricing on card payments, usually a percentage of the payment plus a possible flat fee
• ACH pricing, often a flat fee per transaction or a lower percentage than cards
• Software subscription fees, sometimes tiered so that lower payment pricing is tied to a higher plan
• Ancillary fees for returned ACH payments, chargebacks, expedited payouts or setup

None of this is unusual. Your job is to see the full picture so you can compare like with like.

Can You Bring Your Own Processor?

This is one of the most important questions to ask, and the answer varies. Some child care platforms require you to use their integrated payments to get automated billing. Others may allow an outside processor, sometimes with reduced functionality such as manual reconciliation or no autopay sync.

Ask each vendor directly:

1. Can we use our own merchant account and still keep automated tuition billing?
2. If not, can we export invoices so we can charge them through a separate payment gateway?
3. If we leave, will you help transfer stored payment data to a new processor?

Some centers keep the platform for attendance, parent communication and invoicing, then run payments through their own merchant account and a payment gateway. That setup takes more administrative work. Confirm it fits your workflow and your software contract before you commit.

Brightwheel vs. Procare vs. Kangarootime: Card and ACH Fees Compared Side by Side

A useful child care billing software comparison looks at effective cost: total payment-related fees divided by total tuition collected. A low headline card rate can still lose to a slightly higher rate on a plan with no monthly minimums or return fees. For more on benchmarking that number, see our guide to school credit card fees and MCC 8211, 8220 and 8299.

Here's what to get in writing from each platform:

An Illustrative Effective-Cost Worksheet

The numbers below are illustrative only. They are not the rates of Brightwheel, Procare, Kangarootime or any other provider.

Suppose a center collects $60,000 in tuition per month. Families pay 70% by ACH and 30% by card.

• Card volume: $18,000 at an illustrative 3% = $540
• ACH volume: $42,000 across 50 payments at an illustrative $1 each = $50
• Illustrative returned ACH fees: 3 returns at $15 = $45
• Total illustrative payment cost: $635, or about 1.06% of tuition

Now plug in real quotes from each vendor. Then run the same math assuming more families pay by card, since some parents prefer to earn card rewards. That shift can change the result more than you might expect.

Passing Fees to Parents: What Each Platform Allows

Some child care platforms let centers decide whether the center or the family covers card processing costs. When you review Brightwheel payment fees, Procare's payment fees and Kangarootime's pricing, ask how this setting works on each. Check whether fees can be passed on for cards only or for ACH too, and whether the platform shows the fee to parents before they pay.

Before turning it on, keep a few things in mind:

• Card brand rules apply. Visa, Mastercard and other networks have rules on surcharges and convenience fees, including disclosure requirements and limits. Credit and debit cards are treated differently.
• State law varies. Some states restrict or regulate surcharging. Our guide to convenience fee rules for tuition payments walks through the issues.
• Families notice. A fee on a large monthly tuition bill is very visible. Some centers keep ACH free and apply a fee only to cards. That nudges families toward lower-cost payments without forcing them.
• Your platform's setting isn't legal clearance. A software toggle doesn't confirm compliance in your state.

If you run your own merchant account, dual pricing for card and cash payments or surcharging where permitted are other ways to structure this. Have any fee pass-through reviewed by a qualified professional. This is general information, not legal advice.

Payout Timing and How Fast Tuition Reaches Your Bank

Tuition funds payroll. Staffing is a major expense for most centers, so the gap between a parent paying and the money landing in your account matters.

Questions to ask each platform:

• Standard deposit timing: How many business days for card payments versus ACH payments?
• Batching: Are deposits daily, or grouped weekly?
• New account holds: Are early payouts delayed or held while your account is reviewed?
• Returned ACH handling: If a parent's ACH payment comes back days later, is it deducted from your next deposit? Does the platform notify you and the family automatically?
• Retry logic: Does the system automatically retry a failed payment, and can you control when?

ACH often takes longer to settle than cards, and returns can arrive after you've already been paid. If your tuition is due on the 1st and payroll runs on the 5th, map the actual timeline before you go live.

Subsidy, Sibling Discount and Late Fee Handling

This is where child care billing differs from ordinary recurring billing. It's also where daycare autopay software either saves your office manager hours or creates manual cleanup.

Subsidy and Third-Party Payments

Some centers enroll children whose care is partly paid by a state subsidy program. In that arrangement, the family owes a copay and the agency pays the rest on its own schedule. If you also run a private school program, see our guide to accepting ESA and school voucher funds. During a demo, test whether the platform can:

• Split one child's tuition between a family portion and an agency portion
• Run autopay only for the family's copay
• Track agency receivables separately and reconcile partial or late agency payments
• Handle employer-sponsored or other third-party payers the same way

Sibling Discounts and Variable Charges

During your trial, build a sample account with two siblings, a percentage sibling discount, a registration fee, an annual supply fee and a drop-in day. Confirm the discount applies only where it should. Also confirm the autopay amount updates automatically when charges change, so an outdated amount doesn't keep running.

Late Pickup and Late Payment Fees

Centers often bill late pickup fees per minute or in increments, depending on their policy. Ask whether staff can log late pickups at checkout and have them flow onto the next invoice. For late payment fees, confirm you can set grace periods and avoid charging a late fee when an autopay failure was caused by the system rather than the family.

Year-End Statements

Families may need payment statements for dependent care accounts or tax credits. Check that the platform can produce accurate annual statements that reflect discounts, refunds and subsidy portions. Families should confirm their tax treatment with a tax professional.

Switching Platforms Without Losing Parents' Autopay Details

One of the biggest hidden costs of a tuition platform is leaving it. If parents' stored cards and bank accounts can't move with you, every family has to re-enroll. Some won't do it on time, and collections slip.

Ask About Data Portability Before You Sign

Stored card data is typically held as tokens by the processor, not as numbers you can copy into a spreadsheet. Moving it securely usually requires a PCI DSS-compliant transfer from the old processor to the new one. Ask each vendor:

1. Will you support a secure transfer of stored card data to a new processor if we leave?
2. Is there a fee, and how long does it take?
3. How are stored ACH bank account details handled?
4. Do we own our family and billing data, and in what format can we export it?

Plan the Cutover

• Pick a clean date. Switch at the start of a billing cycle, not mid-month.
• Turn off old autopay first. Double charges lead to disputes and frustrated parents.
• Review authorizations. Families may need to authorize recurring charges under your new setup, particularly for ACH. Confirm requirements with your new provider.
• Carry over balances. Move prepaid credits, outstanding balances and deposits accurately.
• Communicate early. Tell families what's changing, when, and what they need to do, if anything.
• Keep cards current. Ask your new provider about a card account updater for recurring payments so expired cards don't interrupt tuition.

For more on structuring recurring tuition, see our guide to tuition payment plans and autopay. For a related look at tutoring, read how to bill tutoring clients with packages, monthly plans or per-session rates. If your center's parent group runs fundraisers, see our guide to PTO fundraiser payments and card readers for fun runs and book fairs. For another education example, see our guide to driving school payments with in-car card readers and lesson packages. For a similar software comparison, see our guide to music teacher billing software, comparing My Music Staff and TeacherZone. For tuition financing in adult education, see our guide to coding bootcamp financing with ISAs, loans and deferred tuition. For school events, see our guide to school ticketing systems for games, plays and graduations.

Next Steps for Your Center

1. Request written payment pricing from Brightwheel, Procare and Kangarootime for your actual enrollment size.
2. Run the effective-cost worksheet with your real card and ACH mix.
3. Test subsidy splits, sibling discounts and late fees during a trial.
4. Ask each vendor about bringing your own processor and migrating payment data out.
5. Confirm any fee pass-through with a qualified professional.

You may want to see how your own merchant account could fit alongside your child care software, whether through a virtual terminal for keyed payments or a gateway connection. If so, you can request a free quote from MannyPay. A MannyPay specialist responds within one business day.

ME

About the author

MannyPay Editorial Team

Beyond the Swipe's editorial desk researches the publication's guides and news and cites its sources in every article. Articles reviewed by a named MannyPay editor carry that editor's byline.

This article is for general educational purposes and is not legal, tax or financial advice. Card network rules and state laws change; confirm current requirements for your business.