Transition: Enter Family Account Balances

When transitioning to ChildFriendly from another system, it’s important to carry over each family's current account balance so you can start fresh with accurate records. This section allows you to set the starting point for financial tracking in ChildFriendly and enter what each family owes or has in credit as of that date.

Student Balances

Choose the official start date from which you plan to begin using ChildFriendly to manage your center’s financial records going forward. As of that date, for each student, enter their account balance:

• Enter a positive number if the family owes fees for that student
• Enter a negative number if the family has a credit or overpayment for that student

⚠️ Important: From your chosen start date forward, all financial activity must be recorded in ChildFriendly to keep balances accurate. Any external tracking (e.g., spreadsheets or other systems) should be discontinued to avoid discrepancies.

If You Use QuickBooks and Plan to Sync Transactions:

You have two options to ensure balances don’t duplicate during syncing:

Option 1: Close Your Books in QuickBooks

• Close your books as of the date you enter balances into ChildFriendly.
• This prevents the starting balances from syncing back to QuickBooks and creating duplicate entries.

Option 2: Make an Opposite Entry in QuickBooks

• If you do not want to close your books:

1. After entering balances in ChildFriendly, create manual offsetting entries in QuickBooks (e.g., if a child has a $200 balance in ChildFriendly, enter a -$200 adjustment in QuickBooks).
2. When the system syncs, the ChildFriendly balance will restore the correct total in QuickBooks.

This ensures your financial records remain accurate and do not double-count balances.