Tax-free childcare

Hands up if you love admin… or not

If you got into the early years exclusively for the delights and dizzying highs of finance administration, this is the article for you.

Equally, if you got into the early years for the children and despise wasting time on bureaucracy, keep reading anyway – I might just be able to save you time at your desk while you save the families at your setting some cash!

Tax-free childcare replaced the old voucher scheme in 2017, in a bid to make the system more inclusive and help save parents and carers money on their early education and care bills. Eligible families could save up to £2,000 per child each year (or £4,000 if their child has a disability) because, for every £8 a family puts into their childcare account, the government tops it up by £2.

Amazing, right? Well, sort of. Historically, early years settings and their families have struggled with making the system work for them.

Families either didn’t know they were eligible for the scheme, gave up due to the complexity, or got tired of the tedious admin of logging in and out of different platforms to make payments. Settings told us they were wasting hours chasing, collecting, and reconciling payments from families who were just trying to save some money on their fees.

Either way, everyone was missing out, and Famly wanted to help.

Together with HMRC, we want to make the tax-free childcare system simpler for settings and accessible to every family eligible. And how? By giving Famly customers a complete Tax-Free Childcare Integration.

For parents and carers, this means that once they set up TFC in Famly, they never need to log into the HMRC portal again; they can pay directly in Famly, with one single click. Plus, they can view each child’s TFC balance, amount due, and any funds cleared by HMRC, all in real-time – and it’s so easy to get started.

First, parents and carers give permission for Famly to connect to their TFC account, via a link in the app. Next, they simply add their child’s (or children’s) reference ID, and they can then see each child’s TFC balance at a glance. Once set up, they can head to the Balance tab in the Famly app and start making payments.

But it’s not just about making tax-free childcare more accessible for parents and carers. Every TFC payment is automatically tracked and reconciled in Famly, so you never have to worry about missing or lost payments.

If you didn’t love doing the finance admin before… well, you might now!

Find out more about Famly’s tax-free childcare integration here: www.famly.co/tax-free-childcare-integration.

Keen to learn more? Tell us you’re an EYA member on your demo and you’ll be eligible for an exclusive discount on your package!