In some situations the rate you wish to charge for a session will depend upon how many other sessions of the same type are present in the week.

Examples of this include:

1) Queensland Kindy Funding Scheme (QKFS) where the centre directs some or all of the funding to cover attendance charges but the child must attend a minimum of 3 sessions to qualify

2) Multi Session Discounting where a centre may provide the parent a discount to the session rate but only if the child attends at least 4 sessions in that week

To provide this capability we have provided session formulas that allow you to set the session charge based on whether a criteria has been met or not.

There are 6 pre-defined values provided for use in the formula:

  • session_number : Sessions are numbered in sequence by date and time within the week. So if you have 1 session each day from Monday to Friday they will be numbered 1 through 5. If you only have 2 sessions in the week they will be numbered 1 and 2 even if they are separated eg Mon & Thu.

  • session_count : This is how many sessions in total of that specific session code for that enrolment in that week

  • base_rate : This is the applicable normal rate for that session code

  • early : The number of whole minutes the child was signed in before the official session start

  • late : The number of whole minutes the child was signed out after the offical session end

  • total : The total number of whole minutes from first sign in to last sign out for that session.

If sign in or out is empty then its treated as midnight unless the child is absent. If teh child is absent then its treated as sign in a t session start and sign out at session end.

Example 1

If the child attends 3 or more sessions of Kindy in the week then I want to apply a $30/wk discount but spread evenly over all the sessions attended.

if (session_count > 2, base_rate - 30 / session_count, base_rate)

Example 2

If the child attends 4 or 5 sessions in the week then apply a 10% discount otherwise charge the full fee.

if (session_count > 3, base_rate * 0.9 , base_rate)

Example 3

The first 2 sessions in the week are fully covered by state funding and free to parents, but if the child attends 3 or more sessions, we charge full rate for sessions 3, 4 and 5.

if (session_number > 2, base_rate , 0)

Example 4

The funding works out to a weekly amount of $33.75 and for simplicity we will apply all of it to day 1 of the week. The other days will be charged at the normal rate.

if (session_number = 1, base_rate - 33.75 , base_rate)

Example 5

The funding works out to a weekly amount of $27.50 and for simplicity we will apply all of it to day 2 of the week. The other days will be charged at the normal rate. So if a child only attends 1 day per week then no discount will be applied in that week.

if (session_number = 2, base_rate - 27.50 , base_rate)

Things to Note

  • If the formula is left empty then it just uses the standard rate (base_rate)
  • The formula works off the base rate that applied on that day so understands fee increases
  • sessions are only counted if they are from the same session code and same enrolment so for example BSC and ASC sessions are counted separately and split enrolment (shared care) are counted separately
  • Your funding may require you to show the funding sorce on your statments. Conveniantly SmartCentral prints the session code name on the statement so simply choose an appropriate session code name) eg KINDY - QKFS discount
  • CCS allows funding by state or territory to be applied after CCS is calculated when its specifically in relation to children who are at risk or disadvantaged. Please make sure you advise support if this applies to your situation and the approrpiate setting can be turned on “Fee reduction provided by State or Territory for vulnerable or disadvantaged families. Use gross fee in the session reports to CCS:”

Formulas can only be edited by support. If you think formulas are relevant to your service contact the support team to discuss.