Built only for you
Why ChildmindPro — not a generic accounting tool
Generic tools were built for restaurants, freelancers and plumbers. ChildmindPro is built for someone running a regulated childcare business from their home.
ANNA Money, QuickBooks and Xero are excellent tools — for the businesses they were designed for. They handle VAT returns, payroll runs, supplier invoices and project tracking with confidence. They do not, however, understand the world a UK registered childminder lives in.
A childminder's week looks nothing like a freelance designer's. You have to deduct funded hours from a parent invoice, generate a termly claim for your local authority, log EYFS observations against the seven areas of learning, keep an attendance register Ofsted will accept, write a contract that protects you when a parent goes quiet, and produce a Self-Evaluation Form before your inspection. None of that is in a generic accounting tool.
ChildmindPro was built from the first line of code for one job — to run a UK childminding business. Every dropdown, every report, every calculation knows what a stretched 30-hour offer is and what a fee-free hour means for your invoice total. The result is software that actually reduces your workload instead of adding to it.
| Feature | ChildmindPro | ANNA Money | QuickBooks / Xero |
|---|---|---|---|
| Built for childminders | |||
| MTD-ready records | |||
| Funded hours (15/30hr) | |||
| LA funding claim generator | |||
| Ofsted document generator | |||
| EYFS observations & tracking | |||
| Parent invoicing | Partial | Partial | |
| Childminder expense categories | |||
| Attendance register (Ofsted format) | |||
| Child development reports | |||
| Parent contracts generator | |||
| UK childminder support team | |||
| Price | From £19.99/mo | Free–£39/mo | £14–£35/mo |
ANNA Money is a great business bank. QuickBooks and Xero are excellent for accountants. Neither of them knows what a stretched 30-hour offer is, or what an Ofsted inspector will ask to see. ChildmindPro does.