Please Note: If you wish to re-enter a contract number that has previously been deleted, you must rebuild indexes first otherwise a error of the  "uniqueness" type will be generated.

 Tracking Non-Subsidized Families:
You can track non-subsidized families separately  by entering them under a bogus contract number like "non-subsidized" .
Contract management Dialog Screen

Return to Table of Contents

II. Sites

Site Name Dialog Screen

Classrooms: 

VII. Form Screens

Typical Form Screen

Return to Table of Contents

VIII. Command Buttons

Typical Document View Screen

This screen interface is used to input and edit child attendance data.

Attendance interface screen - form 9400

At lease one site and one classroom must be input under the currently selected contract number and at least one family child must be registered via form screen 9600 before using form screen 9400. Also each child must have been assigned to a classroom in order to input attendance in this screen.

By pressing the "New" button a new attendance record is presented for data input.

The child care SITE is selected from the site pull down box. Once a site is selected, a classroom can be selected. Only then can a child be selected.

Children which have the check box checked "Served by Agency" in the 9600 form, may be selected from the child name "pull down" box. A child must be registered and "Served by agency " checked through FORM SCREEN 9600 before they can be selected from the pull down box.

A child's certification, age group/status and class time classification may be changed by mouse clicking on the appropriate group box or pull down box selections. Except for certification, this information is retrieved from the child's registration database table automatically. Whenever this information is changed in the form 9400 screen, the changes are automatically changed in the child's registration record (form 9600 table).

The month and year are set to the current calendar month and year as a default but any other month and year may be selected by the user via the pull down display boxes.

The month selected is automatically populated with 'P' (Present) for all non weekend days.

The user may change the attendance category within the day boxes to reflect the child's actual attendance for that month. If the child's classifications have been constant throughout the entire month, EVERY DAY OF ENROLLMENT MUST CONTAIN A CHARACTER AND EVERY DAY NOT ENROLLED MUST BE BLANK.

If a child's classification(s) has changed during the month, more than one record will be required to properly record the attendance and IF YOU HAVE ENTERED A PREVIOUS RECORD FOR THE CHILD FOR THIS MONTH, THE DAYS OF ATTENDANCE ALREADY RECORDED WILL SHOW A BLUE BACKGROUND. The records will be combined by ChildCare to the correct total enrollment for the month.

Categories are: P=Present, A=Absent Excused, U=Absent Unexcused, B=Best Interest day

 Fiscal year accumulated "Best Interest Days" and "Unexcused Absences  are reported at the bottom of the screen.

Pressing the "Delete" button in form 9400 removes the currently selected record from the child attendance register table.

Pressing the "Revert" button refreshes the screen and restores the current record to original status (if any changes have been made to the data on the screen).

Pressing the "Print" or "View" buttons will print or display  data with options to print all the data for all sites  for a selected month and year. The user may also choose to print just a single site. The user can optionally suppress or include classroom grouping.  

Return to Table of Contents

Pressing the "Find" button launches a screen (below) where the user can select attendance records for edit or copy. 

Choosing "Edit" brings the record to the edit screen where changes can be made.

[HINT] Choosing the "Copy " button permits the user to copy either a single selected child information  record for that month to a new chosen month or copy the entire month of all children information records to a new month.  The new months attendance fields are blank. This feature can  save you time by quickly creating new records for each child in the new month. Than you only need to find and edit each record and input the attendance for each child rather than creating a new record for each and very child every month.  

Return to Table of Contents

X. Form 9500 - Attendance and Fiscal Reporting.

Use the "New" button to add a new month to the 9500 attendance and Fiscal table.  You can than enter attendance directly into the screen(s) or click on the "Import attendance..." button to automatically populate the new month record with your attendance data from the 9400 attendance register. You may import as often as necessary because each time you do so the previous attendance data is overwritten. If you make changes to the attendance data in the 9400, just re-import into the 9500 table.

 Fiscal Data must be entered directly into the 9500 form screens.

<HINT> If the initial use is not for beginning fiscal year (July) the total cumulative prior period data needs to be stored in the database. This is accomplished by creating a month or quarterly report period prior to the current month to contain all cumulative information. For example if initial use is for the month December, create a new period for November and input the total cumulative data from July thru November of the current fiscal year as current data. Alternatively the user may create as many previous report periods as required and input the monthly data for each period under the appropriate months/years.

The user may change or add data in form 9500 at any time but should be aware that if the data was generated via form 9400 screen the changes will not be reflected in the 9400 database table. It is recommended that the user use either form 9400 or form 9500 screen to input and edit data but not both for a particular month.

The 'Next' and 'Previous' buttons are used to retrieve records from the database table. The records in the 9500 table are retrieved chronologically rather than by "fiscal year".

Pressing the "Delete" button will delete the current selected record and will also delete data in the 9400 table if any exists for the selected period.
If data exists for this month in the 9400 attendance table, you will be asked if you wish to delete this information as well. A yes response will delete the entire month of 9400 attendance data. 

The "Find" button will launch a dialog screen where you may select any existing month for editing.

Return to Table of Contents

XI. Form 9600 - Application and Eligibility

This screen is used to input data for family eligibility and child certification.
Child registration information may be input after imputing the Caretaker "A" last name. It is not necessary to complete all the form information in order to register children.

 IT IS NECESSARY TO ENTER FAMILY REGISTRATION DATES UNDER THE ACTION TAB IN ORDER TO PRINT ACCURATE REPORTS. 

 Children's names must be input and "Served by Agency" checked via this screen before they can be accessed via Form Screen 9400 - Attendance Register.

ALL CHILDREN MUST BE ASSIGNED TO A CLASSROOM!

Pressing the "Revert" button when EDITING a record selected with the 'Find' button cancels the current work secession and restores the current record data to original status before changes were made (if any).

Pressing the "Revert" button when ADDING a new family record via the 'New' button deletes the new record from the database table.

Pressing the "Delete" button deletes the current record displayed on the screen from the database table. Both family and associated children are deleted. Once deleted, a record cannot be retrieved.

Pressing the "Print" button prints report form 9600 for the current selected report period. If no record is currently selected the select grid is launched and the user may select a record to print.

Pressing the "Find" button launches the family search screen below

This form is used to find and select a family for editing or deletion under the currently selected contract number. After selection, the family information will be presented on the 9600 screen for editing by pressing the OK button. 

An "active family" is defined as a family with either no last date of enrollment or a last date of enrollment that is greater or equal to the existing system date on your computer.

The "Move/Copy Family" button was included to allow users to move or copy  family information between contract numbers. This is sometimes necessary if a family is receiving service under two or more contract numbers at the same time (Copy) or when a family changes from one contract to another (Move). 
[Hint:] If appropriate, you should copy the sites and classrooms to the new contract number before you MOVE  the families. Otherwise you will not be able to record attendance for the children because the sites and classrooms will only be associated with the previous contract number. This task will not be necessary if the new contract number has different sites and classrooms. If this is the case, you will have to re-select the appropriate site and classroom for the parent and children before you can record attendance.
.  
[Hint] Multiple copies of  family information will appear more than once on the 801 report. To prevent this, make sure you check the box to exclude the child from the 801 report on the bottom of the child screen for one of the copies of the family. 

The Children's tab under family information screen has separate command buttons. The Main command button set is not accessible when working in the children interface. The user simply clicks on any other tab to regain access to the main command button set.
Note the check box on the bottom left hand corner to the screen. Check this box if you do not wish to have the particular child reported on the 801A population information report. 
[Hint] To reset the race1 and race1 fields to blank, Enter 'Y' in the Hispanic box .

Children's Tab Interface Section

All Children must be assigned to a site and a classroom before you can input data either in the 9400 screen or the class sign-in screen.
Hours of care needed per day is used to calculate the family fee and appear on the 9600 form. Contract hours appear on the sign-in sheets and on the Notice of Action. Both are required.

Return to Table of Contents

Income Calculation Worksheet. 
From the ""Income" tab click on the "Worksheet button" to access the gross monthly income worksheet. 
Use the worksheet to automatically calculate gross monthly income based on the various income periods and amounts. For example: If the family income is in the form of hourly amounts, enter the hourly rate in the "amount" box in the calculator. Enter the number of hours in the "hours" box and just click  the "Hourly Pay" choice. The gross monthly income is calculated automatically and placed in the appropriate boxes. 
Family fees for subsidized service are calculated automatically. Family size and Children's "Hours of  Care Needed Each Day" must be entered before this calculation will produce a fee.
You may override the fee calculation and enter fees directly by clicking on the option box to the left of the fees boxes on the income tab. Use this option for non-subsidized families.

XII. Form 7617 - Communication Notice and Notice of Action

The option to print form 7617 in Spanish or English  is provided when the user presses the 'Print' button on form 9600.

Notice of Action Dialog Screens   

Return to Table of Contents 

XIII. Form CDD 801A Monthly Population Information Collection

This form is used to prepare  family population information for families actively served by the agency as a ASCII data file to be electronically transferred to CDD. Beginning with the report due November 2001 the CDD will no longer except paper reports. 

To be included in the report a family must have a initial subsidized service date earlier than the date of the report. Families are excluded if their last date of enrollment is earlier or on the same month as  the date of the report.  date fields for each family are filled in under the "Action Tab" on the 9600 screen.

You may optionally select which contract numbers to report. The Default is all contract numbers. Click on the "Check Box" to use the contract selection option. 

[HINT] If you use bogus contract numbers to store old family information or if you have non-subsidized families, you must use the "select contract number option". By default ChildCare ignores contract numbers and reports all families.

To create a EFT file, click on the "Create EFT File" Button.

You cannot create a file for transfer if any required family data is missing. If data is missing a report will be presented for review and printing so that you may correct the missing data.  You must recreate a EFT File each time you make a change. When  all data is complete you will be asked to supply a file name for the transfer file. ChildCare will automatically create this file name for you if you wish. Transfer files will be placed in folder directory \ChildCare\eft\ where you may access it to submit to CDD per your instructions. 
Once the file is created, you may view or print out the data using the appropriate buttons. 
There are additional data format specifications which must be met to avoid a rejection of the file after posting to CDD. ChildCare automatically formats all the data properly for inclusion in the file but if there are errors in the original data these will be passed along and the file will likely be rejected. You may review the CDD format for data at http://www.cde.ca.gov/sp/cd/ci/cdd801fileformat.asp.  
When you are satisfied that the data is correct just send the file to CDE as instructed.

Return to Table of Contents

Family Fee Statements

Generate Family Fees Statements Screen

It's easy to generate statements for all families. One mouse click on the "Generate Statements" button will instantly prepare all family fee statements for the currently selected contract number, site or even a individual family.  Statement Options allow the user to prepare statements for subsidized  families according to CDE guidelines or for non-subsidized families or full fee families either by day or contract hours.

 The user must set the correct days of operation  with the  calendar provided on the screen. Just mouse click on the calendar days to turn on or off. 
A statement will only be generated if your family data is complete:
Family initial enrollment date must be entered. ( For non-subsidized families a application date must be entered)
The family last day of enrollment date must be empty or greater than the first day of the statement month.
Each family must have a fee entered under the "income" tab.
There must be at least one child served by the agency.|
The child's "Hours of care needed" must be entered.
(To create a statement without with empty fees, see the statements edit description below. You can create a blank family statement from the statement edit screen. )

Full fee families ( non-subsidized) should be grouped under user defined contract numbers for example "FULLFEEDAYS" or "FULLFEEHOURS".  For these families, check the "Disable automatic fee calculation" box on  the family income tab. Then enter either a daily fee or hourly fee dependant on how you want to bill them.  The program will calculate both full time and part time charges if rates are provided. Currently part time is less than 6.5 hours per day.

To Generate all the statements for a contract number select the contract number then set the month and year and  the days of operation, choose the appropriate statement option and then click the generate statements button.
  At any time, after you have generated statements  use the "Edit Statements" button to launch the statements edit and print screen shown below.

The "Delete Statements" button is used to  delete all statements and receipts for the currently selected month,year  and contract number.
Statements Edit Screen Interface

Using this interface you may edit fully all data presented if desired. Selected  statements may be printed using the "quick print" button.  All statements for the displayed billing period can be printed using the "Print Statements" button.
Printed statements  are formatted to fold into a double window envelope.
The "Receipt" button will launch the Receipt screen for producing and printing receipts. 
A statement has an associated receipt if there is a receipt number showing in the receipt column.

A WORD ABOUT CREDITS.

The credit box on the statement screen is used to reduce the calculated amount due.   Credit issued in the box is not predicated on some previous overpayment and does not appear anywhere on the reports. It should be thought of more like a discount at the discretion of the staff.

We never issue credit in the system; If someone pays us ahead of time we generate a statement for the amount paid and a receipt showing paid in full.

Receipts
    
  To produce or edit a receipt for a selected statement, click on the 'Receipt" button on the edit  screen.
 Fill in the information and click on the 'Print' button to print a copy or click on the 'Save/Return" button to save the receipt.

Only one receipt per statement is allowed.  To process a partial payment, you may create a receipt and enter the partial payment amount. Next, when the balance due is paid, create another statement for the family with zero amount due.
Create a receipt for this statement and enter the final partial amount paid.
This procedure will insure that the family account report will balance.

When you delete a statement, the associated receipt is also deleted.
 

Family Account Report

Family Accounts are displayed by clicking on the "Family Account" button on the statements edit screen .  A option dialog is displayed to allow current year to date or previous calendar year choices.
Reports are prepared based on the date the statements was generated and any associated receipts.



Return to Table of Contents

Eligibility/Waiting List

 

To enter a new family on a list use the "New" button, enter the data and than click on the "Rank This Family" button.

The waiting list interface allows users to rank and place families on the waiting list for service according to the DOE requirements. The "Activate Family" button places the family in the active family table and removes it from the waitlist. 

If only one waiting list is required for your operation,  ignore the "List(s)" and "list name" area on the top of the screen. Do not enter information there.

To keep multiple lists: The first time you enter a new candidate for the new list, enter the list name in the "list name" text box. Once the entry is saved, the list can than always be selected from the pull down to the left of the text name box. You may create as many lists as you need.  To view or print a list when using multiple lists, first select a candidate from the "find" screen who is a member of the required list. Than just use the "View" or "Print" as needed.

You can move candidates between lists by selecting a candidate and than just pulling down a different list name from the pull down box or entering a new list name in the list name text box and saving the record.

Use the "Find" button to search the waiting list table for particular family or child. You can select names by age in months for any or all lists. You may now include and search the waiting list for pre-birth candidates. Use negative months. For example: Enter -6 in the "From" box and  12 in the "To box". This will return all candidates from that will be born within the next six months and all candidates less than or equal to 12 months of age.

Click on the new button to create a new eligibility form for a family which you can select from your 9600 certified families table. The list can be filtered by family site and/or contract number. Select a family from the list . The selected family members and relevant  information will automatically be included on the form.  You may freely edit all the information or add additional information as needed.

Use the "Add new month" button to add records for each child in the families database. One record is added for each child for each day of the selected month. Meals consumed can than be entered into the appropriate boxes.

Once the roster has been created, you may optionally filter the display by selecting a site and classroom.  At this stage you can populate all the cells with a "1" for selected meal categories. First select the meal categories and than click the "Populate" button.  This can save considerable time compared to entering each meal for each child by hand.  You can than just delete the few cell values which should be 0.
Use the "Clear Roster" button to automatically clear cells for selected meal categories. This function is useful if you make a mistake when population the Roster.

The 'ELIG' column shows the eligibility category for the child  based on the Federal Register Table This table may be displayed or edited from the "Rates" screen (see below). The  family size and monthly income used to arrive at a eligibility category are taken from the family information (9600) data. You do not have to use these eligibility category calculated.  If you want to designate a different category for a child, you must change the 'ELIG' code for that child. Changing just the one will automatically change all instances for that child in  the roster.  The eligibility for that child based on income and family size will not be changed in the family certification and eligibility table.

The "Day" and "Week' navigation keys allow the user to move up or down records within the month displayed.
The data displayed can be filtered by site and classroom by selecting a site and classroom or displayed unfiltered by clicking on the "reset" button.
[Hint]  If you have a large number of qualified children, the table can become very large when several  months of data  are accumulated and processing can be slowed and congested.  To avoid this,  be sure to delete old months after your reimbursement report is completed and accepted.

When families with children served are registered after the monthly roster is created, use the "Update Roster" button. This function will  incorporate any newly added children into the roster without affecting the existing roster data.  The update will not remove children no longer served from the roster.

You may delete children from the roster by clicking on the left most box adjacent to the child record. This will turn the box black which indicates a deleted record. You may click again to reverse the deletion if you have not moved to a new day or week. Once you move the record pointer you will not longer see the deletion. You can delete every instance of a child from the roster by first placing the mouse cursor on the child name on the roster. Than click the "Remove Child From the Roster" button. (Note: updating the roster will add all the "removed children" back on the roster. )

1. CDE approval was based on material printed on a HP "ink jet" or "Laser Jet type printers". During testing, it was found that forms printed by some older dot matrix printers may not meet CDE's requirements. The user should check with the CDE if printed results are unsatisfactory before submitting the final forms.