Bookkeeping for nurseries and childcare
Childcare providers combine parent fees, government-funded hours and heavy payroll. Timing differences between funding and fees can strain cash flow.
- Flat £15 an hour
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Bookkeeping for nurseries and childcare
Your price
4 hours at £15
£60
Set-up fee£0
ContractNone
Regulated firm
Qualified team
Qualified team
Certified advisor
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The short answer
What does bookkeeping for nurseries and childcare involve?
Bookkeeping for nurseries and childcare means keeping parent invoices and payments, local authority funding statements, payroll and pensions and the rest of your records accurate and reconciled. At £15 an hour, a typical 30-place nursery (about 250 transactions a month) needs about 7 hours a month, which is around £105.
What makes these books different.
Every sector has its own records and rules. These are the ones that matter for nurseries and childcare.
Funded hours
Local authority payments for funded places arrive on a schedule that rarely matches your costs.
Fees, deposits and vouchers
Parent payments come through many routes, including tax-free childcare, and each must be matched to the right child account.
Staff-heavy costs
Payroll, pensions and ratios dominate costs, so staffing should be tracked against income each month.
Debtors
Unpaid fees build up quietly, and aged debtor reports prevent that.
£15
an hour, flat
£105
a month for a typical 30-place nursery
7h
of bookkeeping a month, about 250 transactions a month
0
contract, stop whenever you like
Records we keep for you.
- Parent invoices and payments
- Local authority funding statements
- Payroll and pensions
- Food, activities and consumables
- Rent and utilities
- Ofsted and insurance costs
Rules worth knowing.
VAT exemption
Childcare supplied by registered providers is generally VAT exempt, which limits input VAT recovery.
Registration
Providers must be registered with Ofsted or the relevant regulator in their nation of the UK.
Records retention
Financial records should be kept for at least 6 years for a limited company.
General information, not tax advice. Rules change, so check GOV.UK or ask your accountant. Last reviewed November 2026.
A typical month.
A 30-place nursery with about 250 transactions a month, running payroll. Here is the time it takes and what it costs.
- Core bookkeeping (101 - 250)6h
- Limited company extras0.5h
- Payroll journals0.5h
Each month
£105
Where this sector is most common.
Using ONS business counts for 2026, education is the biggest share of local businesses in these places. We serve all of them online.
- Oxford12% of local businesses, 2.0 times the UK share, about 595 firms
- Cambridge10% of local businesses, 1.7 times the UK share, about 520 firms
- Birmingham10% of local businesses, 1.6 times the UK share, about 3,810 firms
- Derby9% of local businesses, 1.5 times the UK share, about 700 firms
- Nottingham9% of local businesses, 1.5 times the UK share, about 890 firms
- Belfast9% of local businesses, 1.4 times the UK share, about 1,015 firms
Clients say it better than we do.
4.9300+ Google reviews of Accotax
“He took the time to explain every step of the process and made a complex situation much easier to understand.”
Hugo Alvarez
Google review of Accotax
“They take the time to understand how our business works and what our needs are.”
Mael Leboucher
Google review of Accotax
“Very prompt in responding to questions and patient with us even when we seem to be slow.”
Mansur Liman
Google review of Accotax
“The work was completed promptly, my tax return was successfully filed.”
Sergey M
Google review of Accotax
nurseries and childcare: your questions.
Can you track funded hours separately?
Yes. We code funding income by source so you can reconcile each local authority payment and spot shortfalls.
Not sure where your books stand?
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