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QuickBooks bookkeeping for childcare centres

A childcare centre is paid partly by families and partly through subsidy payments, and both tend to arrive as batched deposits rather than family by family. In QuickBooks, we tie each batch back to your childcare software's reports and record the centre's everyday spending as it happens, for centres anywhere in Australia.

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  • By Book Keeping Pros
  • Sources checked 15 Oct 2026

What we do in a childcare centre's QuickBooks file

Family accounts and attendance usually sit in your childcare software, while QuickBooks holds the money that reaches the bank and the centre's costs. We keep them lined up.

  • Family fee collections that arrive as batched direct debit or card deposits traced to the collection report in your childcare software, with any difference set aside for the centre to look into
  • Subsidy payments recorded as their own deposits and matched to the payment reports your childcare software produces, kept apart from what families pay
  • Enrolment deposits and bonds tracked against the family they belong to, using the treatment your accountant specifies, and matched when they're refunded or applied to final fees
  • Receipts for groceries, nappies, craft supplies and cleaning products captured into QuickBooks from a phone or by email, and paired with the centre card charge they explain
  • Long day care, before and after school care and vacation care tracked as separate classes when your QuickBooks plan offers classes, so the programs' results can be compared
  • The account your childcare software collects fees into reconciled against its bank statement, with each gap explained: a deposit that hasn't cleared, an entry made wrongly or a bank slip the bank needs to put right
  • Bills for maintenance, pest control, cleaning contractors and the centre's lease entered against each supplier, giving a clear view of what's owed and when each bill falls due

Not included

Working out subsidy entitlements or preparing family statements. Those come from your childcare software, and we match the payments that reach the bank to its reports.

Businesses in Child Care Services (ANZSIC class 8710)

Actively trading businesses across Australia
11,395 businessesAustralian Bureau of Statistics, Counts of Australian Businesses, June 2025, checked 15 October 2026
Of those, classified as non-employing
6,125 businessesAustralian Bureau of Statistics, Counts of Australian Businesses, June 2025, checked 15 October 2026
Of those, with 1 to 4 employees
1,004 businessesAustralian Bureau of Statistics, Counts of Australian Businesses, June 2025, checked 15 October 2026

Businesses by main state or territory

These counts are for the ANZSIC class Child Care Services, which also covers family day care and before and after school care, so they describe a wider group than childcare centres.

  1. New South Wales4,484 businesses
  2. Victoria2,614 businesses
  3. Queensland2,446 businesses
  4. Western Australia1,036 businesses
  5. South Australia420 businesses
  6. Tasmania164 businesses
  7. Australian Capital Territory134 businesses
  8. Northern Territory97 businesses
Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics, June 2025. Counts of Australian Businesses, data cube 2: Businesses by main state by industry class by employment size ranges (8165DC02.xlsx). Checked 15 Oct 2026.

Businesses by number of employees

  1. Non-employing6,125 businesses
  2. 20 to 199 employees2,205 businesses
  3. 5 to 19 employees1,977 businesses
  4. 1 to 4 employees1,004 businesses
  5. 200 or more employees84 businesses
Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics, June 2025. Counts of Australian Businesses, data cube 2: Businesses by main state by industry class by employment size ranges (8165DC02.xlsx). Checked 15 Oct 2026.

Related pages

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Childcare centre questions about QuickBooks

Fee payments come through in bulk. Can you work out which families they cover?
We match each bulk payment to the collection report in your childcare software, which shows the families it covers. Where family balances are kept in that software, QuickBooks holds the batch totals, and any shortfall or excess is noted for the centre to chase.
How do subsidy payments show up in QuickBooks?
As separate deposits, recorded apart from family payments and matched to the payment reports in your childcare software. Working out what each family is entitled to stays with that software and your centre team. We record what reaches the bank.
We also run before and after school care. Can QuickBooks report on it separately?
It can, provided your plan includes classes. Before and after school care gets its own class, alongside long day care, and its income and costs are recorded there, showing how each program is going. Without classes, this class-based breakdown is unavailable; we can agree another reporting approach with your accountant.
Staff buy supplies on the centre card. How do the receipts reach you?
A photo taken on a phone can be uploaded straight to QuickBooks, or the receipt can be emailed in. Each receipt then sits in QuickBooks waiting for review until we link it to its card charge, or create a new expense only after checking that no matching bill or expense is already recorded.
What happens to enrolment deposits when a family leaves?
Each deposit is tracked against the family that paid it, held the way your accountant instructs, and we match the refund or the amount applied to final fees when the family leaves. A deposit with no match in the childcare software goes to the centre to review.

Sources

  1. Counts of Australian Businesses, data cube 2: Businesses by main state by industry class by employment size ranges (8165DC02.xlsx)

    Australian Bureau of Statistics. Actively trading businesses at 30 June 2025, released 16 December 2025. Checked 15 October 2026.

    Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics, Counts of Australian Businesses, including Entries and Exits, June 2021 to June 2025, licensed under CC BY 4.0 Licence: CC BY 4.0.

  2. Correspondence, GCCSA 2021 to GCCSA 2026 (CG_GCCSA_2021_GCCSA_2026.csv)

    Australian Bureau of Statistics. ASGS Edition 4, July 2026 to June 2031, released 22 July 2026. Checked 15 October 2026.

    Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics, Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS) Edition 4, licensed under CC BY 4.0 Licence: CC BY 4.0.

  3. Upload your receipts to QuickBooks (Australia)

    Intuit Australia Pty Ltd. Current at 16 October 2026, released 16 October 2026. Checked 16 October 2026.

    QuickBooks is a trademark of Intuit Inc. Licence: Intuit Australia legal terms (facts quoted with attribution, no endorsement implied).

  4. Get started with class tracking in QuickBooks Online (Australia)

    Intuit Australia Pty Ltd. Current at 16 October 2026, released 16 October 2026. Checked 16 October 2026.

    QuickBooks is a trademark of Intuit Inc. Licence: Intuit Australia legal terms (facts quoted with attribution, no endorsement implied).

  5. Reconcile an account in QuickBooks Online (Australia)

    Intuit Australia Pty Ltd. Current at 16 October 2026, released 16 October 2026. Checked 16 October 2026.

    QuickBooks is a trademark of Intuit Inc. Licence: Intuit Australia legal terms (facts quoted with attribution, no endorsement implied).