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Quick reads

Playbook · Daycares 3 min read

A daycare runs on supplies and schedules. Most of it lives in the director's head.

Diapers, snacks, allergies, staff shifts and ratios. No app connects them, so the director does. Here's how to put it on one calendar that doesn't call in sick.

Daycare director with a clipboard in a playroom, a supply shelf of diapers and snacks behind her.

This is how we'd set up supplies and scheduling for a daycare. It's a playbook, not a report on a client.

The director carries everything

Daycare director alone at a desk in the evening under a calendar covered in sticky notes.

A daycare goes through diapers, wipes, formula, snacks and cleaning supplies every week, and each comes from somewhere different. The grocery order goes in Monday. The diaper supplier delivers every other Thursday. Some families send their own diapers and some don't, and every child's allergies change what you can buy.

Staff schedules sit on top of that. Every province sets strict staff-to-child ratios. In Manitoba, for example, a centre needs one staff member for every four infants, at all times. When someone calls in sick at 6:30 in the morning, the director has to find cover before the doors open. And there's rarely anyone spare to call.

86%
of Canadian child care centres had trouble filling open positions in 2024, per Statistics Canada
1:4
staff to infants, required at all times in provinces like Manitoba
9.5
days a full-time private-sector worker in Canada missed in 2025, for illness or family, per Statistics Canada

Usually the director holds all of it in their head, on sticky notes and in a paper calendar. They're good at it. But they get sick too, and one missed diaper order means calling parents to bring their own.

What we heard in the field

We've been talking to daycare directors while we build this, and what they tell us matches the numbers. The supplies, the allergy lists and the staff schedule all run through the director. A sick call before opening is on them to fix, and so is a missed order.

Why no app connects it

Daycare director juggling three tablets for schedules, supplies and allergies, with tangled yarn between them.

Daycare software handles billing and messages to parents. Inventory apps are built for stores. Scheduling apps don't know your ratios. None of them know that each room goes through diapers at its own pace, that two kids in the preschool room can't have nuts, or that one of your staff can only work mornings.

So the schedule, the supplies and the allergies live in three places, and the director is the only one who connects them. Software that helps has to be built around your rooms, your families and your staff.

One calendar that knows your rules

Small robots stocking diapers and pinning up a weekly staff schedule beside an allergy checklist.
  • Tracks supplies by enrolment and by how fast each room goes through them.
  • Puts every supplier's order day on one calendar and drafts the order before it's due.
  • Checks every snack and lunch order against each child's allergy list.
  • Builds staff schedules that meet your ratios and shows the gap the moment someone calls in sick.
  • Texts your on-call staff to fill the shift and tells you who said yes.
A sign-in clipboard leads to a low supply bin, a delivery day on the calendar and a restocked shelf.
  1. Daily sign-in
  2. Supplies running low
  3. Order on the calendar
  4. Shelf restocked

The director still makes the calls. They just stop being the only place the information lives.

Start small

A bin of diapers with a reorder card clipped to the front beside a desk calendar.

Start with diapers and wipes. They run out fastest and parents notice first. Set a reorder point for each room, put the supplier's delivery day on a shared calendar, then add staff schedules.

Sitting on a pile like this?

Walk us through it on a free 30-minute call. You'll leave knowing what can be automated, even if you never hire us.

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