Setting up your business
Add your business profile, payment details and default rate, local authority funding rates, consents and term dates.
Who this is for
Who this is forChildminders setting up KinderStart for the first time, or changing their business details later. You set these once and they're used on every contract, invoice and in the parent app. It takes about ten minutes.
Open the Tools tab and choose Business Settings. Work through the sections below in order.
1. Your business profile
Tap the card at the top of Business Settings to open your profile. Add your business name, logo, contact details and a short description of your setting, then tap Save.
Your profile appears on the PDFs you send, like contracts and invoices, and in the parent app's Setting & Qualifications screen. This is also where you choose your region (England, Scotland or Wales), which decides the curriculum KinderStart uses, and whether parents can see your certificates.
2. Invoicing & payments
Open Invoicing & Payments. Set:
- Payment Details: how parents pay you. They're printed on every invoice.
- Hourly rate (£) under Default Billing Rates: every new child's contract starts with this.
- Days parents have to pay: how long parents have to pay each invoice.
Tip
TipSetting Your Rates: Consult our UK childminder pay guide and rates benchmarks to see average hourly and day rates across UK regions.
Tap Save. You can still set a different rate for any child in their contract.
3. Funded hours & LA rates
Open Funded Hours & LA Rates. Under LA Rate Cards, enter the rates your local authority pays for each age group, then save.
When a child has funded hours, KinderStart takes them off the parent's invoice at these rates, so parents only pay for the rest.
4. Consents
Open Consents to choose the permissions every family is asked for when they register, such as photos, outings, sun cream and plasters. You can edit the wording and add your own.
5. Term dates
Open Term Dates. Tap Load UK School Calendar Template to start with the usual holidays, such as October half term and the Christmas break, then change them to match when you're actually closed. Save when they're right.
Term-time contracts and invoices follow these dates.
✅Why KinderStart does it this way
Entering these details once means you never retype them on a contract or invoice, and every family gets the same terms. When a rate or date changes, you update it here and everything new uses it.
What to do next
- Adding your policies and risk assessment: the policies and risk assessments parents and inspectors will ask for.
- Choosing how you invoice families: how invoices are worked out for each child.
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KinderStart strives for accuracy. Competitor features and pricing comparisons are based on publicly available information as of May 2026. Details are subject to change by respective providers.