Bookkeeper for Childcare Centres

You are great at caring for children. You should not have to be great at bookkeeping too.

Most childcare operators we talk to are doing one of three things. They are trying to manage the books themselves between drop-offs and incident reports. They have handed it to a centre manager or admin person who is doing their best but is not a bookkeeper. Or they have a general bookkeeper who handles simple businesses fine but gets lost the moment Child Care Subsidy, gap fees, or educator award classifications come up.

None of those options work well for long.

Accounts Advantage has been working with childcare centres since 2004. We understand how a childcare business actually runs. The funding complexity. The staff-to-ratio pressures. The CCS reconciliation that never quite lines up. The families who fall behind on gap fees. The BAS that includes both GST-free and taxable income sitting side by side.

We handle the books end to end so you can stay focused on the children in your care.

Why Childcare Centres Need a Specialist Bookkeeper

A childcare centre’s books are not like a regular small business.

You receive income from two sources — gap fees from families and Child Care Subsidy payments from Services Australia — and reconciling those two streams requires someone who understands how the CCS funding model works. You operate under the Early Childhood Education and Care Award, which has multiple employee classifications, allowances, and entitlement rules that a generalist bookkeeper will often get wrong. Your GST treatment is mixed, with most childcare fees being GST-free but some additional services being taxable.

A bookkeeper who only handles simple businesses will miss things. They might miscategorise your CCS income. They might not apply the correct award rate to your Room Leaders. They might prepare a BAS that incorrectly treats your fee income as taxable when most of it is not.

CCS Reconciliation — Getting Your Funding to Actually Balance

This is the part most childcare operators struggle with most, and it causes real cash flow problems when it is wrong.

Child Care Subsidy payments arrive from Services Australia in arrears, in weekly batches, and they do not always match what you expect based on your enrolment records. Families’ subsidy entitlements change. Attendance records affect what gets paid. Estimates get reconciled against actuals and the difference lands in your account without explanation.

We reconcile your CCS payments against your fee income every month. We make sure what Services Australia says they paid you matches what actually came in. And we make sure your fee income is reported correctly in your BAS — GST-free where it should be, taxable where it applies.

Educator Payroll — The Award Is Complicated. We Know It.

The Early Childhood Education and Care Award covers educators, room leaders, nominated supervisors, cooks, and administrative staff. Each classification has different pay rates. There are allowances for first aid, working with children checks, and diploma qualifications. Penalty rates apply on weekends and public holidays. Casual loading applies to casual educators.

Get any of this wrong and you are exposed to Fair Work underpayment claims, back-pay obligations, and ATO notices.

We manage your complete payroll including pay runs, award classification checks, super calculations at the correct rate, STP reporting, and end of year finalisation. If you take on a new educator or change someone’s classification, we get it right from day one.

The superannuation guarantee rate is 12% from 1 July 2025. We make sure every payment goes out on time and to the right fund.

BAS Lodgement for Childcare Centres

Your BAS is due every quarter. Miss it and the ATO charges interest and penalties. Get it wrong in a childcare context and the consequences are worse than most, because the GST treatment of childcare fees is specific and widely misunderstood.

Most childcare fees are GST-free under the GST Act. That means you do not charge GST on them, but it also affects how you claim input tax credits on your expenses. Get that wrong and you are either overpaying or underpaying the ATO — both create problems.

We prepare your BAS, apply the correct GST treatment to every income and expense category, and lodge on time every quarter. If you are behind on previous lodgements, we can get you caught up and manage the ATO conversation.

Catch-Up Bookkeeping for Childcare Centres

A lot of childcare operators come to us because they have fallen behind. Sometimes months. Sometimes longer.

They have been too busy running the centre to keep up with the admin. Or a previous bookkeeper has moved on and left the file in a state. Or the centre has grown and the person doing the books has hit the limit of what they can handle.

We have seen it all. We are not here to judge. We are here to fix it.

We go back through your transactions, reconcile your accounts, sort out your CCS income, and get your file current. Once it is clean, we keep it that way month to month.

We Know the Rules That Apply to Childcare

The ATO and Services Australia treat childcare specifically. The GST exemption rules, the way CCS payments are reported, the fringe benefits implications if you offer staff childcare — these are not things a general bookkeeper will know without looking them up.

We stay current on ATO guidance and Services Australia requirements for the ECEC sector. It is part of what we do.

At Accounts Advantage, our Managing Director is CPA qualified and all our team members hold a Certificate IV in Bookkeeping. Many of our team members are registered BAS Agents in their own right, in addition to the firm itself being a registered BAS Agent. That means you get qualified, accountable professionals handling your books — not just someone who has learned on the job.

Common Questions

What types of childcare centres do you work with?

Long day care, and outside school hours care (OSHC), and occasional care. If you receive Child Care Subsidy funding and have educators on staff, we can help.

Do you understand how CCS payments work?

Yes. We reconcile CCS payments against fee income as part of our regular monthly work. We understand how Services Australia pays, why the amounts vary, and how to make your books reflect what has actually been received versus what is still outstanding.

How do you handle the GST treatment of childcare fees?

Most childcare fees are GST-free under the GST Act. We apply the correct treatment to every income category in your BAS and make sure your input tax credits are claimed correctly. This is one of the areas where a generalist bookkeeper most often gets it wrong.

Are you a registered BAS Agent?

Yes. Accounts Advantage is a registered BAS Agent as a firm. On top of that, many of our individual team members hold their own BAS Agent registration too. You get two layers of professional protection.

What does it cost?

For childcare centres we offer a fixed monthly fee from day one. We assess your centre’s size, staffing levels, and the complexity of your books, and we give you a clear monthly price before we start. No surprises.

What if I am behind on my books?

We offer catch-up bookkeeping. We go back through your transactions, reconcile your accounts, sort out your CCS income, and get you current. It happens more often than you think and it is never as bad as people fear.

Do you work with centres outside Loganholme?

Yes. We are based in Loganholme and we work with childcare centres across the Gold Coast, Logan, Brisbane south side, and all of Queensland. We work remotely with clients across the state.

What software do you use?

We work with Xero, Employment Hero, FoundU, Tanda, Deputy depending on what suits each centre. We are a Xero Gold Partner and we set up whichever platform you use specifically for how a childcare centre operates.

Ready to get your books off your plate?

Call our Loganholme office on 07 3209 8266 or 1300 400 105