How does online registration work with a daycare website?
In two halves, with one handoff. Your public website collects interest: a contact form and a waitlist sign-up that land in your Enquiries inbox. Enrollment happens through a private link you send to one family, where they complete your form on their own time, with progress saved, and finish with an e-signature. When you confirm, CubbyBook creates the child's record, links the parents, and builds the enrollment from their answers.
The handoff is the whole design. The site never collects a child's full records in public, and the enrollment form never depends on who happens to find your page. You decide which enquiries become invitations, and the same app holds both halves.
What does the website half capture?
A contact enquiry collects the visitor's name and email, plus an optional phone number and message. A waitlist enquiry adds the child's first name, birth date, and a desired start date. Every submission lands in Enquiries, newest first, and you can have email notifications sent to up to five addresses. Spam protection runs quietly underneath, so real families breeze through and most junk never reaches you.
One thing to hold onto: a waitlist sign-up is an enquiry only. It doesn't create a child record and it doesn't put anyone in a queue. It means a family raised their hand, and the next move is yours.
Can families register directly on your website?
No, and that's deliberate. A public form that created child records would fill your app with half-typed profiles from anyone who wandered by, with no signature and no review step. Instead, the enquiry tells you a family is interested, and you choose when to send the enrollment link.
The private link is better for the family too. Their progress saves, so a bedtime interruption doesn't erase twenty minutes of typing. They e-sign your consent section on their phone instead of printing and scanning. And if something needs fixing, you send just that part back with a note instead of asking them to start over.
What happens after you send the enrollment link?
You pick one of your enrollment forms, enter the child's name and the parent's email, and send. The parent gets an email with a private link that's good for 7 days. Their first visit sets up their parent portal account; then they work through your questions, leave and come back as often as they need, and finish by agreeing to your consent section and submitting.
The application moves through clear stages: Invited, In Progress, Submitted, Revision Requested, Confirmed, and Cancelled. CubbyBook doesn't send automatic reminders, so if a family stalls, a friendly nudge through Messages is the way to follow up.
What does confirming an application create?
Real records, from what the family typed. Confirming creates the child, links the parent to them, and creates the enrollment, filling in details, contacts, and consents. Nothing gets retyped by you, and nothing gets deciphered from handwriting.
Review first, because confirming is the step that commits everything. If an answer looks wrong, request a revision with a note. Only that part becomes editable for the family, and resubmitting sends it back to you. You can request changes as many times as it takes.
What about children already in your care?
They skip the whole ceremony. Quick Enrol, reached from the Add child menu on the Children screen, lets you enter a child's details yourself: name, birth date, schedule, contacts, allergies. The child is enrolled immediately and no form goes to the parent.
Use Quick Enrol when you already have the information from families you've known for years. Use the online form when you want a new family to provide and confirm their own details, with a signature attached.
What does the website plus registration cost?
The website, the enquiries inbox, online enrollment, and Quick Enrol are all included on the Free plan. Free includes one enrollment form template; Pro ($15/month or $149/year) adds unlimited templates, along with photos on daily reports, incident e-signatures, and PDF exports. Nothing about the website itself ever needs Pro.