Latest News from the brightwheel team
Feature update
Improvement

Scheduling one-time charges, custom student profile fields, and more

Claire avatar
Shared by Claire β€’ September 30, 2024

Read about the latest improvements and resources in this month's Product Spotlight:

  • Now available: schedule a one-time charge for a future date!
  • Add custom fields to track additional details on student profiles
  • Top tips for family-teacher conferences
  • Time off is now in Schedules and in the mobile app for staff
  • Get a free month of brightwheel for each referral that signs up 🀩

Time Off is here! And more exciting updates in brightwheel

Claire avatar
Shared by Claire β€’ August 14, 2024

In this month's Product Spotlight, read about the latest updates that'll save you even more time on program operations this year.

  • You can now track paid and unpaid staff hours in brightwheel πŸ™Œ
  • CACFP daily claimed meals & nine other new reports are LIVE
  • The ability to edit bill plans is here
  • Watch the recording of brightwheel's 2024 Open House presentation
  • Register for the live webinar on 8/21 where we'll demo new features
  • $150 off curriculum for new Experience Curriculum customers

Learn more in the July / August Product Spotlight.

Big reporting updates are live, and many more are coming soon!

Kerry avatar
Shared by Kerry β€’ July 30, 2024

Hi ,

Based on feedback from customers like yourself, we've released a ton of brand new reports and improvements to make it easier for you to effectively operate your program.

And that's not all. Even more reports are coming soon to your brightwheel account! Read about all the updates below.

🌟 New datasets and reports: live today!

🌟 New datasets and reports: coming soon.

  • Staff details report
  • Staff professional development hours report
  • Weekly attendance report
  • Forms submission status report
  • Time Off (now live!) reports

🌟 Enhancements to existing reports. We also made important changes to existing reports based on your feedback. Notably, you can now view Charge category in the billing Deposits report, so you can easily identify the specific charges included in a payout.

🌟 A new look and feel. Finally, we refreshed our reports landing page with a new navigation and updated categories to make it easier to find the report you need.

Learn more by watching this 3-minute video. πŸŽ‰

The 2024 Back to School roadmap is here!

Claire avatar
Shared by Claire β€’ June 26, 2024

Time Off, Expense Management, collecting registration fees, and more are coming to brightwheel Premium this fall.

This month's Product Spotlight includes other exciting updates and resources such as meal types for bottle logs, $100 off your first purchase of Experience Curriculum, a better bill pay signup experience for families, and a new flyer for teachers. Read the June Product Spotlight here.

Feature update

✨ New: Staff Without Parent Messaging role to give you greater control over your staff's experience in brightwheel.

Kerry avatar
Shared by Kerry β€’ June 20, 2024

Hi there,

We recently released a new role, Staff Without Parent Messaging, to give you more control over your staff's brightwheel experience.

Staff members with this role can access functionality in brightwheel, including activities and staff messages, but will not be able to view or send messages to parents.

Watch an overview of their experience here.

And in the coming weeks, permissions for this role will flow through to Room Device Mode as well! Learn more about what this will look like.

Prep for a new school year, delete food items, audit logs & more!

Claire avatar
Shared by Claire β€’ May 25, 2024

Get more value out of your brightwheel subscription with these new improvements, tips, and resources:

  • Ready your brightwheel account for the 2024-25 school year. A newly updated resource covers everything you may need to know as you transition from one school year to the next.
  • Tomorrow 5/29, a live webinar on stepping back and preparing for back-to-school.
  • *New* Delete, rename, and categorize food items on the web!
  • *New* Attendance audit logs automatically track if any changes were made to check-in and out records.
  • *New* Weekly invoice digest shows you all invoices that are scheduled to post in the coming week.

Read about the above and more in the May Product Spotlight.

Improvement
Feature update

Managing attendance records is easier than ever!

Kerry avatar
Shared by Kerry β€’ May 09, 2024

Hi there,

Big updates to attendance tracking are here that make it easier to understand and manage your attendance data.

Here's what changed:

  • Error flagging. You will now see attendance data errors, like a missing check-out record, flagged directly in your check-in report.
  • Edit modal for updating and adding attendance records. You can update your attendance data errors without leaving your check-in report. All you have to do is enter the edit modal from the call out at the top of the report – from there you can fix attendance data errors by adding missing records, deleting records, and adding completely new records.
  • Audit logs. You can access audit logs on your attendance data by exporting your check-in report and selecting β€œInclude attendance audit logs” when emailing the report.

And in the near future, if you have guardians check in and out students at your center, they’ll see a more streamlined check-in process that makes it easier to complete the process!

See these experiences in action here. πŸŽ‰

Event
Improvement
New feature

Pay periods, billing notification updates, mobile portfolios & more!

Claire avatar
Shared by Claire β€’ April 29, 2024

Get more value out of your brightwheel subscription with these new improvements, tips, and resources:

  • Quarterly & annual bill plans: You can now offer families more payment plan options.
  • Pay periods: Timecards and payroll reports will always default to the right date range when you set your pay period.
  • Mobile portfolios: When a portfolio is published, parents receive an email notification and they can see it right in the brightwheel app.
  • Billing notifications: You can unsubscribe from all billing notification emails, and soon there will be a weekly digest of upcoming invoices.
  • Tomorrow 5/1, TAW webinar: Get inspiration to celebrate your teachers, just in time for Teacher Appreciation Week.

Read about the above and more in the April Product Spotlight.

Feature update

Billing-only staff role, streamlined documents, check-in improvements, & more!

Claire avatar
Shared by Claire β€’ March 25, 2024

As you start thinking about summer and fall, don't miss these tips and resources to "spring clean" your workflows with brightwheel.

  • The Paperwork tab: Forms & Requests and Shared Files are gamechangers for streamlining documents.
  • [On-demand webinar] Hiring staff: An ECE recruiter shares how to find teaching talent, how to build an active pipeline of candidates, and more.
  • *Coming soon* Billing-only role: In the coming weeks, you'll be able to give an accountant, bookkeeper, or other financial staff access to billing but nothing else in brightwheel.
  • *Coming soon* Check-in improvements: Exciting updates such as an improved guardian check-in experience and easier correction of attendance errors in the check-in report are coming these next few weeks!

Read about the above and more in the March Product Spotlight.

Improvement
New feature
Event

Photo galleries, deleting forms, tax deductions, & more

Claire avatar
Shared by Claire β€’ February 26, 2024

Here are NEW updates for you to get even more value out of brightwheel this season 🌸

  • Photo and video galleries: Soon, guardians will be able to access a gallery view of photos on the brightwheel app.
  • Delete forms: You can now delete forms and submissions you no longer need.
  • Year-end tax statements for families: These have been delivered! Your payers can download their statements directly in brightwheel.
  • Tax deductions: Make sure you're taking advantage of the 7 different types of deductible expenses this year.
  • Administrators can view schedules on mobile devices: Quickly access student and staff schedules directly on your phone or tablet.
  • Webinar with a CPA on 3/6: Hear what you can do to run a profitable childcare business positioned for growth.

Read about the above and more in the February Product Spotlight.