Features
Every job of the day, in one place.
BrightStart replaces the spreadsheets, chat groups, printed registers and paper incident books with one calm, connected system.
Signature powers
The complex made simple — in real time.
Capacity, ratios and waiting-list planning are the hardest part of running a centre. BrightStart turns them into three calm dashboards that update the second something changes.
Real-time capacity tracker
See every room's occupancy the moment a child is checked in or out — with a clear signal when a class is full, nearly full, or has room to spare.
Real-time staff-to-child ratio
Ratios recalculate on every check-in, sick note and shift change. If a room drifts out of compliance, you'll know before an inspector ever could.
Waiting-list forecasting
BrightStart predicts when a spot will open, which class it's in and which teacher it belongs to — then suggests exactly which children on the waiting list to offer it to. What used to take a morning takes a minute.
— Everyday operations
Dashboard
The day at a glance — children in, staff on duty, alerts and quick actions.
Children
Full profiles with reports, forms, attachments, incidents. Drop-outs preserved without breaking ratios.
Teachers & staff attendance
Profiles, expiries and daily attendance. Sick teachers auto-trigger ratio suggestions.
Classrooms
Teacher-child pairing, room capacity and a visual map of every classroom.
— The daily flow
Attendance & QR check-in
Register plus a printable QR at reception for parent-led check-in and pickup.
Alerts
Late drop-offs, late pickups, unauthorised collection attempts — all with red-badge urgency.
Daily log
Meals, naps, nappies, mood, activities — the classroom diary parents love.
Photos
Share to a whole room or a single family. Tap to view or download.
— Growth & communication
Waiting list
Enrolment enquiries from your public website — accept or decline in one click.
Enquiries inbox
General questions from the public site, treated like email.
News & newsletters
Quick news items and longer newsletters, shared with the whole community.
Events
Trips, meetings, celebrations. Parents see them instantly in their portal.
Branded email broadcasts
Send custom, branded emails to one parent, an entire classroom, or the whole school — from your own sender address.
Digital enrolment form
Parents fill out the digitised enrolment form directly in the parent portal. Every field pre-populates the child's profile, and BrightStart recommends the best teacher and class based on age, special needs and other requirements.
In-app instant messaging
Parents and teachers chat directly inside the app — quick questions, updates and photos, all logged in one secure thread.
IT support tickets
Administrators can message BrightStart's IT support directly from the portal to log a system glitch or request a new feature — with full ticket history.
— Records & care
Incidents
Bumps, allergies, behaviour notes — drafted, polished with AI, then saved.
Assessments & reports
Structured reports with AI language polish that keeps the meaning.
Billing
Per-family invoices, academic-year filters, and Revolut Pay plus other card payments taken directly from the parent portal.
Resources
Policies, menus, printable forms — including a parent-fillable enrolment form.
— Superpowers
Ask BrightStart anything.
AI search understands plain English and answers instantly from your live centre data — no filters, no reports, no menus. It's the fastest way to know what's happening across every room, right now.
- Cross-checks children, staff, ratios and billing
- Answers in seconds, not screens of clicks
Revenue management & credit control
Track invoices, payments and outstanding balances in real time. Automated reminders, ageing reports and one-click statements keep cash flow healthy without the chasing.
Users & audit
Role-based access with a complete audit log of every action.
Email log & digest
Every email logged. Send the daily parent digest manually or on autopilot at 4 pm.
Parent View
See exactly what a parent sees, read-only for 15 minutes — a controlled window for security checks and troubleshooting, fully audited.
White-label branding
Match your school's brand end to end — logo, colours, sender domain and parent portal. BrightStart disappears; your school shines.
Localised for local law
Ratios, record-keeping and reporting tailored to your country's childcare regulations — so compliance is built in, not bolted on.
Multiple languages
The whole platform is available in multiple languages so every parent and teacher can work in the one they know best.
Customisable
Fields, workflows and terminology adapt to how your centre actually runs — not the other way around.
Simple adoption
Switching systems shouldn't be scary.
Most centres put off changing software because migration feels like a cliff edge. BrightStart is designed to make the move boringly straightforward — with a real person by your side the whole way, and training that doesn't cost extra.
Onboarding from a spreadsheet
Drop in a simple spreadsheet of children, families and staff and BrightStart digitises your entire centre — no CSV wrangling, no vendor lock-in, no month-long project. A seamless migration path off any legacy system.
A dedicated account manager
Every new centre is paired with a technical account manager who owns your implementation end to end — configuring the system to your workflows, importing your data and staying with you long after go-live.
Free training for your team
Administrators, teachers and reception staff all get hands-on training sessions — included, not billed. Your team walks into day one already confident.
Automations that run in the background.
- • Late-arrival alerts at 9:30 am — self-clearing when the child arrives.
- • Late-pickup alerts at 3:00 pm for anyone still on-site.
- • Daily parent digest emailed at 4:00 pm.
- • Ratio suggestions whenever a teacher is marked sick.
- • Teacher history recorded automatically on every classroom change.