Daycare Financial Model Template

Move to the Expense Model next and fill in your payroll data. The model pre-builds staffing ratios by age group based on common state licensing requirements — adjust these to match your state's specific ratios. Enter your hourly wage rates for lead teachers, assistant teachers, and directors separately, since these typically differ. Then work through the remaining expense categories: rent and utilities from your lease, food costs from your CACFP reimbursement rates and any co-pay, and fixed overhead items like insurance and licensing fees.

Daycare revenue has structural complexity that generic financial templates don't handle. Most centers collect tuition from private-pay families and government subsidies through CCAP, CCDF, or local childcare voucher programs, and these two income streams behave very differently. Private-pay is collected weekly or monthly and predictable. Subsidies arrive on state reimbursement cycles that lag enrollment by weeks, vary by child, and come with utilization requirements. A good daycare financial model separates these streams so you know your subsidy dependency ratio — the share of revenue that depends on government funding — and can stress-test what happens if subsidy rates change or reimbursements are delayed.