Guardian Care Stops Child Care Providers From Losing Thousands of Dollars

NEW YORK, Sept. 14, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- One of the biggest problems facing child care centers is non-paying clients. Child care providers typically experience several delinquent or non-paying parents per year, amounting to thousands of dollars in business losses. In creating the world's first payment reporting and collection service for the child care industry, Guardian Care today announced the launch of their website-based application, ProviderGuard, to the public.

The child care center, kindergarten and preschool daycare industry is particularly vulnerable to non-payers. Providers and child care center owners are traditionally soft-hearted and therefore, perhaps more lenient than they should be in chasing late payments. They are also more vulnerable to repeat offenders who consistently skip around from child care center to child care center, leaving a trail of unpaid bills in their wake. Add to that the high cost of using a debt collection company to recoup parents' unpaid bills, and you have an industry-wide problem. This is an unsolved problem which the innovative New York-based company Guardian Care (GuardianCareSoftware.com) has made it their mission to solve.

With ProviderGuard, child care facility owners gain access to a national online database that contains payment history information about their clients that is specific to the child care industry. This enables center owners to preserve the financial soundness of their business. Parents may also request a report to see if they have been reported to the database, particularly if they are worried about having any negative information documented against them due to their past late or unpaid child care bills, or to clarify posted information.

The child care provider industry in the US is primarily comprised of small, privately-owned day care and preschool facilities. Small businesses are most vulnerable to the negative effects of non-paying clients. One too many delinquent families can even force a small business to have to close, leaving not only the business negatively impacted, but all the clients of that business, and their children suddenly stranded and without a care provider at all.

"Most providers are unable to pay the expensive fees that are associated with reporting clients to traditional collection agencies, and as a result, a vast majority of delinquent parents are repeat offenders, who are never held accountable for their trail of unpaid child care bills at various facilities," says Guardian Care software developer Giovanni Paul.

"This is why we developed ProviderGuard -- to help small businesses that are vulnerable to non-payment fraud, and provide information in an easy-to-use website based system. Child care center owners can log in to our website from any computer and access the database and our online collection service, no matter where they are."

Users of this innovative service are already seeing the benefits: "I lost $7,800 in one year from parents who did not pay for services," said Wendell Dejoie, owner of Agame Sports of Loganville, GA. "I later found out from another provider in town that this particular family did the same thing to them the year before!"

"Now, when I process a new client application, I can quickly log into the ProviderGuard database and find out if families have had any past non-payment issues on their record. I can also report about any bad payers I have had to the ProviderGuard database. The database is national, so it can save thousands for providers like me across the country, and in the long run, the child care industry could save millions of dollars annually."

The ProviderGuard website allows users to constantly report clients in real time, creating an ever-growing, national database. Paid members have access to the only source of information in the US that allows child care center owners to assess the risk of new potential clients.

"We want to ensure that child care providers are completely informed if a client has had past payment issues, so the provider can suggest appropriate measures and decide how to best manage the situation. Whether that is by denying service, or through a more mutually beneficial solution such as asking for pre-payments or security deposits, it's all up to the providers," said Sharquana Robertson, the COO and co-founder of Guardian Care.

"Maintaining business cash flow and being able to provide a consistent level of service is what providers need most. Non-paying customers can put a small facility out of business faster than any other factor, so ProviderGuard offers child care center owners access to valuable information that will save them thousands of dollars per year, hours of grief and ultimately, their business."

To introduce ProviderGuard to child care facility or preschool owners around the country, Guardian Care is offering a free 14 day trial access to the database at www.guardiancaresoftware.com. Also visit the website to have many of the most frequently asked questions about Guardian Care answered. Once logged in, child care center owners can enter the name of clients to begin checking the child care industry payment histories of past and potential clients.

Try it today!

ABOUT GUARDIAN CARE

Guardian Care is a business application and services software development company that created ProviderGuard, the dynamic web-based solution for the child care industry. Guardian Care helps child care and preschool owners save thousands of dollars per year by providing access to a database of client payment history. Their proprietary application, ProviderGuard, aims to transform the negative payment trends in the child care industry, making it a better industry for providers and customers alike.

Contact: Judi Durand/703-725-6017/[email protected]

SOURCE Guardian Care