National Childcare Scheme Reconciliation Software for School Age Childcare Providers

I've had the pleasure of supporting more than 125+ school age childcare (SAC) providers across Ireland with their transition to their first purpose built wraparound and holiday camp software that handles bookings, payments and NCS subsidy management.

And the biggest challenge that comes up time and time again?

The amount of time spent managing National Childcare Scheme (NCS) reconciliation, attendance compliance and subsidy administration. For many providers, what should be straightforward administrative work turns into days of manual reconciliation, spreadsheets, attendance checks and reporting. Being able to support and see providers reduce those tasks from days to just a few hours has been incredibly rewarding, and it's one of the reasons we built these subsidy capabilities and workflows into Enrolmy.

In this article, I'll show you how Enrolmy helps Irish School Age Childcare (SAC) providers simplify NCS reconciliation, monitor attendance for compliance, and reduce administrative workload.

The administrative challenges providers face

Every month, before and after school club services complete a familiar list of administrative tasks.

These include:

reconciling NCS subsidy payments against invoices

monitoring attendance for NCS compliance

identifying children with persistent absences or under-attendance

communicating with families where required

preparing accurate information for reporting through Pobal and The Hive

maintaining accurate financial records

For a single-site provider, these tasks can take up a significant part of the working week. For organisations operating multiple childcare settings and franchises, the workload increases quickly, making manual processes increasingly difficult to manage. Many providers still rely on spreadsheets, paper registers and manual reconciliation. By the time a child reaches an attendance reporting threshold, administrators often have to piece together attendance records manually.

Reconciliation isn't simply about matching payments. It means checking attendance across multiple sessions, confirming subsidy entitlements, investigating discrepancies and making sure every subsidy claim remains accurate. For providers operating several services, those tasks quickly add up.

The providers we've worked with do an incredible job managing these responsibilities, but the software available to them hasn't always been designed around these requirements. That's exactly the problem Enrolmy was built to solve.

Enrolmy’s NCS reconciliation workflow

Enrolmy follows the same reconciliation process providers already use but automates the most time consuming parts.

Here's how it works.

Step 1 – Download your NCS payment statement

When your payment information becomes available through The Hive, simply download your standard NCS statement.

Step 2 – Upload it into Enrolmy

Upload the file directly into Enrolmy's Subsidy Management Module.

No reformatting.
No spreadsheets.
No manual preparation.

Step 3 – Automatic reconciliation

Enrolmy automatically matches each subsidy payment to the child, their booking and the relevant invoice, significantly reducing the need for manual reconciliation.

What could otherwise take hours of manual checking can be completed in seconds. Rather than simply recording subsidy payments, Enrolmy supports the complete reconciliation process, helping administrators save time while maintaining accurate financial records.

​Want to see the NCS reconciliation workflow in action? Book a demo with our Irish team →

Monitoring attendance for core caps funding

Under the National Childcare Scheme, providers must monitor attendance to ensure subsidy claims remain accurate.

This includes identifying:

children who have been continuously absent for four consecutive weeks

children who have consistently under-attended against their booked hours

situations where providers are required to notify Pobal and update subsidy claims where appropriate.

Keeping on top of these requirements manually can be difficult—particularly across multiple services. Enrolmy makes this much simpler by highlighting attendance patterns as they develop.

Providers can immediately see:

children approaching attendance thresholds

children who have exceeded those thresholds

which families may need to be contacted

Rather than searching through registers or spreadsheets, administrators have a clear visual overview of attendance and can act before compliance deadlines are reached.

Communication with parents can also be managed directly within the platform, creating a clear record of attendance-related communications when they're needed.

A better experience for parents

The benefits aren't limited to providers.

Parents using Enrolmy have access to a straightforward online portal where they can:

make bookings

review invoices

see their NCS subsidy contribution

make payments

request booking changes

manage their child's information

Providing parents with greater visibility reduces routine phone calls and emails while giving families a clearer understanding of how their childcare fees are calculated.

Providers can accept online payments, allowing parents to pay invoices in full or make part-payments before or after NCS subsidies have been applied.

The result is fewer overdue accounts, fewer administrative conversations about payments and a better experience for everyone involved.

Frequently Asked Questions

How does Enrolmy automate NCS reconciliation for Irish SAC providers?

Enrolmy follows the same three-step reconciliation process providers already use, but automates the most time consuming parts. You download your NCS payment statement from The Hive as normal, upload it directly into Enrolmy's Subsidy Management Module, and Enrolmy automatically matches each subsidy payment to the child, their booking, and the relevant invoice. No reformatting, no spreadsheets, no manual line-by-line checking. What typically takes hours can be completed in seconds.

What are Core Funding Caps under the National Childcare Scheme?

Core Funding Caps are attendance-based compliance requirements under the NCS that limit how long a child can be continuously absent or under-attending before a provider is required to notify Pobal and update their subsidy claim. The two key thresholds are four consecutive weeks of absence and persistent under-attendance against booked hours. Providers are responsible for monitoring these thresholds across every child and every session and acting before a threshold is reached, not after.

What are the 4-week and 8-week rules under NCS attendance monitoring?

Under NCS, providers must track whether a child has been continuously absent for four consecutive weeks. If a child reaches this threshold, the provider is required to notify Pobal and may need to update or suspend the subsidy claim. Persistent under-attendance against booked hours must also be monitored on an ongoing basis. These aren't once-a-term checks, they require active monitoring across every enrolled child, every week. For providers managing these requirements manually, the workload adds up quickly.

How does Enrolmy help providers stay on top of Core Funding Cap attendance thresholds?

Enrolmy tracks attendance patterns as they develop and highlights them automatically. Administrators can see at a glance which children are approaching an attendance threshold, which have exceeded one, and which families may need to be contacted. Rather than searching through registers or spreadsheets at the end of the month, providers have an ongoing visual overview of attendance across all their services. Communication with parents can also be managed directly within the platform, creating a clear record when it's needed.

Can parents see their NCS subsidy contribution through Enrolmy?

Yes. Parents using Enrolmy have access to an online portal where they can view their invoices, see exactly how their NCS subsidy has been applied to their fees, make payments, request booking changes, and manage their child's information. Giving parents this visibility reduces routine phone calls and billing queries, and gives families a clearer understanding of how their childcare costs are calculated.

How much time can SAC providers save on NCS admin by using Enrolmy?

Providers we've worked with across Ireland have reduced tasks that previously took days down to a few hours. The biggest time saving comes from automated reconciliation, matching NCS subsidy payments to bookings and invoices no longer requires manual cross-referencing. Attendance monitoring for Core Funding Caps, which previously meant searching through spreadsheets and paper registers, is handled automatically. For multi-site organisations, the time savings are even more significant.

Is Enrolmy suitable for small SAC providers, or is it designed for large organisations?

Enrolmy works for SAC settings of all sizes, from single site providers running one before and after school club to organisations operating multiple settings and franchise networks. Enrolmy software scales to the complexity of the operation. Small providers benefit from not having to maintain complex spreadsheets; larger organisations benefit from having all their settings, attendance data, and NCS reconciliation in one place rather than managed separately across each site.

What does Enrolmy help with beyond NCS reconciliation?

Beyond NCS reconciliation and Core Funding Cap monitoring, Enrolmy handles parent bookings, online payments, child enrolments and health and safety compliance, invoice management, Xero integration, parent email communications, staff rostering and more. Parents can book sessions, pay invoices and make part-payments, and receive attendance-related communications directly through the platform. For providers, this means fewer overdue accounts, fewer back-and-forth emails about payments or session changes, and a complete record of all parent communications alongside the financial data.

Getting started

If you're currently managing NCS reconciliation or attendance compliance manually—or relying on spreadsheets that have grown increasingly difficult to maintain—we'd be happy to show you how Enrolmy can help.

Our platform has been developed around the day-to-day workflows of Irish School Age Childcare providers, supporting providers of every size to reduce administration, improve financial accuracy and stay on top of NCS requirements.

If you'd like to see how Enrolmy could support your settings, we'd love to arrange a personalised demonstration. Talk to us →