you will develop a working budget (not a start-up budget) for a childcare center. Your budget must include a minimum of 3 revenue items (funding streams) and 8 expenditures. Tuition is 1 funding stream, so breaking it down into age groups does not count as separate revenue items.
When operating a childcare center, revenue is generated from multiple sources. These can include, but are not limited to tuition, USDA food service reimbursement (free and reduced meal program), application/registration fees, fundraising, donor dollars, grants, etc.
A good rule of thumb when developing a budget for an operational childcare center is to keep costs (expenditures) as follows:
· Personnel costs (this includes payroll taxes) = 70%
· Facility costs including utilities = 10%
· Equipment costs = 5%
· Supplies = 3%
· Food = 3%
· All other categories = 9%
Remember that centers most often operate with a 20% reduction in capacity, so creating a budget based on 100% enrollment is not typically realistic.