Playground can be customized to meet your program needs and preferences by navigating to the Settings tab in your Admin dashboard. The article below outlines the most important settings and decisions you’ll need to make to get started with Playground. For more information about all settings, see here.
Note: Most settings are designed to toggle on/off. A setting is “on” if the toggle is to the right and green in color. It is “off” if the toggle is to the left and gray in color. The description of the setting will specify what happens when it is on or off.
The following set-up will take you approximately 5-10 minutes to complete. Prefer a video? Watch here for guidance.
Center Details
The General tab includes general information about and settings for your center, attendance policies, communication policies, guardian permissions, and teacher permissions.
To get started with Playground, please confirm your Center settings within the General tab are correct.
Reply-to emails: Add/confirm your reply-to-email address is correct.
Taxpayer Identification Number: Add/confirm your Taxpayer ID Number.
Teacher Settings
Within General tab, navigate down to Teacher Permissions.
Toggle on or off the following settings based on your program's needs:
Setting | Turn on if... | Turn off if... |
Guardian contact information accessibility | You want teachers to be able to see guardian contact information. | You do not want teachers to see guardian contact information. |
Hide teacher last names from parents | You want to hide teachers last names from parents. | You want parents to see teachers last names. |
Track staff current classroom | You want staff to select their classroom when clocking in. This ensures correct ratios for classrooms | You do not need teachers to select a classroom at clock in. We recommend this stay on |
Lesson plans require approval
| You want lesson plans created by staff to be reviewed by an admin before families or staff can see them. | You are comfortable with staff publishing lesson plans without admin review. |
Mobile app restrictions while clocked out | You want staff to only see a limited version of the app while they’re clocked out. When this is turned on, they can only access their calendar, payroll, paperwork, and schedule while clocked out. | You are comfortable with staff being able to see the full app even when they’re clocked out. |
Restrict teacher check-in hours | You want staff to only clock in within five minutes of their scheduled shift. We recommend leaving this on for more accurate time tracking. | You are comfortable with staff clocking in earlier than five minutes before their scheduled shift. |
Billing Setup
Navigate to the Billing tab in the top menu. This tab includes settings for your center’s billing cycles, processing fees, reminders, and autopay. We will review much of this in our onboarding calls, but there are 4 things that you should select before beginning onboarding.
Start at the General section
Default billing frequency: Choose whether your program bills families monthly or weekly. This sets the default for your entire program, but you can still adjust the billing frequency for individual students if certain families follow a different schedule.
Note: If you bill on a bi-weekly cadence, you should select “weekly.” Your Onboarding Manager will support you with custom billing set-up if you use any other cadence.
Scroll down to Weekly billing cycles or Monthly billing cycles, per your billing frequency
Weekly billing cycles:
Billing cycle ends on: Select the day of the week family payments are due (i.e., the billing due date)
Service dates: Select what each billing cycle covers from the 4 options:
Option | What it covers | Example |
Same as billing cycle | The most recent full week before your billing due date. | If your due date is Friday, October 10, this option will show service dates for October 4 – October 10. |
Weekdays | Monday through Friday of the current week (not tied to billing due date). | If today is Wednesday, October 8, this will show October 6 – October 10. |
Upcoming billing cycle | The entire week following your billing due date. | If your due date is Friday, October 10, this will show October 11 – October 17. |
Upcoming Weekdays [Recommended] | Monday through Friday of the next week (after billing due date). | If your due date is Friday, Oct 10, this will show October 13 – October 17. |
Monthly billing cycles:
Billing cycle ends on: Select the date in the month that family payments are due (i.e., the billing due date)
Service dates: Select what each billing cycle covers from the 4 options:
Option | What it covers | Example |
Same as billing cycle | The month leading up to the billing due date | If the due date is Friday, November 1, this option will show service dates for October 2 - November 1. |
Calendar Month | 1st - Last Day of the current month, regardless of billing due date | This will show October 1 - October 31, with payment due on your chosen day in October. |
Upcoming billing cycle | The month following your billing due date | If the due date is November 1, this option will show service dates for November 2 - December 1. |
Upcoming Calendar Month [Recommended] | 1st - Last Day of the month following the billing due date | This will show November 1 - November 30, with payment due on your chosen day in October. |
Scroll down to Processing fees
Pass credit card fees onto guardians: Toggle on if you would like to pass fees on
Pass ACH fees onto guardians: Toggle on if you would like to pass fees on
Note: We highly recommend turning these on.
💡Additional guidance on processing fees: When families pay their balances through the Playground app, a small processing fee is applied to the transaction. There are two types of fees: credit card fees and ACH fees. As a billing administrator, you can decide for each fee type whether your program or the families will cover the costs. This allows you to specify whether the program or the families pay the credit card fees and whether the program or the families pay the ACH fees.
Read more about processing fees at Playground here.
🚨 If you decide to absorb fees, we recommend covering the ACH fee only and passing on credit card fees.
4. Scroll down to "Mandatory Autopay"
Mandatory autopay: Toggle this “on” if you want to enroll all families in mandatory autopay when they add their payment method. Guardians will still need to consent and turn on autopay on their end before the autopay will run. This will enable Playground to charge families directly and reduce the need for you to chase down payments.
💡 We strongly recommend requiring families to set up auto pay. This helps ensure payments are received on time and eliminates the hassle of chasing down late payments. You can always make exceptions for specific families and exempt them from auto pay; your onboarding manager will show you how.
Overage Settings
Navigate to the Scheduling tab in the top menu.
The Scheduling Overage section allows you to set up automatic late pick-up fees for families. To get started, we’ll focus on late fees. (Read more about fee approvals here.)
Overage billing type: Select whether overage fees start at a certain time or apply anytime a student is at the center outside of their specific schedule
Overtime billing rate: Set the rate you charge for the overage fees
Default grace period: Set how long families have beyond pick-up before overage fees kick in. If you do not have a grace period, set this to “0 minutes”
💡At Playground, we do not support flat late pick-up fees. To ease your transition into Playground and ensure the overage fee feature provides the most value, we recommend setting fees as a rate per time period (for example: $1 per minute or $5 per minute). This structure allows you to rely on accurate reporting before charging and simplifies fee tracking.
Thank you for setting up your core settings! Your onboarding manager will take you through the next steps in your Onboarding Kick Off Call.