media release
Ezidebit Pty Ltd
National: 1300 763 256 Local: 07 3124 5500 Fax: 3124 5555 Email: info@ezidebit.com.au
PO Box 1388, Milton QLD 4064
6
November 2009
Bushkidz Daycare vie for national childcare awards and spills secret to
effective cashflow management
The purchase of BushKidz Brassall by the award-winning Ipswich-based childcare operator Bushkidz Daycare in
May not only secured the future for families, staff and the local community, it also prompted a new look at
business operations, and the decision to use the electronic payment powerhouse Ezidebit in collecting fees and
ultimately reducing administration time and costs.
The initial trial of Ezidebit has led to its time saving solutions for collecting and processing payments rolled out
across all Bushkidz Daycare centres, and the system being adopted as “Best Practice”. This is a business decision
that childcare operators around the country are making – turning to Ezidebit for a range of reasons.
Bushkidz Daycare is the 2008/09 State Winner of the Commonwealth Bank Small Business Champion Awards
and on November 14 will contest the national titles in Sydney. The group has also won the Ipswich Business
Achiever Awards for Tuition Training and Children's Services for the past two years running.
Integral to the group’s success in a notoriously difficult business sector is their commitment to every individual
child in their education and care, to their staff and to maintaining parent involvement and empowerment.
The May purchase of Bushkidz’ fourth centre - an apparently unviable childcare centre which was trading at
around 45% capacity – and the resulting business development and training since injected, has resulted in
effectively doubling the centre numbers.
BushKidz Brassall is now successfully trading at 95%. It is a replica of the success the group achieved with their
first two centres.
“Bushkidz Daycare is a family-owned and operated business, one which sees us employing just under 50 people
and caring for children from almost 400 families. This requires sound business management principles, a clear
understanding of our sector, and sensible, careful cashflow management,” said Company Director of Bushkidz
Daycare, Brent Stokes.
Stokes said by signing 100% of Bushkidz families onto a tailored customer payment plan from Ezidebit, the
group had benefitted in three key ways.
“Firstly, the Ezidebit system won back at least four hours per week per director of the group – allowing us the
time and space to do what we do well, in focusing on staff training, quality management for the children,
marketing and business development,” said Stokes.
“Secondly, by rolling out all of our families onto Ezidebit, it meant day care fees were directly debited from
either bank accounts or credit cards and then seamlessly administered by Ezidebit. This translates into a
remarkable cash flow increase, and an excellent predictive cashflow analysis.
MEDIA RELEASE: Bushkidz keep cash flowing with leading edge payment solutions
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“In fact, the system has reduced our debtor days from a previous average of 14 to now just 7.7 days, meaning
cash is now flowing far more freely for the group, allowing us to reinvest more into the centres.”
Stokes said the childcare sector was made up of businesses with historically poor cash flow and payment
cultures, and he was well aware of this, having experienced it firsthand. “Busy parents were simply forgetting to
pay their fees and this caused major cash flow interruptions for our centres, not to mention time spent chasing
fees,” he said.
“These days, time spent perusing Customer Account Balances or chasing balances is almost non-existent, while
at the same time we have created a positive client experience for our parents.”
“Thirdly, the training and support that Ezidebit provided from a management and technical side made the
changeover seamless. A tailored solution was delivered, meaning that when we needed to change over to the
new Child Care Management System of reporting and claiming Child Care Benefits in early 2009, it was all
incorporated seamlessly into the process.”
Ezidebit Chief Executive Officer Charlie Holland says flexibility allows centre administration to set a regular
amount or vary the amounts of each payment thereby providing mutual benefits for the centre and peace of
mind for parents. “We currently have almost 2200 child care business across Australia experiencing the benefits
of Ezidebit outsourced payment solutions,” he said.
On average in the childcare sector, Ezidebit’s time saving solutions for collecting and processing payments have
seen an estimated $50,000 of cash flowing back through the provider.
Established in 1998, Ezidebit offered the first specialised automated Direct Debit and Credit Card transactions
service in Australia and is now recognized as the industry leader processing in excess of half a million
transactions per month on behalf of more than 5,000 businesses from multiple industries.
Bushkidz Daycare
2008 State Winner Commonwealth Bank Small Business Champion Awards
2008 Ipswich Business Achiever Awards - Tuition Training and Children's Services
2009 Ipswich Business Achiever Awards - Tuition Training and Children’s Services
2009 State Winner Commonwealth Bank Small Business Champion Awards
For further media information or interviews relating to Ezidebit contact Kath Rose @ Kath Rose & Associates
t: (07) 3357 9054 m: 0416 291 493 or e: kath@kathrose.com
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