Crèche management software for South Africa

Know who paid.
See who still owes.

Keep learner balances, payments and statements together. Find unpaid accounts and prepare your next follow-up from your phone.

See the process in a 10-minute demonstration. We’ll help you understand setup and choose the right plan for your centre.

Request a 10-minute demo → Set up my centre

Free account setup. Paid features from R99/month. No card needed to register. See pricing

Built by Siyabonga Ndlovu, who runs a crèche in Hazyview, Mpumalanga, and uses Zande to run it.

Zande dashboard showing expected fees, paid fees, outstanding fees and learners who owe for a demo centre.
Zande parent portal on a phone: the child's fee status, a downloadable statement and a way to report an absence.
Umthombo Demo Crèche Sample data
Expected in September 2026
R18,450.00
Paid
R15,010.00
Outstanding
R3,440.00
Who owes
11 learners
R24
DBE subsidy per child per day — your register claims it correctly
2 min
Daily attendance on your phone — no paper, no Excel
1 click
DOE register built and exported at month-end
R0 to start
Free to set up — no card, no contract, no setup fee
One parent, one payment

A fee, a payment, and the answer.

Four real screens from the demonstration centre — fictional learners, fictional parents, real arithmetic. This is the whole job Zande does with money, start to finish.

  1. 1

    The parent owes R500

    Ayanda’s fee for September is R500 and nothing has been paid against it. The account says so before you ask anyone.

    Zande works this out. The fee comes from the class; the balance is the fee minus what has been recorded.

    A learner account in Zande on a phone. Ayanda Example, overdue R500.00, nothing not yet due and nothing paid in advance, with the fee payer Nokuthula Example listed below.
  2. 2

    You record R300

    The parent pays R300 in cash at the gate. You record it once, on the phone in your hand, and the account answers R200.

    You enter the R300. Zande does the subtraction, and does it the same way every time.

    The same learner account after recording the payment. Ayanda Example now shows overdue R200.00.
  3. 3

    The statement already says R200

    R500 charged, R300 paid, R200 outstanding — on the statement, without anybody rebuilding it. Download it as a PDF, or open a WhatsApp message with it ready to send.

    Zande prepares the message. You send it. Nothing leaves the centre until you press send.

    The Fee Statements screen for September. Ayanda Example shows R500.00 charged, R300.00 paid and a R200.00 balance, with a PDF button and a WhatsApp button beside it.
  4. 4

    And the list of who still owes is current

    The overdue total moved the moment you recorded the payment. On the 1st you open one screen and it is already right — no evening spent working it out.

    Zande keeps the list. Who to follow up, how long each account has been overdue, and whether you have a number that reaches anyone.

    The Overdue fees screen listing the learners with outstanding balances, the total overdue, and how long each amount has been owing.

That is the workflow. Ten minutes on a call and you can decide whether it fits your centre.

Request a 10-minute demo → Or set up my centre
The demonstration

What happens when you ask.

What you see
The workflow above, on a demonstration centre — a fee, a payment recorded live, the balance, the statement and the overdue list. Then whatever you ask about.
How long
About ten minutes. Longer if you have questions, and you should.
Do you need an account
No. Nothing to install, nothing to sign up for, and no child or financial records needed to see it.
How to ask
The button opens WhatsApp with a message already written. Add two times that suit you and send it.
What happens next
Siyabonga replies to agree a time with you. The demonstration happens on a call or in person, whichever you prefer.

Sending the message is a request, not a booking — the time is only fixed once we have both agreed it.

Request a 10-minute demo →
The problem

Does this sound familiar?

Running a crèche is hard enough. The money admin should not be the hardest part.

A register with a gap is a claim you cannot make

The DBE pays R24 per child, per day, on a register that is complete and in the right format. A missing day is a lost claim for that child.

✓ Zande builds the register from the attendance you take each day

Chasing fees one WhatsApp at a time

Every month the same parents, the same conversations, the same half-promises. You know roughly who owes. You do not know exactly, and working it out takes an evening.

✓ Every balance on one screen, with WhatsApp reminders you send from it

A payment lands with a reference that matches nobody

An EFT arrives as "school fees". Which child? A parent asks for a statement and it waits until the weekend, because the balance has to be worked out first.

✓ Bank-statement matching, and a statement for any learner in minutes
Fix this for your centre →
The money, plainly

Four figures. Every month.

Zande opens on one question: where does the centre's money stand this month? The answer is always the same four figures, in the same order.

Expected
Every active learner's fee for the month, added up. Reduced fees and sibling discounts already applied.
Paid
What has actually been recorded as paid: cash, EFT or card, with the date and method.
Outstanding
Expected minus paid. The number you would otherwise work out by hand at month-end.
Who owes
The learners behind that number, one tap away, each with a statement and a reminder ready to send.
Zande on a phone: Expected R18,450.00, Paid R15,010.00, Outstanding R3,440.00, Who owes 11 learners, for a 60-learner demo centre in September.
Inside the app

This is the actual app.

Real screens from a demo centre with 60 learners and sample data, mid-month. Nothing mocked up, no customer's records.

Zande dashboard for a demo centre: Expected R18,450.00, Paid R15,010.00, Outstanding R3,440.00, Who owes 11 learners, with the day's tasks above. Fee statements for the month: each learner's fee, what was paid, the balance, a PDF for each, and whether it has been sent. Payments for the month: paid learners with method and date on the left, outstanding learners with a Record button on the right. Daily attendance by class: present, late and absent marked per learner, with the DOE register one tap away. Learner list showing class, parent, phone, monthly fee and the day each family pays. ECD subsidy claim and audit checklist for the quarter, with the DOE register and claim invoice ready to download. WhatsApp fee reminders: the parents owing this month, each with the amount and a Send button.

Where the money stands, then what needs you today. The four figures first; below them, the tasks that move them.

Parent portal on a phone: the child's fee status, a downloadable statement, receipts for every recorded payment, and a way to report an absence.

Parents get their own page. What they owe, how to pay, and the exact reference to use — so the money lands matched.

R24
per child · per day · DBE subsidy
The money most centres miss

Registered with DOE?
The DBE pays R24 per child. Most centres miss some of it.

For DOE-registered centres, the subsidy only pays out if your attendance register is correct every single day. Miss a day and you lose the claim for that child. Zande takes attendance on your phone and builds the register automatically — in the exact format your province requires.

How many subsidised places has your district approved? 60 places
R30,240/month at full attendance
60 places × R24 × 21 days attended. That is the ceiling at full attendance, so a month with absences or a closure pays less. Not sure how many places you hold? Zande shows which learners are on your approved list and which are not.
Build the register this is claimed on → WhatsApp us your number How to claim the subsidy: full guide
Everything you need

Built around how your centre actually works.

Every tool an ECD owner needs — from the first enrolment to monthly admin — in one clean interface. Works for DOE-registered and private centres.

Attendance & DOE Registers

Mark attendance on your phone in under 2 minutes. Zande builds the attendance register automatically, in the format your district accepts. Submit at month-end — no reformatting.

Learner Management

Full learner profiles, age groups, fee classes, enrolment dates, and every child's documents scanned and stored in one place.

Fee Collection & Statements

Record payments, track outstanding balances, and send the statement straight to the parent on WhatsApp — by email too if they want it. Zande works out who to chase and writes the message. You check it and send.

Statements out
1 tap
Reminders
Drafted

Compliance Tracker

Track every document, certificate, and inspection date. Get notified 30 days before anything expires.

Incident Reports

Log incidents, notify parents, maintain records. All timestamped and stored.

Staff Management

Staff records, roles, contact details and start dates — all in one place.

Financial Reports

Monthly collection summaries, outstanding reports, and audit-ready records exported in one click.

Fee Reconciliation

Upload the statement PDF straight from your banking app — Capitec, FNB, Standard Bank, ABSA or Nedbank — and Zande matches the deposits it can identify to the right learner. The ones it cannot place go in one list for you to sort out, instead of hiding in a statement until month-end. On another bank? Send us a sample.

Online Enrolment Pro

Share one link. Parents apply online with their child's details and documents — applications drop straight into your pending list to approve, waitlist or decline in a tap.

Child Progress Growth

Track each child against the Early Learning Development Areas (ELDA). Capture observations through the year and produce a progress report parents can see.

Expense Tracking Pro

Log your centre's running costs and see income against expenses each month — the real picture of what your centre actually keeps.

Multi-Site Growth

Run several branches from one login. Each site keeps its own learners, staff and registers, and you see the whole group in one owner view.

Parent Portal Every plan

Give parents a secure login to see what they owe and why, month by month, with their invoices, receipts, statements and the daily class update. They sign in with their phone number and child's name. On every plan, from R99.

Free centre website Growth

Every Growth centre gets a clean, mobile-friendly website — your logo, classes, fees and an online enquiry form — so parents find you on Google and apply. We build and host it for you.

Included with Growth
R0
Built & hosted
for you
Set up free →
Zande, the Zande guide, waving

Meet Zande

Your guide to simpler crèche admin.

From adding your first learner to seeing what needs attention, Zande shows you what to do next — on the screen where you do it. No training, no manual to read first.

Why Zande exists

Built inside a working crèche.

Zande wasn't designed in an office park. It runs a real ECD centre every single morning.

SN
The founder

"I run Bethel Crèche here in Hazyview. I got tired of chasing fees and rebuilding DOE registers by hand, so I built the software I wished existed. Every feature has to work at my centre before it reaches yours. Zande isn't built by a startup that never heard of the DOE. It's built by a principal, in rand, for South Africa."

Siyabonga Ndlovu
Founder, Zande · Principal, Bethel Crèche, Hazyview
Message me directly
Our own centre

Zande runs the daily attendance, fee tracking and DOE registers at a real crèche in Hazyview, Mpumalanga — the centre it was built in. Every month-end register you export, we export too.

Z
Our home centre
Hazyview · Mpumalanga · DOE-registered
Same problems

We didn't imagine these problems. We chase the same fees, reconcile the same unmatched EFTs, submit to the same district offices, and answer to the same DOE deadlines as you do.

Z
The Zande team
Built in Hazyview, made for South Africa
The test

Every feature has to survive a real morning at the centre — 6:45 drop-off, one phone, patchy signal, a queue of parents. If it doesn't work there, it doesn't ship.

Z
How we build
Phone-first · low data · no training needed

Software from inside the sector, not above it. Set up free today.

Set up free →
Pricing

Less than one learner's monthly fee.

Across South Africa a place costs R250 to R370 a month, so R299 is one learner. It is also less than the DBE pays you for 13 children attending a single day. Set up your centre free, then unlock the full app from R99/month. No lock-in, no setup fees.

Billed monthly, in Rand. No annual contract.

Prices are in Rand, per month. Vuhosi Capital (Pty) Ltd is not VAT registered. No VAT is charged. A card subscription is cancelled from Settings; you keep access to the end of the period you have paid for.

Starter
For small centres getting started.
R99/month
Up to 40 learners · R2.48 per learner
Set up free
  • Up to 40 learners
  • Attendance register
  • DOE register (auto-built)
  • Fee recording & statements
  • WhatsApp fee reminders
  • Parent portal — fees, receipts & attendance
  • Financial reports & export
Best value
Pro
For active centres ready to automate fees, attendance, and records.
R299/month
Up to 100 learners · R2.99 per learner
Set up free
  • Everything in Starter
  • Up to 100 learners
  • Staff records
  • Expense tracking
  • Incident reports
  • Online enrolment portal
Growth
For established, growing centres — several branches, child progress reports and your own centre website.
R499/month
Unlimited learners · R3.33 per learner at 150
WhatsApp us to set it up →
  • Everything in Pro
  • Unlimited learners
  • Free centre website
  • Child progress reports (ELDA)
  • Multiple sites / branches
  • Support directly with the founder on WhatsApp
  • Done-for-you setup — we load your learners

Full pricing detail, what is in each plan, and how you pay →

Your parents keep paying the way they already pay.

EFT, cash, or a SASSA grant — straight into your own Capitec, FNB, Standard Bank or ABSA account. Zande matches the deposits to the learners. Nothing changes for the parent.

EFTCashSASSA grantNo card on fileNo debit order
Switching

Bring your spreadsheet. We load it for you.

Nobody starts from nothing. Send us whatever you already keep and we set your centre up for you.

10 minutes

Send us the file

Excel, CSV, or a photo of the register. Whatever you actually keep. WhatsApp it to us.

We load it for you

We do the work

We map your columns, set up your classes, and load your learners and fee history. Not a template you fill in yourself.

2 minutes every morning

You check it

You open Zande and your centre is already there. If something looks wrong, we fix it before you pay anything. After that it is two minutes a morning to mark the register.

Whatever you keep it in today
A hardcover attendance book An Excel file A WhatsApp thread with the parents A photo of the register on your phone

We recently set up a centre with over 300 children from a single fee spreadsheet — learners, classes, payment dates and eight months of payment history, loaded for them.

Start free →

Import is free. Support is a WhatsApp message to a person in your time zone, not a chatbot in another country.

FAQ

Common questions

Yes. Take attendance on your phone each day. At month-end, click Export — Zande builds the register in the exact format your DOE office requires. No reformatting, no manual typing.
R24 per child, per day attended, paid on the subsidised places your district has approved, not on every learner on your roll. It is means-tested and capped by your provincial allocation. A centre with 60 approved places, at full attendance across 21 days, would reach R30,240 in a month, and less in any month with absences or a closure. The claim is built from your daily attendance register.
Sign up and add your learners for free. When you're ready, pay from R99/month and we unlock the full app — attendance, fees, statements, registers and reports. Pay by card and it activates instantly and renews each month, or pay by EFT and we activate you within a day.
Yes — Zande is mobile-first. No download or app store. Open your phone browser, go to zande.online, log in. Works on any Android or iPhone.
Yes. Export your Excel file as CSV and upload it during setup. Zande maps the columns. If you get stuck, WhatsApp us and we do the import for you at no charge.
Each centre's data is kept in its own database file, Zande runs over HTTPS, and backups run every night with a copy kept off the server. Learner records are never shared or sold. Two things worth knowing. Our servers are in Manchester in the United Kingdom, not in South Africa, and we will say so here before that changes. And you can export your attendance registers as CSV and your fee statements as PDF whenever you want, so your records are never locked in. For what your centre has to do under POPIA, read our POPIA guide.
Yes. Zande works for all ECD centres — DOE-registered, private, and community-run. If you don't receive the DBE subsidy, the DOE register is optional. You still get fee tracking, parent invoices, learner records, WhatsApp reminders, online enrolment, and all other tools.
No contract, no lock-in. Pay month to month. A card subscription is cancelled from Settings; you keep access to the end of the period you have paid for. Your statements download as PDFs and your reports export as CSV at any time.
Not ready to sign up yet?
Take the free templates — attendance register, fee policy, and arrears letters. No email needed, no catch.
Get the free templates →
Before you put your centre's records in

Facts, not promises.

What is true about your data

  • Each centre's data is kept in its own database file. No centre can see another's.
  • Backups run every night, and a copy is kept off the server.
  • Zande runs over HTTPS.
  • Card payments are processed by Paystack. Zande never sees or stores your card number. EFT plans are paid by bank transfer.
  • Your statements download as PDFs and your reports export as CSV, at any time.
  • We comply with POPIA. Our privacy policy says what we collect and why.

A person answers

WhatsApp 066 238 2296 or email support@zande.online. Both are answered by the people who built Zande, not a bot.

How support works → · System status · Full pricing

Ready to start?

Know where the money stands
by this afternoon.

Set up your centre free and add your learners. Activate a paid plan when you're ready. No card to sign up, no IT support, no training.

Set up free →

Rather have help? WhatsApp us and we'll set up your centre with you — free.

No card to sign up Set up free Set up in one afternoon POPIA compliant
Set up free →