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Crèche Fee Agreement and Payment Policy
Most arrears at a South African crèche start with a conversation that was never written down. This page gives you the fee agreement and payment policy in full, filled in, plus a one-page version you can print and sign.
No email needed, no catch. Print it in black and white at any copy shop. It fits one side of A4.
What it is
The fee agreement is the written contract between your centre and the parent. It records what the parent pays, when it is due, what the fee covers, what happens when it is not paid, and how much notice a family must give before leaving.
The payment policy sits inside the same page. That is the part that turns a late account into a process with dates on it instead of an argument at the gate on a Monday morning.
This is your centre's own document. There is no government form for it and no official template. You write it, the parent signs it, and you keep the signed copy in the learner's file.
Who asks for it
No office issues this document to you. Three separate parties end up asking to see it.
The provincial education department, through your district ECD official. ECD moved from the Department of Social Development to the Department of Basic Education on 1 April 2022. Registration and subsidy now run through the provincial education department and its district ECD official, not the social development office. That official assesses your registration as a partial care facility under the Children's Act 38 of 2005 and works through your subsidy application. Many districts ask for your fee schedule as part of the application, and the subsidy file almost always does. Practice differs by province, so ask your district ECD official what they want to see. If you hold approved subsidised places at R24 per child per day attended, the official checks that what parents signed matches what you declared on the application.
Your accountant or auditor. Fee income in the annual financial statements has to rest on a source document. The signed agreement is what sits behind every debtor on your books. If the centre is an NPO or holds PBO status, a funder or a SARS reviewer works from the same trail.
A court, if an account gets that far. A magistrate's court cannot enforce an amount you cannot prove the parent agreed to. Note that the Small Claims Court is only open to a person suing in their own name. If your centre is registered as an NPC, a company, a close corporation or a trust, the Small Claims Court is closed to you and the claim goes to the magistrate's court, usually through an attorney. If you run the centre in your own name as a sole proprietor you can use the Small Claims Court yourself. Ask the clerk of your nearest magistrate's court which court applies to your centre and what the current claim limit is. Without a signed agreement you are asking the court to take your word for the amount and the due date.
What must appear on it
- Full name and ID number of the parent or guardian who signs, with a physical address, a cellphone number and one alternative contact.
- Full registered name and physical address of the centre, its registration or EMIS number, and the name of the person signing for it.
- The learner's full name, date of birth and the group or class the fee applies to, plus the start date.
- The monthly fee in rands, written in figures and in words, and the exact day of the month it falls due.
- A line stating that fees are payable monthly in advance for twelve months of the year and are not reduced for absence, illness, public holidays or centre holidays.
- What the fee covers. Daily hours of care, the programme, meals and snacks, and consumables.
- What the fee excludes, with an amount next to each item. Registration fee, late collection, outings, uniform, graduation.
- The subsidy line where the learner holds an approved subsidised place. The R24 per child per day attended is paid to the centre by the provincial education department, not by the parent. Show it separately from the balance the parent pays, so nobody can say the centre charged twice for the same place. Check your provincial subsidy conditions before you charge the parent of a subsidised child anything on top.
- The annual increase clause. The date the increase takes effect, the written notice period before it, and the ceiling on the increase.
- Full banking details of the centre, and the payment reference the parent must use on every deposit.
- A line stating that a deposit made without the correct reference cannot be allocated to the learner, and that the account will show as unpaid until the parent produces proof of payment.
- The late-payment steps written as day numbers, from the first reminder through to suspension of the place.
- Whether interest or a late fee is charged, and at what rate. If you charge nothing, say so.
- The withdrawal notice period, the requirement that notice is in writing, and what is payable if the notice is short.
- How cash is handled. Numbered receipt, signed, issued at the moment the money is taken, at the office only.
- A consent and confidentiality line. The parent consents to the centre keeping and using the learner's and the parent's information for care, health, safety, administration and departmental reporting, and the line names who at the centre may see the file. Under POPIA (Act 4 of 2013) processing a child's personal information needs the consent of a competent person, normally the parent or guardian.
- Signature lines for both parties with the date and place of signature, and a line where the parent confirms receiving a copy.
A filled-in example
Names, amounts, account numbers and ID numbers below are invented for illustration.
Little Acorns Educare Centre
14 Mkhwanazi Street, Kabokweni, Mpumalanga
Fee Agreement and Payment Policy , signed 12 January 2026
Parties
| Parent / guardian | Nomsa Mahlangu |
| ID number | 870312 0847 084 (example only) |
| Address | 22 Sikhwahlane Street, Kabokweni |
| Cellphone | 072 000 0000 |
| Alternative contact | Sipho Mahlangu, 083 000 0000 |
| Learner | Lethabo Mahlangu, born 4 August 2022 |
| Group and start date | Pre-school (3 to 4 years), from 19 January 2026 |
| Signed for the centre by | Thandi Sibiya, Principal |
Fees
| Item | Amount | When / notes |
|---|---|---|
| Registration fee, once-off, not refundable | R300 | On signature |
| Monthly fee, Pre-school group (five hundred and sixty rand) | R560 | Made up as set out in the two rows below |
| Departmental subsidy for an approved subsidised place (paid to the centre by the provincial education department, not by you) | R24 per day attended | Place approved from 19 January 2026. About R480 a month across about 20 attendance days. |
| Balance payable by the parent | R80 | 3rd of each month, in advance |
| Late collection after 17:30 | R30 per 15 minutes | Added to the next statement |
| Outings and graduation | Quoted per event | At least 14 days written notice |
On the subsidy line. The R24 per child per day attended is paid to the centre by the provincial education department. The parent does not pay it and does not receive it. It is shown here so that nobody can say the centre charged twice for the same place. Check the conditions attached to your provincial subsidy before you charge the parent of a subsidised child anything on top. What you may charge is set in the subsidy conditions and it differs by province. Ask your district ECD official.
The fee covers care and the daily programme from 06:45 to 17:30, Monday to Friday, breakfast, a cooked lunch and an afternoon snack, and all classroom consumables. The fee does not cover nappies, uniform, outings or graduation.
Fees are payable for twelve months of the year. The fee is not reduced for absence, illness, public holidays or centre holidays.
How to pay
| Bank | Capitec Business |
| Account name | Little Acorns Educare Centre |
| Account number | 1234 567 890 (example only) |
| Payment reference | LA0142 (use this exact reference on every payment) |
The reference field is usually all that appears on the centre's bank statement. Your own account name often does not show at all. A deposit that arrives without LA0142 cannot be allocated to this learner, and the account will show as unpaid until the parent produces proof of payment. No late-payment step is taken against an account once proof is produced. Save the centre as a beneficiary with the reference stored so it goes on automatically every month.
Cash is taken at the office only, between 07:00 and 09:00, against a numbered receipt written and signed at the moment the money is handed over. Do not hand money to a practitioner at the gate or in the classroom. Payment without a receipt cannot be traced.
Annual increase
Fees increase on 1 January each year. The centre gives written notice of the new amount by 31 October. The increase will not be more than 10 percent. The parent signs a new agreement each January at the new amount.
Late payment and non-payment
| Day | What the centre does |
|---|---|
| 3rd | Fee due |
| 7th | WhatsApp or SMS reminder with the outstanding amount |
| 10th | Written reminder and a full statement, handed over or emailed |
| 15th | Principal phones the parent and offers a written payment plan |
| 30 days overdue | Final written notice giving 14 days to pay in full or sign a payment plan |
| 45 days overdue | The place is suspended until the account is settled or a written plan is signed. Seven days written warning is given before suspension. |
No interest is charged on overdue accounts. The learner's records, report and belongings are never withheld.
Withdrawal
One calendar month written notice is required, given on or before the last day of a month. If notice is short, the following month's fee is payable. The registration fee is not refunded.
Information
The parent consents to the centre keeping and using the learner's and the parent's information for the care, health, safety and administration of the learner, and for reporting required by the provincial education department. The file is seen only by the principal and the person handling accounts.
Signed
Signed at Kabokweni on 12 January 2026.
| Parent / guardian: N. Mahlangu Nomsa Mahlangu | For the centre: T. Sibiya Thandi Sibiya, Principal |
| I received a signed copy of this agreement on 12 January 2026. N. Mahlangu | |
Names, dates and amounts are invented. Use your own centre's details.
What happens at inspection if you do not have it
Start with the honest version. A missing fee agreement is not a ground for closing a centre. This is not a fire clearance or a Certificate of Acceptability. What goes wrong is quieter than that, and it costs more over a year.
At a registration or monitoring visit. The district ECD official asks for your fee structure and often for one or two signed parent agreements as samples. A fee list on the wall with nothing signed behind it usually draws a recommendation on the visit report rather than a formal notice, because a parent contract is not a norms-and-standards requirement. Where the official does record it, the notice states its own date to fix it by. The real cost is a return visit and a file that carries an open item when your next application is assessed.
At the subsidy file. This is where it bites. If you hold approved subsidised places and the fee parents actually signed does not match the fee you declared on the subsidy application, the official queries the file. A query can hold the payment while it is sorted out. Forty approved places at R24 per day, across about 20 attendance days, is roughly R19 000 a month. Two months of query while you hunt for documents is close to R38 000 sitting still. The whole defence is paperwork that agrees with itself.
At the point where a parent stops paying. A family owes R3 360 across six months and stops answering the phone. You send a letter of demand or you hand the account to an attorney. Whichever route you take, the first question anyone asks is what the parent agreed to pay and by which day of the month. Screenshots of a WhatsApp group and a laminated fee list are thin. One signed page carrying the amount, the due date, the parent's ID number and the parent's signature ends the argument in about a minute.
At the increase. Without a signed increase clause, a parent who enrolled at R560 can refuse to pay R595 and be technically correct. You either absorb the difference for that family or you lose them. With the clause in the agreement and the October letter in the file, there is nothing to debate.
At the withdrawal. A family leaves on 28 November and tells you on 27 November. No notice clause means no claim on December, and the space stays empty into January while you recruit. Two or three of those a year at R560 a month is money that walks out the gate with nothing written down to stop it.
At the bank statement. The most common damage has nothing to do with an official. Deposits land with references like "payment", "creche" or the depositor's own name. You cannot tell whose money it is. The account shows as unpaid, the parent is offended because they did pay, and the relationship sours over an administrative failure. The reference clause in the agreement is what prevents this, and it only works if the parent saves the beneficiary with the reference stored on day one.
Common questions
Parents keep depositing without a reference. How do I stop it?
Fix it at the source, not on the statement. Give every family one reference code that never changes, print it on the agreement and on every statement, and ask them at enrolment to save the centre as a beneficiary with the reference stored. Tell them plainly that the reference field is usually all that appears on your bank statement and their own account name often does not show at all. Then hold unreferenced deposits in a separate list and ask for proof of payment before you allocate anything, and take no late-payment step against an account once proof is produced. Unreferenced EFTs are the single biggest reconciliation problem at South African centres and the fix is a two-minute conversation on the first day.
Can I charge interest on an overdue account?
Be careful here. The moment you charge interest or a late fee on an unpaid account, the arrangement can fall within the National Credit Act 34 of 2005 as an incidental credit agreement, and the rate you may charge is limited under that Act. Most centres do better with no interest at all and a firm, dated suspension process instead. If you want to charge something, get the current permitted rate confirmed by an attorney before you print the agreement.
Can I refuse to take the child while the account is in arrears?
You can suspend the place if your agreement says so, you followed the steps in it, and you gave written warning first. Do not spring it on a parent at the gate on a Monday morning. Never withhold the learner's records, progress report or belongings over money. Suspending a place after written notice is defensible. Holding a child's things is not.
What notice period can I require when a family leaves?
One calendar month in writing is standard and defensible. The Consumer Protection Act 68 of 2008 gives a consumer the right to cancel a fixed-term agreement on 20 business days written notice, and allows you to charge a reasonable cancellation penalty. That right applies to fixed-term consumer agreements and to a parent signing in their own name, so it does not fit every arrangement. Note that 20 business days is roughly four weeks, so a calendar-month clause given late in a month can run longer. Apply it reasonably rather than to the last day. Write one calendar month into your agreement and apply it consistently. A three-month notice period is likely to be challenged and is not worth writing in.
The parent signed last year. Do I need a new one?
Sign a fresh agreement per learner per year, in January or on admission. The increase clause carries the amount forward legally, but a new signature at the new amount costs you nothing, takes two minutes at drop-off, and removes every version of the "I never agreed to that" conversation before it starts.
Zande produces each learner's fee agreement with the amount, due date and payment reference already filled in, then uses that same reference to match EFT deposits on your bank statement to the right account.
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