Crèche fee collection software for South African centres
Zande issues the statements, keeps a live arrears list, and sends WhatsApp fee reminders on the three days of the month when parents actually have money.
Set up free with your real class list. Pay only when you go live. No card, no lock-in.
Crèche fee collection software issues monthly fee statements, tracks who has paid, keeps a running arrears list, and reminds parents before an account falls further behind. In South Africa it also has to match EFT deposits and SASSA grant payments to the right child. Zande does all of that. You upload your bank statement PDF, Zande matches the deposits to learners, and the arrears list updates on its own. WhatsApp reminders go out on the 26th, 6th and 20th. R99 a month up to 40 learners. Setup is free.
The arrears list, straight from the product. It changes the moment a deposit is matched.
What this actually looks like at month end
You already know roughly how many families are behind. Twelve, maybe fourteen. You do not know exactly which ones until you sit down with the bank statement on a Sunday night and work through it line by line.
The book says one thing. The bank says another. Three deposits came in with no reference and a surname you do not recognise. One mother insists she paid on the 6th, and she probably did, under her sister's name.
So you send the same WhatsApp message to the whole group, feel bad about it, and the family that owes R2,400 reads it exactly the same way as the family that owes nothing. By the 20th you have chased nobody properly and collected less than you should have.
Salaries still go out on the 25th.
How it works
Load your learners and their fees
Send a spreadsheet, or a photo of the register book, to WhatsApp 066 238 2296. Zande loads the names, the fee per age group and any balance already owing. This is done for you and it costs nothing.
Statements go out with one reference per family
Each family gets a statement showing the opening balance, this month's fee, payments received and what is outstanding. The banking details and the reference to use, which is the child's name, sit at the top of it. They pay by EFT, cash or SASSA grant into your own Capitec, FNB, Standard Bank, ABSA or Nedbank account, exactly as they do now.
Upload the bank statement and the arrears list builds itself
Pull the statement PDF straight out of your banking app, or export CSV or Excel, and upload it. Zande matches deposits to learners, splits one deposit across siblings, and learns from every correction you make. Anything it cannot match waits in a queue for you to clear.
Reminders on the 26th, 6th and 20th, then the ladder
WhatsApp reminders go out on the days money is actually in the account. Accounts that stay unpaid move up the ladder from reminder to statement to arrears notice to written payment plan to final notice, and you can see which stage every family is on.
What you get
Monthly fee statements
Every family gets a statement showing the opening balance, the month's fees, payments received and what is owed. The banking details and the reference to use, the child's name, are printed at the top so the next EFT lands where it should.
An arrears list that updates itself
One screen shows who owes what and how many days late, worst first. It changes the moment a payment is matched, so you are never working off last Sunday's numbers.
WhatsApp reminders on the 26th, 6th and 20th
SASSA child support grants pay in the first week, roughly the 4th to the 7th. Salaried parents are paid on the 25th or the last working day. The reminders land while the money is still in the account.
Bank statement matching
Upload the statement PDF from your FNB, ABSA, Standard Bank, Nedbank or Capitec app, or a CSV or Excel export. Zande matches deposits to learners and gets better at it every time you correct one.
Sibling splits and an unmatched queue
One deposit covering three children splits across all three. Anything Zande cannot match sits in a queue you clear, so no payment quietly disappears into the wrong month.
Escalation from reminder to final notice
Each account moves through reminder, statement, arrears notice, written payment plan and final notice, and Zande shows you where every family is sitting. The letter wording is free on this site.
Why trust this one
Zande was built by Siyabonga Ndlovu for his own crèche in Hazyview, Mpumalanga, which has 114 learners on the roll. The reconciliation, the arrears list and the three reminder dates exist because he needed them against a real bank statement with real unmatched deposits, not because they demonstrated well.
Setup is done for you rather than left to you. One centre with 300 children was loaded from a single fee spreadsheet, including eight months of payment history, so its opening balances came across with it.
The prices are published on this page. There is no sales call and no card to start. Zande takes no cut of your tuition, so the fees go into your bank account and stay there. If the matching does not work on your statement, you will have paid nothing.
What it costs
Starter is R99 a month for up to 40 learners, which is R2.48 per learner. Pro is R299 a month for up to 100 learners, or R2.99 each. Growth is R499 a month for unlimited learners, which works out at R3.33 per learner at 150 children. Pay annually and you take 20 percent off. Setup is free, you pay only once you go live, and you need no card to start. Zande takes no percentage of fees, no percentage of the DBE subsidy and no transaction cut.
Common questions
What does it cost, and do I have to give card details to try it?
R99 a month up to 40 learners, R299 up to 100, R499 for unlimited. Annual is 20 percent off. No card is needed to start. Setup is free and you pay only when you decide to go live.
Does Zande take a cut of the fees, and do parents have to change how they pay?
No cut, and no change. Parents keep paying by EFT, cash or SASSA child support grant into your centre's own Capitec, FNB, Standard Bank, ABSA or Nedbank account. Zande never touches the money. Cash received at the gate is captured against the child the same way an EFT is.
How does it read my bank statement?
Upload the statement PDF straight from your banking app, or a CSV or Excel export. FNB, ABSA, Standard Bank, Nedbank and Capitec are supported. Zande reads the deposits and matches them to learners, and every correction you make trains the matching for next month.
What happens when a parent pays with no reference, or under someone else's name?
The deposit goes into the unmatched queue instead of disappearing. You assign it to the child once, and Zande remembers that name, that amount and that pattern for future months. The arrears list updates the moment you assign it.
Can I run this from my phone, and how long does setup take?
Yes. Zande runs in your phone browser, so there is nothing to download from an app store, and you need a data connection to use it. Setup is done for you. Send the spreadsheet or a photo of the register book to 066 238 2296 and Zande loads your learners, fees and existing balances.
Set up your whole centre free and see it running with your real class list before you pay anything. Send us a spreadsheet or a photo of the register book on WhatsApp and we load it for you.
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