Step 1Find Billing
My account has a Billing card that opens your invoices, what is owed, your payments and your receipts. On a phone, Billing is also on the bar at the foot.
On a computer, Billing is in the menu at the side. On a phone, the bar at the foot holds Today, Messages, Photos and Billing, and More holds the Calendar, Forms and reports and My account; Billing is also on My account under "Billing", with "Open Billing".
Step 2Billing
Billing: your account with the centre, what is owed or your credit, the invoices and credit notes, and your payments.
The account card names the centre and the family's account number, then says where you stand in one sentence, the same as on Today: "You owe $… by <date>" (with "the first $… by <date>" when several invoices are open), "$… will be taken from your bank on <date>", "Paid up, thank you", or "Credit $…, used on your next invoice". A credit note says "This lowers what you owe".
Each invoice line says its number, the period, the amount (and the fee subsidy's part, if a funder pays some of it), and what is left to pay with the date it is due, or "paid", or "credited".
A question about an invoice? Open it and tap "Question about this invoice": it opens a message to the office with the invoice's number in the subject. KeepCount does not change a centre's invoices.
Step 3An invoice
Tap an invoice: as issued, each line by child, the tax, the total and the due date. "Print" prints it; "Question about this invoice" writes to the office.
"Question about this invoice" (not on a credit note) opens a message to the office with the invoice's number in the subject; the office answers under Messages.
The invoice names the centre (and its business number, when it gives one), who it is to, the period, and the day it is dated and due. Under the total: a funder's share and the family's when a fee subsidy pays part, and each payer's part when the payers share the invoices. If you are set not to see the other guardians, the invoice shows only your own name: the other parts show their percentage and amount as "A payer".
When the centre emails invoices, the email says "You have a new invoice from" the centre, with the number, the month, the amount and the due date, then one sentence on how the invoice is paid (a pre-authorized debit already scheduled for it, with its amount, its day and the last four digits of the bank account; or that the family pays by pre-authorized debit and gets the amount and the day by email first; or, when neither is known, to pay the way it usually pays the centre), never a child's name, and a button that opens the invoice on keepcount.ca.
Step 4A receipt for a payment
Your payments: each one with its day, how it was paid and the amount. "Receipt" prints a receipt for that payment.
The centre records each payment made outside KeepCount (an e-Transfer, a cheque, cash) with the day it was received; a debit through KeepCount shows on its own. A payment pays the oldest invoices first; what is left is your credit for the next invoice.
Step 5Your receipt for the year
Year-end receipts: choose the year, then "Print the receipt": the child care fees you paid for each child, with the centre's name, address and business number.
The receipt counts what you paid in that year for each child's care and registration. Money the centre paid back to you comes off; a deposit goes back to whoever paid it. Each payer prints their own receipt.
Step 6Pay by pre-authorized debit
"Pay by pre-authorized debit": the centre takes each invoice from your bank, and you see the amount and the date here at least 10 days before.
"Read the debit agreement" opens the agreement; nothing is set up until you agree. The centre's parent handbook lists the ways it takes payment.
Step 7The debit agreement
"Read the debit agreement": what may be taken and when, the 10 days' notice, cancelling, and your right to dispute a debit. "I agree" or "Not now".
The agreement is a personal pre-authorized debit agreement under the payments rules of Canada's banks. It says what the centre may take (each invoice, for the amount and on the date you were told at least 10 days before), how the agreement is cancelled, and that you may dispute a debit with your bank within 90 days.
Zūm's window also asks you to accept Zūm Rails' own consent to pre-authorized debits. It is for the same debits: no other debits are made through KeepCount.
Step 8Connect your bank
After "I agree", "Connect your bank": you sign in to your bank in Zūm Rails' window, and KeepCount keeps only the last four digits.
Zūm Rails is the centre's payment processor: it takes the debit from your bank into the centre's account at Zūm. Your bank sign-in is between you and Zūm's window; KeepCount never sees it. Once connected, the card says "Your bank" with the bank's name and "account ending" in its last four digits. "Connect another bank" changes it.
"Cancel the agreement" asks you to confirm: no more debits are made from that day, a debit already sent to the bank is cancelled if it still can be, and you pay the centre another way after that.
Step 9Debits and requests
Debits and requests: each debit with its day, amount and status, from Scheduled to Paid. Tell the centre before the date if one is not right.
The statuses: Scheduled, Sent to the bank, Paid, Did not go through, Returned by the bank, Cancelled; an Interac request is Declined or Expired when it was not paid. You may dispute a debit with your bank within 90 days.
An Interac request is paid from your own online banking. Interac needs the name on the bank account to be yours: pay from your own account, or ask the centre to make the account holder a payer.