Step 1Sign in for the first time
Open the link in the invitation email, type the email address or phone number the centre has for you and the code from the invitation, then tap Sign in.
The centre adds you to your child's file and sends you an invitation: an email with a link and a 12-letter code (ABCD-EFGH-JKMN), or, if the centre has only your phone number, the code given to you by the centre. The invitation names the centre, never your child. Families have no password: the code and the email address or phone number together sign you in, once, within 7 days. Type the address or number exactly as the centre has it; KeepCount says only that the two did not match, not which one, and a code stops working after five wrong tries. No code, or it has expired? Ask the centre for a new one; "New sign-in code" on your child's file makes one.
After the first sign-in, KeepCount offers a passkey: your fingerprint, your face or your phone's PIN, kept on this phone or computer. Add it, and you sign in with it next time instead of asking for a new code. Without one, a sign-in lasts at most 30 days, and then you need a new code from the centre. "Continue to my child's page" opens Today.
Step 2Signing in again
Next time, open keepcount.ca/family and tap Sign in with a passkey; without one, tap "Sign in with a code from the centre or agency" with a new code.
Open keepcount.ca/family, or a saved family page: the sign-in screen for families offers the passkey first and the code under it; the email and password form below is for the centre's staff and does not work for a family. Sign in on keepcount.ca's own home page opens the staff's sign-in instead: its last line, "Family member? Sign in with a code", is yours. A passkey added on one phone does not sign you in on another device: add one there too, under My account, or sign in with a new code. If you lose the phone, ask the centre for a code and remove the old passkey under My account.
Step 3Today
Hello: a card for each of your children with the centre, the site and the room, and today's lines: in since when, naps, outdoor time, the menu, photos.
The lines come from the records the staff keep during the day, as of the time shown under the heading; "Read again" reads them afresh. Until the room signs your child in, the card says no arrival is recorded for them yet today; then "has been in since", and at the end of the day "signed in at … and signed out at …". A nap shows once your child fell asleep and woke ("Slept 12:30 p.m. to 2:00 p.m."), or "Asleep since" while they sleep; outdoor time is the room's time outside while your child was there. The centre's menu for the day appears when your child was in, with any substitution in place of the item. Where the centre has switched it on, the times medication was given appear too. If an incident report was made and the centre has told the family, the card says so and asks you to speak to the centre: the report itself is not shown. "1 photo today" opens the photos. Under the lines, "See <your child>'s details" opens the file, "Report an absence" says your child will not come, and "Someone else picks up <your child>" writes a pick-up note to the room; the line under them says your child goes home only with the people on the pick-up list, and "See the list" opens it.
Where the centre or agency bills you through KeepCount and records you as paying for a child, one line about money sits under the children: "You owe $… by <date>", "$… will be taken from your bank on <date>", "Paid up, thank you" or "Credit $…, used on your next invoice", with "See the invoice" or "See your billing" when something is owed. It is the same sentence as at the top of Billing. Nothing shows if you pay for no child here, or if your centre or agency does not bill families through KeepCount.
You see your own children only: their arrivals and departures, naps, outdoor time, the menu, medication times and photos for today and the last month, their allergies and food restrictions, emergency contacts (names and relationships, when the centre switches them on), the pick-up list and the other family members with access. Never a staff member's record or another child. After an incident, the card says a report was made once the centre has spoken to a family member about it; an accident report the centre sends you by name opens under Forms and reports, for you to read. If you have children at more than one centre on KeepCount, each centre's cards sit under its name.
Step 4Your child's file
Tap "See <your child>'s details" on Today: three parts, The day (Absences too), The file (allergies, contacts, who may pick up) and Consents.
A child whose place has ended stays on your Today for 30 days after the last day, marked "no longer enrolled", and then disappears with your access to their record. The centre decides who in a family has access: it can remove a family member from the file, and the access ends at once.
The file opens in three parts, one tap apart: "The day" (the record for today or another day, and Absences), "The file" (Allergies and food restrictions, Emergency contacts, Who may pick up, Family members with access) and "Consents". Consents lists the written consents the centre asks for: answer each with your name ("Give consent", "Say no"), only if you are the child's parent or legal guardian, and "Withdraw consent" takes back one you gave, from that day.
Everything here is read-only for a family: the centre keeps the record and changes it. Every opening of the file is written to the centre's activity log as "A family member" viewed the record, without your name. "← Today" goes back to the cards.
Step 5Another day
Under Today, choose a date in "Another day" to read that day's record: the last month is kept for you.
A day's record is the same lines as the card: signed in and out at, the nap, the outdoor time, the menu, medication times where switched on, the photos of that day. The centre keeps its own records for three years or longer, as the regulation requires; the family's view reaches back one month.
Step 6Allergies and food restrictions
What the centre recorded for your child, with the day the family last confirmed it. If something is missing, tell the centre today.
The list is the one the staff cook and serve from: the regulation asks the centre to post the children's allergies and food restrictions in each cooking and serving area and each play room (O. Reg. 137/15, s. 43(3)). A severe allergy (anaphylaxis) carries a pill and the centre keeps the epinephrine's place and expiry with it, which the family does not see here. A centre that keeps its allergy records on paper says so, and you ask the centre to see them.
Step 7Who may pick your child up
The people the centre has on the list, with the day their photo ID was checked. "Send a pick-up note" tells the room about today or a day coming.
The centre's safe arrival and dismissal policy provides that a child is released only to the people the parent has named (O. Reg. 137/15, s. 50(a)(i)): the family members with access who may pick up, and the people on this list. Their phone numbers and the centre's notes stay with the centre and are not shown. To add or remove someone, speak to the centre. A family member who may not pick up sees "You are not on the pick-up list": the dialog the room uses never offers them.
"Send a pick-up note" opens a message marked as about pick-up, for today or a day in the next two weeks: "Grandma picks Hana up on Friday at 4:30." The note shows to the staff who sign your child out that day and to the office; it does not change the list. On Today, the card for your child says what became of a note written today: "sent", and then "read by the staff" with the time once the room has read it ("the provider" for a home).
Step 8Absences
The days you said your child will not come, each with "Cancel this absence"; "Report an absence" for another day.
The centre's safe arrival policy sets out the steps staff take when a child does not arrive as expected (O. Reg. 137/15, s. 50(b)(i)); the steps are the centre's own. Saying here that your child will not come answers that question for the day, as a phone call does. A day still to come can be changed or cancelled by any family member of the child; today's report, once made, is the centre's to change. The centre's own absence records appear in the list without their reasons.
Step 9The child will not come
Which day (today or an expected day in the next two weeks), why (sick, away, something else) and a note of up to 200 characters; Send to the centre.
The days offered are the days your child is expected: the site's operating days, not a closure, one of your child's days. The reason and the note are kept encrypted with the centre's attendance records for its retention period; the staff of your child's room and the office read the note. For anything urgent today, phone the centre: a message or an absence is read when the staff next look.
Step 10Write to the centre
Something in the file is wrong or out of date? "Write to the centre" opens a message to the office with the subject filled in.
The records belong to the centre: a change to an allergy, a contact or the pick-up list is made by the centre, not in the app. The message goes to the administrators and the supervisors of your child's site; nothing in the file changes until they do it.
Step 11Messages
Messages between you and the centre: each conversation with its subject, your child's name and when; New on an unread one; Write a message.
A conversation is about one child (the centre writes to the child's family, or a family member writes about the child), or a note to the families of a room or of the whole site. "Sent automatically" marks the running-low message: when staff note that your child is running low on diapers, wipes, cream or spare clothes, one message from the centre tells the family. Messages are not for emergencies or anything urgent today: phone the centre.
A new message shows on your Today until you read it. If you switched alerts on for this device (My account), the alert says only that you have a new message from the centre: never the message, its subject or your child's name. Messages are kept with the centre's records for its retention period (three years, or longer where the centre sets it), with who read them. Other families never see your messages.
Step 12A conversation
Open a conversation to read the messages in order, yours set apart, and who has read each; Reply to the centre and Send the reply.
A reply reaches the people the conversation went to. A message the centre removed reads "The text of this message was removed by the centre." A conversation with replies switched off has no reply box: the centre wrote it as a notice. Under the last message you sent, once the staff have read it, the page says "Read by the staff, 2:15 p.m." (the provider, for a home), or "Read by the staff. No reply needed." when the staff closed the conversation without a reply; it never says who.
Step 13Write a message
Which child; who reads it (the staff who work with your child and the office, or the office only); whether it is about pick-up; subject, message; Send.
"The staff who work with <your child>, and the office" are the people who care for your child that day and the centre's administrators and supervisors. "The office only" is for a concern about someone who works with your child: the staff of the room do not see it. A pick-up note is never for the office only: the staff who sign your child out need it. Say nothing in a message you would not say on a form the centre keeps: no health details beyond what the centre needs, nothing about another child. Sent, the message says "Sent to the centre".
Step 14Photos
The photos the staff share, with your consent for each child: the day it was given and by whom; Give photo consent or Withdraw consent; Open full size.
The staff who care for your child share photos only when every child in the photo has consent, and only with the families set to receive photos. Consent is given here by any family member of the child, or recorded by the centre from a signed form; any family member can withdraw it at any time, here or with the centre. From then on no photo with your child in it is shared and the ones already shared are shown to no family; ask the centre to delete any you want removed. A withdrawal by the centre itself is undone only by the centre. Consent is never a condition of your child's place, and consent alone does not send you photos: the centre also sets which family members receive them.
A photo opens from KeepCount while you are connected ("Open full size" shows it in a new tab); a copied link stops working within ten minutes; nothing is kept on your phone by KeepCount and no photo is ever attached to an email or sent in an alert. You see the photos of the last month. A photo's caption has the time and who took it, and "group photo" when other children are in it; KeepCount does not name them, and the staff are asked not to.
Each photo is kept for the period the centre sets (30 to 365 days; 90 unless it chooses otherwise), then deleted, with up to 30 more days in backups. Photos are kept privately in Canada, never used for facial recognition or to train any model. KeepCount cannot stop a screenshot: please do not post or share photos of other children. The full rules are in the privacy notice under "Photos shared with families".
Step 15The calendar
Calendar: this week and the next two months, with the closures, menus and events the centre shares with families.
The centre's administrators post closures, professional development days, parent evenings, outings, picture day and other events; the week's menu appears where the centre posts it. Nothing on the calendar yet means the centre has not posted anything.
Step 16My account
My account: how you sign in (no password), your passkeys, alerts, this guide with its printable PDF, Sign out, and Close my account.
A passkey is made and kept by this phone or computer (Touch ID, Face ID, Windows Hello, Android, or a security key) and signs you in without a code; add one on each device you use, rename or remove them here. "Alerts on this device" switches on the alert for a new message or a safety notice from the centre, delivered by your phone's own push service; it never carries the message or your child's name, and "Send a test alert" checks it works.
Your children's records belong to the centre. To see or correct a record, speak to the centre. To end your access yourself, use Close my account at the bottom of the page: it ends your access to every child's records at once and closes your login; your name stays in your children's records for as long as the centre must keep them. The centre can also remove your access. To sign in with another email address or phone number, ask the centre to change it. The privacy notice (linked here) says how the information is handled: no advertising, no selling, no tracking. Records and photos are kept in Canada; the email, payment and notification providers the notice names may be outside Canada, and none receives a child's name or record. What you write to KeepCount support is handled by Google, outside Canada, so leave your child's details out of an email.
Step 17Sign out
Sign out from the top bar or My account. Without a passkey, KeepCount asks first: you would need a new code from the centre to sign in again.
On a shared phone or computer, sign out when you are done: the family pages stay signed in otherwise. With a passkey on the device, signing in again is one tap. For anything about your account and your child's record, the centre is who to ask; KeepCount support ([email protected]) answers questions about the system itself, and a person replies within two business days.