Step 1Sign in
Open the link in your invitation email and choose a password. After that, sign in with your email and that password.
The organization's administrators invite you as the supervisor of your site. The link opens "Choose a password"; type it twice and tap "Save and continue". You land on the dashboard, and a short tour of nine screens starts the first time; skip it or take it again from Help. The site's name sits in the top bar; a supervisor of several sites is asked "Which site are you working in today?" at sign-in and changes it from the top bar.
Every centre employs a supervisor who plans and directs the program, is in charge of the children, oversees the staff and is responsible to the licensee (O. Reg. 137/15, s. 6(4)). In KeepCount that is your site: its rooms, children, staff, records and readiness. Policies, training content, settings, logins and billing are the organization's administrators'; a page that is theirs says so.
To sign out of KeepCount, use Sign out at the top right of the screen; on a phone it is at the foot of the menu. If records made without a connection are still waiting to send, KeepCount says so and asks before it signs you out.
Step 2The dashboard
The dashboard for your site: the four figures, Needs you, the site's readiness score, recent activity and the staff still in progress.
The readiness score is the share of requirements met, computed from the records in KeepCount. It is a measure of your records, not a Ministry verdict: the program adviser decides compliance.
Everything overdue, missing or due soon, by urgency, each line naming the person or record and the date. Fixing the record updates the status; nothing here is ticked by hand.
The figures are today's: rooms in ratio at the last count, children signed in now, due or late now, incidents open. "Remind everyone overdue (n)" sends each person with something overdue one reminder, not again within 20 hours. "Staff in progress" lists who is still working through their policies, quizzes and training.
Step 3Rooms
Rooms shows every room at your site: the last count and its verdict, who is in, the daily checks and the sleep checks. You record in any room, without a cover.
The room tablet: head counts with the Schedule 1 verdict before saving, the daily checks and sleep checks per child. Staff use it on their phones or a tablet in the room; you see today's state per room.
Room staff record in their own rooms and cover another with a reason; a supervisor records in any room at the site, and what you record is marked as yours. A cover shows on the room's card as "Priya Dhaliwal is covering since 8:10 am (Break cover)". "Print sheets" prints the sign-in sheet and the emergency cards for a room without a connection; "Review the day" opens the daily log; "Check snacks and meals" appears when a child here has an allergy.
The ratio of staff to children and the maximum group size for each licensed age group must be kept, on the premises and on outings (O. Reg. 137/15, s. 8(1); a licensed family age group follows s. 8.1); every child must be supervised by an adult at all times (s. 11). The counts are how your site shows it.
Step 4Who is not cleared yet
A room's card names the people not cleared yet, with the reason and a link: until the record is on file they are not counted in the ratio or left alone.
You see the reason (a vulnerable sector check missing, an offence declaration due, first aid expired, policies never confirmed); room staff see only the names and are told to ask you. The line comes from each person's verified documents and confirmations. A person not cleared still signs in and reads their policies; the staffing schedule marks them "Not cleared for ratio". Your screening policies say what protects the children while a check is outstanding (s. 65(e)): supervised interactions until the record is on file.
Step 5Shared room tablets
A tablet left in a room is signed in as room staff and asks to be the room's tablet with a code. Approve it when it shows the same code; 30 days at a time.
"This tablet" on Rooms says it for a supervisor: a shared room tablet is signed in as a room staff member, never as a supervisor or an administrator; sign in on the tablet as room staff to ask for it. When a tablet asks, a "Shared room tablets" card appears on your Rooms page with its code and Approve, Refuse and End. On it, "Who is recording?" asks each person to tap their name and enter their four-digit PIN (set under My account, "Shared tablet PIN"); what they record names them, and after two minutes without a tap the tablet comes back to the question. Approve, refuse or end a tablet from this card. The tablet shows the room screen and the evacuation list only.
Step 6Arrivals and absences
In the morning, Arrivals and absences: who is expected and not here with no word, so the safe arrival policy's calls are made and recorded.
A child who does not arrive as expected is called about and the steps are recorded ("Record a step", "Mark absent", "Record the outcome"), as the safe arrival and dismissal policy sets out (O. Reg. 137/15, s. 50(b)). Under the heading is your centre's own rule: who calls, and when the supervisor decides the next step. "Follow-ups still open" are the children whose absence is not explained yet; "Absent today" has the reasons parents gave; "Expected later", "Here now" and "Gone home" follow the register. "Book an absence" marks a child absent ahead of time, one day or several (each day the child is expected gets its own record; a day already marked is kept); "Booked ahead" lists them, each removed by itself.
Step 7Checks today
Checks today is the board of every room's counts and checks: done, coming up or overdue. A missed check is explained here and signed off by you.
Each cell is a check: the head counts, sleep checks, opening, playground, sleep monitors, sanitizing and closing, per room. "Record what happened" on a missed check asks what happened and what was done and records it as missed with its reason; "Sign off" is your signature on the explanation. A missed check explained and signed off is counted by the close-out and shown in the binder as a miss with a reason; a gap with no explanation stays a gap, and an inspector reads the explanation beside it. If you were one of the people at the missed check, another supervisor or an administrator signs it off. The day picker reads an earlier day. The legend reads done, recorded late, due, overdue, missed with an explanation, and missed, explained and signed off.
Step 8The evacuation list
The evacuation list: every child signed in now by room, with allergy and emergency contact, a tick for each at the place of shelter, and the staff. Print it.
The list is the sign-in register of the moment: it refreshes every minute and keeps working without a connection from what the tab last read. Take it out and tick each child at the place of shelter (s. 68(1)(f): a designated place of shelter for an evacuation). A child without a room is listed at the end. The printed copy is for the drill and for the day the connection is down.
Step 9Medication today
Medication today: the scheduled doses, the medication given on symptoms, sunscreen and other products, each with its written authorization and Record the dose.
A drug or medication is given to a child only where a parent gives written authorization with a schedule of the times and amounts, is stored as its label instructs, and, under the written procedure the regulation asks for, a record is kept of each dose given (O. Reg. 137/15, s. 40(1)). "Record the dose" records given, refused or missed, with the time and an observation; "Open the log" shows the day and prints the record for the parent. The daily limit for medication given on symptoms is KeepCount's own field on the child's file (the regulation names no limit); check it before a second dose. "Ending soon" lists each written authorization ending within 14 days, and any past its end date still listed: no dose can be recorded after the end date, so ask the family for a new authorization if the child still needs the medication. Needs you says how many end soon at each of your sites.
Step 10Report an incident
Anything affecting a child's or staff member's health, safety or well-being: "Report an incident" as it happens. A serious occurrence adds the Ministry steps.
The daily written record the regulation asks for (s. 37(1)) and the serious-occurrence trail: the time you became aware, the Ministry report with its reference, and the posting dates. Readiness shows a report that went past 24 hours.
The regulation requires a daily written record summarizing any such incident, and, for a child's incident, a parent notified unless already told of it under s. 36 (s. 37). A serious occurrence (s. 1: the death of a child; abuse, neglect or an allegation; a life-threatening injury or illness; a child missing or temporarily unsupervised; an unplanned disruption of normal operations that poses a risk) is reported to an inspector or program adviser within 24 hours of the licensee or supervisor becoming aware of it (s. 38(1)(b)): the moment you become aware starts the clock, and the "Ministry reporting" card keeps it with the CCLS report and reference and the posting dates. An injury also needs an accident report with a copy to a parent (s. 36(4)). For an allegation of abuse or neglect the form asks "Is it about someone who works here?": choose the person, or "Not someone who works here"; the person named does not see the record or what is done about it unless they are an owner, and each owner still reads every allegation. The follow-up (your review, corrective actions given to a person, closing) is on the incident once recorded.
Step 11Close out the day
At the end of the day, Close out the day: the checks not done at their time, the incidents of the day, counts below what was allowed, a note, and Sign the day.
The close-out is the day's written record signed. It lists the checks not done at their time, the incidents of the day (or the statement that none affected a child's or a staff member's health, safety or well-being), the counts below what was allowed with what happened and what was done, and a note for the day. "Sign the day" is enabled once the blockers are cleared; "Print the daily record" prints it. Records entered more than 30 minutes after the moment they record are listed as "Entered later", and anything added after the day was signed is shown as such.
Step 12Add staff
"Add staff member" adds a room staff member or a volunteer at your site; their invitation goes out when you save. Administrators add the other levels.
Each person's policies, quizzes, training and screening dates. Enter a vulnerable sector check or first aid date once; KeepCount works out the renewal and reminds the person, and you, before it lapses.
A supervisor manages the people whose main site is hers: their screening dates, their documents (you verify a document someone else uploaded; another administrator verifies yours), their rooms, their reminders, and deactivating them when they leave. If a person's phone is lost or their login is misused, press "Lock this person" on their record at once: it signs them out everywhere and stops their alerts. Only an owner or an administrator can set them up again. A person whose main site is another site is managed there. Supervisors, office staff and administrators are added by an administrator under Logins and access.
Step 13Menus
Menus: this week's and next week's planned menus, posted where parents see them, and a substitution noted on the day.
Planned menus for the current and the following week must be posted in a conspicuous place, with any substitutions noted on the posted menus (O. Reg. 137/15, s. 43(1)). Enter the week's meals (or the menu as a file), "Save the menu", and post it; once the week starts, a change is noted as a substitution on the posted menu, as the regulation asks, and KeepCount keeps the day, the meal, what was planned, what was served instead and why. Anyone at the site can note one, on the day or within a week.
Step 14Licensing readiness for the site
Licensing readiness for your site: the score, what is overdue, missing and due soon, and every requirement with its status and its section.
The whole regulation as a list, each line with a status from your records, the section behind it and "Why this matters". Record evidence for approvals and inspections here; mark a line not applicable only when it truly is.
Your tab is the site: its people and records. "Needs attention" is the week's work; each requirement says what satisfies it here, who is reminded, what the binder shows and what the program adviser asks. The statuses are based on your records in KeepCount; the Ministry decides compliance.
Step 15A policy, as you read it
A policy opens for reading, with who has confirmed it. The organization's administrators change and approve it.
Readiness and Inspection day link to the policies your site's records depend on: supervision, safe arrival and dismissal, sleep, anaphylaxis, medication, serious occurrences, emergency management. You read them here and see who at your site has confirmed each; the text, the approval and the quiz are the administrators'. Every licensee must implement its policies at each centre and monitor compliance with them (s. 6.1(1) and (7)); your observations (below) are that monitoring.
Step 16Ministry changes
Ministry changes lists a regulation change to a required policy, readable by you; a full administrator issues it to staff.
When O. Reg. 137/15 changes, KeepCount writes the change into the affected policy and brings it to the organization as a change to review, with the date it comes into force. The demonstration's is the supervision policy: from January 1, 2027, the written supervision policy must say when, how and how often children are counted and the strategies for higher-risk moments (s. 11(2), added by O. Reg. 197/26). You read what changed; the administrators issue the new version, and staff confirm it again.
Step 17Drills
Drills: the last 12 months by month, each fire drill with who led it and who was present, and Record a drill.
Fire drills every month, and from 2027 missing-child drills at least once every three months. Recording one takes thirty seconds; the readiness list shows when the next is due.
A fire drill at least once a month in accordance with the Fire Code, with a written record of every drill and every test kept at least 12 months (s. 68(1)(e)), and each staff member instructed on their fire duties before their first day (O. Reg. 137/15, s. 68(1) and (2)); from January 1, 2027, a missing-child drill at least once every three months, with its record kept at least 12 months (s. 68.2(3)). "Record a drill" asks the site, the kind, date, time and duration, who led it, who was present, everyone accounted for at the meeting place, and any issue found.
Step 18The staffing schedule
The staffing schedule: the week's shifts, who can count, and "What falls short this week" with each stretch that is short.
"What falls short this week" reads each day hour by hour against Schedule 1: short of staff, short of qualified staff, over the group size, or not scheduled. "Add a shift" asks the person, the day, their role (counted in ratio, supervisor, float, cook or office, volunteer or student), the room and the hours; a person not cleared for the ratio is marked so. The reduced ratio applies only at arrival, departure and rest, never for infants or outdoors (s. 8(4)); the schedule plans for it, the head counts prove it.
Step 19Compliance observations
Compliance observations: who is due to be observed, the contraventions to follow up, the log, and Record an observation.
Every licensee needs written policies on how compliance with its policies, procedures and individualized plans is monitored, recorded and addressed, and how contraventions are (O. Reg. 137/15, s. 6.1(7)). "Record an observation" records a person observed, the policy, the date and whether they complied or contravened it; a contravention opens a follow-up with a date, closed with how it was addressed. If a contravention was also a serious occurrence (a child missing or left unsupervised, a life-threatening injury or illness, or abuse or neglect), the form asks which one; it is reported to the Ministry within 24 hours of the licensee or supervisor becoming aware of it (s. 38(1)(b)), and once the observation is saved the incident form opens on it. "Who is due" paces the observations by the months set between them.
Step 20The postings walk
Once a month, walk the site with the list and mark each posting Up, Put up now, Missing or Not here; then Save the walk.
Some records must be where people can see them: the fire procedure in every room used for children (s. 68(1)(c)), the planned menus (s. 43(1)), the allergy list in each cooking and serving area and each play room (s. 43(3)), the serious-occurrence summary for its posting period (s. 38), the licence, the parent handbook's notices. The walk records what was up on the day, with "Mark the rest as up" for the rest; "Earlier walks" keeps each month, and a missing posting put up later is marked on it.
Step 21The parent handbook
The parent handbook: its version, what s. 45 asks it to include and where each is, when parents were given it, and the new version when it changes.
The page keeps the handbook in step with the policies, hours, closures and rooms: when one of them changes, the callout "The handbook may need updating" asks for a new version or "Confirm no change is needed". "What s. 45 asks the handbook to include" lists each item with where it is in the handbook ("Where in the handbook") or "Not in this version". "Record that parents were given it" keeps the date.
Step 22Playground
Playground: the monthly inspection and the repair log, with each hazard, how it was made safe, the target date and the repair.
Daily, monthly and annual inspections of the outdoor play space, the fixed play structures and the surfacing as the CSA standard sets out, with a plan for how issues found are addressed (O. Reg. 137/15, s. 24(5)(b) and (c)). The daily check is the room's playground check before outdoor play; the monthly inspection is recorded here; the annual inspection, which s. 24(5)(b) asks to follow the CSA standard, is evidence on Licensing readiness, where the record takes who inspected, the date on the inspector's report, the report itself (a PDF or photos of it) and whether it found anything to fix: each hazard you list there, with where it is and what it is, goes into this repair log in the same save. The repair log keeps each hazard: where, who found it, how it was made safe, the target date and the repair.
Step 23Drinking water
Drinking water: the fountains and taps, the flushing, the lead sampling, any result over the standard, filters and notices, as O. Reg. 243/07 asks.
Ontario Regulation 243/07 under the Safe Drinking Water Act, 2002 asks licensed child care centres to flush their plumbing, sample for lead, and act on a result over the standard. The page records each fountain and tap, the flushing done, the sets of samples and their results, the filters and automatic devices and their maintenance, the notices and directions received, and the site's own schedule; "Print the public copy" prints what is posted. The drinking water inspector decides compliance.
Step 24Public health
Public health: what the local health unit looks at, from your records: illness and outbreaks, the food handler, immunization, the caterer, pest control.
"Record a call to public health" keeps each call about illness or an outbreak with the date and what was said; the other cards show the records the health unit asks for and where each is. A trained food handler, the children's immunization records (s. 72(1)), the caterer's deliveries and the pest control visits are read from the records already kept. On Records to send, "Each child's status" lists every enrolled child's immunization status from their file (on file with the next update's date, due soon, overdue, missing, at school), the most urgent first; open a child to record the record or the Ministry form on their file, and print the status report for the health unit or export it (s. 35). The record itself stays in your files. Public health decides compliance.
Step 25Approvals and screening
Approvals and screening: the director's approvals, the rabies certificates for animals kept on the premises, and the outside service providers' declarations.
A director's approval (mixed-age grouping, a reduced play space, an outdoor play space elsewhere) is kept here with its letter; an animal kept on the premises has its rabies certificate (s. 41, dogs, cats and ferrets); an outside service provider who works with children at the centre has the screening declaration your policy asks for. "Add an approval", "Add a certificate" and "Add a provider" each take the document and its dates.
Step 26The inspection binder
The binder for your site: the period, the Licensing Manual's parts in its order with the evidence, the readiness score, and Print the binder.
"Print this part", on each part's line, prints that part alone with the cover's lines (the period, when and by whom it was printed), when the program advisor asks for one part.
One click prints the binder for the visit: cover, contents, readiness, people and screening, policies and sign-offs, drills, daily logs, incidents, and a sign-off block. On screen each part is one line, with what is to act on and Open; "Open every part" opens them all. The printout, the signed copy and the visit pack keep every part whole, with the contents.
Every record the regulation requires is kept for at least three years from the date it was made, unless the regulation specifies otherwise (fire drill records 12 months, s. 68; a child's records three years from discharge, s. 72(5)), and is available to an inspector or program adviser at all times (O. Reg. 137/15, s. 82(1)). Medication doses and the allergy list go in the visit pack only when a full administrator makes it.
Step 27Inspection day
On the day, Inspection day: who is visiting, the records by Manual part, what changed since the last visit, the questions an adviser asks, and Log this visit.
"Who's visiting today?" chooses the Ministry, public health or the fire department. "By Manual part" follows the Licensing Manual; "Since the last visit" lists what changed; "During the visit", where the page opens, has Find a file (a child's file or a person's record by name), what to do when the adviser asks for something KeepCount does not keep, and the questions program advisers ask with where the answer is ("Find a question" above them takes words or a section, such as 68). "Walk the postings" is the postings walk; "Log this visit" records the visit and its findings.
Step 28What the administrators keep
A page that is the administrators' says so: policies, training content, settings and billing are managed by the organization's administrators.
The card reads: "Organization administrators only. Your access is limited to your site. Administrators manage policies, training content, settings and billing." Ask them for a policy change, a new training item, a setting (the checks each site records, the head count interval, the reminders), a login for another supervisor or office staff, or anything on the plan.
Step 29Help and the tour
Help has this guide, the guides to the regulation, the glossary, who to ask, and "Restart the tour" for your nine screens.
Help also has your first day and first week (this guide, with its printable copy), the guides to the regulation and the glossary. With Families on, Getting started also links the families' guide, to send to a parent or guardian you add to a child's file. "Who to ask" names your office's address for anything about your account and the centre, and KeepCount support ([email protected]) for the system itself; a person answers within two business days. "Report a problem" sends what you saw and the screen to KeepCount support only, with this version: say what you did and what you saw, without a child's name or health details. What's new appears there when a release has notes for you; reading them takes the item off your To do.
"Where do I…?" at the top of Help, and "Go to…" at the top of every screen (in Menu on a phone; Ctrl K, or ⌘K on a Mac), find the step of this guide for a few words such as "sign out" or "fire drill", with "Take me there" and its whole explanation, then the pages and the glossary. When nothing matches, "Tell support what you were looking for" opens Report a problem with your words filled in; for a person, a home or a child, "Find a file on Inspection day" above it finds their file. Where your organization's owner has turned on "Ask the assistant" (it is off until then), a button under the box answers what you typed from your own guide, with the steps it used and "Take me there". Pressing it sends what you typed to Anthropic, outside Canada, and KeepCount does not keep it: leave out names and anything about a child or a family.
Nine steps: the readiness score, Needs you, Staff, Licensing readiness, Rooms, Drills, Incidents, the inspection binder and Help. Each step moves to its screen and marks the menu item. "Skip for now" brings it back next time; "Don't show again" keeps it off until you restart it from Help.