Doors open
Families tap in at the door. Register, ratio and the kitchen list are right before the kettle boils.
AcornCloud for Nurseries
Run the nursery day.Not the paperwork after it.
Baby room to pre-school, one system for check-in, ratios, diaries, meals, sleep, incidents, subsidies and fees. Your team logs the day as it happens - and goes home when the last child does.
- Tusla ready
- NCS, ECCE & funded hours
- Works on the room tablet
Tiny Acorns Galway4 rooms · 78 children · Today, 09:41
All in ratioRooms in ratio4 / 4Live since 07:30
Checked in71of 78 expected
Absences logged7All by parents, in app
Diaries done62%Sent as you go
RoomsChildren · ratio
AcornsBabies · 0–1113:1
SaplingsWobblers · 1–2185:1
OaksToddlers · 2–3226:1at 15:00
WoodlandECCE · 3–52011:1
Oaks tips over ratio at 3pm. Niamh finishes at 14:30 - move her break to cover, or pull Aoife from Woodland.
Fix rotaLunch logged · Acorns11 of 11 · 2 taps
Ratio, liveWarned before 3pm, not after
Diaries sent as you goNothing to write up at six
6 mins
to open a room: register, ratio, allergies
0
diaries written after the children go home
4 → 1
apps your team logs into each day
99.6%
of fees collected on time with AcornPay
A nursery day
Seven-thirty to six, held together in one place.
Nurseries don’t fail on strategy. They fail on the eleven small things that happen between half seven and nine, every single morning.
Rooms settle
Allergies and medicines follow each child into their room. Nobody relies on remembering.
Lunch, logged
The whole room in two taps - who ate, who didn't, and what to tell a parent at five.
Sleep checks
Timed, timestamped and signed. The evidence exists without anyone writing it up.
The ratio wobble
Oaks tips over at three. The rota flagged it at nine, so cover is arranged, not improvised.
Doors close
Diaries are already sent. The team goes home when the last child does.
Every stop above is one screen, not one system. Nothing on this line is typed twice.
The comparison
Three ways to run a nursery week.
A patchwork of apps that don't speak to each other. Paper, a diary and a very good memory. Or one system that knows your children, your rooms, your staff and your money at the same time.
Opening a room at half seven
No toolsA clipboard count, a wall planner, and a headcount done twice to be sure.
A patchwork of toolsA check-in app for the door and the allergy list on a laminated sheet.
AcornCloudRegister, ratio, allergies and the kitchen list on the room screen before the kettle boils.
Knowing your ratio right now
No toolsCounted in the room leader's head, and recounted after every collection.
A patchwork of toolsAttendance in one app, ratio rules in another, agreement between them nowhere.
AcornCloudLive per room on every screen, with a warning before three o'clock tips you over.
Meals, sleeps and nappies
No toolsA paper chart per room, transcribed into a diary after the children go home.
A patchwork of toolsLogged in the parent app, then re-entered wherever the records actually live.
AcornCloudThe whole room in a couple of taps, timed and timestamped, already in the diary.
An observation worth keeping
No toolsWritten up at half five, from memory, if there's time.
A patchwork of toolsA photo in one app and a note in another, linked by nothing.
AcornCloudPhoto and note in the moment, tagged to Aistear, in the child's journal.
Building next week's rota
No toolsA pencil, an eraser, and a guess at whether it works at three o'clock.
A patchwork of toolsA rota app that doesn't know tomorrow's bookings or this month's ratios.
AcornCloudBuilt against real bookings, priced as you go, ratio-checked before you publish.
Invoicing with ECCE and NCS
No toolsA calculator, a receipt book, and a conversation about the difference.
A patchwork of toolsSubsidies worked out by hand, then re-typed into the accounts package.
AcornCloudFunded hours and subsidy off the invoice before it's raised, collected by AcornPay.
An unannounced inspection
No toolsA folder you hope is current, and a very long afternoon.
A patchwork of toolsThe register in one app, policies in a drive, vetting in a filing cabinet.
AcornCloudRegisters, ratios, incidents, medicines, policies and vetting in one dated pack.
The week your team has
~12 hrsof admin, most of it after six and unpaid.
~8 hrsof admin, and the same fact typed into three places.
~2 hrsreviewing what the day already recorded.
Based on onboarding interviews with 40+ Irish services, 2024–2026. Figures are per full-time room leader or administrator, and will vary with your size and how much you already automate.
Built for nurseries
Every part of full-day care, in one system.
Nine things a nursery does between opening and closing, each built for a hand that is already holding something else.
Rooms & live ratios
Every room's headcount, age band and ratio updates as children check in - with a warning before three o'clock tips you over, not after.
Warned before, not after
Check-in lounge
Tablet check-in at the door with authorised collectors, allergy and medicine flags, and a signed register that stands up on inspection day.
A register that stands up
Meals, sleeps & nappies
Log the whole room in a couple of taps, sleep checks timed and timestamped, and it all lands in the parent's app without a second entry.
One entry, two places
Observations & curriculum
Photo or note in the moment, tagged to Aistear, gathered into each child's learning journal and the room's lesson plan.
Aistear · your own
Fees, NCS & ECCE
Sessional and full-day fee structures, subsidy and funded hours deducted automatically, AcornPay collecting the balance by card or direct debit.
Subsidy off before it's sent
Compliance & incidents
Vetting, First Aid, qualifications and policies in one register; incidents and medicines signed by parents in the app, dated and stored.
Signed the same day
Rotas that know ratios
Build the week against tomorrow's bookings, see the cost as you go, and cover breaks and sickness without dropping below ratio.
Priced as you build it
Parents App
Daily diary, photos, absences, bookings, payments and signatures in one place - so the door at half five is a conversation, not a queue of questions.
Free for every family
Occupancy & waitlist
Enquiries, tours, offers and start dates in one funnel, with a room-by-room forecast for the September move-ups.
Forecast to September
Who feels it
The difference shows up in people, not dashboards.
Occupancy is the number an owner sees. This is what the week feels like for the three people who actually run the nursery.
The room leaderÁine - Acorns, eleven babies, one student on placement
Before
Paper charts for every feed, sleep and nappy, then an hour writing eleven diaries with the lights off.
With AcornCloud
The whole room logged in a couple of taps as it happens, and the diaries already sent by half four.
The managerSinéad - 92 places, four rooms, one deputy
Before
Ringing round for cover at seven, and finding out at three that a room had tipped over ratio.
With AcornCloud
Tomorrow's rota built against real bookings, priced as she goes, and flagged before the wobble happens.
The parent at the doorAny family collecting at half five
Before
A queue at the door, six questions about the day, and a form to take home and bring back.
With AcornCloud
The day already read on the bus, the incident already signed, and a conversation instead of a debrief.
On the floor
A whole room, logged in two taps.
Meals, sleeps and nappies are the jobs that eat a nursery day. They should cost the room a couple of seconds, not a write-up after the last child goes home.
- Big targets and short flows - designed for wet hands and one spare minute
- Keeps working if the wifi drops, and syncs the moment it's back
- Tablet, phone or the room screen - always the same record
Acorns · baby roomÁine on the floor · 11 in today
3:1MealSleepNappyMoment
Sleep check · Rosa12:40 · on her backLogged
Lunch · whole room11 of 11 · 2 tapsLogged
Nappy · Cillian13:05 · logged by ÁineLogged
Diary to familiesSends at 16:00Queued
Everything here lands in the parent’s app without a second entry.
Fees, funding & AcornPay
The bill is right before it goes out.
Funded hours, subsidy and sibling rates are applied to the invoice rather than reconciled after it - so the parent asks fewer questions and you chase less.
- Sessional, part-week and full-day structures, per room and per child
- ECCE hours and NCS subsidy deducted before the invoice is raised
- Card or direct debit collected by AcornPay, arrears chased for you
Séamus D. · OaksWeek beginning 15 September
CollectedFull day × 5 · Oaks€232.00
ECCE · 3 hrs × 5 days−€64.50
NCS universal · 45 hrs−€48.15
Sibling rate · 10%−€11.94
Parent pays€107.41
Direct debit collected Friday. Funded hours reconciled against the register.
Switching mid-year
Live in a fortnight, without a bad week for the rooms.
We import, you check
Children, families, fee structures and staff records come across from your current system or a spreadsheet. Historic diaries, incidents and registers come with them, so inspection evidence stays searchable.
One cycle in parallel
Your rooms, age bands and ratios are set up, then we run a full billing cycle alongside your current process. Nothing switches until the numbers agree.
Forty minutes per room
A short session on the floor, in the room, on the tablet the team will actually use. No classroom training days, and parents are invited with your wording at the point you choose.
The team love that each day we can keep our parents up to date with what their little ones are doing.
Nursery questions, answered.
The seven things nursery managers ask us on the first call.
Something else on your mind?Ask us on the call - forty-five minutes, your rooms and your fee structures.
Yes. Age bands, ratios, session types and opening hours are configured per room, so the baby room's 3:1 and feeds-and-sleeps flow look nothing like the ECCE room's - and both roll up into the same register, rota and invoice.
It is built for wet hands and one spare minute: big targets, short flows, and no typing where a tap will do. Meals, sleeps and nappies log for a whole room in a couple of taps. Most rooms are comfortable by day two, and we run a forty-minute session in each room during setup.
Funded hours and subsidy are held per child and deducted before the invoice is raised, then reconciled against the register your room signed each morning. Sibling rates and part-week structures apply on top, so the parent sees one clear figure and you chase far less.
The room screen and tablets keep working and queue what they record, then sync the moment the connection is back. Nothing is lost, and nobody has to remember what happened while it was down.
Attendance, ratio history, incidents, medicines, sleep checks, policies, training and vetting all export as one dated pack. Because everything is recorded as it happens, the evidence already exists - you review the pack rather than assemble it.
Most nurseries are live within a fortnight. We import children, families, fee structures and staff records, bring historic diaries, incidents and registers with them, and run one full billing cycle alongside your current process before anything switches over.
Never. The Parents App is free on iOS and Android for every family in your nursery, with no per-parent charge. Photos stay inside your service, and each family sees only their own child.
See it set up with your rooms.
Send us your room names, age bands and fee structures before the call and we’ll show you your own nursery, not a demo dataset. Forty-five minutes.