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Two questions that always arrive together: can we afford to pay everyone more? and what would we have to charge to make it work? The planner answers both in the same place, because it holds your rota and your price lists at the same time. Nothing here changes anybody’s pay or anybody’s fees. It is a plan.

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Step 1: Check what staff actually cost

On the Staff card, click Adjust. The dialog lists everyone on the rota with the hours they work and what they are paid.
The Staff costs dialog, with an average hourly pay and on-costs percentage above a list of staff and their own hourly rates
  • Average hourly pay is used for anyone without a rate of their own.
  • On-costs are employer NI and pension, added on top of pay. 15% is a common starting point. Don’t add holiday here — Holiday pay below covers it.
  • Holiday pay says whether staff are paid through the weeks you are shut, or paid only for the days they work with the holiday rolled into their rate.
  • Give anyone their own £ an hour where they differ — a room leader, an apprentice.
The closer these are to your payroll, the closer the rest of this page will be to reality.
The two halves of holiday go together. On paid through the closures, staff are costed for every week of the year and their holiday is already in that figure. On rolled up, they are costed only for the days they work and the rate carries the holiday percentage instead. Putting holiday in the on-costs as well charges it twice.

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Step 2: Price the rise

Scroll down the same dialog to Plan a pay rise. Choose how much more an hour, from when, and whether it goes to everyone on the rota or to particular people.
The Plan a pay rise section: a slider set to £0.75 an hour, a start date, and an "Everyone on the rota" checkbox
Click Add this rise to the plan, then close the dialog. The five figures at the top move.
The five figures with staff up £13,282 and profit down to £21,977
In this example, 75p an hour for everyone costs £13,282 over the year with on-costs — and takes the year’s profit from £35,259 down to £21,977.
Rises stack. Add “everyone from March” and “these two from November” as two separate rises and the planner costs them together, each with its own line.

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Step 3: Find the price rise that covers it

On the From families card, click Prices. Choose a price list and move the private rate. The figure at the bottom updates as you drag.
The price change sheet with the standard hourly rate up 50p, from £7.20 to £7.70 an hour, worth £9,953 over the year
Add to plan, then do the same for any other price list. Here the under-2s rate goes up by the same 50p.
The price change sheet with the under 2s hourly rate up 50p, from £8.40 to £8.90 an hour, worth £4,603 over the year
A price rise applies to everyone on that price list, the children already with you as much as any you have planned. That is what putting your prices up does — and it is why the figure is usually bigger than people expect.

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Step 4: Read the answer

Open Your changes to see the rise and the price moves side by side.
The changes dialog: a pay rise costing £13,282, two price rises worth £9,953 and £4,603, together worth £1,274
  • The pay rise costs £13,282.
  • 50p an hour on the standard rate brings in £9,953.
  • 50p on the under-2s rate brings in £4,603.
  • Together: £1,274 better off than doing nothing.
And the year’s profit comes back above where it started:
The five figures with both changes in: staff up £13,282, families up £14,555, profit £36,532
So in this setting a 75p rise is covered by about 50p an hour on fees — and you can find that number by dragging the slider until the total in Your changes crosses zero, rather than doing the arithmetic yourself.

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Step 5: Save it, then decide

Click Save plan and name it something you’ll recognise in six months — “75p pay rise, covered by prices”. Everyone who manages the setting can open it, so it becomes the thing you discuss rather than a number somebody half-remembers. When you have decided, make the changes for real: pay rates on each staff member’s profile, and the new prices on Settings → Sessions → Pricing with the date they start. A price rise you have already entered in Settings is in the planner’s figures automatically from that date — you don’t need to plan it as well.

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Things worth knowing

  • A mid-year rise costs less than a full-year one. The planner counts from the date you set to 31 August, so a rise from April costs roughly five twelfths of the same rise from September. Try both.
  • Funded hours limit how much a price rise earns. On an hourly price list, funded hours are paid by the council at your top-up rate, not by the family. Put the private rate up and the children with 30 funded hours a week contribute very little of it. Move the top-up as well if your price list has one.
  • A rise for two people is cheap; a rise for everyone is not. Untick Everyone on the rota and pick names to see the difference.
  • Check the rooms, not just the total. A room that was already losing money loses more after a rise. The Room earns column on the right of the year strip shows each room’s own figure.