Beaufort Community Association
Loved by childcare centres worldwide!
We are a registered community charity who operate a Community Centre based in Bournemouth, within which we operate several childcare departments as a community resource. Having recently celebrated 35 years of establishment, we are well versed in the operational aspects of running some very busy childcare departments, catering for a large number of children on a daily basis, including throughout the holidays.
We were using a legacy platform for managing our records which was increasingly becoming more difficult as the software was no longer being actively supported. Even though the software was doing the necessary job of enabling us to keep correct records, the bugs and glitches were becoming increasingly cumbersome. Eventually, and after much discussion and evaluation by the Board of Trustees, we decided to move across to Cheqdin.
After some initial usage, we found that Cheqdin was indeed the right product for us, and we were confident that we had made the right decision. Due to the way we choose to operate our resources, some of the unique features that Cheqdin provide, as powerful as they are, we found we did not need. However, the core aspects of the platform are brilliant and work seamlessly. Most organisations operate differently, and it is true to say that no one glove fits all, however Cheqdin comes pretty close to that mark!
There are several features of Cheqdin that we find invaluable now, mainly all concentric to the actual booking calendar. We feel that the heart of the platform is the booking calendar which enables us to quickly and effortlessly book children in without issue, cancel bookings easily and update records quickly.
As with all platforms and mainly due to the way we operate, there are some items that do not fit with the way we would like them to, however this is true of all platforms and any organisational decision maker will always recognise that this is not a bad thing, as long as the support for workarounds and issues is easily accessible and available.
For us, this is where Cheqdin excels against any other platform. The support, training and approachability is exceptional. There has never been any instance where we have needed to ask even the simplest most obvious question that has not been solved or clarified for us within an acceptable timeframe, most of the time within an hour of raising the question. For us this is the most important aspect of choosing a software provider. Most cloud based systems are capable to doing the job that they pertain to, however it is when you need an answer to a question that tests the metal of which software you use, and this is where Cheqdin excels.
