brightwheel Reviews

Best Childcare Program!

Comments: Excellent! I wouldn't switch from this program! Families and staff also are very pleased.

Pros:

The process of adding a child is easy and quick. The daily reports allows the teachers to add a lot of information so the parents know what day their child has had. It creates trust.

Cons:

I do not have any cons at the moment. :)

Easy Setup & Great Parent Engagement

Comments: On the whole, Brightwheel is one of our easier softwares that actually does what it says it will do. I highly recommend.

Pros:

Brightwheel's setup was incredibly easy. Our staff picked it up right away, and we love that parents can easily keep up with what their kids are doing and learning each day. Check-in is a breeze and we love being alerted on the front end if a child is sick.

Cons:

We do wish it had an api or at least a low code connection to Zapier. We use Salesforce as our primary data source of truth and don't love having to do by hand imports and exports to keep both updated. We also aren't using Brightwheel curriculum. If there was an easier way to import what we are using, that would be amazing.

Great parent interface and easy for everyone to navigate, parents and teachers!

Comments: I was very happy with the parent interaction and the easy with the billing. If we were looking to increase our classroom visibility i.e. updates, photos etc. I would have continued to use this application.

Pros:

Brightwheel is a very parent-oriented app. It is extremely user friendly. It has extensive capabilities when it comes to daily reports and updates for the child. It allows parents easy access to staff and to have a in real time picture of the child's day. From a teacher standpoint it is easy and intuitive to use. On the tuition side of things, parents have access to all of their tuition payment records and can schedule payments independently of the school. Posting payments is simple for the administration.

Cons:

I would be very helpful if the data could be used for other purposes and easily adapted to such things a roll call list, classroom rosters. emergency lists etc. While you can export the data to excel spread sheets it would be very helpful if they provided pre-configured options for these necessary reports.

Game-Changer!

Comments: Brightwheel has been a game-changer for our center. It keeps things all in one place that we used to keep over numerous apps and programs. It has made things run more efficiently. I would recommend it to any center!

Pros:

It allows me to keep everything in one place!

Cons:

Most everything on my wish list has been or is in the process of being added as a feature.

Reveiw of Bright Wheel features and Reports

Comments: Overall great product. Families, Teachers and admisistrators love the communication feature, thanks for allowing families to be soo connecected to their child's teachers and their child day

Pros:

easy of making reports, and communication between home and program

Cons:

The new adminstration feature. The prior feature allowed me to delete documents from a family list if it was not applicable or if they were unable to complete online but instead in person. The families are having difficutly moving throught the enrollment process, the way it is set up now. I would love for Bright Wheel to give providers some power to delete and or go back to the previous feature of adminsitaion that was based on forms Another con is the ablity to make reports based on enrollment start and end dates, this would better assist my program in pulling reports based on dates, for our funders. I currently have to pull everyone from active and inactive to a spread sheet only to delete what I do not need based on enrollment and end dates. This is time consuming for me

Brightwheel Review

Comments: Overall, I love using brightwheel and think that it is an amazing and well organized system. It is easy to edit, submit, and view all data entered into the daily logs.

Pros:

I love the ease of using the app and all the detail that I am able to share with the users. Brightwheel provides a lot of specific options so that daily logs are concise and organized.

Cons:

I wish that there were specific categories that I could select when writing a note. (Just because I like things to have a specific label).

TALK ABOUT IT

Comments: DONT LIKE CHATTING I WANT TO CALL AND TALK

Pros:

BILLING TO THE PARENTS IS EASY AND GETTING PAYMENTS DOCUMENTED IS GREAT. I ALSO LIKE THE COMMUNICATION TO AND FROM PARENTS

Cons:

HAVENT LEARNED EVERYTHING THAT BRIGHTWHEEL HAS TO OFFER

Office Manager/Designated Employee

Comments: Mostly positive. As I mentioned before, the applications are easy to use.

Pros:

The useful features and that the application is very user-friendly.

Cons:

Customer Service, not being able to get a REAL person on the phone. I feel like text or email are fine for small issues, but bigger issues may get lost in translation via email or text. Also, texting and emailing are time-consuming, especially for someone in a preschool who has to constantly be moving.

Brightwheel review

Comments: Overall it has been a really smooth process and transition from the other communication app we were using.

Pros:

parents being able to check in and check out

Cons:

I wish that when you post pictures to the feed, they posted in a cluster(ex. 1 of 10) instead of posting each picture separately.

Highly recommended

Pros:

Staff Time tracking and invoices are the best.

Cons:

Not being able to delete menu items off the list.

Satisgied to Unsatisfied

Comments: Initially was happy, felt they took experienced prodivers thoughts into consideration. However, the more they grew we were just peons.

Pros:

The billing was a fairly seemless process

Cons:

customer service was lacking when the company got bigger

Brightwheel has changed my life. So easy to use!

Comments: It's been smooth and easy. I have had very few questions because it is extremely user friendly.

Pros:

Easy billing and attendance. Client can pull their own tax statements

Cons:

I wish that I could also track my expenses through Brightwheel.

Where has this been the last 20 years!?

Comments: I am so excited that I found brightwheel and have had the best experiences using it and sharing it with my families.

Pros:

I like every feature. From attendance, payment options, documents, menus, curriculum options. The ease of use and set up. Customer service was so helpful when getting started, they have great step by step tutorials if you need, or can talk to someone live, and they were so informative and friendly.

Cons:

Only thing I can say bad is that I wish I would have had this years ago.

Great system!

Comments: Brightwheel has been a great point of communication between my sons preschool and our family. We pay on the app, message back and forth to teachers about early pickup, late drop off, etc. The app is fantastic versus having no access on a mobile phone.

Pros:

I love that I can sign into my account, see statements, pay my bill, look through pictures posted, change my sons profile picture.

Cons:

It is a great child care/preschool management system. I would say they could update to be allowed to add files versus paper copies of everything.

Wonderful innovation for our preschool

Comments: Our school has utilized the BW basic account for the past two years solely for check-in and check-out purposes. Recently, we upgraded to the premium account few month ago, and we're thoroughly enjoying its benefits! All parents are thrilled with the real-time updates, and teachers are experiencing seamless and efficient communication with parents, without any delays. This upgrade has significantly reduced the administrative workload in the management office. Highly recommended!

Pros:

It significantly enhances parent-teacher communication.

Cons:

Initially, the app appeared very user-friendly and it has room to grow.

Staying connect with staff worker on the software's

Comments: My overall experience is to remain connected to the teacher and parent to stay up-to-date with daily schedules.

Pros:

What I like the most is streamlining communication between the management team and childcare parents. Features like attendance tracking, parent engagement tools, and learning assessments empower educators to focus more on teaching and less on administrative tasks, making it easy for teachers and parents to stay connected. Bright Wheel is a beautiful tool for informing parents and improving the classroom experience. Embrace the opportunity to simplify your workload and strengthen relationships with families today!

Cons:

Once you make a mistake in Brightwheel, you can't go back and edit the entire group. This can be frustrating if you want to correct something for everyone at once.

Brightwheel Makes it Easy for Directors

Comments: It has been a game changer for our school!

Pros:

I love the way Brightwheel helps with communication and invoicing. It saves time and effort for families and staff.

Cons:

I find setting up forms to be difficult.

Easy Account Management

Comments: Overall, I like the app because it allows me to pay my fees for my child's after-school program. I also like that I can see when I check her out from the program

Pros:

I like that users can manage their accounts and balances.

Cons:

There is no way to contact my daughter's after-school program through the platform.

This App is terrible

Pros:

Honestly-Nothing! As a parent who uses this app daily I find it to be awful!

Cons:

This software does not allow you to see multiple kids at once on a feed without going back and forth. Going back and forth between children is a pain!! Then when I select a child the default is Profile view, I am the parent I don't care about the profile I want to go right to my child's feed. It would be nice if there was a quick view to check in and just see a quick update of all my children on the home screen. There are times when I only have a minute or two to look quick and I just can't with all the back and forth clicking between kids and not being able to see their feeds without some more clicking. I also hate that when a nap is ended it doesn't show the time napped. I only get that at the end of the day when I get a summary after my kids are checked out. I know I can look and see when they started and then when it ended and figured it out, but the starts are not always logged and visible. A summary on their feed would be nice. I also know there are other glitches with this app especially with the pay and checking in and out of kids. My daycare center does not like this app either, but they don't have a choice. The app that was used before this was called Daily Connect and it was absolutely wonderful. You could leave notes, see feeds or multiple kids for quick glances. Yes, there was not payment option on that to keep things simple, but bright wheel doesn't keep things simple now. As a parent & daily user of this app w/ multiple kids , it is TERRIBLE!

Quality Product

Comments: Our staff/parents love BW because it is easy access to all, parents also enjoy seeing their children's activities and reminders etc...

Pros:

messages, photos, check in/out, activities, videos, etc...

Cons:

food: it would be nice if we can erase/delete all the previous meal items

Brigthwheel is Great for Child Care Centers

Comments: We really enjoy using Brightwheel it is Absolutely Wonderful!!!

Pros:

Ease of use, User Friendly, Cost effective

Cons:

Not as intuitive as we like it to be. We like it to group students by family and to make it easier to find students and Parents together and not have look for them separately

Good services, the APP is very professional.

Comments: I have been enjoying to use Brightwheel in my home daycare.
It is great APP and the parents like a lot.
Thanks for let me use it. Odette Patrocínio

Pros:

It is simple to use and very helpful to the day care providers and teachers. Also, the services provide are very professional and well managed. The costume service and technical supports are excellent and very attentive with the clients.

Cons:

Some services are no provide in Canada, such as payments method.

Happy Parent

Comments: Very positive, especially after each update, seems like they listen to feedback and keep improving.

Pros:

Its a great way to keep in touch with my child's teachers and all the things related to her school.

Cons:

sometimes its hard to tell whether my daughter is checked in or out.

Utterly atrocious customer service.

Comments: Average to poor. Frustration at lack of usability and lack of communication makes me want to change schools rather than use it.

Pros:

Secure communications is the only bright spor

Cons:

Hard to implement. Hard to understand. NO POSSIBLE WAY to contact live customer service regardless of the situation or emergency.

Brightwheel is the window into the best part of my day.

Comments: The best part of alot of my days are when I receive the Brightwheel notification that there are pictures of my kid to be viewed in Brightwheel. My wife and I immediately message each other and talk about the fun he's having in the pictures.

Pros:

Every day I get pictures of my pre-schooler in Brightwheel. It's also excellent as a means of communicating with his school.

Cons:

The check-in/check-out can be a bit wonky if you don't have great reception.