the product · tab by tab
everything the app does, in the order you'll use it
Kreshe is laid out as a menu of tabs, the same way this page is. Most mornings you live on Home, Attendance, and Children; the rest are there when you need them. Every claim below is how the app actually works.
main · home
your whole crèche, in one look
The dashboard never asks you to do anything. Its job is to answer, in seconds, the questions you would otherwise chase one by one: who is in, who owes, is anything waiting on me, and am I up or down this month. Every card is a doorway into the tab that handles it.
what's on the screen
- The greeting band "Dumela, [your name]" with a live summary sentence: "18 of 22 in today · 2 things need your attention · R5 731 surplus this month."
- Your four numbers Children in, staff active, occupancy, and fee collection: the only one with an up-or-down arrow against last month.
- Needs your attention Only appears when something is actually waiting: an erasure request, parents not signed up, a transporter to set up. A quiet day means you are caught up.
- The day's cards Today's attendance with an arrivals-by-time chart, recent messages, outstanding fees with a priority-chase list, room fullness, and this month's surplus or shortfall.
main · parents
the grown-ups, and the link to home
Add a parent once and invite them onto the parent app with a registration code by SMS. That code is what switches on the two-way link between you and the home: what you enter here, they see there; what they change there flows back to you.
how it works
- Three cards that are also filters Total, Registered (green), Awaiting signup (amber). Tap one to narrow the list; anyone awaiting has a one-tap Resend invite.
- A file per parent Contact, home and work details, their SA ID checked for validity, and the children linked to them.
- What a parent can do at home See attendance and the learning journey, update medical details, report a planned absence, nominate a transporter, pay fees online and download receipts.
- What a parent cannot do Erase their child's data from their side. Erasure is always carried out by you, deliberately, so records cannot be wiped to escape unpaid fees.
main · children
your enrolment book, kept honest
Every child lives here: profile, medical, emergency contacts, and their place on your roll. Attendance, fees and rooms all read from this book, which is why keeping it right keeps every other tab honest.
how it works
- Four filters over the book Total, Enrolled (your live roll), Withdrawn (off the roll, history kept), and Erasure, in red, because it is time-sensitive.
- Withdraw is not erasure Withdrawing keeps the full record and you can reinstate any time. Erasure is a POPIA right, started only by you.
- Erasure is slow by design Fees must be settled first, a 30-day grace period lets you cancel, then name, ID, photo, medical and contacts are anonymised for good. Fee and attendance history stays, because tax law requires it.
- POPIA runs in the background Each crèche's data in its own database, ID numbers encrypted, parent consent on first sign-in with granular choices.
Fees settled first · 30-day grace to cancel · then permanently anonymised. The request itself is kept as an audit trail.
main · attendance
a register you can trust
Most of the register fills itself in from the kiosk at your gate. Your job is to read it, fix the odd mistake, manage who may transport children, and check at home-time that nobody is left behind.
the rules that make it fair
- Six honest states P present, L late, A absent, E excused, H public holiday, and a grey dash for "not marked yet", which is not the same as absent.
- The day closes at 14:30 Only then does unmarked flip to Absent. Present or Late is decided at check-in against your own arrival cut-off.
- Set once, locked A teacher sets a child's first status; after that only you can change it. The register cannot be quietly rewritten.
- The one-time gate check A new transporter's first pickup requires a staff member to check their government ID in the flesh and confirm with their own code.
- The teal door End of day: who is still here, who has departed, and who took each child home.
teaching · staff + rooms
your people and your places
The two things a centre is built from, kept together. Add staff, keep their clearances current, create rooms and set their size, sort children in, and put a teacher in charge, which is what switches that teacher's own class register on.
how it works
- Six positions Practitioner and Senior Practitioner teach; Assistant, Cook, Cleaner and Admin support. Only teaching staff can head a room.
- Clearances with expiry warnings Police, child-protection and sex-offender clearances each carry dates, and the app warns you 90 days before any lapse. Your compliance, kept honest.
- Rooms with honest meters Capacity is a warning, not a wall: green with space, amber past 80%, red when over.
- Assigning a room switches a teacher on The room you give a practitioner is exactly what their My Class screen shows. No room, no register.
teaching · curriculum + moments
learning you can prove, without testing children
The platform follows South Africa's National Curriculum Framework. Teachers note what a child does in everyday play, filed under the six ELDA learning areas with a band that grows: Emerging, Developing, Achieved. You get the whole centre's picture; parents get the note, never a grade.
what you oversee
- The headline reads the week for you "14 notes this week, across 3 classes", or "A strong week, but Sunbeams has gone quiet." Accountability, in one glance.
- Capture the moment, right in the app A teacher can attach a photo or a short video (up to two minutes) to any observation, from the in-app camera, and review it before it saves. Parents see it in their child's Moments.
- The crèche feed, with consent A moment can also be shared to the crèche feed, a scrapbook for all your families. Sharing is off by default, happens only for children whose parents have consented, and the feed never carries notes, bands or names. Media is deleted within 30 days when a child leaves or consent is withdrawn.
- Look inside any class, read-only You see exactly what the teacher sees, but you cannot change a teacher's notes.
- Seed activity ideas Your ideas appear on every teacher's shelf under "From your principal", adopted with one tap, with a usage bar showing which ideas land.
the six ELDA areas · everyday play, turned into proof of real learning · for the department, and for mom
operations · finance
the money, in four honest layers
Overview is "how is my business doing?", Income is the fees coming in, Spend is the money going out, and Bank is the real statement that checks the other two. The AI reads receipts and statements for you, but nothing counts until you confirm it.
how it works
- Overview: the gap is your profit Solid line income, dashed line spend, your net position in exact rands, a collection-rate gauge with an 80% goalline, and a coverage bar showing how many months your surplus could carry the centre.
- Income: fees without hand-writing Fee tiers by age band, invoices made for you as branded PDFs with a verification QR, a paid/unpaid switch per child (fingerprint-protected if you choose), and a priority-chase list, worst first, with one-tap call.
- Spend: every cost keeps its receipt Snap a receipt and the app reads amount, VAT, date, supplier. A saved expense can only be voided with a reason, never edited, so it doubles as your SARS record.
- Bank: the truth check Upload a statement; every line is sorted with a confidence pill and a tag showing why (a Rule, a Memory, or You). Accept the confident ones in one tap, then sign off.
operations · online payments
take yourself out of the money conversation
The platform is one yes; online payments is a second yes. Leave it off and Kreshe is a pure management tool, with cash and EFT handled your own way. Switch it on and the fee chase stops being yours: parents settle fees from their phone, every payment arrives already matched to the right child, and the receipt sends itself. The awkward reminder message retires.
the terms, plainly
- Optional, always You choose if and when to switch it on. Cash and EFT keep working alongside; the paid/unpaid switch and statement import stay yours.
- 1% per transaction, at settlement No monthly fee for the module. The 1% is deducted when the money settles, so there is never an invoice for it.
- Paid safely, on a secure page Card details never touch the app. Parents pay on a bank-grade payment page and get their receipt by email, automatically.
- Reconciled by itself An online payment arrives already matched to the right child and month. Your collection rate and who-owes-what update on their own.
operations · billing
your one bill, paid without thinking
Billing is not the fees parents pay you; that lives in Finance. This is the single subscription your crèche pays for Kreshe, like a cell contract: one saved card, charged automatically, priced by your number of active children so it scales with your centre.
how it works
- Card saved once, securely On a secure payment page; the app never sees or stores your card number. Capitec Pay, Apple Pay and Google Pay work for once-off payments.
- Everything downloadable Every invoice and receipt as a PDF, filterable by paid and due, for your own books.
- Failures are plain, not scary If a charge fails the tab says so, confirms no money left your account, and gives you Try again and Update card.
operations · and the rest
the tabs that carry the day's edges
the route, step by step
Drivers tap each child at pickup and drop-off, the parent gets an SMS at every step, and a trip-log PDF lands at the centre. The child's location is never stored.
one send, every family
One parent, a class, or the whole school. Emergency, reminder, or announcement, delivered as SMS on any phone, plus in-app for registered parents.
paper, on demand
Attendance registers, fee statements and staff lists as PDFs, in the formats SARS and DSD ask for. Public holidays already handled.
see it with your own numbers in it
Fifteen minutes on WhatsApp and you'll know if it fits your crèche. Then the calculator gives you a straight answer on price.