By Kym Pomares

Let’s be real: most of us didn’t open child care centers because we wanted to stare at spreadsheets. We got into this work because we love kids. We wanted to make a difference.

But at some point, every child care owner realizes—this is a business. And if you don’t know your numbers, your passion can’t carry you very far.

I opened my school in 1992. By 2015, I was on the verge of emotional and financial collapse. I didn’t understand my school’s finances. I didn’t know what a Profit & Loss (P&L) statement was. And I definitely didn’t know if I was making or losing money—until my accountant told me during tax season.

If I made money, I didn’t know how. If I lost money, I didn’t know how to stop it. I was a hot mess—I mean really a hot mess. I’d lie in bed at night and numbers would float around in my head and duke it out. But I couldn’t do anything with them. There was no resolution. They just beat me up.

“Your Profit & Loss statement is like the dashboard of your car. If you don’t know how to read it, it’s like driving with the sunshade still on the windshield.”

— Kym Pomares

Dashboards Changed Everything

When I say “dashboard,” I’m really just talking about a spreadsheet. But not just any spreadsheet—a dashboard is a tool designed to organize specific information, make calculations, and show you exactly where you are so you can make decisions based on fact, not fear.

Through coaching, I finally learned how to read a P&L. And once I understood what it was telling me, I realized I could create tools to help myself do the math, stay organized, and stop relying on guesswork.

The first breakthrough came when I was crying—nonstop—because I knew 100% that I needed marketing, and 100% that I couldn’t afford it. Brian said, “Plot it out over a year.” So I did. When I ran the numbers, I discovered that not paying for marketing was costing me $36,000 a year.

That was my wake-up moment. From that point forward, I started building dashboards that helped take the emotion out of decision-making. I stopped trying to hold it all in my head and started putting it into tools that could give me real answers.

“I was losing $36,000 a year by not investing in marketing. A simple dashboard showed me the truth—clear as day.”

— Kym Pomares

You Don’t Have to Be a Spreadsheet Nerd (But I Am)

Let me be clear: you don’t need to become a spreadsheet master—I just am a geek and a nerd and I love them. There are dashboards in the University vault that I’ve created, and others have created too. You can even have someone build them for you.

But you do need to learn how to use them—because so many of the decisions we face as business owners can be reduced to a simple calculation.

Quick Tip:
Use drop-down menus in your dashboard to simplify repetitive entries, like subsidy agencies or school pickup codes. This not only saves time—it keeps your data consistent.

Dashboards That Keep You Organized

One of my favorite dashboards is a school roster tracker. You enter a child’s name and birthdate, and it automatically tells you when they’ll transition out of their current classroom.

If you have a child on your waitlist that wants to start in May, and another is aging out in May—it lines up. No guessing, no rifling through papers. It’s just there.

These dashboards span the whole school—from infants to preschoolers to afterschoolers. For kindergarten tracking, the spreadsheet even turns yellow when a child misses the cutoff date. It’s visual. It’s easy. It saves so much time.

I also created a dashboard for school pickups. Each child is assigned a code based on the school and grade, and the whole roster can be sorted so you instantly know who is going where.

For centers with a lot of subsidy children, I built a dashboard that tracks contract expiration dates. One month before it’s up, the cell turns yellow. If it expires and nothing has been updated, it turns red.

Avoid This Mistake:
Waiting until tax season to find out if you made or lost money.
Fix it: Use your P&L statement monthly and tie it to a dashboard that gives you real-time feedback on income, expenses, and profit.

Forecasting Your Finances: Enrollment, Revenue & Tuition

I hated that feeling of waiting all summer to find out if we had enough kids in September. So I created a dashboard to track enrollments and withdrawals week by week. You enter a start date, and the rest populates automatically.

It shows how many kids you added or lost, compares it to your capacity, and includes a running total. You can even plug in average tuition to estimate revenue and see how far you are from your income goals.

This is also where dashboards helped with one of the hardest decisions: raising tuition.

I started with a simple spreadsheet: last year’s revenue, last year’s expenses, and net income. Then I added a column that shows what happens when your expenses increase—on average, by 14%.

And what I found was scary. If I didn’t raise tuition, I was going from a $50,000 net to a loss. That’s what the numbers said. So I built a version where you could plug in your projected tuition increase and expense adjustment in yellow boxes—and the spreadsheet does all the math for you.

Did You Know?
The average increase in child care operating expenses is about 14% per year.
If you don’t raise tuition annually, your bottom line is shrinking—even if your enrollment stays steady.

The Truth About Tuition Increases

Let’s say you have 100 kids paying $250/week. You decide to raise tuition 6%—and worst-case scenario, you lose eight kids. You panic: “Oh my God, $2,000 a week! I can’t afford this!”

But when you actually look at the math? You only lost $601 a week. That’s not a big deal. You lost all that sleep… for nothing.

Then you fill those spots back in, and now you’re making $1,500 more per week. That’s over $6,000 more per month. You’ve not only recovered—you’ve moved ahead.

Know What You’re Driving Toward

Your Profit & Loss statement is like the dashboard of your car. If you don’t know how to read it, it’s like trying to drive with one of those sunshades still up in the windshield. You don’t know where you are, where you’re going, or how to avoid a crash.

Dashboards help you see clearly. They help you set tuition that actually covers your expenses and gives you profit. One of my dashboards takes your annual expenses, adds in your desired net, and divides that by your student count to give you an average tuition goal.

It’s not perfect, but it’s a great way to find out if you’re even in the ballpark—or if you’re running your school at a loss without realizing it.

Stop Driving Blind
If dashboards and numbers feel overwhelming, you’re not alone—but you don’t have to figure it out by yourself.
Join Child Care Genius University to access done-for-you dashboards, expert coaching, and a community of owners who are mastering their finances—without the stress.

👉 Click here to learn more and get started today!