Services · Ecommerce development · Childcare booking sites

Booking and fee payment websites for Birmingham nurseries, clubs and childminders.

Our childcare booking website development Birmingham service builds the paid side of your setting's website: session bookings, extra days, registration deposits, monthly invoices and holiday club places, all paid online and recorded in one admin area. Parents from Sutton Coldfield to Selly Oak see what is free under their funded hours, what is charged and what is optional, then pay by card, wallet or Direct Debit. Your manager stops chasing payments by text and reconciling bank statements by hand.

Families hand over details about babies and toddlers when they book. We collect only what each step needs, keep medical, allergy and collection details away from the payment screens, and agree with you exactly which staff roles can open which records before any design begins. Your privacy notice is written to match.

Built for
Ofsted registered day nurseries, preschools, childminders, out of school clubs and holiday schemes across Birmingham, plus small groups with settings in neighbouring boroughs such as Solihull or Sandwell.
Typical timeline
Scope, payment provider and launch window are fixed in discovery, and go live is timed around your funding terms so families are not moved to a new system in the middle of a claim period.
What you own
The website code, the bookings and payments admin, your merchant and Direct Debit accounts, and every family record, all held in accounts your setting controls.
Rated
4.7 / 5 from 23 Google reviews

200+ companies servedFrom a first store to an ADX listed developer

Modon
Majid Al Futtaim
HP
Belkin
Dulsco Group
OneClickDrive
Hanayen
HMS
Clocksprings
Ghezlan

What the booking site handles

The paid bookings a Birmingham setting takes every week, handled online.

Birmingham has a large and varied childcare market: chain nurseries near the city centre, family run settings in Moseley, Kings Heath and Harborne, childminders working from home in Erdington or Hall Green, and breakfast and after school clubs attached to primary schools. Plenty of local parents work rotating shifts at the city's hospitals, in logistics or in retail, so a fixed Monday to Friday pattern does not suit everyone. Childcare online booking system development in Birmingham therefore starts with how you sell time: full days, half days, hourly blocks, stretched funded hours, or term time only places. Once that is clear we design the screens around it. These are the parts we build most often, in the order a parent meets them. Each piece can be switched on or left out, so a childminder and a multi room nursery are not forced into the same build.

Explain your project
  • Live session availability

    Parents see open sessions by room and age group, worked out from your ratios and staffing, not a static timetable. A full Thursday in the baby room shows as full, while a spare afternoon in the preschool room can be booked at once. Your manager can hold places for settling in or for children moving up.

    Fewer phone calls asking whether a day is free.

  • Shift friendly ad hoc booking

    For parents on rotas, extra sessions can be requested a set number of days ahead, with your own cut off and approval rules. The request checks capacity first, then takes payment or adds the charge to the next invoice, depending on how you prefer to bill.

    Irregular hours become bookable without manual juggling.

  • Funded hours shown clearly

    Each child's funded entitlement from Birmingham City Council is recorded against the booking, so the parent sees which hours are funded, which are paid and which extras are optional. Meals, nappies and outings can be listed as separate, voluntary items, which keeps your terms in line with the government's guidance for funded places.

    Invoices families understand and rarely dispute.

  • Registration and deposits

    Waiting list sign up, an optional registration fee, a deposit to secure a start date and the signed terms all happen in one sequence. Every mandatory charge is shown before the parent commits, in line with the drip pricing rules in the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024.

    Places secured with nothing left to chase.

  • Card, wallet and Direct Debit

    Card and Apple Pay or Google Pay for one off bookings, and Direct Debit for monthly fees. Strong Customer Authentication is handled by the payment provider, and stored cards or mandates sit with that provider rather than on your server.

    Monthly fees collected on the date you set.

  • Tax-Free Childcare and vouchers

    Many families pay part of their bill through their Tax-Free Childcare account or an employer voucher. The site generates invoices with the reference those schemes need and lets your team match incoming childcare service payments against each account.

    Government and voucher payments matched to the right child.

  • Cancellations and refunds

    Your notice periods, sickness rules and closure day policy become rules the site applies itself, so a cancelled extra session produces the right credit or refund without a debate at the door. Staff can override with a recorded reason.

    Consistent decisions and a clear audit trail.

  • Holiday club weeks and siblings

    Half term and summer schemes sell by the day or the week, often to children who do not attend your nursery. Parents pick weeks on a calendar, add siblings in one basket, choose any optional trips and pay in a single checkout. Places close automatically when a group reaches its staffing limit, and a waiting list fills cancellations in order.

    School holiday places sold without a queue of emails.

  • Reminders families act on

    Email or SMS reminders for unpaid invoices, expiring eligibility codes, holiday club deadlines and forms still missing. Marketing messages are kept separate and only go to parents who opted in, as PECR requires.

    Fewer arrears and fewer lapsed funding codes.

  • Manager and finance admin

    A back office for bookings, occupancy, aged debt and refunds, with roles for managers, room leads and finance. Exports go to your accounting package and your nursery management software, so nobody types the same booking twice.

    One record of every place and every payment.

Who this is for

Four Birmingham settings that get the most from online booking.

A booking site has to suit the way a setting is run. A childminder caring for a handful of children needs something very different from a nursery with three rooms and a waiting list. Childcare booking website design in Birmingham should reflect who your families are, how they work and which languages they read. These are the setups we see most often in the city. Each one needs a different mix of booking rules, payment options and admin tools.

01

Day nurseries with many shift working parents

If a large share of your families work early, late or weekend shifts, rigid weekly contracts leave gaps and lost income. We build flexible booking within the limits you set: minimum sessions, advance notice and ratio checks. Parents fill those gaps themselves, and your manager approves exceptions instead of rebuilding the rota by phone. Peak demand weeks and bank holidays can carry their own rules too.

Flexibility within limits you control.

02

Settings serving families in several languages

Birmingham families speak many languages besides English. Key booking pages, terms summaries and reminder messages can be published in the languages your families actually use, with English kept as the legal version of your terms. Plain wording and clear layouts help every parent, including those reading in a second language.

03

Out of school and holiday clubs

Breakfast clubs, after school clubs and holiday schemes sell places by the day and by the week, often to families from several schools. We build booking by school, collection point and week, with sibling bookings and eligibility codes for funded holiday places handled where your scheme takes part. Each booking records which school the child must be collected from and by whom, so club staff see a clear list every afternoon.

04

Childminders and small groups growing beyond spreadsheets

A registered childminder or a two site group does not need a complex platform. A lighter build covers availability, contracts, invoices and online payment, and it can grow later if you add settings or rooms without starting again.

Start small, keep the data.

Six steps from first call to a booking site parents use.

  1. 01Discovery by video callWe map your rooms, ratios, session types, funding claims, fees and refund policy with your manager and finance lead, then write the scope and the order of work.
  2. 02Pricing and policy rulesEvery fee, deposit, discount and cancellation rule is written as a plain rule set and signed off before it becomes code, so the site charges exactly what your terms say.
  3. 03Booking and checkout designShort forms, clear totals and mobile first layouts, tested with real parents where possible, including those who read English as a second language.
  4. 04Payments and integrationsCard, wallet and Direct Debit set up in your own merchant accounts, then connected to your accounting package and nursery management software.
  5. 05Testing and data protection reviewEvery booking type, refund, role and reminder tested, plus a check of consent, cookies, retention periods and access logs against your privacy notice.
  6. 06Launch and handoverFamilies invited in stages, staff trained by video call, and a written guide for changing sessions, fees and term dates without a developer.

Technology

What we build this with.

We pick the stack to fit your setting: WordPress or a headless front end for the public pages, a booking engine built on Laravel or Next.js, and a payment provider that supports cards, wallets and Direct Debit in the UK. Hosting sits in UK or EU data centres where you prefer, and you hold the admin logins.

01Web

  • React
  • Next.js
  • TypeScript
  • Node.js
  • Laravel
  • WordPress

02Commerce

  • Shopify Plus
  • WooCommerce
  • BigCommerce
  • Headless storefronts

03Data and cloud

  • PostgreSQL
  • MySQL
  • MongoDB
  • AWS
  • Azure
  • Docker

04Marketing and tracking

  • GA4
  • Google Tag Manager
  • Search Console
  • Meta Pixel
  • Looker Studio

Questions Birmingham settings ask about online booking.

It depends on how many session types and integrations you need.

A childminder with simple day rates and card payments needs far less than a nursery group with funded hours, Direct Debit, holiday clubs and a link to its management software. We agree the scope in discovery and write down the timeline before design starts. We usually plan launch for a quiet point in your funding term, so parents and staff are not switching systems during a claim period or the September intake. If your current system holds years of family records, we plan the migration as a separate step with its own test run, so live bookings are never at risk while data moves across.

Tell us what the business needs. We will tell you what to build first.

Schedule a free consultation and get a written recommendation, with costs, before you commit to anything.

Get in touch

PROVEN RESULTS

4.7 / 5from 23 Google reviews