Nobody can tell you what a home daycare makes, because there is no such number. Income
is set by four things only you know: how many spots you fill, what you charge for each,
how many weeks a year you are open and paid, and what the program costs you to run every
month. So this calculator does not hand you an average. It computes yours,
from your rates, live as you type, and asserts no market data at all.
The planner runs four steps you could do on paper:
Weekly gross:spots x your weekly rate, summed across
your age bands (infants, toddlers, preschool, school-age), because many providers charge
different rates by age.
Annual gross:weekly gross x your weeks of care. If you
close two unpaid weeks a year, your year has 50 earning weeks, not 52; this step is where
that truth lands.
Expenses: your monthly entries for food, supplies, insurance, your
utilities share, substitute care, assistant wages if you have help, and anything else,
totaled and annualized.
Net before taxes: gross minus expenses, shown monthly and
annually, plus net per filled spot and what one more spot is worth at your own rates.
A worked sample
Labeled sample: invented numbers to show the steps, not what anyone charges or earns
Suppose a provider enters 3 toddler spots at $200 per week and 2 preschool spots at
$180 per week, open 50 weeks, with $900 in monthly expenses.
Weekly gross: 3 x 200 + 2 x 180 = $960. Annual gross: 960 x 50 = $48,000. Annual
expenses: 900 x 12 = $10,800. Net before taxes: 48,000 minus 10,800 = $37,200, or $3,100
per month averaged. One more filled spot at $200 would add 200 x 50 = $10,000 a year in
gross, before added food and supply costs, and only if that provider's license allows a
sixth child.
What the result is for
Setting rates with open eyes. Change one rate and watch the annual
line move. The rate you write into your
contract should be one you have already seen on
this sheet.
Deciding whether an assistant pays off. Enter the wage in the
assistant field, then add the spots the extra help would let you legally fill, and compare
nets. The planner does the arithmetic; your state's licensing rules decide whether the
extra spots exist at all.
Facing the expense load. Food, insurance, and your utilities share
are easy to feel and hard to see. Totaled and annualized, they stop being vibes.
What this calculator refuses to do
It will not tell you what programs near you charge, what providers earn on average, or
what you should charge, because it does not know and neither does a blog post. It also
does not estimate taxes; net is shown before taxes, and your tax situation is between you
and your tax professional. If you take part in a food reimbursement program, decide
yourself whether to enter it as reduced food expense or leave it out; the planner just
adds and multiplies what you give it.
Capacity note. State licensing caps how many children one
home may care for, with counts and ratios that vary by state and by the children's ages.
The planner never suggests a capacity; check your state's official childcare licensing
site before planning around a spot you may not be allowed to fill.
Everything runs in your browser. No account, no email gate, no server; your numbers
save only on your own device.