For new centers
Your RoundUp launch plan
Switching the software a center runs on is not a software problem — it is a people problem with a deadline. These plans lay out who does what, in what order, and how you know you are actually ready to go live.
Contents
1. Pick your track
All three tracks cover the same ground. They differ in how much of it happens in parallel, and how much slack you leave for the week a teacher calls out sick and the licensing visit lands on the same Tuesday.
7 days
Express
One site, one or two classrooms, under about 40 children, and a director who can give it real hours this week.
See the express track →30 days · recommended
Standard
One site, three or more classrooms. Paperwork and billing move over alongside a pilot classroom that shakes out the surprises first.
See the standard track →60 days
Multi-site
Two or more locations, shared staff, or a central office that owns billing. One site leads, the rest follow a proven pattern.
See the multi-site track →Pick the track that matches your size, then read Switching from another platform — it adds an export-and-verify phase before you start, and it changes when you cancel the old subscription.
2. Who does what
Name these people before day one. A launch with no named owner becomes everyone's third priority.
| Role | Who it usually is | Owns | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Launch captain | Director or assistant director | The plan itself. Runs the weekly check-in, chases what is late, makes the call on go-live. | 3–5 hrs/week |
| Admin owner | Director or office manager | Center details, classrooms, staff accounts, permissions, licensing documents. | 4–6 hrs total |
| Billing owner | Office manager or bookkeeper | Tuition schedules, family balances, payment setup, the first invoice run. | 4–8 hrs total |
| Classroom champion | A lead teacher who likes the tablet | Runs the pilot classroom, answers other teachers' questions so they don't all reach the director. | 2 hrs/week |
| RoundUp onboarding | Us — support@roundupece.com | Data import, configuration review, training sessions, go-live standby. | On call |
3. The 30-day standard launch
Four weeks, one phase at a time, with a pilot classroom running a full week before anyone else touches it. This is the track we recommend for most centers.
Kickoff
Day 1 · 60 minutesEveryone leaves the room knowing the date, the owners, and what changes for them.
Do
- Book the kickoff call with RoundUp onboarding Captain
- Name the four owners above and put the go-live date on the staff calendar Captain
- Decide what moves and what does not — attendance, daily reports, billing, enrollment. You do not have to take all of it in month one. Captain
- Tell families a change is coming and roughly when. One paragraph, not a manual. Captain
- Confirm your tablets, phones, or laptops meet the basic requirements Admin
Done when
A go-live date exists in writing and four names are attached to it.
Foundation
Week 1The center exists in RoundUp and matches reality: rooms, hours, capacity, ratios.
Do
- Enter center details — legal name, locations, hours, licensing numbers Admin
- Create every classroom with its real capacity and age range Admin
- Set the staff-to-child ratio rules your state licensing requires Admin
- Connect your identity provider so staff sign in with their work account Admin
- Upload licensing and policy documents families will need to sign Admin
- Send RoundUp your current child and family list for import Admin
Done when
You can open the classroom list and see your building. Nothing is named "Room 1 (temp)".
Enter classrooms the way your teachers say them out loud, not the way they appear on the license. Staff will search for "Ladybugs", not "Preschool Group B".
People
Week 2Children, families, and staff are in, and the records are clean enough to trust.
Do
- Review the imported child records — names, birthdates, room assignments, allergies Admin
- Verify each child has at least one guardian with a working email address Admin
- Check emergency contacts and authorized pickups; this is the field most often stale Admin
- Invite staff and set each person's role and classroom access Admin
- Enter tuition schedules and any subsidy or sliding-scale arrangements Billing
- Reconcile opening family balances against your current system Billing
- Do not invite families yet Captain
Done when
Every enrolled child has a room, a guardian with an email, and a tuition schedule. Balances tie out to the penny.
Balances are the one thing families check on day one. A wrong opening balance costs more trust than a week of delay.
Pilot classroom
Week 3One room runs on RoundUp for a full week — on paper too — and finds the problems before the whole center does.
Do
- Train the pilot room's teachers with the Teacher's first week guide Champion
- Set up the classroom tablet and leave it charging on the wall where the sign-in sheet used to be Champion
- Invite only the pilot room's families Admin
- Run digital check-in and the paper sheet for five days, in parallel Champion
- Send daily reports every day that week — not just the days it feels easy Champion
- Compare the two attendance records at the end of the week and explain every difference Captain
- Collect what confused people, and fix the settings that caused it Captain
Done when
Five days of digital attendance match the paper sheet, and the pilot teachers would rather not go back.
Go live
Week 4Every classroom, every family, one system.
Do
- Train remaining staff — 45 minutes per group, with tablets in hand, not slides Champion
- Send the family invitation with a short "what changes for you" note Captain
- Go live on a Monday, never a Friday Captain
- Keep paper check-in available for one more week as a fallback, unused if all goes well Captain
- Run the first invoice cycle in RoundUp and reconcile it against what you would have billed Billing
- Stand in the hallway at drop-off for the first three mornings Captain
- Retire the old system's daily use — but do not cancel it yet Captain
Done when
Attendance, daily reports, and one full invoice run have all happened in RoundUp with no paper backfill.
4. The 7-day express launch
Same phases, compressed. This works when one person can own nearly all of it and there are few enough children to check every record by hand in an afternoon.
| Day | What happens | Owner |
|---|---|---|
| Mon | Kickoff call. Center details, classrooms, ratio rules, staff sign-in. | Captain + Admin |
| Tue | Child and family import, reviewed record by record. Emergency contacts verified. | Admin |
| Wed | Tuition schedules and opening balances. Reconcile against the current system. | Billing |
| Thu | Staff training, 45 minutes, tablets in hand. Tablet mounted and charging. | Champion |
| Fri | Dry run: check every child in and out on the tablet alongside paper. Fix what breaks. | Champion |
| Fri PM | Family invitations go out with the "what changes Monday" note. | Captain |
| Mon | Go live. Paper stays on the clipboard as a fallback for one week. | Everyone |
Your family list is already clean and current, your tuition arrangements are simple, and the launch captain has genuinely blocked the week. If two of those three are shaky, the 30-day track will get you live sooner in practice.
5. The 60-day multi-site launch
Run the 30-day standard plan at one lead site, then repeat it at the others with the answers already known. Everything below is what multi-site adds on top.
Central setup
Weeks 1–2, before the lead site starts- Decide what is standardized across sites and what each site controls — tuition, forms, report templates, room naming Captain
- Set up the org structure with every location, even the ones launching in month two Admin
- Define roles for staff who float between sites, and for central office staff who need every site Admin
- Agree where billing lives — per site or central — before the first invoice is configured Billing
Lead site
Weeks 3–6- Run the full 30-day standard plan at the site with the strongest director Captain
- Write down every configuration decision as you make it — this becomes the playbook Captain
- Record the training session once so later sites watch it instead of scheduling it Champion
Remaining sites
Weeks 7–9, two sites at a time- Clone the lead site's configuration; change only what genuinely differs Admin
- Each site names its own champion; the lead site's champion mentors them Captain
- Skip the pilot week — run a two-day parallel check-in instead Champion
- Stagger go-lives by a week so central support is never covering two first mornings Captain
6. Switching from another platform
The hard part of a switch is not the import. It is that your old system holds records you are legally required to keep, and its export button stops working the day you cancel.
Before you start
- Export everything from the old system while your subscription is still active — children, families, contacts, attendance history, immunization records, incident reports, invoices, and payment history Admin
- Store the exports somewhere your center controls, not in a personal account Admin
- Check your state's record-retention requirement and confirm the exports actually satisfy it Captain
- Note the old system's renewal date and cancellation notice period — put both on the calendar Captain
- Send the exports to RoundUp onboarding to map into an import Admin
What usually does not transfer cleanly
- Historical daily reports and photos. Most platforms export these poorly or not at all. Decide early whether you are keeping the old account read-only for a few months or downloading them in bulk.
- Partial-period billing. Cut over at a billing-period boundary if you possibly can. Mid-month cutovers mean hand-reconciling every family.
- Custom form responses. Expect to rebuild the forms; expect the answers to come across as attachments rather than fields.
Keep the old subscription running for at least 30 days after go-live. It costs one month and it is the only thing standing between you and a licensing request for a record you can no longer reach.
7. Go-live readiness checklist
Run this the Friday before. If more than two items are unticked, move the date — a delayed launch is recoverable, a bad first week is expensive.
Setup
- Every classroom exists with correct capacity and age range
- Ratio rules match state licensing requirements
- Licensing and policy documents are uploaded
People
- Every enrolled child is in a classroom
- Every child has at least one guardian with a verified email address
- Emergency contacts and authorized pickups reviewed within the last 30 days
- Allergies and medical notes entered and spot-checked against paper files
- Every staff member can sign in — tested, not assumed
Money
- Tuition schedules entered for every family, including subsidies and discounts
- Opening balances reconciled against the old system
- Payment processing tested with one real transaction
- A test invoice reviewed line by line before the first real run
Classroom
- A charged tablet or device is mounted in each room, on the center's Wi-Fi
- Every teacher has done one full check-in and one daily report themselves
- The classroom champion is working on go-live morning
- Paper check-in sheets are printed and on the clipboard as a fallback
Families
- Invitation sent, with what changes and when
- A named person is answering family questions that week
- Front-desk staff know what to say when a parent cannot log in
8. Five ways launches go sideways
- No named captain. "The team" is doing it, which means nobody is. Name one person who is accountable for the date.
- Going live on a Friday. Problems surface at Friday pickup and sit unresolved all weekend. Monday gives you a full week of support.
- Inviting families before staff are fluent. Parents ask teachers questions. If teachers do not have answers yet, confidence in the tool drops before it has been earned.
- Importing dirty data and planning to clean it later. Later never comes, and every wrong phone number becomes a small emergency at the worst moment.
- Taking every feature at once. Attendance and daily reports first. Billing, enrollment, and assessments after the first payroll cycle you survive.
9. After go-live
- Week 1 — daily 10-minute standup with the champion. What broke, what confused people, what setting fixes it. Captain
- Week 2 — check that every classroom is sending daily reports. Silence usually means a workflow problem, not a lazy teacher. Captain
- Week 4 — reconcile the first full billing cycle end to end. Billing
- Week 6 — turn on the next feature: enrollment forms, assessments, or staff scheduling. One at a time. Captain
- Week 8 — cancel the old subscription, once you have confirmed you can still reach anything you are required to retain. Captain
Guided onboarding is included. Email support@roundupece.com or call +1 (458) 273-4336 to schedule a kickoff call and we will run this plan with you.