November 2023 Product Spotlight

Don’t miss 6 months FREE of payroll. Read on for more exciting updates in brightwheel!

Claire Lee Lyall avatar
Written by Claire Lee Lyall
Updated over a week ago

This month we’re sharing more big updates that will streamline your operations, deepen staff and family relationships, and enhance the quality of learning at your program.

Read on to learn more about


1. Exciting news: the best payroll experience in early education is here.

You can now run payroll from brightwheel with a click of a button. Save time paying your employees, automate your taxes, and minimize errors by connecting your brightwheel account with Gusto, the #1 ranked payroll software.

Don’t miss this special offer! Brightwheel customers who are new to Gusto will receive 6 months FREE until 1/31. Get started today.

Note: This feature is not yet available for some programs, including multi-sites. Join the waitlist to be the first to know when it’s available.

2. Easily record diaper cream on the potty activity for families & licensing.

You asked, we delivered. Staff can use a new button on the potty activity to note whether they applied cream. If cream is logged, it will carry over to reporting for your compliance needs. 🚼


3. Quickly check for any unread messages with this new improvement.

Thanks to feedback we heard from the community, you can now sort brightwheel Messages by unread on both web and mobile. This means you and your staff can easily surface any communication that might have been missed, which will support even stronger connections with families and amongst your team. Give it a try!


4. Spark curiosity with upcoming themes in Experience Curriculum!

2024 can be your program’s strongest year yet. Jumpstart high quality learning with DinoLand in January: children will dig up fossils, hunt for leaves with a baby triceratops, and help T-Rex find safety from the erupting volcano. Get a walkthrough to learn more about next year's themes.


Resources for you:

  • *New* Tax checklist with two important dates for December:

    • By 12/15 - Review your program’s information under Billing Settings to ensure your 1099-K is properly delivered.

    • By 12/31 - All payments, charges, and adjustments must be recorded by this date to appear in this year’s tax summary for families.

    • Ideas to incorporate the parent directory, calendar, portfolios, message attachments, & web activities into this season’s festivities

Coming soon! Improvements you’ll see in the next few months:

  • Absence reasons. You and your staff will be able to log absence reasons for attendance. There will be preset reasons and an option to add a custom reason via notes.

  • 🧑‍🏫 Staff profile enhancements. A new look and feel is coming to the staff profile. A separate tab for attachments will keep things better organized, and it’ll be easier to make quick edits to staff fields.

If you collaborate with other administrators at your program, send this article to them so they don’t miss these updates! They can subscribe here if they aren’t receiving these newsletters in their inbox.


Additional Resources

  • Brightwheel billing: if you are not currently using brightwheel's billing feature, get a walkthrough to see how administrators save 5 hours each week using the platform.

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    • You can also take a look at all our past newsletters in this hub.

  • Account Setup: If you are still setting up your brightwheel account, complete our two onboarding trainings today to build quality connections, efficiently run your program, and simplify billing with brightwheel.

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