Features

KitaManager is a web-based management platform built for daycare centers (Kitas) in Germany. It helps facility administrators handle daily operational tasks — from employee records and child enrollment to government funding calculations, attendance tracking, budget management, and reporting.

How It Works

A typical workflow in KitaManager follows these steps:

    flowchart LR
    A["Create<br/>Organization"] --> B["Add<br/>Employees"]
    A --> C["Enroll<br/>Children"]
    B --> D["Assign<br/>Contracts"]
    C --> E["Create Child<br/>Contracts"]
    E --> F["Funding<br/>Calculation"]
    E --> G["Attendance<br/>Tracking"]
    D --> H["Budget &<br/>Statistics"]
    F --> H
    style F fill:#22c55e,color:#fff
    style H fill:#3b82f6,color:#fff
  

1. Set up your organization — register your Kita with its name, German state (Bundesland), and sections.
2. Add staff — enter employee details, assign positions, and create employment contracts.
3. Enroll children — register children with personal data, assign sections, and create care contracts.
4. Funding is calculated automatically — based on each child’s contract properties and the state-level funding rules.
5. Track attendance — record daily attendance for each child.
6. Monitor finances and statistics — use budgets, statistics, and reports to manage operations.

Organization Management

Each Kita is represented as an organization in the system. If you operate multiple facilities, each one gets its own organization with completely separate data.

Administrators see all their organizations on an overview page and can switch between them using the sidebar.

Sections

Sections represent groups within a Kita — for example, “Schmetterlinge” or “Sonnenkafer.” They let you organize your facility into manageable units.

Employee Management

The employee module maintains a complete personnel database for each Kita.

What you can track per employee

Employment contracts

Each employee can have one or more employment contracts over time. Contracts define the position, grade, step, weekly hours, and validity period. The system enforces that contracts for the same employee do not overlap.

Step promotions

KitaManager tracks when employees become eligible for the next salary step based on their contract start date and current step. Step promotion alerts appear on the dashboard so administrators can act on upcoming pay changes.

Import and export

• Import employee data from YAML files for bulk onboarding.
• Export employee lists to Excel or YAML for reporting and archival.

Child Enrollment

The child management module tracks every child enrolled in your Kita, along with their care contracts and funding.

What you can track per child

Care contracts

Each child has one or more care contracts that define the period of enrollment and the type of care received. Contract properties describe the care arrangement:

These properties directly determine how much government funding the Kita receives for each child (see Government Funding below).

Import and export

• Import child data from YAML files for bulk enrollment.
• Export child lists to Excel or YAML.

Attendance Tracking

KitaManager provides daily attendance tracking for every child in your facility.

Attendance data is scoped to the organization and can be reviewed by section.

Government Funding

One of KitaManager’s core features is the automatic calculation of government childcare funding based on each German state’s rules.

How funding calculation works

    flowchart TD
    A["Child Contract"] --> B["Contract Properties<br/>(e.g., ganztag + ndh)"]
    B --> C["Match against<br/>Funding Rules"]
    D["Government Funding Config<br/>(e.g., Berlin 2024)"] --> C
    C --> E["Monthly Funding Amount<br/>(e.g., 1,633.64 EUR)"]
    style E fill:#22c55e,color:#fff
  

1. Each child’s contract has properties describing their care type.
2. The system looks up the matching funding entry from the configured state funding rules.
3. The resulting monthly amount is displayed directly in the children list.

Funding configuration

Funding is configured per German state and per time period. Each funding entry maps a combination of properties to a monthly amount in euros:

Funding periods can be updated when state rates change without affecting historical data.

ISBJ bill comparison

KitaManager supports uploading government funding bills in the ISBJ format (.xlsx). After upload, the system compares the billed amounts against its own calculated funding to identify discrepancies — helping you catch underpayments or errors before they compound.

Financial forecast

The forecast tool lets you model “what if” scenarios to plan ahead:

• Target balance — set a financial goal and see how many children you’d need to reach it
• Baseline context — the forecast pre-fills with your current cumulative balance, so you always know your starting point
• Optimizer — automatically calculates the minimum number of children needed to reach your target, distributing them across sections

Budget Management

The budget module lets you plan and track income and expenses for your Kita.

Statistics and Reporting

KitaManager provides seven types of statistics to support operational decisions. All statistics pages offer print-friendly views and can be filtered by date range and section.

Pay Plans

Pay plans define the salary grades and steps used in your facility — typically based on the TVoeD-SuE pay scale used in German public childcare.

When you assign a grade and step to an employee’s contract, the system uses the active pay plan to calculate costs and track step progression.

User Roles and Access Control

KitaManager uses a role-based access control (RBAC) system to ensure users can only access data appropriate to their role and organization.

Role overview

Permission matrix

Audit logging

All data modifications are recorded in an audit log. Every create, update, and delete action is tracked with the acting user, timestamp, and affected resource — ensuring accountability and compliance.

Dashboard

After logging in, users see a dashboard that provides a quick overview of their Kita.

The sidebar provides direct access to all management areas: organizations, employees, children, attendance, government funding, statistics, budgets, pay plans, sections, and user management.

Import and Export

KitaManager supports bulk data operations through YAML import and Excel/YAML export.

Imports validate data before committing, and exports produce files ready for offline analysis or archival.

Mobile-Friendly Design

KitaManager is built with a responsive layout that works across devices. The interface adapts to phones, tablets, and desktops with touch-friendly controls and appropriately sized tap targets.

Teachers and staff can use KitaManager on tablets during their workday — for example, recording attendance directly from the group room.

Multi-Language Support

The interface is available in English and German, switchable at any time from the navigation bar. All labels, messages, and validation errors are translated.

KitaManager also supports dark mode, which can be toggled in the UI for comfortable use in any lighting condition.