If you're in an LA which works directly with childcare providers rather than with tiney, you can request to have your payments sent to tiney instead of to your own bank account. This will mean that tiney's service charge gets applied when the money is sent through to your wallet, so you won't have to pay those separately.
Where can I find my tiney funding account details?
These details are unique to you, and can be found in your tiney app: head to Business Settings and then to the Local Authority Funding section.
How can I update my bank details with my local authority?
You'll need to contact your Local Authority directly, and they'll be able to guide you through their process.
How will tiney know which children my payments are for?
If you submit your own funding claims, tiney won't have visibility over each child's total claim, or the breakdown of payments. Incoming payments from Local Authorities need to be processed manually by our team, so please make sure we've got the info we need:
Your LA's payment rules: each LA sets their own schedule and breakdown of payments across the term.
The total claims for the children accessing funding at your setting, including the number of hours, the hourly rate, and any supplementary payments expected.
Any remittance advice: this is essentially a description of each payment, usually showing a breakdown per funding band, which will help us allocate the paid amount among your funded mindees. Most LAs will send remittance advice alongside each payment. If yours doesn't, there may be a breakdown available in your portal.
My Local Authority won’t allow me to change my bank details - what do I do?
We are aware that a few Local Authorities may not allow childminders to change their bank details. Rest assured changing the bank details over to your unique tiney wallet is not mandatory: you will still be able to offer funded places.
The reason we recommend asking your LA to update your bank details to pay into your tiney wallet is that it removes an extra step for you: tiney's service charge applies to certain funding payments, so if payments are made to you directly, you'll need to pay those charges separately (see here for more details). Having payments flow through your tiney wallet also means you see all your childcare-related earnings in one place.
If your Local Authority rejects your request to change your bank details, you can reassure them that this is an FCA-regulated account, held in your name. Please see some suggested wording below that you can send them, which may help.
Template to send to LA
Template to send to LA
Dear LA Funding Team,
Please accept this email as confirmation that I would like to update my nominated funding payment account to XX-XX-XX / XXXXXXXX.
The above account is a business account held legally in my name with Modulr FS Limited, an FCA-registered e-money provider. This account is managed by tiney, acting as my authorised billing and payments administrator. The purpose of using this account, which is legally ring-fenced in my name, is to enable tiney to keep track of payments on my behalf, which in turn helps me manage my income, complete my tax returns, and ensure that I’m paid correctly and in full by for the childcare services I provide.
I am comfortable that tiney will always transfer any funds to me in full that are received into this account. I am also comfortable with and fully aware of the hourly rates that are paid by the local authority for the funded hours I provide.
Separately I have a contracted arrangement with tiney that, in return for the services they offer me (which includes payment and billing administration, alongside a broad range of other support services), I pay them a % of my overall income in tiney service fees. For convenience, these fees are paid automatically on receipt of funds, however I am aware that I can opt to pay these separately via invoice if I require.
If you have any questions, or would like tiney to send this email on your behalf, please let us know.