Tiney use a revenue sharing plan, where we only make money when you are making money as a childminder. This means we charge an agreed percentage of your income via the wallet in the tiney app. This is agreed at 12% for new childminders, and we currently have a loyalty offer wherein we will offer to reduce it to 8% once your total income through tiney meets a minimum threshold.
What payments is the tiney fee charged on?
The tiney fee is charged on all payments made by guardians, by any accepted payment method. This includes all rates and fees included in an invoice.
When a guardian makes a payment via the tiney app, the payment is reconciled to an invoice and the payment is transferred to your tiney wallet. The tiney fee is charged at this point - so for every £100 a guardian pays, you receive £88 in your wallet, and tiney receive £12.
Tiney's fee also applies to certain types of Local Authority funding:
9-23 month olds for children of Working Parents
2 year olds for children of Working Parents
3–4 year olds (Universal and Extended hours) for childminders who registered on or after 1st January 2026
Tiney's fee is not charged on any funding payments for:
2 year olds of families accessing additional government support*
3-4 year olds (Universal and Extended entitlement) for childminders who registered before 1st January 2026
Early Years Pupil Premium
IDACI
Disability Access Funding
Flexibility or Quality supplements
*We are aware that some families using 2YO funding may be using a mixture of Working Parent and Additional Support funding. Tiney's fee will apply to the Working Parent hours, but not the Additional Support hours.
How is the tiney fee charged on funded placements?
Tiney will calculate the estimated total to be paid by your Local Authority, per child, for the full term. This will be based on:
The number of weeks your LA fund in the term, or the number of weeks the child will be with you if the placement starts late, or ends early in the term.
The funding scheme the child is eligible for, based on their date of birth and funding codes.
The base hourly rate paid by the LA for that funding scheme.
The number of funded hours per week the child is using with you.
For example:
LA funds 14 weeks in Autumn term
Child is eligible for 9-23month old funding
LA pay £10/hr for this type of funding
Child uses 15 hours per week
Total expected payment: 14 weeks * 15 hours * £10/hr = £2,100.
The fee will be the standard agreed percentage you pay for your normal income.
With the above example, the tiney fee charged for the term will be 12% of £2,100 = £252.
How the tiney fee is charged will depend on whether your funding is paid via your tiney wallet, or if you're paid into your personal or business bank account.
Funding paid via your tiney wallet
If you are in a Local Authority where tiney process your funding claims on your behalf, the funding will always be paid into your tiney wallet.
OR, if you are in a Local Authority where you process your own funding claims, you can provide your unique funding account details to your LA for them to pay into. This will be paid via your wallet.
When funds are received from the LA, they will be reconciled into your wallet, just like all other payment types. The tiney fee will be applied following the point of payment, so you won't need to make any separate payments to tiney.
Funding paid into your personal bank account
If you are in a Local Authority where you process your funding claims, and are paid to your personal account, then a charge for the tiney fee for will be added to your tiney wallet for you to pay.
This charge will be based on the total expected funding amount you are likely to be paid, as per the calculation above.
Please note that every LA sets their own schedule and breakdown for payments across each term. At this time, the tiney charge cannot be split to accommodate all LA's payment schedules, so only one charge will be created per child each term, with flexibility on how much and when you can pay it. Please see here for guidance on paying your charges.
If the charge amount added to your wallet is higher or lower than the amount you'd expect, please contact us immediately. We may request screenshots of your headcount claim or expected payment from your Local Authority's portal, to assist us in updating the calculation and charge.