Mastering Financial Management

McCormick Institute for Early Childhood

BY Annett Brown | May 6, 2024

This document may be printed, photocopied, and disseminated freely with attribution. All content is the property of the McCormick Center for Early Childhood Leadership.

Child care providers find themselves juggling numerous responsibilities that cover a wide span ranging from managing staff, to paying bills, to nurturing young minds. Amidst these demands, maintaining accurate financial records often becomes a daunting task. Child care providers, like many other business owners, generally tend to hate bookkeeping and paperwork, but it’s critically important to have it done and to have it done correctly.

Efficient financial management is one of the keys to success for early child care providers. Key business decisions start with having accurate and up-to-date financial information, which provides critical insight into your business and aids in decision-making.


More and more child care providers find themselves having to navigate accounting tasks independently, as rising costs force them to cut back on many tasks or items they could previously outsource. However, a correctly designed accounting system can aid in this transition and provide the skills necessary to confidently navigate the intricacies of financial management.


The McCormick Center’s upcoming virtual technology training, “Mastering Financial Management: QuickBooks Training for Child Care Providers,” will help child care providers overcome the fear of the financials that plague small business entrepreneurs. There is a saying, “What gets measured, gets managed,” and it is true that meticulous financial tracking can not only optimize operations but also assist with informed decision-making.

A well-structured setup in QuickBooks is crucial for effective financial management, and it can be adapted to meet the unique needs of childcare businesses. Learning to navigate QuickBooks effectively will allow you to use QuickBooks more efficiently to make critical management decisions and reduce outsourcing costs.


key elements of child care program financial management:


  • Income Transactions: Proper tracking and the categorization of income sources, such as tuition, fees, grants, food reimbursements, and extracurricular activities.
  • Expense Transactions: Efficient tracking of operational expenses, including rent, utilities, supplies, meals, reimbursements, transportation, and professional fees, as well as processing more complex transactions such as asset purchases, depreciations, bill and loan payments.
  • Banking Transactions: Accurate utilization of bank feeds to track bank and credit card transactions and monthly reconciliations to ensure accuracy between bank statements and QuickBooks records.
  • Report Creation: Generating reports essential for tax purposes, management decisions, budgeting, and forecasting.
  • Year-End Reports: Utilizing QuickBooks for year-end reporting requirements such as financial statements, child care expenses reports for families, and 1099 vendor payment reports.


“Mastering Financial Management: QuickBooks Training for Child Care Providers” will walk participants through how QuickBooks can be used for income transactions, expense transactions, banking tractions, report creations, and year-end reports. In addition, the session will explore strategies for optimizing workflows by automating recurring transactions and demonstrate how to integrate QuickBooks with other software and tools to enhance efficiency.

The May 17 session will also cover challenges encountered by QuickBooks users with insights into how to avoid common errors. Participants will be able to engage in a live Q&A session where they can ask specific questions and gain insight with fellow child care providers.


By adopting the practices outlined in the webinar, child care providers can streamline financial performance enabling them to focus their energies on nurturing the next generation.

Annette Brown is a Certified Public Accountant and the owner of ABC Accounting Services, LLC. She received her BS in Accountancy from Northern Illinois University and her CPA Certification from the University of Illinois. Annette began her accounting career in the corporate sector and has over 25 years of accounting experience. She started ABC Accounting Services to empower small business entrepreneurs to thrive in their businesses.

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A Leadership Coaching Model for Impact: Building on Decades of Evidence and Experience at the McCormick Institute for Early Childhood

By Natalia Ambrozek, Wendy Connell, Lisa Downey, Robyn Kelton, Leslie Layman, Erin Cetera • July 23, 2026
Natalia Ambrozek, B.S. , is a Leadership Coach and Training Specialist at the McCormick Institute for Early Childhood at National Louis University. Natalia earned a bachelor’s degree in Early Childhood Education with a concentration in French at DePaul University and has since completed her ESL endorsement. She has served in the McCormick Institute as an Assessor and Quality Assessment Coordinator prior to her role as a Leadership Coach. Previously, Natalia taught for over 10 years in Head Start and Early Head Start classrooms in Chicago and has experience as an Assistant Director. Natalia is also part of the Illinois Southland chapter of NAEYC and an alumnus of the Maria Whelan Leadership Institute. Wendy Connell, M.Ed. , is the Manager of Early Childhood Leadership Coaching at the McCormick Institute for Early Childhood. Wendy has been with the organization since 2017, serving as the IDHS Report and Certification Specialist, then Leadership Coach for the Smart Start Quality Support program. She is also an adjunct professor in ECE at Waubonsee Community College. Throughout her career, Wendy has been a director of early childhood programs, an elementary school teacher, educator, volunteer coordinator, supervisor, and family child care provider. Dr. Lisa Downey is the Executive Director of the McCormick Institute for Early Childhood at National Louis University (NLU), where she oversees all programming and operations. She leads a team of 75 staff dedicated to advancing the Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) profession through leadership, applied research, community and policy engagement, and innovative professional preparation. With over 35 years of experience in the field, Dr. Downey’s career includes roles as a toddler classroom teacher, child care center director, Child Care Resource and Referral (CCR&R) resource developer, training coordinator, and Director of Provider Services at Illinois Action for Children, where she managed CCR&R professional development for the Chicago area. She has been a faculty member at NLU for more than 15 years. Today, Dr. Downey focuses on addressing the complex challenges facing the ECEC workforce, creating scalable solutions that support the profession and ensure children, families, and communities thrive now and in the future. Robyn Kelton, M.A. , is the Director of Data and Evaluation for the McCormick Institute for Early Childhood at National Louis University (NLU). In this role, Robyn oversees the McCormick Institute’s research interests regarding evaluation and quality support tools, including Program Administration Scale (PAS) and Business Administration Scale for Family Child Care (BAS), the Early Childhood Work Environment Survey (ECWES), and the Administrator Role Perception Survey (ARPS). Robyn also oversees research related to the evaluation needs of the professional learning initiatives at the Institute as well as the relationship between evaluation tools and program quality, workforce retention, and leadership development. Other research interests include cognitive and developmental psychology, memory development, and learning. Robyn holds a Baccalaureate degree in psychology from the University of Kansas (KU) and a Masters of Arts degree in psychology with an advanced certificate of study in organizational psychology from NLU. Robyn is currently a doctoral candidate in the brain, behavior, and quantitative science Ph.D. psychology program at KU. Prior to joining the McCormick Institute in 2006, Robyn worked as lead teacher in a kindergarten classroom for an after-school program and lead teacher of a 4-5 year old classroom at a child care center. Leslie Layman, M.S. , is the Senior Director of Professional Learning and Innovation at the McCormick Institute for Early Childhood at National Louis University. In this role, she supports professional learning, including training, academies, coaching, and learning design. Prior to joining McCormick, Leslie was the Director of Early Childhood Education Strategic Initiatives at National Louis University, Director-Teaching and Learning Programs at Harry S. Truman College, and had many years of experience in early intervention, home visiting, and supporting children with developmental delays and their families. She holds Baccalaureate degrees in Psychology and Italian from University of Wisconsin, and a Master of Science in Child Development with a specialization in children with special needs from Erikson Institute. Erin Cetera, M.S. , serves as Senior Director of Quality Assessment at the McCormick Institute for Early Childhood at National Louis University (NLU), where she leads a team of nearly 40 professionals who conduct program assessments and deliver quality improvement training throughout Illinois. With more than four decades of experience in early childhood education, Erin has held a wide range of leadership and instructional roles, including preschool teacher, child care center administrator, college demonstration center director, and adjunct faculty member, teaching early childhood education courses for over 20 years. She joined NLU in 2018 as an Assessor and Training Specialist and has since advanced to her current leadership role. Today, Erin is dedicated to highlighting the steady improvements taking place in early childhood programs across Illinois. Guided by a deep commitment to young children, their families, and the professionals who support them, she champions efforts to create high-quality learning environments that foster positive outcomes for all. Let me know if you need anything else.
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