Daycare Business Plan Template: Free Word + PDF for Home and Center Child Care

The PDF is 18 pages, a LibreOffice render of the Word file, so Word may paginate it differently. Page 1 is a free-sample release note. Then come the home or center switch, a one-page summary and 10 numbered sections, with the child care worksheets in 5.1–5.9 and the projections in 8.1–8.5.

Three parts are specific to this file: a payment-timing table (8.4, “Year-1 monthly cash with payment timing”) whose labelled, made-up example shows net cash still negative in the month enrollment reaches break-even; the grant application crosswalk (5.5); and a plain list of what the free Excel workbook can't do, with the by-hand step where the file gives one.

1. Tick one box in the home or center switch; its table names the sections that change.
2. Work through the section 5 worksheets, from capacity and enrollment (5.2) to the licensing timeline (5.6).
3. Build the projections in the free Excel workbook and copy the summaries into section 8. Replace every [bracketed field] and delete the grey guidance and every shaded box before you send the plan.

See also how to make a template sound like your business.

One box, “Your state sets the numbers”, appears four times. It reads: “This template gives no staff-to-child ratios, group sizes, space rules, training hours, licensing steps or fees. Your state sets them; look for its licensing process on your state agency's website. Enter your state's numbers where the rows ask for them.”

• No built-in calculations. Word has none, so the arithmetic is laid out for you.
• No tuition, pay or cost figures. Every number shown is a labelled example.
• Checked in LibreOffice only. It hasn't been opened in Microsoft Word.
• Not legal, tax, accounting, licensing or lending advice.

Enter your licensed capacity by age group, with your own labels, then plan enrollment month by month for the first year from your own demand evidence. Enrollment % = children enrolled ÷ licensed capacity. Break-even enrollment = your monthly costs ÷ your monthly tuition per child; the next section works an example.

The arithmetic is laid out and every input is blank. Staff needed at one time = children enrolled ÷ your state's ratio (children per staff member), rounded up. Staff shifts a day = staff needed × hours open ÷ hours per shift.

A table first asks for your state's answers on children per staff member, maximum group size, who counts toward staffing, the hours of staff presence required while children are present, and cover rules, with where you found each (agency, page, date). To time hires against enrollment, see how to plan when to hire.

Federal rules require each state's lead agency to certify that it will publish a consumer website that includes “[a] localized list of all licensed child care providers … searchable by zip code” (45 CFR 98.33(a)(2), eCFR title 45, part 98, current as of 2026-10-16, read 2026-10-20). Those rules set duties for each state's lead agency (45 CFR 98.1(b)); the requirements you must meet come from your state.

A suggestion, not something the rule says: if your state's site offers that list, use it as the start of your competitor table. It may not show every provider. To check your findings, see how to test your market research.

The tuition worksheet has a row per age group: your tuition, private-pay children, children through the program, the parent co-payment, your registration fee, and when each payer pays. Federal rules list “the sliding fee scale for parent co-payments” among what a state's lead agency is to publish (45 CFR 98.33(a)(8), same eCFR edition, read 2026-10-20).

Federal rules require each state to describe payment practices that make payment timely (45 CFR 98.45(m)(1), same eCFR edition, read 2026-10-20), but your state's actual schedule is for the program to tell you. Ask the program what it pays, what the parent pays, and when payments arrive.

Example — replace with your numbers. A hypothetical program with made-up enrollment, tuition and costs; no number here is a norm, a rate, a ratio or a capacity. Break-even: $18,600 monthly costs ÷ $1,240 monthly tuition per child = 15 children. That's arithmetic only, not a viable or allowed size for any program.

Example — replace with your numbers. Same made-up program. Its program share is paid one month later, a made-up lag that is not any state's schedule. Costs are $18,600 every month.

Cash in = this month's private-pay children × $1,240 + last month's program-paid children × $1,240. The example uses one tuition for every child to keep the arithmetic simple; the file uses the weighted figure from 5.4 if yours differs by age group.

Example — replace with your numbers. Enrollment reaches 15 in month 5, yet net is still ($1,240): $17,360 in against $18,600 out, because month 5's program share arrives in month 6. The lowest cumulative cash of the six months shown is month 5, at ($29,760); month 6 is the first month with positive net.

The example prices program-paid children at the full $1,240 and ignores co-payments, which a real case would split. The file suggests a working-capital reserve at least as large as your lowest cumulative figure.

The SBA says its microloan program helps “small businesses and certain not-for-profit childcare centers start up and expand”. That does not say your program will qualify: ask a lender. Microloans are made through intermediary lenders, which “make all credit decisions and set all terms”, and the listed uses include working capital, supplies, furniture, fixtures and equipment (SBA: Microloans; the page shows no date, read 2026-10-20).

For a 7(a) loan, “You will be applying for your loan directly through a local lender” (SBA: 7(a) loans; the page shows no date, read 2026-10-20). The file states no amount, rate or term and promises no loan.

The SBA asks for “a prospective financial outlook for the next five years” and says to “match them to your funding requests” (SBA: Plan your business; read 2026-10-20). Build the model in the free Excel business plan template, with enrolled children as its units and monthly tuition as the price, then copy the summary figures into section 8.

The workbook is not daycare-specific. The file lists its limits:

• No receivables timing, so 8.4 is done by hand.
• No grant line. One modeling shortcut is to enter a grant as owner equity and say so in your assumptions; ask your accountant how a grant should really be recorded.
• No ratio or age-group staffing logic.
• Payroll is salaried by role. Convert hourly staff by hand in 5.3; the file gives no pay rate.
• Ramp-up is one six-month table; from month 7 the workbook runs at the full volume you entered, so months 7 to 12 can't follow your month-by-month enrollment from 5.2.
• Seasonality is one factor per calendar month for all revenue lines.

Running a different kind of service business? Use the service business plan template.