Earlier this year, the Department for Education released updated statutory guidance on invoicing for Early Years providers. The changes, which come into effect in January 2026, are all about improving transparency. Settings must clearly break down invoices to show charges for funded hours, additional private paid hours, food, non-food consumables, and optional activities. This means parents can easily see how many hours are funded and how many are being paid for privately, as well as additional consumable charges incurred for attending the setting.
In this blog, we’ll walk through what’s required and how eyworks can help you stay fully compliant with ease.
What’s Required?
This new invoicing approach from the DfE ensures invoices are transparent and easy for parents to understand. Each invoice should be broken down into 5 categories: funded hours, additional private paid hours, food charges, non-food consumables, and extra activities. Let’s break down what this means:
1. Funded Hours
Invoices must clearly show the number of funded hours accessed by the child from their funded entitlement within the invoice period. These hours should be presented on the invoice as free at the point of delivery.
2. Additional Private Paid Hours
Invoices must clearly show any additional private paid hours that the child is attending in addition to their funded hours and the charge for these hours.
3. Food Charges
Food charges should be clearly marked on the invoice. This can be one charge encompassing all food rather than broken down into individual meals and snacks, but it must be clear for parents to see what they’re paying for their child’s food. Charges for food must be optional, with parents able to opt out of these charges without it affecting their child’s funded place.
4. Non-food Consumables
Non-food consumable items such as nappies, wipes and sun cream can be grouped into one charge, but must appear on a separate line on the invoice so parents can see the cost of these consumables. Charges for non-food consumables must be optional, with parents able to opt out of these charges without it affecting their child’s funded place.
5. Extra Activities
Any extra activities you decide to provide as a setting that are charged to the parents can be grouped together as a single invoice charge. The provision of the EYFS must remain free for a parent accessing funded hours and no aspect of the EYFS should be covered by additional charges, so these activities must be in addition to the provision of the EYFS, such as music or sports lessons.
You can read the official DfE guidance here: Early education and childcare
How eyworks Can Help
If you’re using eymanage from eyworks, you’re already in a strong position to meet the new guidance with confidence.
1. Funded hours
On eymanage, hours of childcare are clearly broken down into funded and paid hours on parent invoices. Funded hours are shown as a single line on the invoice at a cost of £0 to the parent, with the number of funded hours accessed by the child in the week or month clearly visible.
2. Additional Private Paid Hours
Additional private paid hours are shown as a separate line on invoices on eymanage, breaking down the number of private hours accessed and their total cost to the parent. This separates funded hours from additional private paid hours, making it clear to parents what they’re paying for and what is funded.
3. Consumable invoice breakdowns
On eymanage, similar to the breakdown of funded versus paid hours, parent invoices clearly separate different types of consumables on individual invoice lines, making it easy for parents to see exactly what they’re paying for and how much each consumable group costs.
4. Automated Consumable Charges
eymanage already allows you to have food, non-food and extra activity consumable charges automatically calculated and added to your invoice based on a child’s funded hours, attendance hours or both. These charges are added as a line per consumable group, making it clear what consumables parents are paying for. This automatic charge calculation saves you time and ensures consistency across your invoices.
5. Opt-out management
On eymanage, you can mark which children have opted out of food, non-food and extra activity consumable charges to ensure that parents aren’t charged in error. With parents able to opt out of one type of consumable only (e.g. bring in their own nappies but still pay for meals), or all if they wish, eymanage manages consumable charge opt-out on a per-charge basis, making managing these situations easy.
Make Compliance Easy with eyworks
With big changes on the horizon, now is the time to streamline your processes. Whether you’re looking to reduce admin time or ensure your invoices are fully compliant, eymanage makes it simple.
Book a demo today to see how eyworks can help you stay compliant, save time, and get your invoicing right, every time.
