TABLE OF CONTENTS

• General Calendar Set Up
• Create a Calendar Entry: Breakdown 
• Different Day Type: Entry Options
• Holidays set at a Group Level

General Calendar Set Up

Use the Centre Calendar to define how Discover handles bookings during public holidays, teacher-only days, centre closures, and term breaks, including when Teachers are at the Service, and there are no children in attendance. This information goes through to the Ministry of Education & Eli and any changes to the Calendar will go through overnight.

When first setting up the Calendar, the grey Statutory Holidays are placeholders only. You must open each one, select the required options, and click Save. 

For example:

Navigate to Centre > Centre Calendar

• Select the relevant date
• Choose the Type from the drop down (e.g. Holiday Period or Teacher Only Day)
• Enter the date or date range 

For the example below:

Date Selected: 6th of April

Day Type: Statutory Holiday

Name: You can name these entries whatever you like. For example, we have labelled this day as Easter Monday for clarity. 

For this Centre/Service, we are not charging for Statutory Holidays are are not open. 

Leave the Information as is

Select Save

The selected settings will be sent overnight to update the relevant departments for this service via the Calendar. 

Create a Calendar Entry: Breakdown 

Is Open

Only select this option if the service is open for this particular day

Chargeable Indicator

With the Chargeable indicator, you may define a holiday and specify whether children who would normally be attending, are invoiced or not. Charge or no-charge can be selected. 

Charging for Attendance during Term Break

If the centre is open, an additional option “Charge only on attendance” is available. Selecting this option will initially generate a $0 invoice (if invoicing in advance). Once attendance is recorded in the system, Discover will automatically invoice parents for any attended hours during the next invoicing cycle, based on the child’s enrolled hours.

Waive Optional Charges:

Can waive optional charges (e.g., lunch, extra curricular) on centre holidays.

Not available on no-charge days; optional charges follow settings in Centre Setup > Charge Adjustments.

Bulk Discounting:

Tick “Holiday is Discounted” to automatically give eligible children a discounted holiday.

Child must have Holiday/Absence Discount Entitlement. 

(#Holiday Days = #Holiday/Absent Discounted Days)

Discount Override:

Overrides the default fee discount.

Child must still have Holiday/Absence Discount Entitlement days available.

Amount can differ from the standard fee discount.

Tip: Only children with Holiday/Absence Discount Entitlement can receive discounts.

Different Day Type Entry Options:

Public/Statutory Holidays (No Charge)

Statutory Holiday

• Select Day Type > Statutory Holiday
• Date From and Date To will be same
• Chargeable > Select No Charge
• If you have optional charges, it will function as per the holiday credit method in Charge Adjustments
• Leave the No WINZ Payments unticked, as that will suspend the WINZ payment for that particular week cycle instead of that day.
• Save

Holiday Period

• Select Day Type > Holiday Period
• Select the start and end dates in Date From – Date To
• Chargeable > Select No Charge
• If you have optional charges, it will function as per the holiday credit method in Charge Adjustments.
• If you don’t want WINZ payments during this period, you can tick the No WINZ Payment checkbox.
• Save

Service/Centre Opening

In the case that you keep the centre open and have children attending

• Select Day Type > Restricted Opening
• Select the start and end dates in Date From – Date To
• Is Open will be automatically ticked
• Chargeable > Select No Charge
• If you have optional charges, it will function as per the holiday credit method in Charge Adjustments.
• Save
• Then the times the Service/Centre was opened will appear
  Add in the shorter hours the service was open 
  Select Save

Centre Open (No children attending)

Please note: When your centre is open and no children attend, the MOE requests you email them at Ece.resourcing@education.govt.nz to notify them.

• Select Day Type > Service Open – Holiday Period with no attendances
• Select the start and end dates in Date From – Date To
• Is Open > Tick
• Chargeable > Select Your Options
• If you have optional charges, it will function as per the holiday credit method in Charge Adjustments
• Save
• Enter the Licence Timing in the Pop-up window
• In this scenario, funding will be claimed also make sure you have staff rostered for that period.
• This cannot be applied in advance, this is for when the Centre is open, but not children attend, even though the children have bookngs.

Emergency Closures

An Emergency Closure occurs when circumstances beyond the control of individual services cause temporary closures.

Funding Continuity

Funding will continue where a service was forced to close for a short time. In an emergency closure approval needs to be obtained from the Ministry regional office. 

The following are examples of emergencies where funding will continue:

• Extreme weather conditions
• Interruptions to essential services
• Non-controllable health and safety issues

If your service is forced to close in an emergency contact your Ministry's local office. They will approve funded emergency closure and confirm this by letter.

• Select Day Type > Emergency Closure
• Select the start and end dates in Date From – Date To
• Is Open > Leave unticked (even if it is a partial day)
• Chargeable > Set as required/per centre policy
• Save (when saved, all children will be marked as on Holiday)

Range of Days/Extended Period of Closure 

Normally, Emergency closures are only a day or two, so this is a unique situation.

You will need to select the Emergency closure for the days your centre is normally open and between your current centre holidays -  i.e. not Sat/Sun, just select Mon - Fri for a week at a time and in between the public holidays (when you are normally closed, if that is the case).

If you choose No Charge, the families will be not charged for that day. 

If invoices have already been sent, the next invoice cycle will automatically place a credit on their account. The Charge option means they will be charged the full amount for the day.

Partial Closures & Half Day Holidays

Not to be confused with Emergency Closures. An emergency closure occurs when circumstances beyond the control of individual services cause temporary closures.

MOE Definition: "A service can only claim funding for the hours they are open (half-day). The service cannot claim funding for the hours the service was closed."

Restricted Opening Day or Early Closure

• Select Day Type > Restricted Opening
• Select the start and end dates in Date From – Date To
• Is Open will be automatically ticked
• Chargeable > Select as relevant 
• If you have optional charges, it will function as per the holiday credit method in Charge Adjustments.
• Save
• Enter the Opening and Closing times, then Save again

• Please note: Though Restricted Hours means the centre has reduced hours on this day, this does not change enrolments or the amounts parents are invoiced, however, no MOE funding will be claimed outside of the specified hours for the day. 
• If you choose No charge, the families will not be charged/refunded for that day.  If invoices have already been sent, the next invoice cycle will automatically credit their account.  
• If the parent is charged they will be charged the full amount for the day. 

If you choose to close slightly earlier and open slightly later, but still over 6 hours per day, you still need to alter the Opening Hours for MOE funding purposes as you will need to keep accurate information for auditing purposes too. It is up to your centre as to how you meet this requirement.

You can use the Restricted Hours feature so that any booking that falls outside those hours is correctly reported for Funding.

Holidays set at a Group Level

Holidays set at a Group level will appear in brown on the Centre Calendar and can be adjusted, but only at a centre level. The new settings will not change for other centres in the group.
Once adjusted, the holiday entry will appear in orange, and if deleted, the calendar entry will return to the brown group level settings.

To create a Group-level Calendar entry:

1. Navigate to Group > Group Calendar.
2. Double click the relevant date.
3. Enter Holiday information as above.

Holiday/Absent Discounts 

 Centre /Service Settings 

Scroll down to Centre Holidays

Holiday Discounts and Absent Discounts are treated the same way via Discover and the Ministry.

The # of Holiday days, apply to the # of Holiday/Absent Discounted days you wish to apply for the current calendar year.

Overriding Individual Holiday/Absent Discount Entitlement

Go to the Children Menu

Select the Calendar Tab

Select Override Entitlement for the Current Calendar Year

The Discount Days/Holiday applies to all Discounts for Absences and Holidays

Discount Breakdowns

You can allow special dollar values or percentage discounts as alternative options when giving a child a discount for a specific day on the child's calendar.

You can specify multiple options by separating each with a comma and these options will become available on the child calendar. 

• $ - a specified amount 
• % - a percentage amount
• H - an hourly rate
• ! - adjust the amount to be a specified amount instead 

If you don't want to charge and want in the dropdown as No charge than add - !0