eyworks Review: Streamline Nursery Management & Reduce Invoice Hours

Why is childcare admin always so stressful?

If you’re comparing software for your nursery, the endless paperwork, staff management, and urgent parent updates probably leave you feeling overwhelmed by admin before lunchtime most days.

Let’s be honest, this category is notorious for eating up your time and energy when you could be focusing on actual childcare.

eyworks aims to fix that with a truly all-in-one suite for Early Years settings—tying together everything from observations and parent engagement to HR and invoicing. I’ve dug into every module, and their platform stands out by letting you build the exact toolkit your nursery actually needs.

In this review, I’ll break down how eyworks can free you from daily admin headaches with its integrated approach.

In this eyworks review, you’ll see what’s included, how pricing works, key strengths and gaps, and which alternatives might be worth considering before you buy.

You’ll walk away knowing if it really delivers the features you need to simplify, save time, and actually help your team.

Let’s get started on the details.

eyworks Overview

eyworks has a clear mission for Early Years software. Based in Milton Keynes, UK, they’ve been in the game since 2012, focused on improving collaboration between nursery staff and parents.

What I find truly sets them apart is their dedication to being an all-in-one solution for Early Years settings. They specifically target small to mid-sized nurseries who need a single, unified platform to manage everything from complex HR to daily parent engagement.

The 2024 launch of their eypeople HR platform was a smart move. Through this eyworks review, you’ll see it shows their commitment to building a complete operational ecosystem, not just a single feature tool.

Unlike competitors like Famly that focus heavily on parent communication, eyworks provides a more comprehensive back-office suite. This feels like it was built by people who actually understand the day-to-day complexities of running a nursery.

You’ll find they work with many independent nurseries and smaller childcare provider groups across the UK, especially those ready to finally move away from disconnected, time-consuming paper-based systems for good.

From what I’ve seen, their entire strategy centers on creating this complete operational ecosystem. This directly addresses your likely need to consolidate vendors and stop juggling separate, costly solutions for recruitment, invoicing, and parent updates.

Now let’s examine their core capabilities.

eyworks Features

Lost in a sea of early years paperwork?

eyworks features offer an integrated platform to manage every aspect of your nursery, from learning journeys to staff HR. These are the five core eyworks solutions that empower early years settings.

1. eylog (Online Learning Journey Software)

Tired of endless manual observations and paperwork?

Traditional learning journals consume precious staff time and make parent updates a chore. This takes away from focusing on the children.

eylog transforms how you document a child’s progress, letting practitioners capture every “young hero’s story” with multimedia. From my testing, uploading photos and videos is incredibly intuitive, streamlining assessments against frameworks. This feature significantly cuts down administrative burden.

This means your staff saves hours on paperwork, freeing them to engage more with children and provide rich, digital updates to parents.

2. eymanage (Nursery Management Software)

Struggling to keep track of child records, staff, and finances?

Managing occupancy, staff ratios, and invoicing manually can lead to costly errors and immense stress. This eats into your budget and time.

eymanage streamlines all your operational duties, bringing child and staff records into one place. What I found impressive is how it simplifies complex tasks like invoice generation and payment reconciliation, reducing your workload.

This means you gain accurate financial control and efficient operational oversight, ensuring your nursery runs smoothly and profitably.

3. eyenquiries (Enquiry and Enrolment Management)

Losing potential families due to a messy enquiry process?

Manual enquiry management can make it hard to track leads and convert interest into enrolments effectively. This impacts your nursery’s occupancy.

eyenquiries acts as your “enquiry sidekick,” automating the entire pipeline from initial interest to visit bookings. Here’s what I found:

• Online registration forms
• Automated visit reminders
• Customizable workflows

This feature helps you nurture prospective families and boost occupancy by providing a structured, responsive enrolment experience.

4. eyrecruit (Recruitment Software)

Finding it hard to hire the right early years staff efficiently?

The recruitment process can be time-consuming and inconsistent, making it difficult to attract and onboard qualified candidates. This strains your resources.

eyrecruit simplifies the entire hiring journey, providing access to multiple job boards and a consistent process. This is where eyworks shines, offering a customizable careers portal that attracts top talent directly. This feature ensures a smooth, organized recruitment pipeline.

This means you can efficiently find and hire staff, building a strong, reliable team without the usual recruitment headaches.

5. eyparent (Parent App)

Is parent engagement falling short with delayed updates?

Parents want real-time insights into their child’s day, but traditional communication methods often lag. This can lead to disconnection and less trust.

The eyparent app provides unbeatable engagement, giving parents instant access to learning journeys, daily diaries, and updates. From my testing, parents love seeing videos and photos of their child’s activities instantly. This feature fosters stronger connections and builds trust.

This means you keep parents fully informed and connected, enhancing satisfaction and strengthening your nursery community effortlessly.

You’ll appreciate how these eyworks features work together to create a holistic management ecosystem, simplifying operations across your entire setting.

eyworks Pricing

What are your true monthly software costs?

eyworks pricing operates on a flexible, custom quote model, which means you’ll need to contact sales but also get pricing tailored specifically to your nursery’s size.

1. Pricing Model & Cost Factors

Understanding eyworks’s pricing.

eyworks employs a flexible, usage-based pricing model tied directly to your nursery’s size, specifically the number of children on roll. This approach ensures you only pay for what you use, with all features, updates, and support included in your subscription. Additional products like eyrecruit are priced based on job posting bundles.

From my cost analysis, this means your monthly costs stay aligned with your business size, avoiding unnecessary expenditure on unused capacity.

2. Value Assessment & ROI

Is eyworks a smart investment?

eyworks’s comprehensive suite, from eylog to eymanage, consolidates multiple functions, potentially reducing your need for disparate systems and saving administrative time. This integrated platform delivers strong ROI by streamlining operations, improving parental engagement, and simplifying staffing tasks, freeing up valuable time.

Budget-wise, this means you’re investing in efficiency and better outcomes, directly impacting your bottom line.

3. Budget Planning & Implementation

Planning your eyworks budget.

While eyworks offers a free demo and trial, specific implementation costs for the full suite aren’t publicly detailed. What I found important is to consider the total cost of ownership carefully for your specific branch and child count, especially if you have multiple locations or high staff turnover.

So for your budget planning, factor in the scalability of pricing based on your nursery’s growth to avoid unexpected expenses later.

My Take: eyworks’s pricing strategy focuses on flexibility and scalability based on nursery size, making it suitable for childcare providers who want costs to align with their operational scale.

The overall eyworks pricing reflects value tied directly to your nursery’s needs.

eyworks Reviews

What do actual users say?

I’ve analyzed numerous eyworks reviews to provide balanced insights into what real customers think, giving you a clear picture of user experiences.

1. Overall User Satisfaction

Users seem highly satisfied.

From my review analysis, eyworks consistently receives positive feedback, with most users expressing strong satisfaction. What I found in user feedback is how the comprehensive nature of the platform resonates deeply, streamlining operations for childcare settings.

This suggests you can expect a positive experience with its integrated solution.

2. Common Praise Points

Efficiency and engagement consistently stand out.

Users repeatedly praise eyworks for significant time savings in administrative tasks and enhanced parent engagement through features like eylog and eyparent. From the reviews I analyzed, the exceptional support team also garners consistent acclaim, proving invaluable to users.

This means you’ll likely benefit from streamlined workflows and better communication with parents.

3. Frequent Complaints

Minor challenges are noted by some.

While overwhelmingly positive, some reviews infer challenges like potential internet connectivity issues for certain features, though the eylog app itself works offline. What stood out in customer feedback is how any comprehensive system involves an initial learning curve, even with strong onboarding.

These seem to be minor implementation hurdles rather than fundamental flaws in the software.

The overall eyworks reviews reveal high user satisfaction driven by efficiency and support, with minor implementation considerations.

Best eyworks Alternatives

Seeking the perfect Early Years software solution?

The best eyworks alternatives include several strong options, each better suited for different priorities within the childcare sector and business situations.

1. Brightwheel

Primarily based in the US?

Brightwheel is a well-known alternative, especially in the US market, offering strong parent communication and daily reporting. From my competitive analysis, Brightwheel offers localized features for the US market, though eyworks provides a more integrated suite specifically for the UK Early Years sector.

Choose Brightwheel if your nursery operates predominantly in the US and needs strong regional market presence.

2. Child Care Seer

Need to maximize occupancy and revenue?

Child Care Seer excels at optimizing enrollment and waitlist management, providing specialized tools to boost your nursery’s capacity. What I found comparing options is that Child Care Seer focuses on maximizing occupancy, but eyworks offers a broader platform including detailed learning journeys and HR.

Consider this alternative if your main challenge is filling spaces and you need dedicated enrollment forecasting.

3. ChildPilot

Prioritizing simplicity for daily tasks?

ChildPilot emphasizes ease of use for core daily operations, billing, and parent communication, ideal for smaller nurseries. From my analysis, ChildPilot offers a straightforward, minimalist interface for essential management, though eyworks provides a more robust and scalable solution with specialized modules.

Choose ChildPilot if your nursery is smaller and prioritizes simplicity over extensive advanced features like recruitment.

4. Famly

Looking for modern parent engagement and digital learning?

Famly is known for its strong focus on parent communication, digital learning journeys, and a modern, intuitive interface. Alternative-wise, Famly excels in visually appealing parent engagement and community-building features, but eyworks offers a more comprehensive back-office management suite.

Choose Famly when a modern interface and social-media-like parent interaction are your top priorities.

The best eyworks alternatives ultimately depend on your nursery’s specific operational needs and regional focus.

eyworks Setup

How complicated is software implementation, really?

This eyworks review dives into the practicalities of deployment, covering setup, technical needs, and adoption challenges so you know what to expect.

1. Setup Complexity & Timeline

Implementation is designed to be straightforward.

What I found about deployment is that eyworks aims for a “simple and quick” setup, often within 1-2 working days of contract sign-up. They even import existing child and staff data at no extra cost, which significantly lightens your initial workload compared to manual entry.

You’ll appreciate their proactive approach to getting your system operational with minimal fuss from your team.

2. Technical Requirements & Integration

Basic internet connectivity is key.

While the eylog app works offline for observations, most eyworks features require an internet connection for real-time data access. From my implementation analysis, the platform is cloud-hosted and mobile-friendly, accessible via web, iPhone, Android, and Windows devices, reducing your hardware concerns.

Your IT readiness primarily involves stable internet and ensuring staff have compatible devices for smooth operation.

3. Training & Change Management

User adoption is well-supported here.

eyworks provides extensive onboarding through online training calls, a “Getting Started” guide, and ongoing free webinars to help your team become “eyworks experts.” From my analysis, this comprehensive training mitigates the learning curve often associated with new systems, fostering confident usage.

Invest time in their training programs to ensure your staff fully embrace the new tools and workflows.

4. Support & Success Factors

Expect exceptional vendor support.

Customer support is consistently praised as “amazing” and “invaluable,” available via email, phone, or live chat directly within the system. From my implementation analysis, responsive and helpful support is a critical success factor for any new software, and eyworks truly delivers here.

Leverage their highly-rated support team to quickly resolve issues and maximize your system’s effectiveness from day one.

Overall, eyworks setup is notably quick and user-friendly, providing strong support for a smooth transition into your daily operations.

Bottom Line

Is eyworks the right solution for your nursery?

This eyworks review will help you decide if this comprehensive Early Years software aligns with your operational needs, offering a decisive final assessment of its value proposition.

1. Who This Works Best For

UK-based Early Years settings seeking an all-in-one solution.

eyworks is ideal for nurseries, daycare providers, and early childhood education centers, from single sites to countrywide groups, that need comprehensive management. From my user analysis, childcare businesses valuing robust UK-specific compliance and support will find it particularly effective for their daily operations.

You’ll see significant benefits if your priority is streamlining administrative tasks, enhancing parent communication, and improving staff management.

2. Overall Strengths

Unifies comprehensive management with exceptional parent engagement.

The software excels by reducing administrative workload, enhancing parent communication through real-time updates, and offering robust HR tools for staff management. From my comprehensive analysis, its integrated platform eliminates the need for multiple disparate systems, providing a seamless experience across all nursery functions and saving you time and effort.

These strengths translate into increased efficiency, better parental relationships, and more focused time for quality child care and education.

3. Key Limitations

Internet connectivity remains a crucial dependency for full functionality.

While observations can be captured offline, most features require a stable internet connection for real-time data access and updates. Based on this review, settings in areas with unreliable internet access may encounter operational slowdowns or limitations when trying to use certain modules of the software.

I find these limitations are a common trade-off for cloud-based systems and are generally manageable if your connectivity is stable.

4. Final Recommendation

eyworks is a highly recommended solution for its target market.

You should choose this software if your Early Years setting, especially in the UK, needs a unified platform to streamline operations, improve parent engagement, and efficiently manage staff. From my analysis, this solution offers significant value for its comprehensive features and tailored support within the childcare sector.

My confidence level is high for this recommendation, especially if you prioritize an integrated system and strong customer support.

This eyworks review confirms strong value for the right business profile, offering an all-in-one solution to streamline operations and enhance engagement in your Early Years setting.