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Espalier is a set of apps for early childhood services in Aotearoa New Zealand, under one sign-in:

• Policy Hub: write policies, consult families and staff, track who has read them, and run reviews.
• Family app: the daily feed, care records, messages, notices and incident sign-off for whānau and teachers.
• Centre Operations: attendance and ratios, child profiles, enrolments, family invoices, and staff timesheets.
• Professional Growth Cycle (PGC): reflections, evidence and mentor sign-off against Ngā Paerewa.

The staff app is the front door: it shows what needs you today and opens every app.

Use the email address your kindergarten has for you. The first time, choose Sign up with that same email and set a password; after that, sign in. One sign-in works in every app.

Families don’t need to sign in to read a policy: each email has a personal link (see Families).

Choose Start a free trial on the staff app’s sign-in page. A short set-up asks for your kindergarten’s name, a plan, your rooms and the people to invite. The trial is 14 days and needs no payment details to start.

Open the menu under your name (top right) and pick the centre or organisation. Every screen then works in that centre. Opening a link to another centre’s policy switches automatically.

Each person has a role at each centre, such as Admin, Centre manager, Policy owner, Approver, Teacher or Viewer. Roles decide what people can see and change, area by area: policies, children, enrolments, billing, staff and settings.

Organisation Admins can edit the roles in Policy Hub › organisation › Default settings › Roles & permissions. An organisation Admin is Admin at every centre in the organisation. Nobody can raise their own role or grant more than they have.

Type into the search box at the top of the staff app (or press ⌘K / Ctrl K). It matches pages as you type; press Ask the assistant for a written answer about where to go. It only suggests pages your role can open.

On the Policy Review Dashboard, choose New policy, or Import to bring in a Word or PDF document, which Policy Hub splits into sections for you to check. You can also start from the platform’s model policies, or use one your organisation has published, as it is or customised.

1. Draft: being written or updated.
2. In review: submitted for the approval steps that come before consultation (set in Settings › Team & approvals).
3. Consultation: sent to families (and staff, if chosen) to read and comment on until the closing date.
4. Current: published. The approval steps that come after consultation are signed off, and the review clock starts.

The cards at the top of the dashboard count each status; click one to filter the list.

Open the policy and choose Send. Pick the rooms or year levels, whether to include staff, the channels, and a closing date. You can schedule it for later. Every family gets a personal link by email, and reminders go to families who haven’t read it.

A policy counts as read as soon as a family opens it, from their email link or the family pages. Read receipts shows who has read it, who has opened it, who hasn’t yet, which guardian opened it, and when. You can remind those who haven’t read it, and download the list as a spreadsheet.

Open the policy’s Feedback page. Comments are grouped by section (or by the three review questions during a review). Reply to a comment and the family is emailed; choose which comments go in the consultation report. When consultation closes, the report is emailed to the policy owner and the policy manager.

Each policy has a review date set by your review cycle (for example every three years). Policy Hub opens the scheduled review automatically 30 days before it’s due and invites families and staff to read the current version and answer three questions: is it fit for purpose, are we following it, and does anything need to change.

The policy manager then records the outcome: no changes needed, or changes, which start a new draft. Families are told the outcome. Anyone who edits policies can also start a triggered review at any time, for example after an incident or a law change.

The policy owner and policy manager are emailed 90 days and 30 days before a review is due, and on the day. Every Monday they also get one email listing policies that have stalled: a closed consultation with no decision, or a review past its date. The Needs attention page lists the same things.

Yes. Every published policy has a public page in your kindergarten’s logo and colours that anyone can read, with no sign-in. There’s also a page listing all your published policies. Use Public page on the dashboard, Copy public link in a policy’s ⋮ menu, or the Public page panel in the editor.

Only the current published version is ever shown, never a draft. To keep a policy internal (staff HR policies, for example), tick Hide from the public page in the editor.

Write the policy once at the organisation and publish it. Each centre can use it as-is (it follows the organisation’s text and reviews) or customise its own copy. When the organisation publishes a new version, centres see that an update is available.

Yes. Print on a policy prints it with its version and review record, and Print on the dashboard prints the manual. Choose “Save as PDF” in the print dialog for a file.

Yes. The dashboard shows how many of the licensing criteria’s required policies you have, and Show the missing lists the rest, each with a model policy to start from.

No. Each email from your kindergarten has a link just for you. Opening it shows the policy and marks it as read, and you can leave feedback there while consultation is open. Please don’t forward the link, because it records you as the reader.

If your kindergarten allows it, untick Show my name to the school when you leave feedback. Your comment still reaches the kindergarten, without your name on it. Other parents never see your name.

Sign up with the email address your kindergarten has for you; that links you to your children automatically. If you have children at two centres, you’ll see both.

• The live feed of your child’s day, with photos and learning stories.
• Daily care: meals, sleeps, nappies and mood.
• Messages with your child’s teachers, and notices from the centre (some ask you to acknowledge, give permission or book).
• Incident reports to read and sign on your phone.

Open any policy link your kindergarten sends, or its public policy page if it shares one (usually linked from its website). When signed in, Policies lists everything sent to you, what you’ve read and what’s still to read.

Sign children in and out on Attendance. Each room has a ratio (children per adult). The live ratio counts the staff clocked in to that room, and signing a child in is refused if it would put the room over ratio. Today warns when a room is over, or when room capacities add up to more than your licence.

A billing run creates each family’s invoice for the month from the room fees. Every child after the most expensive gets your sibling discount, and the family’s subsidy is taken off. Late fees are added after the number of overdue days you set. Families already invoiced for the month are skipped. Set the rules in Centre Operations › Settings › Billing rules.

Each enquiry moves through Inquiry → Tour booked → Toured → Waitlist → Enrolled. Moving it to Enrolled creates the family and the child and links the guardian’s email, so they can sign up to the family app straight away.

Staff clock in and out (and choose their room) in Centre Operations. Clock-ins feed the room ratios and build each person’s fortnightly timesheet for approval. Staff records also keep first-aid expiry, qualifications and checks.

A teacher logs the incident in the family app. The child’s family is notified and signs it on their phone. Until then it shows as waiting for a parent, including in Items to action on the staff app, and teachers can send a reminder.

Yes. In the family app, Class › Write a journal story: choose photos and record a short voice note. It’s transcribed and drafted into a story for you to edit before publishing. Nothing is shared until you publish it.

Kaiako record reflections, evidence, observations and coaching against Ngā Paerewa, set goals, and build their annual record. Mentors sign items off, and the centre manager runs the review calendar and attests completed records.

Yes. Record your reflection by voice; it’s transcribed and drafted into the reflection fields for you to check and edit. Then save it, or send it to your mentor for sign-off.

Each goal fills up as evidence counts towards it: a signed-off reflection counts 2 points (1 while waiting for sign-off), a shared observation 2, coaching 1, and evidence 1. Ten points makes a goal complete. A goal shows Needs evidence when nothing has counted in 14 days.

Your mentor, set by your centre manager. Items you send for sign-off wait in your mentor’s queue, and they also appear in their Items to action on the staff app. Centre managers can sign off anyone’s.

When every goal is signed off and the record is assembled, the centre manager attests it. Nobody can attest their own record.

Prices are in NZD per month, plus 15% GST:

• Starter 149 (1 centre), Growth 399 (up to 5 centres); Enterprise is quoted. Every plan includes every app.

Paying annually costs 10 months’ price for 12. See Pricing for staff-seat and child limits.

By card or NZ direct debit through Stripe. Card and bank details are entered in Stripe’s secure form; they never reach Espalier. Set this up in the staff app › Settings › Billing & plan.

Choose Set up card or direct debit and save a card or bank account. Each new invoice is then charged to it automatically when it’s issued. Change or stop it any time on the same page.

On the billing page, choose Pay now beside the invoice and pay in the secure form. It shows as paid within a few seconds. Direct debits show as Processing for a few days while they clear, and reminders pause during that time.

The billing contact is emailed. Reminders follow 3 days after the due date, organisation Admins are emailed after 7 days, and a final notice comes at 14 days. If an invoice is still unpaid after 30 days, the account becomes read-only for staff until it’s paid. Families aren’t affected. Full access comes back as soon as nothing is overdue.

If you’ve chosen how to pay, your plan simply continues and the first invoice is issued. If not, staff get read-only access until a payment method is added. Nothing is deleted.

Contact us, and we’ll move you and prorate the difference for the rest of the billing period.

In Amazon Web Services’ Sydney region, encrypted in transit and at rest. The database has continuous backups that can restore to any point in the last 35 days, and uploaded files keep earlier versions for 90 days.

No. Every record belongs to one centre and organisation, and every request is checked against the centre it’s for. Staff only see the centres they work at, and families only see their own children.

Whoever’s role includes children access. Teachers see the children in their rooms; centre-wide roles see every room. Change what each role can do in Roles & permissions.

Sign-in is handled by Amazon Cognito with verified email addresses. Espalier never stores passwords. Removing someone from your team removes their access straight away.

Under the Privacy Act 2020, people can ask to see and correct their information. Their details are in Policy Hub (Whānau) and Centre Operations (Children). Contact us if you need help pulling everything together.