How do you keep track of hours?

[Anonymous]

Do you have a calendar used just for this purpose? Or, on pieces of paper in a 3-ring binder?

[Anonymous]

We have set hours every week. Its the same every week so dont need to keep track.

[Anonymous]

We use a calendar (rolling 4 week calendar), noting work start and end time every day and which days are off-duty days. We also define what a week (which is Sunday to Saturday for us) for the purpose of adding the hours to be 45 or less per week. There is no ambiguity and AP can depend on the calendar to plan her personal time and know exactly when to start and stop work.

We also note any specific tasks/activities that must be completed that day, as well as any outside events that the AP needs to take the kids to with departure time and event start/end times.

[Anonymous]

We use a whiteboard for the week's schedule. Indicate the total daily hours and add them up.

[Anonymous]

I dont. Our kids are school aged and qe are way under the max.

[Anonymous]

All hours are in google calendar which is shared with AP. Her schedule is usually the same from week to week but I also put kids activities in there so she is expected to look at the calendar daily for start/end times, addresses of where to drive the kids to, etc. I set it up on the au pair phone. No more paper for us for the last 4APs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:All hours are in google calendar which is shared with AP. Her schedule is usually the same from week to week but I also put kids activities in there so she is expected to look at the calendar daily for start/end times, addresses of where to drive the kids to, etc. I set it up on the au pair phone. No more paper for us for the last 4APs.

+1 We do exactly the same thing. AP's hours for the week + kids' activities/dr's appts with addresses. I give her a verbal heads up if there's a deviation from the norm but she's expected to check as well.

[Anonymous]

We keep a notebook. Her schedule is at the beginning of each new week, then we keep daily notes back and forth (my kids are pretty young, and it's more than I can process the minute I get home before AP gets off work). We used to do hours Su-Sat, but this year we're switching T-Mo. This will help us keep their weekends on one week of work, and APs first work week will be Tuesday after training. This happens to be the same calendar CC uses for their fee schedule. The last pay will conveniently fall on the last day of APs visa with no wondering about a partial week.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We keep a notebook. Her schedule is at the beginning of each new week, then we keep daily notes back and forth (my kids are pretty young, and it's more than I can process the minute I get home before AP gets off work). We used to do hours Sun-Sat, but this year we're switching T-Mo. This will help us keep their weekends on one week of work, and APs first work week will be Tuesday after training. This happens to be the same calendar CC uses for their fee schedule. The last pay will conveniently fall on the last day of APs visa with no wondering about a partial week.

I experienced some confusion over the Tue-Mon versus Sun-Sat definition of a "week" in the past. We had an AP who completed a year with us and was extending with another family. The LCC mistakenly told us that we had to pay the AP the "full" week stipend for working the last Monday of her year (which was her last legal working day) because any work even if a fraction of a "week" counts as a full week stipend. We had to explain to the LCC that we were obligated to pay 51 weeks of stipend and what she was telling us actually means paying for that last Monday would be stipend number 52. She was confused because many HF pay their AP on a Friday for the week that just passed, but in reality the "week" ends on a Monday, and not the previous Friday. I had to escalate this up the chain in order to have the LCC not insist that I needed to pay another stipend for the last Monday.

So every HF should keep track of how many times they pay the stipend over a year - it is a total of 51 times (regardless of how a "week" is defined). If you go into rematch, then the calculation gets a bit more complicated ... for CCAP, the fee week is Tue to Mon (except for a few weeks in the year when the arrival into HF is on a Sat because of a previous Mon holiday, then the week is Wed to Tue). If you go into rematch, make sure CCAP does not charge you an extra week of program fees for a fraction of a week because someone mistaken a fee week as Sun to Sat when in fact, it is a Tue to Mon (or Wed to Tue).

[Anonymous]

It's in our calendar app. I can pull up previous scheduled and hours, SO was able to login and double check hours.

[Anonymous]

Um, Cultural Care gives the "Au Pair Communication booklet". Each page is a weekly day by day calendar, and you write the Au Pair's schedule/hours each day in there. and any activities and special notes. She looks at it every weekend to see her schedule for the upcoming week.

Every host family I know uses this.

Don't the other agencies have the same thing?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Um, Cultural Care gives the "Au Pair Communication booklet". Each page is a weekly day by day calendar, and you write the Au Pair's schedule/hours each day in there. and any activities and special notes. She looks at it every weekend to see her schedule for the upcoming week.

Every host family I know uses this.

Don't the other agencies have the same thing?

We have been with ccap for 7 of our 10 years in the program, and I have never used this book. I've always wondered why they sent it because every year I just recycle it after the ap leaves.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Um, Cultural Care gives the "Au Pair Communication booklet". Each page is a weekly day by day calendar, and you write the Au Pair's schedule/hours each day in there. and any activities and special notes. She looks at it every weekend to see her schedule for the upcoming week.

Every host family I know uses this.

Don't the other agencies have the same thing?

We have one with interexchange. it's just not very practical to write things on paper for us. things might change while I am at work and I want to document right away so it's much easier to keep a central online calendar. if it's online, maybe people can also add/edit it: me, my husband, AP, even my older kids can see their activities from their phones.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Um, Cultural Care gives the "Au Pair Communication booklet". Each page is a weekly day by day calendar, and you write the Au Pair's schedule/hours each day in there. and any activities and special notes. She looks at it every weekend to see her schedule for the upcoming week.

Every host family I know uses this.

Don't the other agencies have the same thing?

We have our first AP coming in 2 weeks and I thought this was perfect. I was trying to decide how we would communicate this stuff easily and simply and then I got the book in the mail.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Um, Cultural Care gives the "Au Pair Communication booklet". Each page is a weekly day by day calendar, and you write the Au Pair's schedule/hours each day in there. and any activities and special notes. She looks at it every weekend to see her schedule for the upcoming week.

Every host family I know uses this.

Don't the other agencies have the same thing?

On AP9 and never use the book. It goes right in tbe bin after I get it. Too time consuming to use and I also have 2 school aged kids and am under hours.