Most centers run a single daytime session, so Seedling treats each day as its own page that resets at midnight. If your center stays open overnight — 24-hour care, third-shift, or the occasional overnight stay — 24-hour mode keeps everything correct for visits that cross midnight.
Turn it on
Go to Settings → Check-in & Pickup and switch on Open 24 Hours (overnight care).
It's off by default, and you should leave it off if you run standard daytime hours. Turning it on only changes how visits that span midnight are handled, so it's safe to enable exactly when you need it.
What changes when it's on
1. Ratios and room counts keep counting across midnight. A child or teacher who checked in at 9 pm stays counted in the live ratio and room count past midnight, until they're actually checked out. (A standard center's counts reset at midnight — right for a day program, but it would wrongly empty a room that's full at 2 am.)
2. An overnight visit is one visit. When a child is dropped off one evening and picked up the next morning, checking them out the next day closes that same visit — no leftover "still checked in" from the night before, and no phantom check-out on the new day.
3. The family summary sends at pickup, not mid-stay. For a 24-hour center, the daily summary sends when the child is actually checked out (covering the whole visit), and the usual ~7:30 pm evening send is skipped — so a parent never gets a "day recap" while their child is still asleep in your care.
Everything else works exactly as it does for any center.
Billing for drop-in or overnight visits
If you charge per visit — hourly, a flat overnight rate, or drop-in — you don't need a special billing plan. Use a one-time charge: enter the amount and a short description (e.g. "Overnight 6/27"), then charge the family's saved card or bank, or email them a secure link to pay. Because check-in and check-out times are recorded across midnight, you can see each visit's length to base the charge on.
Many overnight centers pair a flat weekly or monthly base with one-time charges for extras, like an extra night or a late pickup.
Turn 24-hour mode on per center in Settings → Check-in & Pickup. If you switch back to daytime-only hours, just turn it off.