Articles on: Discounts

Gap Discounts - ACT Preschool Funding

The 2026 ACT Preschool Funding program provides funding to deliver affordable, quality preschool education to children aged 3 and above who are enrolled in eligible long day care services and reside in the ACT.

More than 140 early childhood education and care services across Canberra deliver the program. These are known as partner providers.

To view further information about the Start Strong program see: Free 3-year-old preschool and 4-year-old preschool

3 year old program:

6 hours per week over 50 weeks, or
7.5 hours per week over 40 weeks.
Up to 300hrs per year of free preschool (any additional hours that a child attends the service will be covered by standard subsidy).

A child needs to be enrolled in a participating service (partner provider). The free preschool time is then delivered as part of the day.

4 year old program:

up to 15 hours a week of free coverage
some do 2 days one week and 3 days the next.
Other preschools offer 2 and a half days a week

How fee relief will work with the Child Care Subsidy

The different level of payment per child in long day care services recognises that most families in long day care services are eligible to receive the Australian Government’s Child Care Subsidy (CCS).

The CCS does not apply to community and mobile preschools or Department of Education preschools.

Creating the ACT Funding Gap Discount

Recommended Actions

Calculate required Gap discount amounts
Apply Child Tag's e.g. 4YO Kindy Funding 2026
Setup Gap Discounts by Amount/Percentage
Apply the Discount

Note: It is important to add the child Tags on prior to creating a Discount by Rule, to allow the Discounts to automatically be applied. If the Tags are added on AFTER the discount is created, use the direct apply discounts for the child/ren. see: Apply Direct Discounts

Step 1: Calculate the ACT Gap Discount

Depending on how many hours your Kindy program runs for, this process will assist you with calculating the amount of funding for your Service/Per child.

Items to consider:

Daily Kindy program hours
Total session hours e.g. 12hr, 10hr etc.

Example:

Total session hours = 10
Total fee charged = $150.00 / 10hrs
Hourly fee charged = $15.00
Total Kindy Program hours = 7.5

Total Kindy hours x Hourly Fee = $112.50 Total Weekly 15hr Kindy reduction

Scenario 1

Your Service provides a 10hr session for children, and the Kindy program runs 7.5hr per day.

		Session Hours	Fee	Program Hours	Current Gap	Hourly Gap	Program Gap	% Gap Discount
Original	Child 1	10	$150	7.5	$50	$5	$37.50	75%
Gap decreased	Child 1	10	$150	7.5	$45	$5	$33.75	75%
Gap increased	Child 1	10	$150	7.5	$55	$6	$41.25	75%

Scenario 2

Your Service provides a 12hr session for children, and the Kindy program runs 7.5hr per day.

		Session Hours	Fee	Program Hours	Current Gap	Hourly Gap	Program Gap	% Gap Discount
Original	Child 2	12	$150	7.5	$50	$4	$31.25	62.50%
Gap decreased	Child 2	12	$150	7.5	$45	$4	$28.13	62.50%
Gap increased	Child 2	12	$150	7.5	$55	$5	$34.38	62.50%

Step 2: Applying Tag's

Tags are a powerful way to identify specific children and scenarios within Xap. They provide flexibility for organizing information and can be used as filters in reporting.

Additionally, tags can be applied to manage discounts, making them a useful tool for both administration and billing.

To apply Tag's

From within your Families Screen, select the Children Tab
Select the Filter icon

Note: For children attending multiple centres or with split families, remove the standard tag and apply a specific tag then use direct discount instead.

Apply Filters as required, to identify the child/ren, in this example by Age, Room & Bookings from details.
Select Update Search

Select the child/ren
Select Bulk Action
Select Add Tag

Select/Create the required Tag
Select Save

Step 3: Create the Gap Discount

The recommendation would be to create the Gap Discount as an Amount/Percentage, this will allow you to:

Apply this directly to the bookings
Can be done in bulk and in advance
This means you don't need to create discount configurations for each child and then change them when entitlements change.

Within the Settings screen, select the Discount Setup icon

Select the Green + Add button

Select the Centre name if you are in Enterprise mode
Add the Discount name
Select Gap Discount
Select the Discount Category
Add a Description
Select Amount/Percentage
Set Bookings from Date, a Bookings to Date can be added if required.
Add the % discount (add in a maximum default percentage e.g. 80%)
Tick Staff members can apply a discount up to the set amount/percentage to allow the same discount to be re-used for different %'s or leave unticked to create a locked template.

Note: By adding in e.g. 80% for the discount amount, and ticking the staff member option, this will allow you to use the same Gap Discount for multiple children and apply the correct % discount as required. If you prefer, then you can choose to create multiple individual ACT Gap Discount templates for a locked % Discount amount.