Lil Sprouts

A childcare / nanny business management app. Lil Sprouts helps an in-home caregiver (or small childcare business) manage client families, schedule and track care sessions, log daily reports and incidents, and keep records of payments and expenses for tax time. It is built as an installable PWA so it works well on a phone in the field.

Features

• Families & contacts – manage client families, their children (allergies, medications, special needs, school info), and additional family members with pickup authorization.
• Services – configurable service types (e.g. Childcare, Piano Lesson) with per-service default hourly rates and pricing modes (flat or per-child).
• Care schedules – recurring schedule templates (weekly, biweekly, monthly, or one-time) that generate care sessions.
• Care sessions – scheduled vs. actual times, drop-off/pickup tracking, per-meal counts, status (scheduled → in progress → completed / cancelled), and confirmation flags.
• Session reports – log incidents, accidents, behavior notes, meals, naps, activities, medication, milestones, and general updates, with severity levels and follow-up flags.
• Payments – track amounts, status (pending/paid/overdue), method, invoice numbers, and tax year for income reporting.
• Expenses – standalone business expenses and per-session expenses, with optional categories.
• Reports – dashboards plus income, calendar, and year-end tax views.
• Dashboard – upcoming sessions, recent incidents, hours/earnings widgets (week / month / YTD), and a quick-add session modal.
• Accounts & auth – session-based login for the owner and (optionally) invited family members.
• PWA – installable, with offline app-shell behavior via a service worker.

Tech stack

• SolidStart (Solid + Vinxi) for the full-stack app
• Prisma 7 ORM with the @prisma/adapter-pg driver adapter
• PostgreSQL database
• vite-plugin-pwa / Workbox for the PWA service worker
• TypeScript

Prerequisites

• Node.js >= 22
• A PostgreSQL database
• pnpm (this repo uses a pnpm-lock.yaml / workspace)

Getting started

1. Install dependencies

   pnpm install

2. Configure environment variables

   Create a .env file in the project root (it is git-ignored):

   # PostgreSQL connection string
   DATABASE_URL="postgresql://user:password@localhost:5432/lilsprouts?schema=public"
   
   # Secret used to sign session cookies — set a long random value in production
   SESSION_SECRET="replace-with-a-long-random-string"
   
   # Public origin used to build absolute redirect URLs (production)
   PUBLIC_ORIGIN="https://your-domain.example"

   See Environment variables below for the full list.

3. Set up the database

   Generate the Prisma client and run migrations:

   pnpm prisma:generate
   pnpm prisma:migrate

4. Run the dev server

   pnpm dev

   The app runs at http://localhost:3000. Create the first account via the Register option on the login page.

Scripts

Script	Description
pnpm dev	Start the Vinxi dev server
pnpm build	Generate the Prisma client and build for production
pnpm start	Run the built production server
pnpm prisma:generate	Generate the Prisma client into src/generated/prisma-client
pnpm prisma:migrate	Create/apply a dev migration (prisma migrate dev)
pnpm prisma:migrate:deploy	Apply migrations in production (scripts/migrate.js deploy)
pnpm prisma:migrate:status	Show migration status (scripts/migrate.js status)

Environment variables

Variable	Required	Description
DATABASE_URL	Yes	PostgreSQL connection string. Supports optional SSL cert params (sslcert=, sslrootcert=, sslkey=), which are resolved to absolute paths at startup.
SESSION_SECRET	Yes (prod)	Secret for signing session cookies. A weak default is used if unset — always set this in production.
PUBLIC_ORIGIN	Recommended	Absolute public origin used to build redirect URLs. APP_ORIGIN, SITE_URL, and URL are also accepted, as are host-only platform vars (VERCEL_URL, RENDER_EXTERNAL_HOSTNAME, RAILWAY_PUBLIC_DOMAIN).
NODE_ENV	No	Set to production in production builds.

Project structure

prisma/
  schema.prisma          # Data model (families, children, sessions, payments, …)
src/
  app.tsx                # Root component / router shell
  middleware/            # Request middleware (URL normalization for Nitro/Vinxi)
  components/            # Shared UI (Topbar, ClientTime, …)
  routes/                # File-based routes (families, schedule, payments, …)
  lib/                   # Server data layer (queries/actions) + helpers
    db.ts                # Prisma client + pg pool setup
    server.ts            # Auth helpers (login/register/session)
    money.ts             # Precise currency math (cents-based)
    ...
  generated/prisma-client/  # Generated Prisma client (built artifact)
  styles/                # Responsive CSS
public/
  manifest.json          # PWA manifest
  icons/                 # PWA icons
app.config.ts            # SolidStart + PWA + Prisma externalization config
prisma.config.ts         # Prisma datasource/migrations config
ecosystem.config.js      # PM2 process config for production

Data model

The schema (prisma/schema.prisma) centers on a Family and its related records:

• Family → Child, FamilyMember, CareSchedule, CareSession, Payment, Expense, Document, and assigned Services (via FamilyService).
• CareSchedule is a recurring template that produces CareSessions.
• CareSession links a Family, a Service, optional children, and has SessionReports, SessionExpenses, and Payments.
• User accounts back the owner login and optional family-member access; Unavailability records block out the caregiver's calendar.

Deployment

The default build target is a Node server.

pnpm build
pnpm start

A PM2 config is included for running the built server in production:

pm2 start ecosystem.config.js

ecosystem.config.js loads environment variables from .env and runs .output/server/index.mjs. Apply pending migrations on deploy with pnpm prisma:migrate:deploy.

Security note: This app currently stores user passwords in plaintext and only enforces authentication at the route/UI level (server data functions are not individually gated). Review and harden authentication, password hashing, and SESSION_SECRET before exposing it to real client data.

License

Private project. All rights reserved unless stated otherwise.