How the ratio is calculated

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Knuut computes the ratio the same way in every unit. There are two sides to it: the multipliers of the children present and the adults checked in to the ratio.

Children’s multipliers

Every child has a multiplier. The multipliers follow the ratios in the Finnish Early Childhood Education Act: one adult for four children under three, for seven children aged three or over, or for thirteen part-day children.

Child	Multiplier
Under 3	1.75
3 or over, Full-time	1.00
3 or over, not full-time	0.538
Child with their own multiplier set	The multiplier set

• Age is taken on the day the figure is for. The multiplier drops from 1.75 on the child’s third birthday.
• A child under three has 1.75 even when part-time.
• If the child has no date of birth, the multiplier is 1.00.
• Full-time is set in the child’s details under Care arrangement.

Own multiplier

In the Multiplier field you can give a child their own multiplier, for example because of support needs. It can be 0.1–10. When the field is empty, Knuut uses the automatic multiplier and shows it under the field, for example Automatic: 1.75. The Reset button clears the own multiplier.

An own multiplier also applies to past days

Knuut does not keep a history of multipliers. When you change a child’s own multiplier, staffing ratio reports for earlier days are also computed with the new one. The age-based multiplier is always computed for each day.

Adults

• Each adult counted toward the ratio covers seven multiplier points.
• An adult counts only if they checked in on the unit’s device with the In ratio switch on. See Checking in to the ratio.
• An adult who is present but not counted shows the state Not in ratio.
• All adults count the same. Knuut does not look at job title or qualification.

Only check-ins count

• A child counts once checked in, and stops counting once checked out or picked up.
• An absent child does not affect the ratio, whether the absence was recorded on the device or reported by a guardian.
• A child not yet checked in does not count, even if their care time has started.
• A person counts in the unit where they checked in, even if their home unit is another one.
• A child temporarily placed in another unit belongs to the host unit on the placed days. Once checked in, they count in the unit whose device made the check-in.
• The ratio is computed for the whole unit. Groups do not get a ratio of their own.

Figures and state

Figure	What it tells you
Ratio	Children’s multipliers summed / adult capacity (adults × 7). The sum is rounded up to a whole number, so the ratio never looks met when there are too few adults.
Utilisation	How much of the adults’ capacity the children use, rounded up. Over 100 % means too few adults.
Need	How many adults are missing (+1) or spare (-1). 0 means just enough adults.

Need is computed like this: the children’s multipliers are summed, divided by seven and rounded up. The adults present and counted toward the ratio are subtracted from the result.

State	When
Understaffed	Need is more than 0. Too few adults.
Overstaffed	Need is less than 0. One spare adult is enough.
Good	Need is 0.
No check-ins	No children checked in and no adults counted toward the ratio.

If an adult is present but no children are, the state is Overstaffed. If children are present but no adult counted toward the ratio is, the state is Understaffed.

Example

A unit has 8 children under three, 20 full-time children aged three or over and 5 part-time children aged three or over present.

• Sum of multipliers: 8 × 1.75 + 20 × 1.00 + 5 × 0.538 = 36.69.
• Adults needed: 36.69 / 7 = 5.24, rounded up to 6.

Adults counted toward the ratio	Ratio	Utilisation	Need	State
5	37 / 35	105 %	+1	Understaffed
6	37 / 42	88 %	0	Good
7	37 / 49	75 %	-1	Overstaffed

The rules are the same for every organisation and cannot be changed in the settings. The only way to change how one child counts is an own multiplier.