Early care and education finance expert Louise Stoney describes three conditions that every sustainable program must meet at the same time. She calls them the Iron Triangle:

1. Full enrollment: every seat filled, every day.
2. Full fee collection: every dollar billed is collected, from families and from the State.
3. Revenue that covers per-child cost: tuition and subsidy for each age group cover what that care actually costs.

If any one side is weak, the program struggles, no matter how strong the other two are. The reports in this course measure all three: enrollment drives the P&L, aging reports measure collection, and cost per child by age group tests pricing.