The District Meal Service Settings page contains settings that pertain to meal service in your district, such as bank account number, claim agreement number and the attendance factor. Some settings can be overridden at the school level to tailor the behavior to the way the school wants to conduct meal service, such as whether or not the system prompts for diet restrictions.


TABLE OF CONTENTS


-> Go To: Point of Sale > SETTINGS > District Details > District Meal Service Settings


Manage District Meal Service Settings

1. Click Edit at the bottom of the page to enable editing mode.


MEAL SERVICE

2. Enter a Bank Account Number.
This is the school district bank account number that is used for daily deposits. This field is a global field, meaning that by setting it here, it applies to all schools in the district. It cannot be overridden at the school level.

OUTDATED ELIGIBILITY

3. Enable Notify When Transactions Have Outdated Eligibility, if preferred.


REIMBURSEMENT

4. Enter a Claim Agreement Number.
This number is used to identify your district for reporting and reimbursement purposes.


5. Enter the Attendance Factor.
This calculated figure is used by the AccuClaim Edit Checks report to ensure you are not over reporting meals.


CUSTOMER SETTINGS

6. Select a *Customer PIN Type. Customer ID is the most common option.
Customer ID - The PIN is set to be the same number as the Customer ID.
Random - The PIN number is generated randomly for each customer added.
Sequential - The PIN number is incremented sequentially for each customer added. 


7. Enter the Customer Max PIN Length.
This number should reflect the longest string of characters that would appear on an ID card. For example, let’s say that the school's PIN starts at 100 and the highest you ever expect to see is 2500, then the Max PIN length should be set to 4.


8. Choose to enable Use Leading Zeros.
When enabled, MealTime pads the PIN with leading zeros. This can be used when the PIN is not all the same length and you are using a bar code scanner. For example, if the Customer ID Length is 4 characters and the actual Customer ID is 532, the ID number displayed is 0532.
Note! This setting ONLY affects PINs that MealTime is generating. Imported PIN numbers are not affected by this setting.


9. Determine the number of Days Before PIN Can Be Reused. 
This is the number of days that the system should wait until reusing a PIN assigned to an inactive customer.


10. Determine the Starting PIN Number. 
This number is used to indicate the starting PIN number when the Customer PIN Type is set to Random ID or Sequential



11. Choose to enable Mask Birthday to suppress the display of the customer's birthday.


12. Choose to enable Mask Household Address to suppress the display of the customer’s address.



13. Choose to enable Show Phantom Balance For Free Eligibility.
When enabled, a fictitious balance is used to protect the privacy of students approved for free meals. This "phantom balance" gives the appearance of a positive monetary balance in the student's account and is displayed when a purchase is made. The phantom balance starts at the amount entered in the "Low Balance Threshold" field below.
Note! This setting can be overridden on a per station basis in POS Station settings.


14. Set a Low Phantom Balance Threshold.
The default value for this field is $10.00. If "Show Phantom Balance for Free Eligibility" is enabled and you are using the default value of $10.00 as the threshold, a free student will display a positive balance. This balance is random. When the student purchases a meal, the price is deducted from the current phantom balance. Once that balance dips below the $10 threshold, the phantom balance resets to an amount above $10.



POS STATION SETTINGS

15. Choose to enable Prompt Diet Restrictions.
When enabled, a message is displayed in the POS Console when a student attempts to purchase a meal or a la carte offering which contains a diet restriction on their account.
Note! This function requires that meals, a la carte offerings, and customers be flagged for allergens & diet restrictions. See the following support articles for more information: Meals, A La Carte Offerings, Allergens & Diet Restrictions, Customer Information.


16. Choose to enable Prompt Customer Alert Messages.
When enabled, any alert set up on a student account is displayed in POS Console at the time of purchase.
For example, suppose a parent is concerned that someone is using their student's PIN. An alert message, such as "Check ID" can be set up in the student’s account so that when the student makes a purchase, the message displays.


17. Choose to enable Show Eligibility Alias.
When enabled, pre-configured eligibility aliases will be displayed at purchase instead of the actual eligibility of Free, Paid, or Reduced. Eligibility aliases are setup in the Eligibility Management module on the Eligibility Aliases page.


18. Enter a designated period of time for the *POS Timeout function.
This a security measure to prevent unauthorized transactions. The POS station will automatically log out if there is no activity on the station for the time-period designated.


19. Determine the Served Queue Length. 
This number determines how many customers are displayed in the served queue in POS Console.


20.Select how to *Display Customer Balance.
Options are: Always, Never or On Demand, which adds a button to POS Console called Balance that the cashier can click to see the current student's balance.


21. Choose to enable Allow Speed Mode without cashier intervention.
When enabled, serving in Speed Mode does not require the cashier to hit Pay from Account for each student served.
Note! If enabled, this setting will be active by default for all POS Stations but can be disabled for a specific POS Station on the POS Station page.


22. Choose to enable Allow Overdraw without cashier intervention.
When enabled, customers can overdraw their account without the confirmation prompt to the cashier. Customers will automatically overdraw unless doing so would violate their Customer Purchase Control settings. Districts that wish to allow unrestricted account overdraw activity for reimbursable meals and/or à la carte should make sure the appropriate Customer Purchase Controls are set to "No Limit."
Note! If enabled, this setting will be active by default for all POS stations but can be disabled for a specific POS Station on the POS Station page.


23. Choose to Show dollar amount in Overdraw prompt.
When enabled, an alert message displays the amount to pay from account and the amount due when an overdraw is detected:
Note! If enabled, this setting will be active by default for all POS stations but can be disabled for a specific POS Station on the POS Station page.


24. Choose to enable Display purchase price details in the POS served list.
When enabled, the Served List in POS Console will also display the pricing information on the item served to the customer.



25. Choose the Allow Anon cash Student.
When enabled, this setting allows the cashier to serve meals or a la carte to a student without selecting a student first.


26. Choose to Allow Anon cash Non-Student.
When enabled, this setting allows the cashier to serve meals or a la carte to a non-student, such as an adult or staff member, without selecting them first


27. Elect to Display Low Balance Warning.
When enabled, this setting causes the low balance warning to display during meal service when the student's balance falls below the amount set in Customer Purchase Controls.


28. Choose to Allow District Wide Searching.
When enabled, this setting allows the cashier to search the district for a student that does not attend the school where they are being served.



29. Select an Admin Till Discrepancy Type.
Options are: Amount, Message or None.


30. Determine the number of Max Backdate & Void Days.
This setting determines the maximum number of days before today's date that you can enter meals served on a previous day. This setting also controls how far back you can void transactions. The maximum days you can use here is 90 days.
Note! Settings this value greater than 30 days can have an impact on performance depending on transaction types. 



31. Select a Transaction Succeeded sound.
This sound is used to notify the cashier that the transactions are complete. Options are: None, Classic Success and Soft Success.


32. Select an Attention Needed sound.
This sound is used to notify the cashier that the current transactions needs attention. Options are: None, Classic Alert 1, Classic Alert 2, Classic Alert 3 and Soft Success.



MISCELLANEOUS

33. Choose to Print Ignored Import Reports.
When enabled, MealTime will show the ignored list of students during the import.


34. Click Save to save your changes or Cancel to cancel editing.