- About Meal Plans
- How do Meal Plans Work on the POS?
- How a Meal Plan is Calculated
- Person Marked Off-Premise (i.e., LOA) in MealSuite System
About Meal Plans
Meal plans can be set up for diners. When designing a meal plan, the following needs to be determined:
- Is it points-based, dollar-based, prepaid, or unlimited?
- What is the time period of the meal plan before it is reset (day, week, month)?
- Can an unused meal plan value be rolled over to the next period if not used in the current period? And if so, how much can be rolled over?
- What diner category in the system will the meal plan be available for? For example, you can have a meal plan for different staff categories: nursing, volunteers, administrative staff, etc.
- At what POS locations can the meal plan be used?
- What category of menu items/products, and meal periods (breakfast, lunch, dinner) can the meal plan be used for?
How do Meal Plans Work on the POS?
If the POS location has been enabled with the Auto use meal plan if enough balance is available option, then when a diner with a meal plan is seated in the POS, the system automatically detects that they are on a meal plan.
If the POS location has not been enabled with the Auto use meal plan if enough balance is available option, then when a diner with a meal plan is seated in the POS, the prompt below appears asking if the diner would like to use their meal plan. The POS end-user would then tap the Use Meal Plan button to enable the meal plan.
Note: When seating a diner with a meal plan of 0 points or 0 dollars, the prompt above will not appear. After the diner is selected for seating, the meal plan name and balance of 0 is shown under their name, as per screenshot below.
In addition, depending on the facility and meal plan type, it may be that the facility is configured with a “meal plan product” that must be selected by the POS end-user each time to allow for tracking of meal plans used in the system and reconciliation in accounting. For example, meal plan products of “Resident Meal - Breakfast”, “Resident Meal - Lunch” and “Resident Meal - Dinner”.
This end-user step of selecting the “meal plan product” can be prevented if the POS location is configured to automatically add the product if a meal plan is used; see Configuring POS to Automatically Add Product to Meal Plan for more information.
When a meal plan is used by a diner, the system behaves as follows:
- Items in categories covered by meal plan have a star beside the price. Note that items covered by a meal plan are tax-exempt.
- Items in categories not covered by a meal plan display an info icon. Tapping the info icon displays the category of the item that is not covered.
- If the meal plan has reached its allowance, then the first item that takes the remaining balance appears with a star and an info icon (first screenshot below). Tapping the info icon displays the amount covered by the meal plan and the amount to be charged to the diner (second screenshot below).
Note About Points-Based Meal Plan
For a resident with a points-based meal plan and who has dined for multiple meals in the day, the POS automatically charges the most expensive meal of the day to the meal plan. The lesser meal charges are billed-to-room.
How a Meal Plan is Calculated
A meal plan can be limited or unlimited. A limited meal plan means only a specific amount can be spent in a given period, and if the resident exceeds that amount they have to cover that excess with another form of payment tender.
By default meal plans are tax-exempt, meaning anything covered by the plan will not have tax applied to it. If the meal plan limit is exceeded, then tax needs to be applied on the exceeded amount. The POS handles this by using a formula to prorate the meal plan value across all items, which calculates the new item prices to be taxed according to each item’s tax rate.
The prorate formula is as follows:
The individual item price divided by the total price of all items multiplied by the meal plan value.
In the scenario below, a $20 meal plan limit is exceeded and the resident has to pay a bit extra.
Item | Base Price | Prorated Amount to Subtract (per formula) | New Item Price | Tax Rate of item (0% if tax-exempt) | Tax Amount | Total not covered by $20 meal plan |
Hamburger |
$9.85 |
$9.57 |
$0.28 |
7% |
$0.02 |
$0.30 |
Fries |
$1.99 |
$1.93 |
$0.06 |
7% |
$0.00 |
$0.06 |
Beer |
$5.75 |
$5.59 |
$0.16 |
13% |
$0.02 |
$0.19 |
Apple Pie |
$3.00 |
$2.91 |
$0.09 |
7% |
$0.01 |
$0.09 |
$20.59 |
$20.00 |
|
|
$0.05 |
$0.64 |
In the scenario below, the $20 meal plan limit is not exceeded, and therefore the prorate calculations do not apply.
Item | Base Price |
Hamburger |
$9.85 |
Fries |
$1.99 |
Beer |
$5.75 |
$17.59 |
Refunds on a Meal Plan
100% Discount - If an item is to be refunded and cannot go back to inventory (such as an item from a restaurant meal), then a 100% discount is applied to the item on the ticket, as this will allow for cost and inventory tracking. Assume the apple pie is 100% discounted from the meal: this drops the total price below the meal plan limit and therefore the prorate calculations do not apply.
Item | Base Price |
Hamburger |
$9.85 |
Fries |
$1.99 |
Beer |
$5.75 |
Apple Pie |
100% discounted |
$17.59 |
Void - Assume it is a $10 meal plan limit applied to some items in the facility tuck shop, and one of those items is being returned because of the cashier’s mistake. Because the item is not consumed or damaged it will be returned to inventory. In this situation, the returned item is voided from the original ticket and the calculations redone.
Item | Base Price | Prorated Amount to Subtract (per formula) | New Item Price | Tax Rate of item (0% if tax-exempt) | Tax Amount | Total not covered by $10 meal plan |
Beer |
$5.75 |
$5.35 |
$0.40 |
13% |
$0.05 |
$0.45 |
Chips |
Voided |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
Facial Tissue |
$3.99 |
$3.72 |
$0.27 |
0% |
- |
$0.27 |
Lottery Ticket |
$1.00 |
$0.93 |
$0.07 |
0% |
- |
$0.07 |
$10.74 |
$10.00 |
|
|
$0.05 |
$0.79 |
Person Marked Off-Premise (i.e., LOA) in MealSuite System
When a person is marked-off premise in the MealSuite core system, they will be subsequently set as archived in Touch via their diner profile in Touch Admin. When a person is archived in Touch, any meal plan will not be suspended so that the meal plan can continue to be used, such as what is required when family or loved ones need to use the meal plan.